Dwight

I went out to start on my niece's belt tonight, . . . machine decided to throw a fit, . . . so I'm down now for the long count. My Boss is a good machine when it is working, . . . when it decides to be a pain, . . . a red-headed, step-daughter, turned into a mother in law doesn't even begin to describe it. Had to just come in the house and bake me a cherry pie to get my nerves unfrazzled. We'll eat it tomorrow, . . . working on the Boss. May God bless, Dwight

OK, Glockanator, . . . misery loves company they say. If you figure yours out, . . . holler at me. I went out to sew up a belt for my niece tonight, . . . something I've done XYZ number of times, . . . COULD NOT GET IT TO SEW. So, . . . I'm back in the house, . . . chilling, . . . I'll take a whack at it sometime tomorrow, . . . If I mess with it tonight, . . . I'll take a whack at it with a 4 pound hammer, . . . Didja ever get yours running correctly??? May God bless, Dwight

When I do these, . . . I do the loops through only one side, . . . and it is the "looped back through the same hole" style, . . . never sewn, . . . but that is just my way of doing them. After I get the loops on, . . . I put on the buckle and tongue billets, . . . then wet the whole thing down pretty good, . . . fold in the middle, . . . crease with a one and and a half inch wide wall paper seam roller, . . . hang it up by the tongue billet and let it dry. I then come back and contact cement all of it on the inside except up under the buckle billet, . . . where I stash the cash. I suppose some of those back in the old days may have had a longer tunnel for the money, . . . all my customers will be putting greenbacks in there, . . . so I give em room for that. And, yeah, . . . 6/7 is fine. I always do mine so they become a roughout belt. May God bless, Dwight

At 71, . . . still "having at it", . . . getting ready to do my first long wallet like this. Needed some "inspiration" on the pattern, . . . thank you my friend. I've done other wallets, . . . just never got into the long ones, . . . sister has a "special friend" who needs one, . . . so here we go. May God bless, Dwight

I measure from the inside edge of the belt buckle, . . . to the most used hole. THAT is the fatness or skinneyness that the customer is. Measuring from the fold is an inaccurate measurement, . . . kinda like weighing out your hamburger, . . . with it in the cast iron skillet. And, . . . 7 holes is my standard. May God bless, Dwight

Glockanator, . . . try this: I sent them an email indicating you were having trouble, . . . Here is the response *************************** Hi Dwight, I’m sorry to hear that your friend is having trouble with his machine. Our technicians would like to help him out. Please have your friend give either Jamie or Al a call at his convenience. Thank you. Have a great day! Rachel Fogarty Purchasing Agent Customer Service Representative Tippmann Industrial 3518 Adams Center Rd. Fort Wayne, IN 46806 1-866-286-8046 Rachel@tippmannindustrial.com Rachel@air-ordnance.com

Welcome, Vana, . . . glad to have you aboard the leather working train. Your belt sample looked really good for a first go at it, . . . keep working, you will only get better. Or, . . . you will get broke, as in "no more money". It is also one of the attributes of leather working, . . . May God bless, Dwight

Boriqua, . . . one of the fun things you can do with blue guns is customize em. I do it often. Add several layers of masking tape here or there to make the slide wider, . . . augment with a layer or two of manila envelope, . . . be surprized what you can conjure up. I had a guy wanted a glock (ugh !!) holster and the model he had was a bit longer than the only one I had at the time. About 20 minutes after I found out what the difference in the two was, . . . I had a wooden extension for my glock (ugh !!) blue gun, . . . that when taped on, . . . carefully modeled the one he wanted. Made him the holster, . . . he's been a happy camper ever since (guess about as happy as you can be if you own a glock, . . . y'know). Anyway, . . . go for it. Nothing ventured, . . . nothing gained. May God bless, Dwight

You might email these folks, . . . they have been great to me: give him a shot at it anyway. You'll probably be glad you did. www.tolindsewmach.com/ May God bless, Dwight

FWIW, . . . the original Colt officer's model only had a 3 1/2 inch barrel, . . . and some said it kicked like a Ky mule. My micro has a 3 inch barrel and doesn't kick any worse than my Commander size. Were you able to dig up anything else Fredo??? You have my curiosity up now. May God bless, Dwight

Just giving credit where credit is due, . . . Mike. May God bless, Dwight

You are far more talented and patient than I, my friend. Excellent piece of work. May God bless, Dwight

I have a Micro .45, . . . one of the neatest little guns I've ever held, . . . and I also have a Micro blue gun. They are the same of course. FWIW, . . . I made an IWB for a friend in NY, . . . for his EMP, . . . 9mm, . . . using the Micro mold. He loved it, . . . I'm thinking the only difference is the one you pointed out, . . . the Micro has the shorter officer's length grip, . . . the EMP has the full size grip. I went over to Ebay, . . . they have a definite difference in the grip lengths for Micro and EMP. And if that is the only difference, . . . the molding would work, . . . grip length is a non issue. May God bless, Dwight

After I read this the first time, . . . I wanted to look down and count my fingers, . . . May hat is off to you, . . . I did some dangerous stuff in my working career, . . . put myself in some seriously precarious places and predicaments, . . . but I just have to be perfectly honest and say I would have passed on that job. Glad you got through it......... May God bless, Dwight

My Boss is set at 5 SPI, . . . and I use 346 almost esclusively. The thread is too thick for much of anything below 6 oz overall, . . . but upwards from there, . . . I've sewn stuff that was 48 oz thick (3/4 of an inch) with it, . . . at 5 SPI. May God bless, Dwight

If I did something like that, . . . tool first of course. Dip dye it the overall color I wanted, . . . allowing that it would be the lighter color, . . . as the stampings would take the dye darker. Let that dry completely. Then I would to the background in black. Let it dry completely. I would then give it two light coats of Resolene, . . . cut 50/50 with water. All in all you need 4 products: brown dye (I'd use saddle tan), . . . black dye (black oil base, . . . NOT USMC black), . . . Resolene, . . . and water. I would also be very much inclined to take an old washrag with some Feibings thinner on it, . . . and rub that belt until I got the most of those black specks off of it, . . . or I ruined the belt completely. Their thinner has saved my bacon a couple times, . . . taking stuff off that did not belong, . . . even after it was finished. You will not lose anything by trying, except the $5 for the 4 oz bottle of thinner. May God bless, Dwight

Tardis, . . . make one out of a single layer of 8/9 or 9/10, . . . THEN, . . . make one like this. When I first started conversing with Mike some years back, . . . I was a bit leary of this method of making pancakes. I am no longer leary, . . . in fact, . . . I'm convinced. This is the only way I will make a pancake to sell, . . . especially if it is an OWB. Once this baby is cut, sewn, molded, dyed, and finished, . . . you have a HOLSTER, . . . now. I make others that are only one layer, . . . but never a pancake. And if you use the search function, . . . look up posts by him, . . . there are a number of photos out there to let you see his work. May God bless, Dwight

I don't think I've ever seen them with the sides scalloped like that, . . . I often use these from Tandy: http://www.tandyleather.com/en/category/holster-clips They're listed at $3.79 apiece, . . . but I get a discount on that as a leather shop proprietor. May God bless, Dwight

Generally, the biggest pieces I dye are flapped western style holsters, . . . or the cartridge belt for that holster. I use the 9 x 13 (or somewhere thereabouts) cake pan I cabbaged from my wife's stash of pots and pans. I actually have three: one for black, . . . one for browns, . . . one for "others". I pour something near a quart of dye, cut 50/50 with Feibings thinner, . . . and just snake the piece through it, . . . making sure every nook and cranny gets covered. And when I say dip, . . . that is very accurate, . . . I do not leave it in the dye any longer than it takes to take on the color by getting wet in it. It takes me all of probably 30 seconds to dip dye a 40 inch gun belt from stem to stern. Hope this helps, . . . may God bless, Dwight

You got me, . . . I cut all my dye 50/50 with Feibings thinner, . . . whatever it is, . . . and dip dye. No problems,.............. well, . . . almost no problems, . . . saddle tan does sometimes come out darker than I wanted it, . . . but we're talking degrees, . . . not total failure. I couldn't tell how big that piece is, . . . looks large, . . . try dipping it, . . . worst thing can happen, . . . it's really messed up worse. Oh, . . . and I never moisten the leather. I know people swear by it, . . . but think about it, . . . leather is differently dense from one square inch to another, . . . you put water into it first, . . . then try to dye it with an oil based product that may displace the water in this square inch, . . . but not over there where it is more dense or less dense. Nahhhh, . . . get it wet, . . . OR, . . . dye it, . . . but don't do both, . . . that's my motto. May God bless, Dwight

Smart phone / dumb phone, . . . makes no difference if you can do 2 things: take the picture, . . . then send it to yourself as a message, a text, or as a picture. My old phone (dumb one) would take the picture, . . . but I had no real way of getting the image off the phone. Verizon had disabled the cable connection, . . . and the salesperson conveniently "forgot" to tell me that when I got my last dumb phone. I researched it this time, . . . got an I-phone 5, . . . am super happy with it, . . . especially with the ability to picture something, . . . send it, . . . talk to the other party about it, . . . takes a lot of uncertainty out of some of the leather work I do. May God bless, Dwight

Take the pattern you used last year, . . . you already know it works, . . . and bling it up. Rhinestones, . . . balls, . . . diamonds, . . . conchos, . . . all kinds of stuff to "bling" with. May God bless, Dwight

What process do you use? Frankly, . . . I dip dye virtually everything I do, . . . and never have a problem like that. And I use Feibings oil dye almost exclusively. May God bless, Dwight

One fellow I talked to on here, . . . sews or glues the beads to one piece of leather, . . . then cuts the next piece of leather so it is a window frame around his beading. I was interested myself, . . . and that was the description he gave me, . . . I think he mostly works with dog collars and such. I AM interested in your beading, . . . can you share some pictures with us? I just finished a couple of loom bead panels myself, . . . size 8 beads, . . . for a fringed leather jacket I am making. May God bless, Dwight

Ya gotta promise not to laugh.............. I take pictures with my I-phone, . . . then email them to myself. Pull em out and run em through the Adobe Photoshop oven, . . . voila, . . . pictures my man. I used to do a camera, . . . onto the chip, . . . chip out, . . . load onto computer, . . . yadda, yadda, yadda. Phone is so much easier and quicker, . . . plus I can take a generally lousy picture with my phone and snazz it up with my Adobe. May God bless, Dwight