Dwight

I made mine with full length zippers . . . ain't takin my boots of in "who knows what" ground . . . water . . . snow . . . poo . . . Buckle them dudes around the waist . . . hit the zippers . . . mount up and yer done. May God bless, Dwight

Thank, pal . . . I went with almost all flat backed holsters . . . for me I found they were more comfortable . . . have not had a customer come back and complain they were too flat yet . . . lol Seriously . . . I built a 50/50 pancake . . . did my best to get used to it . . . finally just put it on Ebay . . . took what I got for a used holster . . . went down the road . . . have not made one since. May God bless, Dwight

I bought 4 pads of latex leather . . . each about 2 inches thick and about 16 or 18 inches square. I used two above the holster and two below it . . . stacked of course . . . and a 6 ton press. I just started getting antsy when I really started getting a lot of Glocks . . . May God bless, Dwight

I used to get their 20 or 30% off coupons on my phone . . . quit getting them when I quit using them . . . Might check into them . . . this is the one I got . . . https://www.harborfreight.com/25-cfm-vacuum-pump-61245.html I think it might have been 10 bucks cheaper or so . . . don't recall for sure . . . may have been this price. Anyway . . . sure takes the labor out of molding the holsters . . . I used to use a hydraulic press . . . did a fantastic job . . . just knew one day though . . . somebody's plastic fantastic six shooter would get crushed in the press . . . tore it down . . . was a really smart move I think . . . went to vacuum forming. May God bless, Dwight

Good job penguin . . . Now all you gotta do is make the belt to go with it . . . what is the dye color you used?? It . . . on my screen . . . looks like Feibings British Tan . . . but I just wondered. May God bless, Dwight

If you first glue about a 3/8 bar of glue up the edge of each piece with Weldwood Contact cement . . . you can then come back every 3/4 of an inch with a bright shiny rivet . . . whole bunch easier and faster than hand sewing . . . and they look pretty darned good too. May God bless, Dwight

Hang em in the barn with a dozen steel leg traps below them . . . that's what I'd do. May God bless, Dwight

Take a look at the above post . . . it shows you the very best way to do it for .22's. Trying to do them by measurement will generally make you wish you pulled your hair out first. When you do this for .22's . . . try to find some calf leather . . . John Bianchi (I believe it was him) . . . said it was the best for the belt loops. For these . . . 3/4 oz is plenty . . . you want the leather damp . . . push it thru . . . pull it back to make the circle . . . put a cartridge in there . . . pull it tight . . . go on to the next one. I let these get pretty darn near dry before I pull the cartridges out. Have fun . . . May God bless, Dwight

I use my electrical side cutters . . . for the male piece . . . cut it thru . . . then cut off the top of what is left of the post . . . the rest pulls out . . . no problemo. For the female part . . . gently squeeze the side cutters under the female part . . . just squeeze . . . back off and go at it again 90 degrees from the first time . . . then back where you started . . . then the second place . . . each time adding a little more pressure . . . it'll pop off . . . Never scratch the leather . . . never have any problems at all with it. Drills and dremels can get stuff going . . . burn the leather . . . slide off and mark it up badly . . . side cutters will not do that. May God bless, Dwight

In a one word answer . . . no . . . it is a toy compared to the one I showed you above. Show me what you want to cut / punch / stamp / or whatever you are trying to do. I don't mean to sound hard on you . . . but you have done a lot of talking . . . but have not fully offered any idea of exactly what you are wanting to do. Give us something more to work with (pictures are great) . . . and we can help you more. May God bless, Dwight

There are two holes thru the belt there by the buckle . . . and you could easily do like Rocky Aussie suggested . . . jut adding a piece there to move the buckle out farther in the front. By cutting it right behind the buckle tongue slot . . . you could round the corners a tad bit . . . sew the outside again to the liner . . . and you would not have to do any skiving or gluing if you just punched 2 holes in the inside and the outside pieces that would fold over and make the NEW buckle keeper. I'd not bat an eye at wearing it . . . that's for sure. It is one beautiful belt . . . don't let this length thing get the best of you. Finish up that piece holding the buckle with some little doo-dad stamping . . . make it look like you planned it . . . only you and the owner will know you didn't. May God bless, Dwight

I would cut off the section of the belt where the buckle attaches. I would then take a piece of probably 7 oz . . . make it long enough to attach on the belt where the end was cut . . . overlap it front and back (skive the belt to facilitate this) . . . stamp the new piece to augment the stamping of the belt . . . dye & finish the "new" piece . . . And I would not charge him for the extra. I do things like this for my customers . . . knowing we all make mistakes. It would become a custom belt such as no one around would have . . . May God bless, Dwight

In the demo video . . . he was using a punch to make holes in a piece of aluminum that looked to be maybe an eighth of an inch thick. That takes a whole bunch more muscle than to just do some stamping in damp leather. I went out to my shop . . . couldn't recall if my press was 1 ton or half ton . . . it's a 1 ton from Harbor freight . . . There is a piece of 1/8 inch flat stock steel under the leather and a full size stamping tool standing. You can put the magnetic chuck on the end of the ram . . . and would probably want to cut an inch off each stamping tool . . . but it should work like a champ. The other thing you could do . . . remove the arm . . . take it to a machine shop . . . have them drill the arm for you . . . and put a set screw in the side of it that would be tightened with an allen wrench. Slip the stamping tool up in there . . . tighten with the allen wrench . . . stamp to your little heart's content. I might even put masking tape on the outside of my stamps . . . just push them up in there . . . friction would hold them. But then again . . . why don't you show us exactly what kind of stamping you want to do . . . it might make a difference on how you accomplish it. I use my ram to set any letters for initials or names and I use up to 1 inch letters . . . never have a problem. And if I wanted a magnetic tool holder . . . I'd put a flat magnet on the bottom of the ram . . . and slip a standard drill chuck up to it with the stamping tool . . . May God bless, Dwight

It depends on what kind of pressure you are looking for there . . . but if it is just stamping pressure for stamping leather . . . you should be able to use something like a 4 inch air cylinder . . . mount the magnetic chuck to it . . . build an angle iron box to sit it in . . . you could make it any height you want. Push the down air button . . . the stamp comes down . . . up button sends it back up . . . regulate the pressure to get the stamping depth you want. I use one I built to cut out leather key fobs . . . it's a bit hokey in one respect . . . but the end product is well worth my expense and effort I went to. May God bless, Dwight

If you want to press something . . . get the one ton arbor press from harbor freight for 65 bucks. It'll do your pressing . . . And if you want to get fancy with it . . . a decent mechanic can hook a hydraulic cylinder to the shaft . . . and then you can go to serious town with stamping and cutting. May God bless, Dwight

Hang in there Az . . . I'll guarantee you that virtually everyone has done that same type stuff . . . whether it was leather . . . an Excel spreadsheet . . . baking cookies . . . going to the store . . . Been there . . . done that . . . is the mantra for it . . . And yes . . . in case you were wondering . . . I also have a couple left handed holsters . . . May God bless, Dwight

I prefer the groover . . . have never had one complaint about the stitching . . . the leather pulling apart . . . or anything else . . . and I have products out there that have been used for 20 years. Wing dividers are "OK" if you have several parallel stitch lines . . . or for a decorative piece . . . But to say it is wrong . . . is no more true than saying Dodge trucks are wrong . . . because they are a Dodge. May God bless, Dwight

That's a good looking belt . . . way above my skill level. May God bless, Dwight

We were all beginners at one time . . . When I have a similar problem . . . (all of us do at one time or another) . . . I get out my hand sewing needles . . . pick the right one . . . pull out the bad thread . . . and go to town with my needle and thread. The way I do it is not saddle stitching . . . but will have a similar effect. Put a good figure eight knot in the thread . . . leaving a 2 or 3 inch tail on it. Sneak up between the pieces . . . somewhere in the middle of the bad sewing . . . start up or down . . . doesn't matter. Loop stitch it one direction until you get to the good sttches . . . double up on a couple of those stitches . . . then start back the other way . . . sewing down where you came up . . . and sewing up where you sewed down earlier . . . AND . . . as you loop stitch . . . DO NOT PULL IT TIGHT. Leave an inch or so in each loop . . . hanging out of the leather on each side of the piece. You'll fix this later . . . trust me. Continue the loop stitching all the way past where you started . . . so that you go into the good stitches . . . again 2 or 3 stitches . . . just to double them up and anchor them . . . and again . . . sewing back to your start place . . . going up where you sewed down coming out . . . and going down where you sewed up . . . When you get back to your start place . . . you then grab that 2 or 3 inch tail of the beginning stitch . . . and with the other hand . . . begin pulling the stitches tight . . . going the direction you first started sewing . . . continue pulling them tight . . . one at a time . . . until you finally have it all sewn . . . stitches tightened . . . and you have the tail in one hand and the thread in the other hand. Tie them into a good tight . . . square knot . . . look it up if you don't know how to do it. Then comes a kinda tricky part. Find two needles . . . longest ones you have . . . and cut those two threads hanging out so that they are about 2/3 as long as the needles. Thread the needles with those hanging out threads . . . and with a pair of pliers . . . push the back end of the needles up between the layers until they are pulled free of the thread. Pull out your needles . . . your job is done. Have fun . . . take it slow . . . get a pair of cheater reading glasses to help make sure you are hitting the holes right as you do not make new holes . . . use the old ones . . . get a couple of doughnuts . . . and a cup of coffee . . . reward yourself at each end of the stitching . . . and when you are done . . . have a piece of apple pie. May God bless, Dwight PS: Apple pie rewards always help make the work good . . . whether it was or not . . . lol

I have no doubt I could build one for far less than 200 bucks . . . but when you add the labor time to the materials . . . it gets pricey right quick. I could easily build one for myself . . . have done far more complicated machinery that that . . . but again . . . once the time is put in it . . . what did I save?? May God bless, Dwight

You need first to have the new wearer take off the belt they are currently wearing. Lay it down on the table . . . measure from the outside of the buckle to the hole they use the most. That is THEIR true waist size. Add 4 inches to that . . . and you now have the size you need to make the gunbelt into. One way is to simply cut out the extra from the center of the back . . . and then punch and lace it back together with lacing. Use leather lacing . . . not plastic. The other way is to take off the extra from the off side from the holster. Outline and re-do that end in the manner it was first created . . . you should not have much more than 8 inches of hand stitching . . . should be a couple hour's work at most. Either way . . . when it is done . . .the buckle when centered on the wearer will cause the holster to ride slightly behind the "normal" ride . . . or the buckle can be pulled around a bit to the side to line up the holster. Have fun . . . may God bless, Dwight

Do you have a table like surface for yours?? My old machine was a Tippmann Boss . . . a great machine . . . but I had to make a flat table surface for it . . . otherwise my back stitches were not perfectly parallel to the front. AND . . . I did bust a few needles until I really caught on to using it . . . and the flat table attachment I made took that away for almost 100% Had to do the same thing with my Cowboy . . . but it came with an attachment I put on it that gives me basically a table for it. I'll add some to it . . . as I'll be doing some things that will be long and or wide . . . gunbelts just being one of them. May God bless, Dwight

Well . . . if you really want one . . . you could just make a new face for the thing on a computer . . . very gently get the cover off. . . pry off the hand . . . put on a new face. It would be an evening's work . . . but the other choice would be to paste a printout on the back . . . 4 oz = 1.58 mm / 8 oz = 3.17 mm etc. Actually . . . I'd love to have that little MM dude . . . preferably in inches . . . but that would be OK that way. Too much leather is sold as "this" thickness . . . and it is often times just on the verge of a lower one or higher one . . . or meanders around in thickness all over the hide. I take my mechanical 6 inch caliper with me when I go to buy leather. May God bless, Dwight

Looks like both of us got new machines . . . been wanting a Cowboy for wayyyyy too long . . . finally was actually given a gift . . . was able to use it . . . got a 4500. What brand is your machine? Looks like it does a great job . . . I took the liberty of turning your pic and enlarging it for the rest of the folks . . . great job . . . May God bless, Dwight

One like this will . . . May God bless, Dwight