Bree

This may seem obvious but it bears mentioning... make sure that the stitch length regulator nut is not loose. If it is, your stitch length will shorten. That assembly is under a good deal of mechanical strain so make sure to give it a good firm twist to lock it in.

I cheat. A little dab of FabriTac glue to the ends helps keep it under control. Use a medium size needle to pickup the glue and "paint" it in without being visible (like the fly tying trick with clear nail polish). I also lock the stitches 3 back and one forward which gives me a long time before I'm in real trouble. The best stitching is hand stitching but I'm WAY too lazy to do a belt by hand!!! So my Artisan 4000 and a tiny bit of treachery. On the white poly... Steve over at Artisan has been wanting me to use their Natural Linhanyl nylon. He even sent me a spool to test. They are top flight over there at Artisan and I love Steve. But I still like the poly for this kind of project. It looks whiter than white. It wears very well especially if it's outdoors a lot. And it sews beautifully. I don't think there is ALL that much of a difference between the bonded poly and bonded nylon. If Steve had the white Nylon, I might have gone with it and I would feel fine about it. I have about 20 pounds of various color nylon threads in #69 and #92 so it's not like I have anything against nylon. But I do like my white's looking very white. The Natural looks kind of dingy white to me. There are some projects where that may be better than the pure white. And the difference isn't huge. Many folks wouldn't even notice a difference. I know lots of people PREFER the Natural. I just fall on the other side of the fence I guess. I did get some fraying with the 346 poly as well as with the 346 Linhanyl. I think I may have a little microburr on the needle bar thread guide. I'm going to rouge up some thread when I get a chance and run it up and down that guide and smooth it out. I sized down to 277/207 and it solved the fraying problem teporarily.

That's lookin real good Bruce! Should be quite excellent when it's done.

Thanks Kate and all... I don't get to do much leatherwork because of my computer job that is sucking the life out of me. But it has the plus of allowing me to get very nice equipment for when they finally cut me loose and I can do some work!! LOL! I have a couple of surprises in mind for the winter when I hope to have more time available. I can't compete against all these leather experts around here as far as skill goes so I will have to use old age and treachery to make some kind of respectable showing!! Tonight I have to repair a guy's fringed suede coat which has been on a hanger for over 20 years. He roped me in a couple of weeks ago and has now pinned me down to a specific date and time. So I have to figure out how to fix his irregularly torn elbow. And he is going to watch as I do it. Lovely. He is expecting a frankenstein fix. Maybe I can do something a little nicer.

I had some time this weekend so I made up three projects to be given as Xmas presents for friends. One was a matched belt and wristband set; another was a wide belt for someone who wanted a simple brown belt with a fancy buckle, and the last was a replacement belt for my friend Liz's blingy spotted Harley Belt that broke at the buckle sending her into a tizzy. For the first, I had some old Nature Tand leather that I cut into straps then I sanded down the fuzzies on a drill press drum sander. The brown belt got some water-based dye and Super Shene. The edges got burnished and Edge Koted. I took this buckle with an agate in the center and coupled it with the simple brown belt as requested! LOL! The second... belt/wristband set... got a triple oiled & rubbed finish and was stitched with 277/207 poly. The belt hardware is a stainless steel roller buckle with Chicago screws. The wristband has 2 line 24 snaps. I gave them a light wax burnish with the Sampson burnisher to smooth out the fuzzies on the edge. I didn't put any edge coating on because I wanted it more natural. Liz's belt was made from some utility side I had lying around. I used my Heritage Spot Setter (for the first time) to bling it up and put some segma snaps on to hold in the keeper et voila! No finish was needed. I hope the recipients will like them. Liz got her's last night at our Christmas party and she was thrilled cuz she loved her old broken blingy belt so much. Now she has a solid replacement. The new belt wasn't really all that good technically but then beggars can't be choosers. The spots were larger and the leather was much more substantial so she is a very happy camper! I did enjoy getting a chance to fool around making these projects!

Excellent advice. Let me add one more thing... Don't project your own income and lifestyle into your marketing plan. Never be afraid to upgrade. It is very easy to view the world in economic terms befitting your own life and circumstances. Remember that there are people out there whose perception of value and a fair price are radically different than our own. Don't fence yourself out of those markets by assuming that everyone thinks and feels as you do. I see so many extraordinary pieces of artisanship and craft here. I often wonder how many of these things are being sold for way way less than they could or should have netted. Think above your own station. It usually pays handsomely. Life is too short for cheap leather!!

Metric??? What the heck is that? We don't need no metric in Buffalo!! 100% inches, feet, yards, miles, ounces, pounds, tons and all the other wonderful measurement types of the system I was born with in the good old USA.

Bob's suggestion is a good one. I have a couple of buffalo hides and they won't burnish for love nor money. I suppose it's the tannage but it sounds like your buffalo is similar to mine. Binding is a good professional solution and fairly easy to implement. Another possibility is some piping which will help hide the unburnished edge of the buffalo. Also fairly easy to implement.

Yep it's a sweet piece of machinery. Mine takes up half the sewing room!! LOL! The thing is a monster.

I have drivers and anvils for round spots in 1/4", 3/16" and 1/2". I suspect that the anvils would work for similar setters designed for pyramids just the driver and housing would have to change. I have a Heritage foot pedal setter I got from Weaver Leather. I think it is similar to your model. I am not an expert in this machinery so I am just not really sure.

Simply superior work Bob.

I have a 4000-LA25. You might consider this longer arm model. That 25" arm is well worth the relatively small extra $$$ especially if you sew big stuff. It takes a little getting used to because the arm is so long but it gives you capacity to do jobs that others simply can't do or would have a very hard time doing.

More incredible work. Just beautiful.

That's heavy duty to be sure! Great work!

Lookin good I stand by my guess that it is a case to hold quilting supplies.

I was thinking about the times when you need an oblong slot of some odd size that you will probably never ever will need again. It is so much easier and cheaper to just punch and chisel it than ordering a new oblong, waiting for it to be delivered, honing it up, and punching one or two holes.

Take the thread out of the needle and run the machine for 10 to 20 mins. You should force out the excess oil. Just wipe it up and you should be good to go with no damage to any more leather. It might take a little less time or a little more depending on how much you over oiled it. You won't hurt the machine one bit by running it.

First class work. Really nice.

Clever idea!

Airbrushing any solvent-based dye can affect health from breathing stuff that your lungs don't like. It can also affect life by causing explosions if you get enough solvent mist and an ignition source! Spray booths used for spraying solvent-based paints and the like must have explosion proof motors/lights etc. It's a good idea to spray any solvent-based stuff with lots of ventilation... preferably outside if you can... and certainly not within range of an ignition source.

I have Barge which I get by the gallon at Weaver and a quart of Tandy Tanner's bond lying around as well. I prefer the Barge but can live with either one. I have a gallon of some 3M Contact Cement that I use for laminates in woodworking projects but I have never tried it on leather because it is blue. That scares me a little. It does a great job of holding down that laminate!

Wow... Bobocat and Hidepounder talking shop together... two of the best leatherworkers I have ever seen. It's thrilling just to read this little thread!! I love this place. It makes you want to grab some leather and start cutting and pounding away to see if you can even get close to these guys!!

Snakewood is just about the densest, hardest wood on the planet. Others are African Blackwood, Lignum Vitae, Ebony, Ironwood, Ipe etc. The burnishing action has little effect on such hard dense woods. You certainly don't want the wood splintering and sending slivers into your leather or you!

Ryano... Can you machine a driver/anvil for pyramid spots??? Those are kind of hard to find.

+1 Bobocat!