RockyAussie

Sorry to but in at the risk of looking foolish but, when you do watch straps and such the thickness of material variances would make it difficult to rely on back stitching left alone to almost any machine. I mostly work with Porosus crocodile and to have it go wrong at the end would be to much for me to risk. All machines i have, have either a knee lifter or other method of raising the feet between stitches or mid way etc. I always stop with needle in then raise the foot and hand wheel back some stitches. No crossing arms or any problems other than being careful to get the needle back in same holes.

Yes you do. From memory the pin that holds the rocking arm is tapered smaller at the back I remember. When last I did one I was concerned about breaking the main casing driving it out. Get prices on a new pulley and the arm as I got a brand new arm some years ago for only $27.00. If the pulley is cheap enough it would pay to have a nice even slide track for the new roller.

You are very fortunate I believe. Please think to pay him the respect of listing well. As I said before he must like you a lot. May I ask from which country you are? Here in Australia I would think without any training we would be looking at a value of $15,000 to$20,000au.

Sounds to me like the deal of a lifetime and he must like you a lot.

Dam it I would like to have seen the keeper going through. I think that could be an interesting look. As far as I can judge the buttons will be in the way when trimmed back or at least the holes. It is a lot of work as against the keeper through method and it would sure give him room to grow. At the end he wants a keeper and therefor thinks it will work is that not so?Ask Him.

Thanks for the time you went to in your answer. I checked out Peter Nitz and am truly humbled. I wish I had competition close to that here in Australia. So very inspiring.

To me Vacuum forming would be quite easy and therefor the way to go but I think your idea could work depending on the thickness of leather and detail you wish to achieve. If you would need to repeat the casting often I would try putting it face down into some really spongy soft leather of the desired thickness into a render mix of sorts. (maybe sand loam + cement about 5 to 1) Once set seal the render mix and then you have a M+F mold so to speak.

Hi Dusk, Just found your post and would like to say welcome to this forum. If you get over the East side sometime up about Rocky give me a call. I would enjoy swapping notes on the 3d printing and how it has been so useful in my current leather working buis.

To picture the solution is probably the only way I guess. I am at the end not good with words. I hunted around until I found this old prototype. As you see when you pull the handle out it puts a lot of tension on the thread and handle. By putting a leather cover over it it makes it a lot harder to pull away from the bag. In the yellow cardboard pattern the red line shows the finished size about of the reinforcing piece. Once put on it makes it also a lot easier to attach and sew to bag. As you can see by the other 2 pics of some croc bags, they sell for many thousands of dollars and it takes a lot of time to fix if you don't do it well, let alone your reputation. Hope that help in answering your question. Nearly forgot, The pink piece is a plastic piece which I cut out of the covers like the black one underneath it. It is a folder for holding A4 sheets in plastic sleeves from office supplies. Inserted between the lid layers it allows the lid to spring back into shape without any creases and wrinkles. It works brilliantly in these type of flip open and shut lids.

Thanks Alex I have tried similar to what you say here, but I do notice that when humidity is high and then temperature is cool it seems to work better (Longer to dry). Trouble here in Central Queensland Oz the weather is quite the opposite. The best I have found to date is OMAC LUX semi matt black OM 357556. But this seems to be only in the black. I think the other Omac semi dense edge paints are just rebranded Giardini. The Omac Lux black I think is a rebranded Kenda Faben Orly SL opaco and as I said behaves way better. I would like to be able to buy max of 5 liters at a time of other colours but have had no luck so far in Australia. As you see by the pics I need a wide variety of colours. Thank you again for your answer and I hope to be able to reciprocate some help in time.

Hi again Alex, I have not tried the black but my trials with other colours showed a tendency to split line up the middle. I usually like to finish with a final application of the colour. Normal procedure I use is fine rounded sanding 80 Rubberized grindstone where possible followed by 1 or more coats,light sand if needed then ironed in followed by finish paint. Splitting at this point is ####T. At this stage I still resort to mixing all my colours myself but the pigment I use to mix with was in 1 liter bottles and now I have to buy 20 liters at a time. They mostly supply tanneries. I've tried light sanding and scotch brite grey and it still splits.Have you found this problem and have any solutions? Checked your instagram and thought you may find this prototype bag I did a while back interesting. The black croc one is the one now in production and the fitting I designed and had made in Japan.

Hi Alex, Love the turtle but is it not amazing how just 4 stitches almost completely changed the look on the Birkin clutch? Not bad on the edging either. May I ask what brand edging? Regards Brian

Get a piece of leather the same thickness/substance about 1" wide and bring it over about 1/4" or more if the cover board is very thick, at the front and over the spine and mark it about 1/4" past on the back side. This gives you a leather ruller which just remember not to pull to tightly when going around. Alow similiar on the top and bottom and stitch in about 2.5 to 3mm in. Thats the best way I've found.

Very very nice for a first serious work. One thing I learnt to do and I'm not sure in the end you didn't, is where the handles attach to the bag to put a leather piece right to the edges over the inside part covering the cord area. When the handles in time drape downward they start to open up and pull the stitching open. With the leather cover piece the pressure is highly more resistant to folding back. Arn"t they fun to stitch? Hope that you find this useful.

Just found a pic of my attachment method. Note with this method you can run the straps either way over the handlebars or around the forks etc. I wish you the best of luck and please feel free to ask when your ready. Regards Brain

Lot more tricky. I will try to explain. The main barrel part of bag is about 12mm longer before folding. This is skived from 12 or 13 down to near 0. I built up some 100 drain pipe with some 3mm leather to get the internal dimension I wanted. This barrel mold is about 10 or so each end (20 in total) shorter than the finished bag length. Cut out some 2 or 3mm mm veg about same as the pipe diameter and then cut out the lining leather about 24mm diameter larger. Glue the veg into the middle of that. Sink this into end and glue in place. Then fold the outer bag ends over and in. You should then have a hole about 10mm deep. This gives room to get over the sewing machine end assuming you have a cylinder machine.Sew this around and then.... I found the prototype and here some pics may be better. That is an 8 or 10 mm eva rubber with design over top and glued in. Hope this helps. Regards Brian

Hi Gigi No special attachment. The lid is done with a french edge. The best way I find is get a long strip of supple leather and skive the start off 1/2" or so and free hand hold it against the guide both the lid and the binding and stitch it around. Finish stitching 1 or 2 inches short take out and trim of level with the first skive and then skive that piece similar to the first skive. Contact glue these 2 pieces together and proceed to finish the stitch line. Put some contact only over the stitch line and and when tacked off pull the leather out and over the edge and tap into shape a bit in corners if needed. Another line of contact in about 4mm or so from under edge, stick down when tacked off and then proceed to do the next stitch line tight against the edge of the binder. The thread is a polyamide multifilament thread called strongbond size 20. The lining is an upholstery type made for car seats I source from New South Wales Leather Co here in Australia. We use it a bit for soft tote bags and like. Hope that this helps and just ask if you need more. Regards Brian

Have you had luck on this yet? I may be able to help if not.

Hi Trox, I only have a comoga and an old albeko so maybe not much help. I like my albeko as the waste comes out the front and therefore makes it easier to dispose of. I tried finding on line some info on the Fortuna 121 and came up dry. Would you post a pic or 2 of it sometime? I have done many modifications to mine over time and would be happy to swap notes anytime. Brian

Not sure if this will help but this was my solution for something similar. You could replace the catches with a M+F magnet fitting and that may do. This tool bag I designed for a friend who is a Barrister and the design on the end is my idea of the scales of justice and the handlebars with the long road ahead. Really it was for his sunglasses etc like a glove box. Best of luck and look forward to seeing the rest of your nice work. Regards Brian

You said cafe racer seats. You will find high quality weatherproof leather out there that is not a problem. The problem is that a vinyl seat in my experience offers way better grip and wear. I did it once and first fast pull up I thought I was a gonna be a unich. I have refused to do them ever after. If you hate someone armor all his bike seat.

Just found this not great pic in my files but it may help

The technique I worked out goes like so. Rough sandpaper followed by Light sandpaper and so on until fairly smooth. Luckily I have some pretty good and fast sanding machines.Then with a 6" rag wheel in a good size bench grinder I polish with Tripoli wax until I am happy. When I make leather or croc hairbars I usually use a tapered cow horn stick about 1/4 round about5" long. Hope this helps Regards Brian

Before going into leather goods manufacturing I was in the buis of shoe repairs.On our finisher machines (sands and polishes) they came with an attachment for burnishing in the edges of soles.They are made from steel and worked pretty well. As i have a lathe I made up one in Brass the sizes I was chasing and at first it was no good. I went back and looked at the big old steel ones and saw that there needs to be some small flats filed in to the circle to make it hammer a bit or hold the resin or polish. It then worked fine.The brass I used is about 1+1/4" dia and the 4 flats are about 2mm deep evenly opposite of course. I think most decent shoe repair shops would have one to check out If you need pics let me know. Regards Brian

Hi HVLW, I don,t know if I can be much help here but for what it is worth I will try. It would help if you could show a picture of the reversible belts you are trying to stitch.I make a lot of 30mm dress belts. Unfortunately i mostly work in mm but my reckoning says that 2oz is less than 1mm and thus your combined edge thickness is less than 2mm. When you say a lining size (I would call filler) is 18mm at about 2 to 2.5mm thick I would say you are going to have a very thin edge with a quite thick filler. My fillers would be 22mm by 1.5mm thick normally. I would think you would have to have an edge thickness no less than 2.5mm to take thread around 20 (138). At any rate mostly I use machines that have a roller on the left preferably a feeding or live roller. Trouble is getting a machine that has a bobbin big enough for using that thickness thread as I only get 6 to 8 belts per bobbin on a 40thread with my Adler 268VG post or Pfaff 331-33 cylinder (not a walking foot)but similar to the 335. I make a lot of wallets also and and for the refined work I have more luck with the Pfaff331-33 than I do with the 335. Mostly the advantage with the lazy foot dragging foot or whatever you want to call it, I can grind the feet thinner on the right side to get the guide closer to the needle or grind upward etc if i want on offset rise lift etc. Although I have gone to the trouble to make my own feet from scratch many a time I have found buying a few of the common feet and just grinding away at them works most of the time. (Finish them off with the metal polish and rag wheel when done) By the way I do all my edging before stitching and thus have no movement problems. I am hoping that some others with good experience like Wizcrafts or Gottaknow can be of better hel[p than I. Best of luck Regards Brian