Dwight

Unmitigatedaudacity, . . . you have an inbound PM. May God bless, Dwight

I make one of these every now and then, . . . just finished one for an HK USP .45, . . . These pictures don't tell the whole story, . . . but if you look close you can get an idea of my pattern. When I do a scope, . . . I cut a channel down where the sight track should be for the scope mount to go down in, . . . I would do the same for a red dot or anything else like that. In a wheel chair, . . . I would also opt for a thumb break rather than the strap over the gun butt, . . . with the thumb break, you do not have to mold it tight for retention, as the thumb break will provide security. May God bless, Dwight

I played the game trying to find something that works really well with those dyes, . . . ruined a couple of projects. Said to heck with it. Started back buying their reducer, . . . have not had ONE problem since that was dye related. I'm staying with their reducer, . . . there is not enough savings with anything else to make it worthwhile to ruin an otherwise completed project, . . . trying to save $.50 or a dollar on the dye. Once I did the $$$ calculation as to what I might save vs what I might lose, . . . it was an easy decision for me. Now when I need more dye, . . . I pour out of the bigger bottle, . . . the dye into a 4 oz container, . . . dump that in my dye container, . . . then rinse that bottle out with a 4 oz bottle of reducer, . . . pitch that bottle and keep the clean reducer bottle for the next batch I have to make. It has solved some of my dye problems. May God bless, Dwight

Don't let me assume to tell you how to run your railroad, . . . but the devil would be handing out ice cream cones before i would lift 3300 pounds with a 2 inch wide Walmart belt, . . . which is what you are advocating here: 1/16" by 2" wide, . . . is nothing more than a 4 oz strap. Scary !!!!!!!!!!! May God bless, Dwight

I've never had any real issues with Tandy snaps, . . . but they did change their supplier, . . . the backer pieces for the male part are differently shaped, . . . and the exterior piece that attaches to the female part seems to be made a bit thinner, . . . BUT, . . . they work, . . . May God bless, Dwight

Not to jump on anyone else, . . . but I've been messing with this leather stuff now on and off for 55+ years, . . . line 24 snaps have done everything I've ever asked of them, . . . and while I did one time buy some smaller ones, . . . have never used em. I only use regular line 24 snaps, . . . and some one way snaps (very rarely) that I got from Sailrite several years ago. And I honestly don't know if this tool will work on other sizes, . . . never tried. Oh, . . . and don't go to Walmart for the tool, . . . for some reason, they quit carrying it, . . . Hobby Lobby carries them. May God bless, Dwight

This is the tool I use 95% of the time, . . . had it for 12 or so years, . . . bought it at Walmart for $9.95 back then. Make sure you do not lose the little red piece in there, . . . goes around the male portion of the snap, . . . makes the tool work. You can use it without the cylinder but you mess up the snaps some times and that can be aggravating. I also have the Tandy tool set for snaps and rivets, . . . it does not hold as well as this tool in my opinion. The single bad part of it, . . . the throat is small, so the snaps have to be within a couple inches of the edge of whatever you are doing, . . . and for me that is the 95% of my work. May God bless, Dwight http://www.hobbylobby.com/Fabric-Sewing/Sewing-Quilting-Notions/Fasteners/5-8-Heavy-Duty-Fastener-Plier-Kit/p/109268

How many layers are you putting together, . . . or are you talking about sewing straps end for end to make a much longer one? May God bless, Dwight

If this dude is going to hold 10,000 pounds, . . . how wide and thick is it going to be? May God bless, Dwight

Yeldarb, . . . you can fight it, . . . or you can do it the easy way. Personally, . . . I'm all for easy. When I do a bag, . . . especially with an oval or a round bottom, . . . that bottom is stitched very early on in the process. I take a pair of dividers, . . . and lay off an area all around the bottom, . . . in this case it would be 3/8 of an inch. Lay off the same on the side material of the bag, . . . lay it off on the hair side of each piece of leather. Apply Weldwood contact cement up to each line, . . . on the hair side of each piece and allow it to dry. Then, . . . start putting it together, . . . both edges flush with each other, . . . flesh side of the bottom laying against your table, . . . flesh side of the bag's sides pointing up. Allow about a 1/2 inch strip for the overlap of the two sides, . . . and get started. Put together about 4 to 6 inches of the bag and bottom, . . . stitch that in place, . . . but make sure you stitch it at 1/2 inch in from the edge. That will make sure that all the contact cement is well inside the bag, . . . which is especially valuable if you are going to dye it. Contact cement will not allow the dye to penetrate. Work on it about 4 to 6 inches at a time, . . . and when you get around to your starting point, . . . you will then discover why you do this step first. The sides will then be either too short to touch, . . . or too long. Ideally, you want it too long, . . . so you can trim a 1/4 or 1/2 inch off one of the sides, . . . stitch the side up, . . . and have a beautiful and correctly proportioned bag. Sewing the seam first is a recipe for bag and purse disaster in my experience, . . . so I do just about everything else I can before I finally sew that line. Once the bottom and side seams are sewn, . . . you will have a bag that is sewn inside out, . . . simply turn it right side out, . . . voila, . . . beautiful should be the word. May God bless, Dwight

It would be tricky, . . . but turning it inside out, . . . would be the first thing I would do, . . . so you are like sewing inside a box. I did a really deep bag for a wedding gift some time back and that is how I did it. Worked out fine. I think this one could be done that way, . . . but it would depend on the dimensions. May God bless, Dwight

If a feller had a couple weeks he didn't know what else to do with, . . . I really think the boss could be changed over to a "air over oil" cylinder operation quite easily, . . . with a rocker pedal for the foot, . . . and a sliding air switch and second cylinder on the presser foot, . . . he could keep both hands on the leather, . . . and just as fast as he could rock that foot of his, . . . he could do stitches. BUT, . . . my way, . . . the arm gets tired, . . . it's time for Hershey's and coffee, . . . May God bless, Dwight

Mine is a Tippmann Boss, . . . love the thing, . . . my website shows some of my work, . . . all done with it. Picture shows the first belt I did in my new shop, . . . fixed a flat table I can slide on the machine, . . . or slip it off and not use the table. May God bless, Dwight

I'll get in here, . . . mine has been a "new" aluminum, . . . from 2005 or 2006, . . . somewhere back there. I use it for whatever I make out of leather, . . . if it needs sewn, . . . except vests, . . . different machine for that. Look on my website for examples, . . . page 3 to be specific, . . . it sews everything up to and including 3/4 inch of dry veggie tanned leather, . . . although not too well on the 3/4 inch stuff. I use it to punch the holes in those things, . . . then hand stitch it. I live 2 hours from the factory, . . . whenever I have a problem (happened twice so far), . . . that I cannot fix myself, . . . I load it up, . . . call em and give em a heads up, . . . one of the mechanics cleans off a bench, . . . fixes my machine, . . . 2 hours later I am back home sewing again (or taking a nap). The Tippmann people are great people to work with. The other day I finished a belt that was darn near 3/8 of an inch thick, . . . for a feller that is in the 44 in waist area, . . . all in about 20 minutes, . . . at almost 6 stitches per inch, . . . total sewing was something over 100 inches. I use everything from 207 thread to 415, . . . but 346 is my mainstay, . . . very seldom use anything else. A happy customer??? Yessir, . . . I am, . . . and if I could go back and buy a different machine, . . . I most likely would not do it, . . . this one does what I want, where I want it, and the way I want it, . . . electrics do not always do that. May God bless, Dwight

1. Yes, you can paint the dye on the other pieces, . . . but will that not allow those pieces to be of a different color? I would at least dab them in a corner somewhere out of the way, . . . to see if maybe dabbing them with a sponge will color them without dunking them (the felt pieces). 2. When you say "regular" Feibing black dye, . . . I'm not sure there is any such thing. There is oil dye, . . . USMC dye, . . . water based dye, . . . and probably one or two I forgot to mention. I only use the professional oil dye, . . . so you'll have to check yours against that, . . . maybe talk to someone at the store. BE SURE to thin the black down half and half with their reducer though, . . . or you will be forever getting off the extra pigment. May God bless, Dwight

From the appearance, . . . it looks like an oiled leather, . . . no hard finish on it, . . . should not be a big deal to dye it. The one thing you are going to want to do, . . . as much as is possible, . . . take it apart. Get as much of the hardware off as you can. Go to a Tandy leather store, . . . buy 4 of their 4 oz bottles of pro oil black dye, . . . and 4 of their 4 oz bottles of dye reducer. Stop at Walmart and buy an aluminum pan for cooking a turkey, . . . or if you have one to spare at home, . . . a 8 x 14 cake pan works fine, . . . that is what I use. Get a pair of rubber gloves and a roll of paper towels. Mix all the dye and all the reducer together well, . . . pour it in the pan, . . . and one at a time, . . . snake each piece into and through the dye, . . . you don't need to linger any great time, . . . if it is black colored, . . . it is dyed. Hold it up over the pan until the drip-drip-drip stops, . . . then lay it face up on a piece of cardboard. DO NOT HANG it up to dry. Give it 10 to 15 minutes or so and then with the gloves still on, . . . holding the leather by the sides of the straps, . . . take paper towels and wipe off any dye that got on the metal. Sometimes the dye will stain the metal, . . . sometimes it will not, . . . you don't really want to take that chance. Leaving it on there may stain it. Allow the harness to dry for at least 24 hours, . . . then with another paper towel, . . . give it a coat of neatsfoot oil (if you can find it in a small bottle), . . . or olive oil, . . . just enough that you can honestly see that some oil is trying to soak in. Some black pigment will rub off on the towel, . . . don't worry about it. Allow that to dry for a couple of days, . . . then get a white tee shirt you don't like, . . . and laying each strap down on a hard surface that won't move, . . . buff the heck out of the whole harness. When black quits coming off the piece you are buffing, . . . you are done. Once the buffing is done, . . . you should be done. The obvious alternative, . . . is to take it to a local saddle shop, holster shop, or belt shop, . . . have the folks there do it for you, . . . it'll be twice the cost of doing it yourself, . . . but you only have to spill black oil dye on something ONE TIME, to know you don't ever want to do that again. Good luck. May God bless, Dwight

You can also contact Weaver Leather in Berlin, Ohio, . . . they will sell you the leather and for a small fee will cut it pretty much to the width's you want. (at least they used to do it, . . . don't know for certain today's details, . . . but contact them, . . . they are absolutely wonderful people to work with) May God bless, Dwight

I guess I must be doing something wrong, . . . I use the "flick your bic" type lighter, . . . have never burned a piece of leather yet. I leave about a 1/8 of an inch of thread when I cut it, . . . hit it with the edge of the yellow flame, . . . it melts / burns away, . . . I give it a little thumb rub, . . . done. May God bless, Dwight

Ya did good, . . . Springfield came to mind, . . . but when I saw Weaver had em, . . . I left Springfield off. I've actually been on the Weaver location, . . . wonderful people to deal with, . . . that's why I sent you there. Sorry it wasn't exactly what you wanted. Come to think of it, . . . it's about time to arrange another expedition to that area. May God bless, Dwight

Try Weaver Leather, . . . in I think Berlin, Ohio. http://products.weaverleathersupply.com/search?w=horse hide belt They should be able to help you. May God bless, Dwight

Hopefully they don't sit down in the dirt. A muzzle full of .45ACP dirt can get someone hurt bad. The reason I recognize it, . . . I'm only 72 and haven't completely grown up, . . . I still play in the dirt quite a bit. Just finished fixing a 10 inch field tile buried about 48 inches in the ground, . . . it blew out, . . . created a 6 foot diameter hole. Had to play in the dirt big time that day. Playing in the garden will get one dirty too, . . . and sometimes, . . . just sitting down next to a camp fire, . . . making memories or smores, . . . checkin' out my cast iron dutch oven, . . . and whatever is cookin in it. Seriously, . . . I would not own a slide, . . . and refuse to make em. They could be a cash item, . . . but I like my customers better than that. But, . . . anyway, . . . I still like your work, . . . keep it up. May God bless, Dwight

I would say personally, that if you sent it to me, . . . I'd be more than willing to test wear it for you for a couple of years. Seriously, . . . really good looking, . . . the only thing I don't do for sure with my pancakes, . . . I never allow the muzzle to go below the holster, . . . sitting down on the ground "could" get a muzzle full of dirt, . . . which could be very dangerous. Other than that, . . . it's a good job. May God bless, Dwight

Thanks DJole, . . . wouldn't you love to sit down and have a conversation with the person that made that shoe?? May God bless, Dwight

Those pictures were the last one I did, . . . and it was indeed fun. If I had to choose making them or a regular Duke rig, . . . the money belt is probably a bit easier to do, . . . and because it is a bit "different" folks will pay a bit more for it than a normal Duke rig. May God bless, Dwight

Honestly, I don't know plinkercases, . . . snaps are probably not "period correct", . . . but then again, not much more than the leather is, . . . and even it has undergone many changes in the way it is created / finished, etc. I tend to go by the overall look, . . . Western?, . . . OK, . . . and I kind of drop it there. But that's just me, . . . and how I approach this stuff. May God bless, Dwight