Dwight

Just for kicks and giggles . . . I have a bunch of really flat faced cardboard in my garage. A buddy got it somewhere . . . we use it for target practice out on the shooting range. Well . . . been burning up my wood . . . and some leather scraps . . . trying to figure this laser thing out. Thought . . . "Hmm . . . wonder what ol Lee Ermey would look like on cardboard" . . . found out. And it is darn near a perfect duplicate of leather . . . so now I got a real cheap substitute for starting to check out a burn . . . but needing to check the settings first. I can check the settings on cardboard . . . and have a pretty good idea of what I have to do to make it look better on leather. May God bless, Dwight

Good looking gun . . . holster certainly is great as well. I'd love to have one like that with one change . . . redrill the cylinder to accept .45LC Just not a black powder fan. May God bless, Dwight

It will undoubtedly be a long time . . . but some day I hope to be able to see results like the one above. Thanks for showing us that it actually can be done. I'm thinking I would love to see a 12 by 20 or so of the Last Supper . . . May God bless, Dwight

Two things I can think of . . . First is the trick I saw one of the guys down at Tandy do . . . he smacked the snap with a mallet to get it to close. Worked real good after that It is the trick I do. The other thing you might try . . . put a plastic freezer bag over the male part and smack the female down on it. I use that to expand holsters and knife sheaths that were too tight. Worst case scenario . . . didn't work. May God bless, Dwight

While we have your attention . . . I have been messing with laser GRBL and LightBurn . . . having a real time of it with Lighburn . . . all the videos about it I've seen seem to be the person wanting to show off his great wealth of vast over abundant knowledge . . . speaking in "laser speak" or "Lightburn speak" . . . that is way above my pay grade. Do you have any suggestions . . . including other software . . . as I have a 300mw CNC diode laser . . . and it is giving me fits trying to learn how to use it. I almost think I could use laser GRBL for some few projects . . . just want to go deeper than it seems to go. I'm not into cutting anything . . . just leather engraving is the one and only thing I want to do. May God bless, Dwight

I'm with BigBore . . . except I oil before I dye mine. Works best . . . especially for some reason with saddle tan. My leather will come out after oiling and dying . . . just the way I wanted it . . . because generally I bend the buckle end of all belts . . . my holsters were all put thru a vacuum bag to generally form them in the first place . . . then oiled . . . then dyed. No cracking . . . May God bless, Dwight

Easier to find a possum . . . he'll lead you to the nearest road . . . somehow they know just where they are May God bless, Dwight Good job Geezer . . . Wouldn't mind one of those to slip into my shirt pocket when out squirrel hunting in strange country. May God bless, Dwight

His is fancy . . . with a fancy price . . . May God bless, Dwight

That's beautiful Ferg . . . May God bless, Dwight

After all the "creation" work is done . . . and dying is next . . . THAT is when you apply the oil. Oiling ALWAYS comes before dying. I actually learned that trick years ago . . . had one heck of a time with saddle tan . . . it always appeared wavy in the appearance. Someone on here said some thing . . . somehow mentioned the oiling . . . I tried it on my next project . . . was absolutely amazed at the different results. You cannot remove dye once it has been applied and dried . . . Cut, . . . create . . . stitch . . . trim / sand edges . . . bevel edges . . . and here I do a perfunctory dressing of the edges with water only . . . then oil . . . dye . . . super finish the edges . . . apply finish coat . . . On a "more or less" basis . . . that is the list and order of steps I use to make all my pieces. Others do differently . . . this one works for me. May God bless, Dwight

1. Take a very serious look at the piece of leather you are using. Cutting it from the top . . . back section of a side produces good belts usually . . . just watch out for scars and brands . . . cut them length ways from the tail towards the head . . . use the tail part for the buckle end. I then do whatever sewing and edging I need to do to begin the "look" I want in the belt. The only time I hang back on the sewing is when the customer wants white thread. 2. Give your belt a light coat of neatsfoot oil (not the cheap compound . . . the REAL stuff) . . . on the hair side . . . lay it on it's edge in a circle . . . let it lay about 20 minutes . . . turn it to the other edge . . . let it lay for 24 hours . . . the natural color should just about totally come back. 3. Use Feibings dye reducer . . . and your dye . . . mix it 1 to 1 in a glass jar . . . pour it into a flat pan . . . and dip dye your belt . . . this takes about 50% more dye per belt . . . but the results are night and day different from using a piece of sheep wool . . . a dauber . . . or some other inferior process. 4. Lay the belt on the bottom edge on a piece of cardboard . . . let it set for 15 minutes or so . . . flip it over so it rests on the top edge . . . allow it to dry for 24 hours. Then remember that this is not vinyl or plastic . . . the color will not be perfect all the way down . . . simply because it is indeed leather . . . that had wrinkles . . . muscle folds . . . bruises . . . etc when it was on the cow . . . and that transferred to your belt or other project. The only way around that . . . and it does work . . . is to make another one . . . keep the one you like best . . . dye the other one black . . . and hang it up waiting for a second customer who likes black. Oh . . . and yes . . . I use all vegetable tanned leather for my belts. May God bless, Dwight

After operating a Boss for 20+ years . . . I can tell you that the pedal and circle . . . or pedal and spring will be a total waste of time. The handle pulls down well over 90 degrees from top to bottom . . . and it is a full 15 to 16 inch stroke that it has to travel True . . . one can shorten the handle . . . but that lever length was put there for a reason . . . that being having a "tough" sewing project . . . where the leverage is needed. A singer sewing machine treadle will not produce the required strength . . . having only about 4 inches of bottom pedal to use . . . unless the Boss is used for sewing thin and easy to sew stuff. The required air over oil hydraulic system is only about 125 bucks off of Ebay . . . if anyone is interested . . . shoot me a PM . . . I'll get you some kind of drawing and list of materials. May God bless, Dwight

Are you saying cover the area with masking tape??? May God bless, Dwight

If I was going to attempt it . . . I would do a simple hydraulic cylinder to pull the lever down . . . and a spring to return it back to the top. Actually it would be an "air over oil" cylinder . . . the foot pedal would control the air supply . . . that forcing the oil into the hydraulic cylinder . . . Using an air cylinder by itself might work in most situations . . . the problem is air collects against pressure and when it overcomes the pressure . . . the speed is unpredictable. You get rid of that by using air over oil. Best wishes on the project. May God bless, Dwight

Looks good to me . . . Sewing the patch on the hat looks like a trick though . . . May God bless, Dwight

I would do "what ya gotta do" in order to kill the mold. I understand that borax is also a mold killer . . . and being a dry powder like chemical . . . "may" do less discoloration. Then dye the thing dark enough to overcome any discoloration. May God bless, Dwight

I've read of different accounts . . . even one where the guy had laced loops and no lining . . . they were loose . . . if he took out a few and took off his belt . . . the rest of the bullets fell on the ground . . . . it was laced so loose. I've sewn and laced . . . gave up sewing . . . laced ones are far more accurate and I think they look better. Customers get laced or go somewhere else. May God bless, Dwight

Well . . . I do have two machines . . .one is a Tippmmann Boss . . . and a Cowboy 4500. Thousand bucks for the Boss . . . around 3500 for the Cowboy The Boss will some day go on the auction block . . . and they will be getting a good machine. I've had a few squabbles with it . . . but it always worked out . . . could not tell you the belts, holsters, and other stuff it has made in the 20+ years I've had it. I did just enough hand sewing to know I was not doing that for any length of time. And as far as starting a business . . . there is no big deal on that . . . at least in Ohio. I can make and sell 199 items per year . . . and the only one thing I have to handle is defining the "profit" made from the 199 items and including it on my long form federal income tax. And that is handled for a hundred bucks using Turbotax. More than 199 items . . . I have to have a vendor's license . . . collect sales tax . . . file a tax report twice a year . . . but even that is no big deal. Now if you get big enough for employees . . . that's a whole "nother ball game. May God bless, Dwight

Well . . . I do have two machines . . . so there would be none of that hand sewing I used to do. As a rule . . . I use an old formula from back in construction electrician days. I basically price out the material . . . including scrap . . . dye . . . thinner . . . and multiply that by 3. One third of course is "parts" and two thirds is labor. This does not always work out for me . . . and would probably do less for you having to hand stitch them all. But it is a "starting point". If you lived close enough to "drive over" . . . I'd offer you the use of either machine I have . . . or I'd offer to sew them for you for say 5 bucks apiece. My cowboy 4500 makes short work of knife sheaths. More time messing with starting and stopping and trimming than actually sewing. Best wishes on your endeavor my friend. May God bless, Dwight

You got a thumbs up from me . . . May God bless, Dwight

Not only is the holster first rate . . . I love those grips. Just have to wait for my rich uncle to get out of the poor house . . . he promised me a pair . . . May God bless, Dwight

Awww . . . c'mon Doc . . . that boy looked like a typical downtown San Francisco merchant . . . I admit . . . his girl friend didn't . . . but maybe she's from over in china town. May God bless, Dwight

I would love to be able to do something just near that beautiful. Been talking to Bert03241 about lasers . . . getting ready to jump in . . . will have to be diode only as my cash is not far enough the ladder for a CO2 job. Gotta take the wife on a short trip . . . will be mulling over the laser question . . . hopefully make the jump the next week. Do you have that cowboy scene where you could send me the JPEG of it . . . or whatever your initial image was. I'd love to mess with that . . . plus got a David and Goliath scene I want to do. But seriously . . . love your work . . . keep it up . . . you're doing great. May God bless, Dwight

My mother named me . . . Ike was winning the war in Europe . . . she liked him . . . end of story. But glad to see we are not the only ones with that great name. May God bless, Dwight

Certainly different . . . May God bless, Dwight