Dwight

Leatherwork is no different from other business ventures, . . . in the truly "business" end of it. Find some part of it at which you are good, really good, or great: concentrate on that area. That is the way businesses have always survived. Example, . . . where would Ford be if they had continued making the Edsel, and had forsaken their other lines? In the ditch with Yugo, Studebaker, and Frazier. IF YOU HAVE TIME, every time you make a custom piece, . . . make 2 of them. One you sell, . . . the other is for craft shows, inventory, immediate sales, etc. Yes, you will wind up with some dusty old pieces in a cardboard box that no one wants, . . . but you will also get some quick sales. As a personal anecdote, . . . I took one of those boxes with me to a gun show with some friends, . . . borrowed a corner of one of their tables, . . . unloaded the whole box for $10, $15, and $20 a pop. Came home with a nice bunch of folding money, . . . and some better ideas of what my customer base wanted. The other day, . . . I made a serious mistake on an IWB holster, . . . after an accident in the drying room ruined another one, . . . between the two, I now have a new product line to offer, . . . higher end, . . . better prioduct. All because of a couple of accidents. I'm actually getting ready to put my sign out by the road, . . . holsters, belts, chaps, and saddle repair. I'm certain that as soon as it is visible to the public, . . . I'll be busier than ever before. But those are the areas of my interest, . . . I enjoy them, . . . makes all the difference in the world. May God bless, Dwight

I have a snap setter I bought at Walmart 5 or 6 years ago, . . . have used it for literally hundreds of snaps, . . . but the model I have is only good for line 24 snaps. Hobby Lobby carries the tool now, . . . it is $25, . . . you will find it in their sewing section, . . . it looks like a blue handled pair of pliers. The throat is short, . . . so you have to be careful where you place your snaps. I have heard people bad mouth the tool, . . . but when you listen to what they said, . . . they must be ham handed brutes who would break anvils with a rubber mallet. The tool is good, . . . functional, . . . and is far superior to the hammer tool sold by Tandy. Just remember, . . . squeeze it until you feel it come to a stop, . . . open it up and look, . . . you will be pleasantly surprized at the wonderful results. May God bless, Dwight

The Roman soldiers of 2000 years ago wore flat leather sandals with cleats on the bottom side. They walked all the way from Rome to London (with a little help from their navy). This http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caligae will show you some good stuff about them. They had an inner liner and an outer sole, . . . attached to the main body. It is the pattern I have attached. May God bless, Dwight

Reverse, . . . in a nutshell, . . . is a time saver, . . . almost extrordinaire ! Without it, . . . you turn the piece, . . . or hand stitch, . . . or force the machine to re-do them one at a time. With reverse, . . . it's done as quick as you can flip the lever and make the stitches. Also, . . . there are some "fancy" things reverse is especially well suited for: stitched decorations such as on belts, . . . sewing cartridge loops on gun belts, . . . doing applique work on chaps or chinks or purses, . . . I have survived without it for several years, . . . will probably continue to do so, . . . but I have found "Dwight" ways to do those things I need reverse for. May God bless, Dwight

Far worse than mine, . . . that's for sure. Mine is just nasty, ugly, pain, . . . not crippling, . . . just aggravating pain. I keep getting a little closer each new insert I make or change (most of the time). I'm hoping when I get it right, . . . I can use that shape for the bottom of a pair of shoes that won't hurt my feet. On the one last, . . . it looks like you built it up a lot, . . . did I see that correctly? May God bless, Dwight

It doesn't really matter if it does pivot (I use snaps, . . . no TEE nuts) and all of mine pivot, . . . but once the belt is laced into the two straps, . . . gun inserted, . . . belt pulled taught, . . . it ain't going anywhere. May God bless, Dwight

Sometimes stuff just seems to fall into place as you need it. Been kicking around for a year or so about trying my hand on a pair of shoes, . . . then I want to do a pair of boots. I have a nerve condition that the local foot doctor wants to fix "her" way, . . . and that just ain't happening. Been experimenting for a little over a year with different sized & shaped inserts, . . . getting close, . . . but my shoe will have to be about an 11 EEEEE, . . . or something like that. Thanks for bringing this up, . . . maybe others will chime in, . . . and who knows, . . . more than one foot might be helped. May God bless, Dwight

My vacuum hose is 3/8 inch black rubber gasoline hose. One thing you can do, . . . use your fingers and thumbs to assist the vacuum in pulling it into the shape you want. Again, . . . I never tried the vacuum cleaner, . . . my experience came from owning a vacuum forming sign shop a couple of decades ago. It took power to make the signs, . . . so when I started thinking about this, . . . I added my HVAC experience where we also used a vacuum pump, . . . and I bypassed the rug cleaner, . . . in favor of equipment I was pretty sure would work. May God bless, Dwight

I would think that unless you had the grand daddy of all vacuum cleaners, . . . it probably doesn't pull enough a vacuum. BUT, . . . nothing ventured, . . . nothing gained. I do know that if I could hook up my bag to my old Mustang I used to have, . . . or my Olds 442, . . . those would have done the trick. Either one pulled a strong 25 inch vacuum. May God bless, Dwight

I don't. My pump goes directly to the bag, . . . no valve, . . . no filter, . . . just a 3 foot long section of black rubber gasoline hose. I keep my bag clean on the inside (as much as I can ), . . . always put the holster a ways away from the intake, . . . and I use a rod or something that channels the air from the holster area back to the pump intake. Turn on the pump, . . . form, . . . turn off. Maybe slightly re-position the bag or the gun or the holster. Turn on the pump, . . . form some more (detail type stuff), . . . turn off. (Repeat as many times as necessary for that particular piece of work) All has worked well so far. About 5 seconds after I turn the pump off, . . . the vacuum will break, . . . and air will start migrating back into the bag. May God bless, Dwight

I got mine from McMaster Carr, . . . Remember that name, . . . write it on a stickey note, . . . don't lose it. Other than groceries, . . . I don't think there is much they don't carry for the mechanical / working world. Sometimes they can be a bit on the pricey side, . . . but they have supplied stuff for me since somewhere back in the early 90's. AND, . . . if you order it before 4 in the evening, . . . you can look for it the next day. I used to marvel at that when their nearest location was Chicago, . . . I'm just north of Columbus, Ohio, . . . I had it at 10 the next morning when the big brown UPS van backed up to our door. May God bless, Dwight

Very good, . . . I have some deer skins that look very much like that leather. Almost too good looking to take out to the dirty old barn May God bless, Dwight

Particle, . . . did I read that correct and you are using 16 oz leather for the front piece? I had seen it earlier, . . . had not thought that the leather was that thick. BTW, . . . that is some excellent tooling from my perspective. Much as I would like to, . . . I just do not have the patience to do that level of artistry. May God bless, Dwight

No, . . . you would have to put a little reed valve or something in the line to get it to do that. When we used them in A/C, we used the valves on the pressure gauges to hold the vacuum in the system. I'm sure someone makes one that does have an internal valve, . . . but from what I can see, . . . our's does not. And for me, . . . that's OK, . . . as I don't need it to linger. I need that hoslter out of the bag and on to other things. May God bless, Dwight

Hands down on the vacuum forming for detail. First holster I did with it was a Rhodesian pattern for a 1911, . . . 7/8 oz leather if I remember correctly. Formed everything, . . . pulled it out of the bag, . . . gently slipped model out, . . . let it dry. Had to force the model in the next day, . . . then I thought I was going to have to get a scalpel to get my model out. Vacuum forming is seriously better in my estimation, . . . May God bless, Dwight

The nipple comes from http://www.veneersupplies.com/products/Valve-Stem-Assembly.html If I remember correctly, . . . about $15. You can see it in a couple of the pictures, . . . round, shiney thing, left side of the bag. May God bless, Dwight

Tippmann Boss, . . . 346 thread top and bottom. May God bless, Dwight

The two types I use, . . . manila file folders, . . . usually 100 of them at discount office supply stores for 5 bucks or so. Found box of legal size last year for I think 4 bucks, . . . still using them. My permanent, . . . "do not change this ever" patterns and templates are cut from Tandy's bag stiffener. Not that expensive, . . . and really wonderful medium to work with if you need some strength and durability. The material he used in the video would be similar to the bag stiffener. May God bless, Dwight

Next slip the gun & holster into the bag, . . . seal the bag, . . . turn on the pump. It only takes a few seconds usually. I'll also turn the pump on & off, . . . on & off, . . . carefully re-positioning anything that needs to be moved, . . . and allowing the bag to re-position itself. I usually hit it at least 3 times, . . . and sometimes even do a little thumb action to assist. If you look real close, you will see a small cutting board under the holster, . . . I use that if I want the back to be pretty flat. If you don't use it, . . . it'll form the back to the weapon real close too. The last picture is just to note that I was using 8 oz leather for this holster. And of course, vac 11 picture is of the finished product. My customer was very well pleased, . . . his wife was estatic. Anyway, . . . that's how I do it, . . . hope some of you can benefit from this. May God bless, Dwight

To use the vacuum bag, . . . cut out your pattern (vac 6 picture) Prepare your firearm properly, in this case I had to make sure the sight channel would be made, by taping a dowel onto the top of the revolver. Don't forget to do this !!! WET the leather, . . . like REALLY wet, . . . almost sopping, sloppy wet, . . . wrap it around the firearm in it's general final position. You do not have to be perfect with this part, . . . but the better you are, . . . the better the end product. I'll usually lay it down and thumb in a couple places to help keep it from moving.

There have been a few threads in the past little while about molding and forming. I started out doing the thumbs, fingers, dowels, etc, . . . made me tired. Went to a press, . . . worked great, . . . got scared that some day I would crunch someone's plastic fantastic shooter upper. Researched vacuum forming, . . . with a little help from a carpenter / cabinet / window / door maker buddy. This is the system I now use, . . . just thought I would share. It starts out with the 3 basic tools needed: a vacuum pump, . . . a bag, . . . and a way to seal the bag. The pump came from Harbor Freight, . . . $100 more or less, . . . it is the cheaper of the two they sell. The bag is a piece of clear vinyl from JoAnns, . . . doubled over, . . . 2 inches of the edges stuck together with Weldwood. The seal is two pieces of PVC plastic, . . . 1/2 inch and 3/4 inch, . . . cut the groove in the 3/4 with a table saw and a lot of care.

To use an old fashioned word, . . . gorgeous ! You have wayyyyyyyyy more patience than I have for such a detailed project, . . . but you did really well with it. May God bless, Dwight

You didn't say a thing about keeping that espresso hot by sitting it on the edge of the forge, . . . Welcome to the site. May God bless, Dwight

Tippmann Boss, . . . as I tell my students, . . . hands are for hamburgers, . . . machines are for stitching. BUT, . . . in the rare exceptions where I cannot complain, cry, bellyache, or grunt loud enough to get out of it, . . . awl, . . . (no pun intended) . . . always. May God bless, Dwight

If I can, . . . I make it "springy" enough that once it is released, . . . it scurries over out of the way. I've used steel, . . . kydex, . . . vinly, . . . never found the "perfect" springy material for every one. I just kinda go by the feel and what I have available. It is a hard thing to get, though, . . . too much scurry and it will come un-snapped all on its own, . . . not enough and you scrape the side of the weapon. May God bless, Dwight