Dwight

Yep . . . still here . . . glad to have ya back . . . May God bless, Dwight

No . . . the leather goods I do . . . get line 24 snaps or a buckle . . . Never used line 20 snaps . . . even though I got a bunch of em one time in a trade . . . they gather dust in a little plastic holder. Hanging on to em just in case May God bless, Dwight

Nate . . . I'm 79 yrs old . . . have neuropathy in my hands and feet . . . along with a tad of arthritis. Snaps were an absolute pain for me the last couple of years . . . UNTIL . . . I was in an Amish fabric shop up near Mansfield, Ohio . . . saw these snap pliers . . . bought em . . . HAVE NEVER LOOKED BACK . . . I actually only bought one set the first time up there . . . but I got sick and tired of swapping out the male setting set for the female setting set . . . so I bought another set of the pliers . . . now I just grab one . . . then the other . . . then hang them back up. They have never done a bad job on my snaps since I got them almost 2 yrs ago. I think I saw them also in Hobby Lobby . . . Anyway . . . they work great . . . and while I didn't do it . . . they are fixed up so you can drill a hole in your work bench . . . run a wire down to a pedal . . . and you can hold the piece with both hands while you step on the pedal . . . setting the snap. Each set of pliers was about 40 bucks . . . and the set of line 24 snaps setters . . . was 20 bucks. You have to buy the setters separate. May God bless, Dwight

Now if it were saddle tan . . . full basket weave . . . with maple leaves . . . antiqued . . . Just kidding . . . it's great the way it is . . . and I'm much more into practical leather anyway . . . and that certainly will meet that requirement. May God bless, Dwight

I would love to have a true pattern for those you see on the westerns on TV . . . These are beautiful that you made . . . but I'm looking for the style that a typical cowpoke would have had . . . May God bless, Dwight

Yessir . . . good looking . . . May God bless, Dwight

Last saddle soap I used . . . Bought it at Tandy's . . . Works pretty good . . . best I remember . . . have not used it in a while. May God bless, Dwight

I messed with light burn a while . . . finally gave up . . . went back to LaserGRBL and it does everything I need. Maybe I'm just not fasisteecaited enough to use lightburn . . . May God bless, Dwight

I'm not sure what you mean by creasing . . . of you are making nose pieces . . . collars . . . etc . . . they are made to be round or rounded . . . they are not made to be straightened. The whole function of the technique I told you about it to make sure the pieces fit . . . it stays rounded . . . and it does not wrinkle on the inside most piece. May God bless, Dwight

You can play the math game . . . or you can do it the easy way . . . Determine what would be the smallest you would probably make . . . cut out yellow pine circles that size. Measure and cut the bottom layer . . . then use a dress makers cloth tape measure to measure the outside of that piece. Cut the filler . . . lay it around the piece . . . measure it . . . cut the top piece . . . glue em together around your circle. You don't have to make one of every possible size . . . you could make say a 7 in dia . . . 8 in dia . . . 10 inch dia . . . 12 inch dia . . . and the 12 could be used for anythng between 10 and 12. Easy peasy. May God bless, Dwight

Click the envelope in the top right hand corner . . . then click "compose new" Just like addressing an email. May God bless, Dwight

Move the telephone . . . you can put it on your nightstand . . . lol You'll have fun with that roller unit . . . my son and DIL love the glasses I did for them for Christmas Put their names and an image of their house on them . . . May God bless, Dwight

Well . . . here is the setup . . . Laser 3 is my low powered unit . . . laser 2 is the 10 watt unit . . . and laser 1 shows both in the box I built for them. In the bottom of laser 1 you can see a hole in the box . . . there is a corresponding hole and fan at the other end. I tested it tonight . . . wondering if the fan was powerful enough . . . it runs off a USB port . . . and works great . . . is quiet. I was burning leather . . . and none of the "aroma" slipped out where I was. Anyway . . . that's the setup. May God bless, Dwight

I dip dye exclusively . . . unless there is some mitigating factor that makes me do it otherwise. All projects . . . especially if it is any tan or brown lighter than "dark" brown . . . get a first dressing with neatsfoot oil on the hair side only. And if I remember to do that . . . it is after all the forming and stitching is done (unless it is a "white stitching" project). Depending on the piece . . . sometimes I do the darker brown or black . . . sometimes not . . . if the leather is more flimsy I avoid it . . . if it is more than average firm . . . it gets a dose. Let it set for 24 hours . . . and as much as possible . . . one "kinda slow" . . . but uniform . . . pass thru the dye pan . . . similar to the above picture . . . wipe off any excess with paper towel . . . and then lay it horizontal for about 20 minutes . . . then either hang up to dry . . . or go to the "hot box" . . . as needed. Did a bunch of belts for a show one time . . . dyed em and hung em up to dry . . . and re-dyed em all the next day. The dye had migrated down to the bottom of the hanging piece . . . they were all noticeable darker at the bottom than the top. NEVER did THAT again. I DO NOT have splotchy problems . . . unless I get too near the edge of a veg tan piece . . . where the leather is "harder" there. I can touch that up with a dauber though . . . BUT . . . I use only Feibings pro oil dye . . . and Feibings reducer . . . 4 oz bottle of each . . . mixed together . . . makes my dye. I only do 4 colors . . . normally . . . none of this "can you make it match my aunt's 70 yr old book bag?" stuff . . . learned that is a losing program. May God bless, Dwight

I just finished the doors for my "fully enclosed" work area for both of mine. The low powered one is something less than 1 watt I think . . . actually does beautiful work on shading or outlining . . . will definitely use it. The 10 watt will cut thru plywood (3/16 thick) like it really knows what it is doing . . . and I'm very happy it does. It'll be doing most of my pattern cutting once I get one simple last touch finished . . . gotta put an exhaust fan on it . . . I'll pop up some pics when I'm done . . . maybe even later today. I did some drinking glasses for my son /DIL for Christmas . . . we were all happy with that outcome . . . Will be doing key fobs like they are going out of style later on . . . more than anything else . . . just to use up the scrap . . . maybe make a buck fifty (lol) on the stack of em. One has a 16 x 16 work area . . . the other is 14 x 14 . . . both with adjustable height . . . Glad you are doing well with yours too. May God bless, Dwight

Not meaning to pick on you Thom . . . but compared to my laser cutter . . . yours looks like it was cut with a chain saw. I use a little air compressor with my 5 watt laser . . . and one thing for sure I make is key fobs . . . I wipe the edges of em down with a terry cloth . . . and they are good to go. May God bless, Dwight

I cannot get you in touch with him . . . but If you cut the head off a 3/16 inch bolt . . . thread it into a 1/2 or 5/8 inch piece of wooden dowel . . . you can put it into your drill press . . . and with files and a little patience . . . you can make your own . . . Cocobolo is pretty . . . but your customer will never be able to tell the difference. I've made several . . . they all work great . . . and were a ton cheaper than buying one. You can also use 1/8 inch for the steel shaft . . . and then put that in the end of your dremel . . . works really fine. I wore out one dremel that way . . . hadda buy a new one. May God bless, Dwight

Thanks, Simplejack . . . I'd of passed them up . . . too good looking . . . Will have to make a trek that direction . . . MaY God bless, Dwight

THAT is one good looking belt . . . would be proud to wear one like that. I'd also love to have the pattern . . . it would definitely make a "distinguished" looking pair of suspenders . . . May God bless, Dwight

Take a look at this one https://pragmaticartisan.myshopify.com/collections/animal/products/quail-1119-engraved-metal-hand-stamp May God bless, Dwight

If you don't find one to suit you . . . I've been successful getting some very much customized stamps from a couple of vendors in China . . . they do solid brass ones . . . and while I'd a liked to do it here the states . . . nobody here in the states would make them . . . They're on Ebay . . . but you need a picture of what you want . . . as well as the dimensions. May God bless, Dwight

I'd like to see a bunch of pictures of it May God bless, Dwight

Did someone get up from the wrong side of the bed today?? May God bless, Dwight

Ain't he one of them Star Wars guys . . . black cape and such . . . May God bless, Dwight

But at the same time . . . if it is wax . . . water may not make it do anything . . . but heat will . . . I'd be very careful . . . but with a heat gun and some serious care . . . I'd bet you can mold it. That would be double if you had a top and bottom mold you could squeeze it into . . . after taking it out of a pan of reasonably hot water. May God bless, Dwight