Dwight

You should have put the belt on . . . and marked the belt either next to the first belt loop on the left side . . . between 1 and 2 . . . but next to 1 . . . OR . . . just before you get to the last belt loop on your right side. It should not have been attached to the tongue . . . but rather the belt itself . . . and about as high as you can get it. As you presently have it . . . it will be a total pain to get thru the belt loops . . . and will hang down in front . . . and be uncomfortable. But it is a good start. May God bless, Dwight

My brother in law gave me an aluminum strap cutter some 10 or 12 years ago . . . I buy drywall razor blades . . . snap them in half with two pairs of pliers . . . use those blades till they get dull . . . break a new one and I'm good for another month or so. Works for me.. . . . (this is not mine . . . but is the same type . . . . black paint is long long worn off . . . left side is slick and shiny from all the leather passing by it) May God bless, Dwight

That's some good lookin work . . . on a good lookin rifle. I've a .22 in a similar stock . . . bull barrel . . . bipod . . . it'll do little one inch circles at 50 yds if I do my part. Yes . . . those friends are few and far between. Am I correct that you may be doing some rat shooting?? May God bless, Dwight

It's a whole lot easier to make a flat backed pancake . . . you can get almost the same look . . . especially the tooling. OR . . . you make the holster . . . the back of it will be sewn to the belt loop piece . . . then folded over and the side seam sewn . It is some tricky sewing . . . and I really don't think this one was done that way . . . but the T nuts and screws will ALWAYS allow the holster to flop . . . and if you are not up to a floppy holster . . . (I'm one who can't stand it) . . . then ya gotta sew the thing. May God bless, Dwight

Personally . . . not working on "items" per se . . . Working on improving my processes and skills (summer is a low time for me usually) . . . and trying new "things". Got a laser engraver for instance . . . already have two jobs to do with it . . . still learning how to get it to work on those jobs. Couple of years ago . . . bit the bullet on a new sewing machine . . . it has made life a whole bunch better. Used the down time to learn how to make it tick. May God bless, Dwight

If you make the bends over a round pipe or other type object . . . with the leather wet . . . there will be almost no "wrinkles" or bunching. Beats the holy heck out of trying to cut the liner as close and good looking as I do with sanding the edges and then bending. But that is just my preferred way . . . and there is more than one way to skin a cat or line a holster. May God bless, 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