SolarLeatherMachines

That looks like our CB-6700, our medium duty walking foot machine. A very nice machine, one of my favorites. Very easy to set up and works really well for materials up to 3/8" leather. If you get a nice servo motor and a nice speed reducer, you'll have one very nice leather sewing machine for wallets, dog collars, book covers, and a whole bunch of other things. He probably bought it off ebay from a white label seller, but who knows.

I'm guessing here, but they probably mean Ticket 40, which would make it size 69 thread.

Exactly. I've often heard from customers "I get a veteran's discount, right?" Well, I'm a veteran, too, (Marines) does that mean I get to RAISE the price?

I think a previous poster mentioned that the S point allows the hole to close very quickly. That, combined with the black cowboy thread, which is very stiff, is probably causing the issue. If you can try a softer style of thread on the bottom, that might do it....and it wouldn't hurt to use the recommended needle.

Agree 100% with this. For my own experience, there are only two ways to make good money on holsters: Make real ART or Mass Produce. Anything in the middle is just playing around. For ART, you need to be pushing the limits of your abilities, and doing it in a way that appeals to others. You have to think like an ARTIST, and not a Leatherworker. When you do enough of them, and you do it well enough, you'll have a line of guys waiting to pay $500 for a tooled holster to put their $3K weapon in. For Mass Production, this is where you drop all pretense of artistry and focus on throughput and acceptable quality. If you get the right machines (sewing, clicker, molding press, etc) your throughput will skyrocket, and you can start selling good quality holsters at a competitive price. BUT THATS NOT ENOUGH. In order to differentiate yourself from the 10,000 competitors in BRIC countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China) & Mexico, you'll need to add MASS CUSTOMIZATION. That is, add simple designs and artwork that is easy to do, looks good, and makes a premium. With a press and an engraving stamp, you can do this for another 15 minutes work. Example: make a simple brown holster? meh. Maybe $80. Take that same brown holster, airbrush the edges with "fade to black", stamp a "Come & Take It" logo on it, fill in the logo with green paint? $160. for about 15 min extra work. (3 min in press, 30 secs airbrush, 10 min paint, 1 min saddle lac, 30 secs sipping bourbon). There are several companies doing this now for lots of different products. Welders aprons, welders collars, chaps, holsters, sheaths, etc. If you'll look around, you'll see exactly what I'm saying.

Can't see anything in those pics, especially with black thread. Was thinking about it this morning. Are you still using the S point?

Type of thread?

Go here and watch the video on performing a timing check. http://www.solar-leather.com/supporthelp/

What kind of lube are you using?

Where are you located?

Hi guys. If you're looking for the Cowboy User Guides and Assembly Guides, I make them freely available here: http://www.solar-leather.com/supporthelp/ There are also several videos covering random things. I try to cover as much information as I can but haven't had time to make videos for every issue. If you have video requests (be polite!) I'll see if I can get to it.

No reason you couldn't, but you'd probably want a lighter liner. Another good solution for nice, dark, synthetic materials is Men's suit materials. We have several fabric shops here in Dallas, and they often have 3-4yd remnants of high quality polyester suiting material. When I was making bags for a living, I used this type of stuff a lot. It's the right weight, comes in a nice pattern and is super inexpensive.

That's super nice. Really like it. The stitching is even and consistent. Great job!

"Really slick" is the operating term. We see this a lot with new machines and poly thread. Our solution is to take the discs off and run the inside of the disc surface against 600 grit paper. Seems to fix it.

Hard data is notoriously hard to come by from people who manufacture and sell thread. They don't want you comparing apples to apples. When I started looking at threads, I asked manufacturers about shelf life and tensile strength. I didn't want my inventory dying on the shelf. What I got back was really unclear. So I started looking. Most of the data is related to heat aging. I couldn't understand it until I walked into the warehouse, where it was 95 deg with the AC on. Then I realized that most of the thread warehouses in Texas are in a metal building with no AC, and the temps at the top could reach over 130 deg. That type of long term heating would seriously age most plastics. And who knows how long those spools have been there. So, I seriously doubt polyester is "going to last a 1000 years". Especially considering that microbes like to eat both natural and synthetic thread. Let's get some science involved: I just picked up this one, and am learning a lot: Quality Assurance for Textiles and Apparel 2nd Edition https://www.abebooks.com/products/isbn/9781563675546 It's a little dry, but very informative. NC State has a textile college, and they do a lot of testing. Here's a generic search on papers related to thread: http://ojs.cnr.ncsu.edu/index.php/JTATM/search/results Lots of great hard data there. And it's probably worth sending an email to ask about shelf life. I may do that. Google also has a "scholar" section that does a great search of articles and patents. https://scholar.google.com/scholar?start=10&q=polyester+thread+tensile+age&hl=en&as_sdt=1,44&as_vis=1

Need the type of machine and need a pic. But if the needle is causing the jam, I would not hesitate to get a dremel with a cut off wheel and cut through the needle. Just be sure to leave a good stub to get ahold of the needle shaft still in the machine. If it helps, Home Depot carries the Dremel 3000 for $60 or so, and it comes with a small cut-off wheel that is perfect for the job.

Here's a link to our support and help page for Cowboy machines. I try to make a new video every time a problem pops up. That way we ALL get better. http://www.solar-leather.com/supporthelp/ There are also vids for the CB-4500 and the CB-3200.

Hi Melonie. No there's not. Having said that, once it's on, you shouldn't have to touch it again, unless you want to move the head.

Hi Melonie. I built your machine. Ryan Neel and I often cover for each other when we're taking some time off. Please don't mess with the bottom tension yet. Give me a quick call at 817-422-9151.

All thread has a shelf life, especially if exposed to UV for any length of time(shop lights can give off UV, too). As a rule of thumb, we throw out any nylon over two years old, and any polyester over 5 years old. Polyester is much more resistant to UV than nylon, but it will age, too. About 1 in 10 customers that have problems with thread breaking that seem to be because they bought a bunch of cheap thread years ago, and it's been aging on their shelf ever since, getting ever more brittle.

Dude, I'm IN Texas. Just outside of Dallas.

Those are ticket sizes. The comparable Tex size that most are used to are 380, 500, 750, 1030. I don't keep any on hand. That's what I'm saying...that I'm considering doing so, but am trying to gauge interest. There's no point if it's only 2 guys. A case of this stuff is not cheap, and thread does have a shelf life.

That's about right. Amann-USA doesn't carry much large threads, so many times it's a custom order from Germany. I'm considering ordering a few lots, but I'd like to see who is interested here first. For what it's worth, it comes in several sizes. For hand sewing, I think Tex 750 or Tex 1030 would work best.

http://www.livescience.com/55267-why-does-oil-go-rancid.html

The nice thing about this machine, and I'm sure others will agree is that most of the parts can be machined on a standard mill. I didn't pick it up to re-sell, because I don't normally handle used machines (no, really, I don't sell used machines). I picked it up because it's an engineer's dream: it's got cams, and springs, and levers and it's like something out of a '40's textbook, and I wanted to learn about it. The previous owner though it was completely rusted. Turns out, he had been using heavily waxed thread, and the machine was covered in wax that looked like rust. Once I hot dipped everything, it came out looking awesome. I think foot lift was about 1" and it's a true square stitcher. If you go to my facebook page and check out the videos, I took a video about halfway through the refurb and another when it was completed and sewing. https://www.facebook.com/SolarLeather/ Just search through the videos and you'll find them.