Dwight

If you have a small drill press . . . you can chuck up your punch in it . . . and there should easily be enough force generated by the downward push of the chuck . . . to easily punch your holes. I would try it first without the machine running . . . then for kicks n giggles . . . with it running on the slowest speed it has. An alternative would be an arbor press . . . drill out the ram . . . the diameter of a hand punch you buy at Tandy's or wherever . . . set also a allen head screw in the side to keep it from falling out . . . and you can punch all day and the worst to happen is your arm get tired . . . This press is less than 70 bucks on Amazon May God bless, Dwight

Looking good . . . May God bless, Dwight

I've never seen anyone wear buckles inside May God bless, Dwight

Most threads are listed as TPI or Threads Per Inch . . . Count the number of threads . . . I counted 11 . . . and interpolate that into a 1 inch length . . . from what I can see on the screen . . . it looks to me like 22 TPI Good luck. May God bless, Dwight

ALL western gun belts that are made correctly have a curve. Those that don't are NY gun belts. If they tie together in the front . . . they're Chicago gun belts. May God bless, Dwight

For sure . . .

I have stayed away from Barge . . . based on the simple fact that if applied correctly . . . Weldwood cannot be pulled apart. If you believe you have succeeded . . . take another look. You pulled fibers of leather off both pieces . . . in effect . . . ripping the leather apart. Barge cannot do any better than that . . . period. Reading the MSDS for Barge . . . . that stuff ain't coming in my shop. May God bless, Dwight

Dip dyeing and air brush will both give you an even coat. Dauber and wool may . . . but I've never been as successful as I like to be. Air brush though I do not use . . . the coat is so thin with a normal air brush routine . . . scratch it and you will generally go thru the dye . . . dip dye stops that. Buy a box of latex or vinyl gloves . . . use a 9 by 14 baking pan . . . I've got one for black . . . one for browns . . . I pour out of a quart bottle . . . I've mixed my dye in it . . . 50/50 dye and reducer . . . start one end in the dye . . . push it to the other side . . . grab it with the glove . . . tap it to get the excess off it . . . lay it down . . . flesh side down . . . to dry . . . or if it is a sheath or holster . . . set it out for about 10 minutes . . . then into the hot box if I'm doing that. The gloves are the best bet . . . After finishing the dye job . . . put a funnel in the neck of the dye bottle . . . pour the leftover back into the bottle . . . use two paper towels to wipe the pan out . . . toss the gloves and the paper towels . . . cleanup is complete. Dye job is done . . . and you will find out that you CAN use different than a 50/50 mix . . . but more dye and you have to mess with a bunch of dried pigment . . . more reducer and the dye job can bleach out in the sun. I have a holster and belt set that was a really beautiful medium grey . . . the black bleached out . . . it is now a "kinda" grey tinted brown. Anyway . . . have fun . . . may God bless, Dwight

Beautiful work YinTx . . . don't know about you . . . but I got to the point I needed a pair. I can't do your quality work . . . and I didn't try . . . but I got a pair that works . . . Mine will be tossed . . . your heirs will be arguing over who deserves yours the most . . . Anyway . . . here's my cheap version of needed suspenders . . . some Tandy make believe crockagator lined with some 1/2 oz black garment leather . . . glued, trimmed, and cowboy sewn . . . next to my red nylon work suspenders . . . these are good for me. I had held off until because I didn't like the alligator clips. . . a customer asked me to fix his pair that had the trigger snaps . . . from there on out I was sold. Even ordered a set for my red nylon work suspenders. May God bless, Dwight

My Tandy store is much the same with the same kind of manager. It's a joy to deal with them. May God bless, Dwight

I don't recall who it was (somewhere on the internet) . . . but after I bought mine back in 2000 . . . I had the same questions. At that time I was messing with 277 and another size . . . I was thinking it was 307 or somethere thereabouts. Anyway the advice was thread the needle . . . stretch a piece of the thread about 18 inches (or 45cm) long . . . put the needle on the edge near your right hand . . .hanging loose. Stretch the string tight and start lifting your right hand . . . the needle if sized correctly . . . will be the smallest number that will allow the needle to slide down quickly and easily before your riight hand has the needle up at a 45 degree angle. That has worked for me ever since . . . But it was not too long . . . maybe a year at most . . . I began using 346 size . . . and it is basically what I use for everything. I do belts, holsters, and knife sheaths mostly . . . mag carriers and cell phone carriers too . . .I like the looks of the 346. Here is a little chart . . . Tippmann came up with: 415 Thread with a Size 250 Needle Commonly used in rated products like logging, mining, and military nylon webbing and strapping. 346 Thread with a Size 230/250 Needle Commonly used for mule and other heavy duty tack. Also used in boot and shoe applications. 277 Thread with a Size 200 Needle Is the most commonly used thread size in leather crafting from saddle and tack, boot and shoe, gun and knife, and all other kinds of craft and industrial applications. 207 Thread with a Size 180/200 Needle A favorite size thread for saddle bags, purses, and other thin material crafting. 138 Thread with a 160 Needle Used mostly in belts, billfolds, purses and other thin material crafting. 99 Thread with a 130 Needle and 69 Thread with a 110 Needle Is seldom used in leather applications unless the stitch is not to be a major part of the final design. This combination is more commonly used in fabric, vinyl, and other thin material applications. Note: Your bobbin thread tension will require readjustment when using smaller thread diameter May God bless, Dwight

This is how you do it on that style holster . . . May God bless, Dwight

I have never had any real problems with acetone . . . provided you don't dump a boatload of it into really thick old weldwood. Normally . . . I keep my weldwood in a glass commercial jelly jar . . . and watch it for thin / thick consistency. When it start getting a tad thick . . . I'll put in a tablespoon or two . . . stir it good with a screwdriver . . . wipe the screwdriver . . . and go on. Works well for me. May God bless, Dwight

Tandy leather does not have a finish of any kind on their veg tanned leather. You are only looking at the leather itself. Don't waste good money on deglazer . . . First thing you do with veg tanned leather . . . especially if it is going to be a tan, light brown, or other lighter color . . . Give it a light coat of neatsfoot oil the day before. LIGHT is the appropriate word . . . on the hair side only . . . just enough to be sure you got the whole surface covered. Do not use that junk neatsfoot oil compound . . . use the real stuff. Let it dry for 24 hours . . . it actually does not "dry" it just saturates evenly throughout the project. Next day . . . dye it . . . if you are cheap and don't care about your customers . . . use an air spray gun . . . it will put a coat of dye very evenly on it if you are good . . . it will be very thin . . . and if the project gets a good scratch . . . it will scratch off the dye . . . revealing bare leather. I prefer dip dyeing . . . and it comes out more uniform than any other process I've ever tried . . . as you can only dip dye something by dipping it. Thin down the dye using a 1 to 1 ratio with Feibings dye reducer. Again . . . playing with the ratio will get weird colors . . . and going very light . . . will allow the sun to bleach the dye color out of the project. I prefer to lay my project down on the side not seen . . . or seen less. Do not hang belts up to dry . . . the dye will drift to the bottom . . . making it dark on the bottom end . . . lighter on the to end. Let it dry for 24 hours. Finish to suit yourself. May God bless, Dwight

Hey, Doc . . . I'm all for it . . . Get the list out here for all to see . . . I just don't like someone coming on here . . . doing a dozen posts . . . then taking up the next month with all the junk/stuff they build, sell, market, etc. Get enough of that everywhere else in our community of life. May God bless, Dwight

With the thumb hole sling . . . you can take a small dowel rod about 3 or 4 inches long . . . tie a string to it or thru it in center . . . long ways . . . tie the string to your belt loop closest to your belt buckle . . . put the dowel thru and then sideways of the thumb hole . . . and the weight of the weapon then is on your belt . . . holding up your britches on one end . . . the gun on the other. Makes for carrying the gun and stuff in your arms a lot easier . . . such as a cinnamon roll and a cup of coffee . . . It is especially useful for a heavy gun that is receiver heavy. May God bless, Dwight

I'm not an expert either in the burnishing department or in the tooling . . . but for what I do . . . I have not really found any big difference. TTFWIW May God bless, Dwight

Hmmm . . . that meeting you mentioned was a meat portion of my message at church last Sunday . . . so many there we all want to either meet . . . or rejoin. And sadly . . . the older we get . . . the more of them that are there and not here with us. I also have one of those women you mentioned . . . and yes . . . it does make for a good life. Best wishes on your finishing of the house . . . hope you will bless us with pics of the finished product . . . they've gotta be good. May God bless, Dwight

Lookin good, Pastor Bob . . . always enjoy that kind of work . . . too bad it is such work . . . lol May God bless, Dwight

My apologies . . . didn't catch the political part earlier . . . Yep . . . keep the politics somewhere else . . . we're all getting far too much of that these days with the election coming up . . . uggghhhhhhh May God bless, Dwight

Didn't sound political to me . . . more like a disatisfied customer. You all can have Weaver Leather too if you want em . . . nothing political . . . just one unhappy customer. Hell will probably freeze 6 ft solid before I'd buy from them again. May God bless, Dwight

IF IT WERE ME . . . and that is only an IF . . . the rivets / snaps / etc . . . I'd list it as "this is what you get" . . . put a price on it . . . with a "or best offer" and sit and see what happens. But for the stamps . . . I'd put them out there individually at first . . . because I am not sure who will buy 100 of em . . . right off the bat. Most of us would like to see what you have . . . stamp wise . . . and if they are price right they will sell. What ever is left over in the stamps a month from now . . . put them up as a "this is what you get: . . . price it . . . OBO . . . and you are done. That is how I'd handle it. May God bless, Dwight

Look up the Tippmann company in Indiana . . . they are some of the most helpful people I've ever dealt with. They make, sell, and service clickers . . . and should be able to give you the straight dope. They are one of the advertisers here . . . keep watching the upper banner . . . they'll come on . . . and you can get their info. Their banner came up as I left this post . . . number is 1-800-286-8046 May God bless, Dwight

I get stuck with enough ads . . . and commercials . . . everywhere else I roam . . . would be nice not to get hammered by them here. May God bless, Dwight

While I've never done it this way . . . and would only do it for a very special piece that needed perfect sewing/stitches: I would lock my presser foot to the highest position . . . pull the top thread back out for about 3 or 4 stitches . . . change the bobbin . . . pull the bobbin thread up by threading it up by hand . . . hold it out to the side . . . re-position the item . . . lower the presser foot . . . pull all the loose upper thread back thru the tensioning . . . and SLOWLY, SLOWLY . . . begin stitching. Know for sure you will have one undone bottom stitch . . . but you may get away with it . . . leaving the top side looking like it should. May God bless, Dwight PS: it would have to be something super special for me to undertake this . . . I normally cut em both . . . start back about 3 stitches . . . double stitch it . . . and go on with life.