RockyAussie

I just made this video today showing a little demo on the Cowboy 8360 hand operated clicker press which might be worth a look for you. I like it a lot

You may or may not be lucky there. Some of the later clones are coming pre drilled for that these days like this Cowboy one as delivered here in OZ.

No the top and bottom are turned but not skived as I decided to put a filling stiffener in it to avoid the skiving. To assist with the overall shape I printed a 2 piece mould to help get every thing like the zip in the correct place. The 2 pieces go together first to wrap the gusset around and have the zip level up with the mould at the top. Once I remove the top mould section it is then the right height for the zip top to fold down into place. These pics may help- This is just done this way as it was the way I wanted the end product to look like but this camera bag below I did recently was done inside out with piping and turned afterward as @DJole has done above. In this instance I elected to use flexible stiffeners and foam between the lining and outer pieces. being prototypes all the above pieces were cut out with my big/little laser. Cuts better than me and does not stretch longer when I cut with it. After the step above a binder was sewn around the edges to tidy it up then turned inside out. I am sorry to somewhat Hi Jack your post here @DJole and if I can find some more time I will load this stuff into my own separate post. I only intended to suggest that some foam padding and stiffeners may make your product sit a little better.

No it was not. This bag is made by stitching through the outside to inside capturing the gusset in the process. Neither the post machine nor the cylinder machine I used are good for this application so I have ordered a tall post with the feet on the inside to do any more of these. This bag is just a prototype one that has been accepted.

First undo the lock nut then turn anticlockwise to loosen the pressure. This is the foot pressure adjustment screw to turn - If you want to change to a lower pressure spring just screw it right out while you have the feet down. That makes it easier and when you have the screw out, lift the foot lever and you can then grab the spring out easily. This is what the larger and softer springs look like As a general rule I like to back off my foot pressure until I can just lift the feet up with my thumbs. If you get it too loose you will see the job start to lift when the needle comes out and you will then get the thread knot showing up on the underside. Just a tip ...put a couple of drops of oil down into the cup shape part of this screw occasionally to keep the pressure shaft running up and down smoothly.

Well done @DJole. Some times you just have to try it to find out. I am wondering if you have thought about putting in an internal stiffener with foam padding on top glued inside to improve the shape? This is a similar shape bag I have done recently that may help -

So far there have been no issues fitting them up to the other 441 clones and I have sold a couple to other Techsew 5100 owners but as yet I can not say with a 100% certainty as they have either not had a chance to try them yet or they have not had a chance to share back yet their findings. As soon as I get any confirmation I will post it here. R..dall .....would you be so kind to confirm the fit is good when you can?

Yes. What I have done there is folded the fleece back over on itself and stitched it up. In the bottom left in a couple of the pictures above you can see where I have already sewn around on the job. I don't believe it would be possible to cover the fur with baking paper and sew it due the thickness of the pile being more than an inch thick in combination.

This machine might be a good one for you to consider - There are a few more video's on this machine on my youtube channel as well if you want to see more.

That I think is just one more of the reasons that the art of saddlery always leaves me in awe. Sounds good until you realise you can hardly see the thread at all let alone the needle hole somewhere in that hairy mess. In the end it all worked out stitching up better than I could have imagined but after spending hours trying to find anything similar on the youtube etc I was getting pretty convinced it was not going to be possible. Sometimes you just gotta try.

Thanks @DrmCa. That would be interesting to see. I have a machine I bought a long while ago that is for stitching furs but it only stitches through the backs to join the pieces together. People I bought it from mostly made sheepskin rugs and stuff like that. The second picture above shows one of the seams like I am talking about.

For the type of work like this I believe the small mechanical ones are a waste of money. I would keep my eyes open for a good second hand Fortuna or F.A.V. with an attached aspirator (suction device). Hard to get but very easy to sell if you find that you don't want it any more. You will. This is a Techsew with the vacuum suction - https://www.techsew.com/en/catalog/product/view/id/1164/s/techsew-sk-4-leather-skiving-machine-with-vacuum-suction-device/

Good news to hear @BigSiouxSaddlery Just out of interest a couple of months ago I got a job that required the use of some sheepskin to be able to be put onto a wheel electric wheel chair armrest. I never got to take any pictures of it installed on the wheel chair unfortunately but was told that the fitted beautifully. The interesting thing about the job was that I designed it to be stitched with the fleece on both sides of the stitch line. Try as I might I could not find anything online anywhere on how this could be done so I went ahead and just gave it a go. Initially I had trouble with the standard needle plate due to the fleece getting caught up in the gap between the dog foot and needle plate so I switched over to the narrow needle plate set which has a lot smaller clearance for the fleece to get stuck in. That worked better but the the skinny foot kept getting caught up in the top fleece. I found a wider foot for the top and bingo my troubles were fixed. here are a few pictures to show some of it which may help - The armrests to be covered. The sheepskin has to be able to be removed easily for cleaning as well. I found that it was better to use brown thread in order to be able to see where I was stitching as i went. It does not show at all in the finished job. Has anybody seen any examples of stitching done this way before? Do you have any links to share?

Sort of looks like an old paving stone splitter I think.

Thanks for the compliment. Strawboard is just a pliable cardboard I get from a printing supply place over here. It is very similar to your typical cornflakes/cereal cardboard but i can get it various thicknesses. Bontex and Texon board are better except that they are hard to get under 3mm (1/8") over here. Most of the bags made 40+ years back used strawboard for stiffening. Used correctly it holds up fine. I believe you will get yourself a bell skiver one day.. I think you have good talent and are one of the sort of people I like to help if I can.

You are doing really well considering what you are working with. Do you have a bell skiver yet? The biggest suggestion I think I can offer is your foam is too thick. See if you can track a local supplier that can supply Sekisui Foam. I use a fair bit of their Softlon 3002. This is 3mm thick and can be skived or sanded if you want. There are other thicknesses as well. It is a Polyolefin foam. It gives a good soft feel whilst giving a nice amount of stiffening and good memory as well. Here are a few shots of some of the uses we put it to here - Here cutting the 3mm foam Here ready to spray contact glue (on other side) Foam applied and needs to be trimmed up (it has been skived on the edges) Bag sewn together Bag turned right side out and ready for the top edge fold down some bags with the top edge folded Here showing the heavy straw board base which has the bottom feet attached to it and note the ends have a lighter strawboard which has the edges shaped to give the effect we want. This does not get fully glued to the edges on the foam. (different bag to the above pics but same design. Here showing a couple of finished bags in a patchwork crocodile design. Keep up the good work and have fun as well.

Thanks for the wonderful feedback @michaelcbarr.I have to admit that the postage to you was a real puzzle till Jess got it sorted. I know you will love the extra advantages you now have with this set and I am so so happy that you now have them.

AAH HAA yes now I do remember. I have some more of them to do coming up soon......###&!!!!. The other gussets are way easier, especially when the edges don't have to be folded before coming together.

Not sure which ones I posted before, did they look like this|?

Yep ..been there and done that. If you are only doing this on the odd occasion then practice this on some strap scraps, Hold the punch away from you about 45 degrees and push down firmly once you have it in the middle then slowly roll it forward until you can see it looks level keep the pressure down and hit the punch. Practice a bit and it will come right pretty quick.

Welcome back mate....that is some pretty good looking work there I reckon. Happy new year

Been holidaying a bit so sorry for the late answer here Spyros. I will get some pictures together and get back with some info tomorrow. P.S. Can you pm me your number as I am stuffed if I can find it at the moment.

Here are a couple of pictures from the set up up on my Fortuna that may help .... Re the vacuum ...consider just letting it run always when the machine is on. Just put a switch to turn it of or on when you need to sharpen perhaps. The Fortuna and the FAV machine I have have the vacuum always running when the machine is running.

Sorry for the delayed answer mate ...been having a bit of a holiday. I don't see any pics with the broken pin you mention. The clutch should disengage normally when you lift the lever up and it should want to sit in the hollow beneath it. When the clutch is engaged it should look like this pic To disengage it you should only need to push it upward like as shown To engage you just pull the lever forward and push it down ( in this pic note that there is a tab underneath that can be adjusted to hold the lever higher up if needed). Is the pin on the back of your lever missing??? Does is disengage when you hold the lever up??

It all depends on the type of upper and the type of sole you want to remove. In most cases a contact glue solvent (thinners) is all you need and in most cases you just use a suitable brush to activate the glue. Open the sole back a bit with your large nail pullers gently and just work along slowly wiping as you go with the brush. The brush will need to be regularly rewetted. Sometimes a paint stripper gun can be used to gradually apply enough heat to activate the glue and peel back the sole with some suitable nippers. If you could post a picture of the project you want to do this on I could probably give you a better answer. All of this is done using a shoe last stand normally which helps to give you something firm to pull against.