Dwight

OK . . . appreciate that . . . May God bless, Dwight

Thanks, Rktaylor . . . I'm going to my Tandy store probably in a couple of weeks . . . will be buying probably a side . . . and am leaning a lot more toward making a really pretty pair . . . all stamped and such . . . Next problem will be finding "THE" pattern I want to use on them . . . I like flowers n such . . . but it is a bit overdone sometimes . . . not sure where I'll go with it . . . just gonna look. But your set has the general "look" of what I want. One thing I will do for sure though is make the center connector piece just one cut of leather. Will be more expensive that way . . . but it'll achieve a lot of the look I want. Thanks again, may God bless, Dwight

My machine is also the 4500 and I use the double sided shoe for 99% of everything I sew. When I am lining up my "first" stitch . . . I put the place I want for the first one . . . dead center between the sides of the shoe . . . and when the needle comes down . . . it will come down on the line that would be across the front edge of the shoe . . . exactly in the middle. It never deviates . . . May God bless, Dwight

Thanks Bland . . . I thought the cavalry bags (and Matt Dillons) were somewhat bigger . . . but not ever using them . . . I had no clue. Your info hits the spot . . . just what I really needed . . . May God bless, Dwight

Thanks, Ron . . .

You need to add pressure to the feet . . . I sometimes have the same problem with my cowboy 4500 . . . May God bless, Dwight

Good looking work, Goldshot Ron . . . those would make a bad lookin horse's image perk up. Looking at some of the TV westerns and movies . . . some of the saddlebags looked to be maybe 18 inches square . . . 5 or 6 inches deep . . . not the 10 inch variety that is sold on Etsy and Ebay these days. I don't travel much . . . maybe 2 days gone at a time . . . and a pair that sized would carry all of my needs. I remember them pulling the saddlebags off with a rolled up blanket . . . and the horse N saddle went into the livery. I'm kind of attempting that for myself . . . Got a lady down the street with a couple horses . . . may just go down there and snoop around. But keep up the good work . . . you are an asset to the forum. May God bless, Dwight

Thanks Littlef . . . whole lot more in there than I wanted . . . they'll be plain . . . kind of bags a cheap critter like me would have carried. May God bless, Dwight

Actually . . . I don't need the full saddlebag pattern . . . just the part that goes behind the rider . . . The distance between the two bags is one dimension I need the width of the top . . . at the center is a second dimension AND . . . the radius of the half circle cut out to ride up against the saddle . . . The rest is a no brainer . . . I want to make a set of saddlebags for a project . . . and maybe sell them later . . . just want them to be of the right dimensions that someone having a horse would want to buy them. Thanks for all your help . . . I was thinking if someone cared to do it . . . lay your saddlebags down on the floor with a 1 foot ruler laying next to them and post a picture. I can "interpolate" from there . . . close enough. Thanks . . . may God bless, Dwight

Look on Google . . . ask for Tandy Leather . . . find the closest store . . . go ask them. Some are knowledgeable . . . some are sales people. But it is a good starting place. May God bless, Dwight

Badhatter . . . the best advice on stretching the leather for a belt. Don't. 10 oz leather will be ruined and wasted if you attempt to go thru some ill defined process attempting to stop leather from doing something that it will do anyway. Even junk grade vegetable tanned leather makes an acceptable belt . . . But then again I've only made and sold several hundred . . . over the course of 20+ years . . . so what do I know? And not one ever came back because it stretched. May God bless, Dwight

Looks more like a nut cracker . . . can't figure how one would cut leather on that. May God bless, Dwight

And when you go to figure out how big a piece you will need . . . remember that if the strap were 1 inch wide . . . in one square foot . . . you would have 12 feet of 1 inch strap. Since you are cutting it at 1/2 inch . . . that doubles the strap length to 24 feet . . . if you want a 30 ft strap . . . you can start out with 1 1/4 square feet. Cutting it in a square piece is impossible so you at least have to look at a circle as the first possibility . . . and you don't want to have the last few inches sorely bent . . . Cutting an 18 inch circle . . . using a strap cutter set at 1/2 inch . . . you would wind up with a 30 ft strap . . . and roughly an 8 inch diameter piece left over in the middle. Again . . . soak it . . . stretch it . . . let it dry . . . viola . . . STRAP . . . May God bless, Dwight (provided I did my math correctly . . . )

I've got a 36 by 60 mat on the same sized table . . . the mat is about 15 yrs old . . . I finally cut a couple small holes in it . . . so I had to pull it off the table and re-orient it 180 degrees. It self heals . . . mostly . . . and is wonderful for layout. Probably . . . and 79 yrs old . . . will just let this one out live me . . . bought off the floor at Joann Fabric May God bless, Dwight

Thanks, Paul . . . that dude's on order . . . May God bless, Dwight

Don't laugh . . . but this works beautifully. Dampen the piece . . . on the hair side . . . lay it outside on a board in such a manner as it is like a solar panel . . . kinda angled so the sun hits it directly . . . and let the sunshine work on it. I have just about quit dying light tan . . . just give it the "suntan" look . . . did that for a young boy a few months back . . . he wore that belt prouder than if he had been given one by the Lone Ranger . . . And if you leave it out there for 4 or 5 days . . . it will get fairly dark. The key is to go out every now and then with a sponge . . . re-dampen the hair side of he object. Oh . . . and it works on cloudy days too . . . but only about 2/3 as well. But it is cheap . . . predictable . . . no VOC . . . May God bless, Dwight

Or you can download Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0 off the net . . . you can resize them . . . crop them . . . re-orient them . . . and if you play with it long enough. . . . you will think you have found a long lost friend. I use it all the time . . . it's wonderful May God bless, Dwight

Cdk . . . Littlef . . . now you got the crown secrets . . . use em wisely May God bless, Dwight

This is how I do the loops on a curved belt. The little tool that looks like a T is simply two pieces of 1/4 " plywood glued together at 90 degrees. On it . . . there is an arrow you can see jut to the right of the up and down bar. The distance from the bar to the arrow is 5/8 of an inch . . . the proper spacing for 44 and 45 cartridges. On the up and down bar are two lines that come out to the edge . . . they indicate the length the hole needs to be. I take an ink pen and draw a line from one line down to the next . . . while my arrow is pointing to the line I drew last. When I get done marking the lines . . . I get my slotting tool . . . and go to work. The line is made just the length of the slotting tool . . . so I put the top of the slot at the top of the line . . . bring the bottom down so it is centered . . . and I hammer a hole in the leather. Repeat until the proper number of holes are done. For modern six shooters I usually do 24 . . . for the old fashioned ones without a transfer bar . . . I do 25. The punch is made from a piece of 1/2 inch EMT conduit . . . smashed in a vise . . . and a 1/8 inch piece of flat stock steel forced into the hole to make both sides parallel . . . took it to a belt sander and sharpened the outside . . . took a round file and took off the burrs on the inside . . . have no idea of the number of cartridge holes this rascal has punched. But anyway . . . that is how I do it . . . never any complaints so far. May God bless, Dwight

John Bianchi has for me the last word in gun holster making . . . seeing as how he more or less invented the fast draw concept . . . In his video he shows to cut the blanks out of one piece of leather . . . with the curve cut in it. He also shows that on I believe it was about a 42 inch belt . . . that the curve was a bow about 6 inches deep at the center . . . with the two ends of the belt being the ends of the bow. Those who make straight belts don't take into consideration that men generally wear their britches belted at their lower waist . . . and the gun belt goes below that on their hips. Many guys don't like the idea that they have a curve in the profile of their butt . . . but they do. They are a lot bigger around 3 inches below the belt . . . than they are at the belt. Hence . . . thee curved belt which makes up for the butt curve. Wide belts cut straight will be tighter at the bottom than the top . . . and if not cinched up . . . one good sneeze and the gunbelt is on the ground. Cut em straight if you want to . . . I've followed John's directions for over 20 years . . . never had but one come back . . . he ordered a 53 inch . . . it took a couple months to get it in the system and out to him . . . by that time he needed a 56 inch. Thankfully I was able to just barely change the tongue and he was happy. Never had one problem with them falling down. Your attitude may vary. May God bless, Dwight

Contact Toledo sewing machines . . . they are one of our sponsors up there at the top . . . Bob is very knowledgeable . . . I get my cowboy bobbins from him and my Tippmann bobbins from Tipmann. The tipmann bobbins are smaller . . . but in a pinch, I can use them. His number is 866-362-7397 Give Bob the dimensions . . . I'd bet he'll have an answer for you. May God bless, Dwight

I had a beautiful old saddle brought to me to repair the sheep wool on it. It was just plain rotten . . . touching it at all with the least force and it came off in chunks. I took it all off . . . pulled out the old stitches (talking about a job) . . . then I cut new wool to go on it . . . glued it in place with weldwood contact cement . . . put the piece with the wool down . . . played with my Tippmann Boss machine . . . and was able to re-sew it using the original holes. Customer was a bit unhappy because he wanted it repaired . . . but came around when I explained it was the only way. May God bless, Dwight

I make key fobs from scraps left over from other work It is a timeless pattern made all over . . . well recognized . . . and you can do a lot in that little space There is one picture of a finished fob . . . and the image of our church I can put on others using a laser engraver. The laser engraver can also cut them out very quickly and efficiently. May God bless, Dwight

No . . . I had to buy mine extra . . . whoever (besides Temu) sells you the handle . . . should carry the dies as well. Ask for the ones for line 24 snaps. That is all they will fit too. I actually got mine from an Amish sewing store. Amish use a lot of snaps . . . and would probably grab up that one you showed. May God bless, Dwight

Etsy, Ebay, Amazon, Temu . . . they all have them. Be careful with Temu . . . theirs may be a knockoff . . . buy somewhere else. May God bless, Dwight