Dwight

Sometimes a lesson is actually a blessing in disguise . . . I bought some good leather from Weavers . . . and we had a good relationship until the last time. Someone should have given the cow her hide back . . . I would have if I could have. BUT . . . I hung on to it . . . knowing one day there would be a need that I could put that garbage to work in . . . and it would work very well when I found it. Yep . . . had a special job come up where the leather just had to be leather . . . nothing fancy . . . no special requirements. I did the job . . . it was a very good project as far as the build and final look was concerned . . . buyer was ecstatic . . . My lesson simply is Weaver will never get another dime of my money . . . and I used to really enjoy the drive to their shop . . . wandered thru the retail store . . . saw all the new gadgets . . . probably never again . . . May God bless, Dwight

I'm seeing a lot of guys now buying the plastic fantastic holsters . . . come with a pack of different carry options . . . for everything except a sawed off double barrel . . . May God bless, Dwight

Just make sure DwighT . . . when you get that dude done . . . you show us your handywork. I did one "almost round" item once . . . have sworn off the things . . . did it for a wedding gift . . . about 4 months later . . . got an email from a stranger . . . had a picture of the gift . . . wanted to know why I made it . . . what the function was. They had picked it up in a second hand store . . . So much for hand stitched wedding gifts. May God bless, Dwight

Good Idea . . . but it is a little 1 inch belt for a child . . . I think he was maybe 7 yrs old. There was enough value in the lesson I got to more than make up for the loss of leather and time. But I do like your idea . . . if I ever start going back to the shows . . . Ephan may go with me . . . May God bless, Dwight

My two belt problems were one (a gift) required the name on it . . . Ephan . .. we went thru the spelling twice as I recall . . . Yep . . . the name was Ethan . . . and I'm still looking for a kid named Ephan . . . I can make him a deal on a belt I've got hanging in my shop. The other one was a guy wanted .38 belt loops in his every day belt . . . I made it . . . and about a year later . . . re-made it . . . without the loops . . . as it turned out to be a problem for him he had to take out the cartridges every time he changed pants . . . them put them back in. Live and learn. May God bless, Dwight

I'd a had to put this on there somewhere . . . May God bless, Dwight

My first guess is that the packages will have a lot more "made in china" legends or the cat tracks in chinkanese that say the same thing. It's a shame that the original owners sell out . . . and I understand the financial reasons for many of them . . . I just wish it could be some other way. May God bless, Dwight

How about this? May God bless, Dwight

I use the vacuum bag to form the object . . . pull it out of the bag . . . put the bag and pump away . . . hang up the object to dry in the form I gave it. Really simple stuff. May God bless, Dwight

I was curious if it would take longer to do forming with a vacuum when the weather is wet and raining outside? Two words . . . it doesn't. . . . unless of course you are outdoors . . . then it might. When it is below zero . . . the formed leather dries out faster . . . simply because the moisture in it does not have to compete with humidity . . . it just jumps out. That is the only feature I've ever noticed . . . and that's kind like the question of how bald are your tires at 150 thousand miles . . . vs 155 thousand miles. Seriously . . . don't give it a thought. May God bless, Dwight

The other thing you might do . . . it works for browns . . . hit it with a light coat of neatsfoot oil . . . if you have not put a finish on the leather. I had one heck of a time especially with saddle tan . . . blotchy . . . streaky . . . dark & light. Began doing a coat of NFO on every saddle tan project . . . NO MORE troubles. Now I use it on just about everything. May God bless, Dwight

Oh well . . . it was gone anyway . . . someone got it before I could really get a full chance at it. May God bless, Dwight

Thanks, Chuck . . . that's interesting . . . just wish I knew what the throat depth is . . . May God bless, Dwight

Thanks Garyak . . . that looks like quite a machine. May God bless, Dwight

Thanks, Wiz . . . May God bless, Dwight

Thanks everyone . . . I mostly thought about it because I've got a leather jacket . . . and a whole batch of patches I want to put on it. Locally . . . patches are 12 bucks pop . . . and my thought was if it wasn't too awful much of a project . . . I could get one . . . do my patching for the cost of the patches I need done . . . and would wind up with another sewing machine. Looks like it just ain''t gonna happen. May God bless, Dwight

OK . . . after watching a half dozen videos . . . and realizing there is no way I can pop 3 grand for a patcher . . . I've been very much tempted to grab onto one of these 150 dollar Chinkomatic hand operated patchers. My questions are DO ANY OF YOU HAVE ONE??? HOW RELIABLE IS IT?? FROM WHICH SUPPLIER DID YOU GET IT? I'm sure some are better than others . . . they surely didn't all come off the same hand made forgings . . . Thanks to all . . . May God bless, Dwight

You are more than welcome, Randy . . . have fun with it . . . I did a couple of intricate radio boxes last spring and summer . . . would have been some kinda tough without the vacuum help. May God bless, Dwight

Lookin good . . . I tossed the idea of elastic . . . my buddy and I both wear solid leather suspenders. Don't have a problem once that "fit" size is found. May God bless, Dwight

I didn't have any problem at all with the video . . . I just never have caught the knack of double sided tape . . . it's on me . . . inside. . . outside . . . paper won't come off . . . arrrrggghhhhhhh. I use contact cement . . . put on with a plumber's brush . . . sometimes it takes two coats . . . one fills the pores then the other coat does the stickin' stuff. Just the way I do it . . . not that it is any better . . . just how I learned. May God bless, Dwight

Well . . . Fredk . . . I'm not sure what occurred . . . and why . . . But I've never . . . NEVER . . . had anything but good service from Tippmann . . . I take my machine to them whenever I have something I cannot fix . . . or we cannot fix over the phone. PM me your full name . . . and your city . . . I know a guy up there (if he has not moved on) . . . and I'll be more than happy to try and contact him on your behalf. Seriously . . . they have bent over backwards . . . even stopped their "production" line . . . just to take care of an age old customer of theirs . . . me. Lemme know . . . I'll take a whack at it for you. May God bless, Dwight

And I forgot . . . when you do that . . . take a piece of 9/10 oz and squeeze it up about 1/8 of an inch above two pieces of a board . . . like a hamburger slipping out the side of a bun. Take the corners off both sides of that piece of leather first . . . make the piece about a foot or so long. Then take your jeweler's rouge . . . and get a really good coat on the leather . . . start stroking your beveler backwards from the way you normally use it. That will both polish the heck out of the rounded tool you just made . . . and will sharpen it right good and sharp. I sharpen all of mine on such a rig. May God bless, Dwight

I like it . . . looks good I need me a knife like that . . . May God bless, Dwight