Bree

The jig is simply a device to hold the blade at the angle you want the bevel to be. But it isn't even necessary as there is another way to use your flat surface plate along with a large flat stone. You can use the surface plate and the blade itself as your jig. Lay the blade flat on the surface plate with the edge just slightly over the edge of the granite. Take a long and flat hard Arkansas stone and lay it on the blade face. (Make sure it is flat! If not, flatten it on the surface plate with wet/dry paper) The blade itself in conjunction with the flat stone will give you the proper primary bevel angle so you can go ahead and start your sharpening motion. A touch of honing oil is of course required. Keep the Arkansas stone pressed flat against the blade face and keep slowly moving it in your favorite sharpening direction. Some like to go only in one direction... some back and forth... some orbital. I like to do slow little orbits. You can flip the blade and do the other side as well making very sure to keep the stone flat against the blade and pressed flat against the granite plate. This works because the blade is ground flat on two sides in essentially a trianglar shape. Both surfaces are uniformly flat. Works like a charm. I did my 8" splitter blade that way yesterday and it will split a hair in half! LOL! EZ to touch up too. If you have chips or dents in the blade you may have to use a softer and corser Arkansas stone to remove more metal. You could even use a 6-10" flat diamond plate to remove more metal. Same principle... let the two flat planes (the plate and the blade) work to your advantage to get a very very fine edge. If you want to add a secondary bevel to the top of the blade, you can fashion a little jig by putting some tape or the like along the edge of the hard Arkansas stone to raise the angle a degree or two depending on how steep you want your secondary bevel to be. Then proceed as before only on the top and working the edge. You don't need much so go easy on the secondary bevel. I normally don't use a secondary bevel on my splitter blade.

Get yourself a B grade granite surface plate. It will be flat to within a +/- tolerance of .00015 inches. Moisten it and put some wet-dry sandpaper on it. The moisture with cause it to adhere to the plate. Now you can flatten the base of the blade without fear of beveling the bottom edge. With the appropriate jig you can use the plate and sandpaper to sharpen the bevel edge as well. Increase the fineness of the grit until you get the desired level of sharpness. You can get good, inexpensive surface plates from Grizzly or Enco. Every shop ought to have one at these prices. Heck the stands cost more than the plates!!

Until your servo motor arrives, get some scrap and learn the "friction zone" of your clutch motor. This is the area somewhere in between speed=0 and speed=max. It is not a very large zone but it exists. Teach your foot how to stay in the zone and grab hold of the machine's flywheel as you sew. This will prevent it from going into hyperdrive by slipping the belt unless you jam down your foot on the pedal. As long as you stay in the friction zone and keep hold of the flywheel you will be able to control the machine at slow speed. Once your servo motor arrives you may still find this skill useful as you can set your servo to high speed and ratchet it down as needed by foot/flywheel control. This allows you to generate higher torque to sew through thicker and heavier material. Servos ar enot as powerful as the clutch motor you are replacing. Practice on scrap and try new things. You'll get the hang of it very quickly.

Why doesn't someone get the flyer and snap some PIX and post them??

Here I am doing what I like doing most... Driving my bike across the Tail of the Dragon.

LOL!! You got it! Making something flat that doesn't want to stay flat. I guess the term flatting hammer comes from blacksmiths. And they have nice flatting hammers but they aren't good for leather problems. One use for this little beauty is to "flatten" two pieces that I have just bonded with Barge cement. I want to apply pressure to make sure that all areas of the two pieces of leather bond together but I don't want to mark the leather in any way. If I pound on it with an ordinary hammer, it leaves a circular impression... not good. This little gizmo will allow me to "rub" the pieces down or even tap on them without making marks. I used to watch this shoemaker bonding taps and sole protectors to shoe soles. He used to bond them with Barge cement, put them on a last, and then take a wide flat hammer to pound in the cement. If he had a surface that he didn't want any marks on he took the hammer face and grabbed it and "rubbed" the glue in with a circular motion so that no marks appeared on the adjoining surface. So I guess I am always looking for something to imitate that shoemaker who I liked to watch.

+1 We are all small businesses. We can't absorb thousands of dollars in losses like large corporations can. When we lose, the mortgage doesn't get paid or somone goes hungry.I am with you 100%. I want all the money up front. I take 0% risk and the customer takes 100% risk. If they want to get a better deal elsewhere, fine go right ahead. If they want MY work, then they pay just like they do at McDonald's... all the cash before they get the burger.I have personally lost over $50,000 doing it the other way with 1/2 down and 1/2 on delivery. Somebody always finds a way to sucker me into violating the basic rule of small business sales... Never ever let the customer have both the goods and the money at the same time. And when you trot on down to small claims court, you score an easy win and then you have a nice judgement and no money. Good luck collecting.One guy was slicker than spit. He conned me into not collecting $5,000 at the proper time by putting up the title to his Mercedes. That turned out to be utterly worthless and I was out $5k. He was gone with the work, the money, and the Mercedes.Thieves are much better at lying and gaining trust than I am at spotting lies or distrusting them. So the only way I found to stop my bleeding was through PROCESS. I set up a strict process for new work and before the work begins, all the money is collected. If it is a lot of money, I am happy to have my banker or attorney hold it in escrow. But once that contract is signed, the money must be paid. Any other way involves risk of loss to me which I am not willing accept. Ian... Put those beautiful leather pants up on EBay and you should be able to get your price.Terrific work.

I think you'll like them... even that one without the rounded edges. If they don't work on leather they will be nice for your espresso!! LOL! You could also use it to pound out minor dents on your truck!

I like to use a china marker. I have a white, black and red so I can get contrast on just about anything. They won't harm the leather since they are just colored wax. Cheap too.

Good job Josh. Clever idea and a nicely crafted belt.

I am always looking for flatting hammers for some reason. I like them wide and with a nice flat bottom but very rounded edges. Anyways I am over at the Gourmet food store and lo and behold is this cool steel espresso tamper which fits a 1 1/2 inch belt perfectly being a little more than 1 3/4" in diameter. So I buy it and I love this thing. I thought I would share some PIX of it. I don't know just how useful it will be but I just love having it! Here is where you can get one for $10. http://www.amazon.com/Danesco-Kaffe-Functi...1648&sr=1-1 It's probably better for flatting leather than espresso tamping because of the rounded edges. Anyhoo... I thought you all might get a kick out of it.

What kind of glue are you using to hold down that hair-on-hide??? I would be afraid of it delaminating with all that bending. I'll bet that frame stitch is touchy for sure!! I would love to see the completed product. Should be very cool.

My dad used to have a bunch of them for his golf bags. I remembered taking one and bopping my brother over the head with it one day when he was being a jerk. That was fun! So I googled it and there they were! Looks like they haven't changed a bit either.

+1 Servo motor and speed reducer if you sew through heavy material to maintain higher torque. When I put a servo motor on my Juki 1541, which is the same class as your 206RB, it was like my life became blessed! LOL!

Joshua... That belt is going to rock bug time! How do you plan to doing the fastening of the inlay and the frame? I mean how are you planning to stitch the frame and stitch the inlay?

Ed... For this kind of thing and no splitter, I like the drill press drum sander but you haven't got the drill press so try this. http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/disp...temnumber=97181 You can use the top where it curves round just like a drum sander. Heck it might even work better. For $80 it's a steal. I may go over and get one myself.

I have a Barry King 16 oz. angled maul for stamping and it's the cat's meow. I am going to get a big 64 oz. for cutting belt ends in the next couple of weeks. Great product. My $.02.

Don't golfers use those tubes in their golf bags? Seems to me that my dad used to have a bunch of them for his golf bags. Google "golf bag tubes" and you will find sources.

You won't go wrong with that bad boy! Wonderful machine and the servo definitely kicks it up a notch!! I was sewing a suede patch on the elbow of a 40 year old fringe coat tonight on my 29K60. I was sewing it a stitch at a time using the flywheel because of the nature of the coat and patch. I kept saying to myself when the heck are you gonna pop for $150 and put a servo on this treadle machine??? It sure would have come in handy tonight and made the job a lot easier.

Marlon... I bought a Badger 100 with a 5 gallon tank and a compressor many years ago. It still works as well today as the day I brought it home. I would buy a Badger 150 anytime. I think it's a great product. Get yourself a couple extra needles and make a spray booth. You won't regret that move. If you spray solvents, then remember that you are putting highly flammable material into aerosol dispersion in your shop or house. Many of these solvents have remarkably low flash points. Some can even flash off the flourescents. When they flash, they basically explode into flames. So be EXTREMELY careful about spraying solvents and other flammables. If you do any volume of this, you would need explosion proof lights and explosion proof fan motors... an expensive proposition. Best practice is to only spray water-soluable stuff. If you must spray flammables do so only with LOTS of ventilation and no ignition sources anywhere near your spray booth. Good luck!

Well Troy you made it into the NHL... No Halves Left club. The life insurance actuaries cash you out at age 100 when they basically say that everyone is history. So once you turned 50 you consumed all of your first half and by now have consumed part of your second half. That leaves No Halves Left!! Happy Birthday! Isn't it great getting old!

I know Bill and the staff very well. Just tell them that you know Bree and maybe you will score a discount! Anyway... they are top drawer. I remember after I moved to Buffalo from Chicago, Tandy had a sale on some Buffalo hides. I called Bill and asked him if he would lay them out on the table and select a couple of the best hides for me and ship them up to Buffalo. He readily agreed. I got two absolutely delicious hides... one black and one cordovan. I was also very pleased with some freebies he tossed in out of the goodness of his heart. And he is a darn fine leatherworker!! Check out some of his projects on the walls. I love to show the buffalo hides to customers who come in for sewing work. They are always astounded by how buttery soft those buffalo hides are and how flawless. You can't go wrong making a trip out to Elgin. And remember the Elgin store is not a "store" at all. It is one of the original Leather Factory warehouses. If Tandy sells it, they have it and lots of it. I highly recommend them from first hand experience.

You can't buy a needle for a 29-4 at Walmart. It is the wrong needle. Get the right needle and get it facing the right direction and the machine will pick up the thread. Have faith. These things work despite the most hostile environments and punishment. 29X4 needles are leatherpoints (cutting heads) and 29X3 are round points for fabric. They are readily available on the net. Don't use anything else and expect good or even any results. Machines are very fussy about the needles that they like.

If you are really intent on doing this and can't lay your hands on a splitter, you could take some sandpaper on a drill press sanding drum and sand it off. Best to have a nice gum rubber sandpaper cleaner because you will block up the paper doing that much removal. Plus make sure that you have a good dust collection system because you will kick up a lot of leather dust. But you could certainly take the blanks down to size with a drum sander. Best thing is to ask someone of they will split the blanks for you with a real splitter. Otherwise you can get all the goodies you need at Harbor Freight on the cheap.

Toxic. Great job!