RockyAussie

I am more than glad for you to pick my brain for whatever there is there left to be picked. You can do that here or through pm on here if you like but I don't do the Facebook stuff myself. Maybe FB one day but most of my spare time and interest gets put into this LW site at present. I like that it gives help to many others all over the world and allows for other perspective and useful ideas to be considered at the same time as is shown above.

Most of my wallets are not flat and I like to stitch them fully around....Same with most of my purses ...therefore my reason for preferring the small cylinder arms.

I would recommend to look for a pfaff 335 or clone of or a 69 Adler. The small cylinder cap size come in very handy for the type of tight manoeuvring steps. The Adler 669 is very popular but a little high $$$$$ perhaps - https://www.weaverleathersupply.com/catalog/item-detail/669-180010/adler-669-cylinder-arm-sewing/pr_34772 The Techsew may suit as well - https://www.techsew.com/us/techsew-2600-narrow-cylinder-leather-industrial-sewing-machine.html and there is one in the Cowboy range as well called the 7335

Thanks jimi

I would have to say that for the job your describing here the 18 needle and 69 thread would be fine and the available thread size colours a bigger range as well. If you are doing more thicker and uneven leather layers than going with a bigger needle and thread is recommended as the needle will not deflect as much and give uneven looking back stitching as well as less missed stitches. Congrats on the new machine and I suggest spending a day on practising and getting to know it.

Most welcome and I hope it helps sometime.

Hard to get details for certain but for holster work I think you'll need the class 3 but as the leather point needles go up from size 23 your threads would need to go 138 or larger. for some wallet work that probably won't work. Class 3 =7/8" thickness possible,threads up to 415. Class 26= 1/2" thickness possible, threads go from 45 to 210. (Should cover most of your stuff I think) I cant swear by these details but lets see if I got it wrong.

Hey @jimi can I ask if you ever got any price for the Frobana presser foot wear piece from them or anywhere? I got something like 4 Frobana's here and every one of them needs one.

All I am trying to say is that an attached lining piece will stiffen the lid front and help to stop it from going all curly in use. I don't myself generally get to design for plain leather products (non exotics) and therefore generally have to do full leather linings but that does not escape the need to stiffen the lid section anyway. I will put a few pics below showing how I do the lid flap stiffening normally if that helps. I picked this bag as it has a single magnetic closure in under the brand fitting- Note that the lid in this case must be able to stay stiff enough to take the constant opening and closing over a wide area - Inside showing the closure - Showing the stiffener and foam lining that gets attached to the croc- This one shows on the far right the leather lining that is oversized to start with. It gets glued and attached after the handle is stitched on and then trimmed down afterwards and edge coated. I am only suggesting to attach a liner to the inside of the lid flap on yours. I recommend that this liner be attached so that it is a little tight going across to keep the flap pulling inward very slightly. This can also be done as an inner lid pocket if you prefer.

Excellent improvement I would only think to add a little extra support piece onto the back of the front flap that finishes just short of the top front edge, Next one maybe?

Very well done show piece of both the machines and the operator's quality I believe. I think using a cylinder machine for getting around those rounded corners is a lot easier than using a flat bed but I just hate using flatbeds myself for almost anything except long lines of fabric credit card pockets bottoms and stuff like that.

Probably nothing to do with it but I don't recall ever seeing the screws that hold the head on sticking out like that except for once. That once was where this complete novice believed that this was how you should adjust the needle to be closer to the hook. Amazingly he would not let me show him where the needle should be adjusted from.....

So very well put.

It does work better if the leather has been split or run through a skiver as that tends to make it a little more slippery smooth and less friction going through. I have found that the leather can actually go through and stitch better than a lot of the tapes they make and can accept the inward curves better due to the leather being able to stretch more. JeannieH has a skiver If I remember so that should not be much of an issue.

Can I assume that the gusset is done in one piece? I suspect so by the rounding at the corners at the base. There is an easy design change that can make that work a lot easier if you are interested, I can put in a couple of pictures with some description if you like. The other thing is what foot and needle plate combination did you use? I am guessing that you don't have a narrow feed dog /needle plate set and that you may have used the narrow slotted needle plate without feed dog and perhaps a left back foot.....or? A picture would be great if possible.

Do you mean 2500 or 3200 Cowboy? Very nice tooling and colour but as you said the stitching is not so good. I am curious as to whether you had no guide or just what gave you this problem. I do very much like the tooling as I said but if I can help with the sewing part with any tips I would if I knew which machine you are using. P.S> I am only 62 yr as well though.

Exactly. I will add that it should always be advised to ask for their artwork to be in black and white as well. Some multicoloured logo's take a lot of time to work out how to separate the sections without losing anything in the process.

Simple really .....to me anyways. Those ads at the top are one of the reasons that Joanna the owner of this site is able to let thousands of people including myself and JLS to come and get whatever it is we get out of coming and posting on here. Some have over the years been privileged to do this thousands of times and for this I have to thank Joanna, Wiz and Nortmount in particular. What a job having to keep an eye open for any that may want to tear this all down and post stuff for all the world to see when ever they sleep or are otherwise distracted. Their tolerance for this is way beyond my own and a good reason why I would never make a suitable moderator. Because I am a follower I have seen one section of this thread deleted already and that was a disgraceful rant I must say. It is still in my notification emails. To put this another way ....A person comes to dinner whenever they like have a feed and say whatever at no cost and then feel the right to poo on the dining room floor right next to their chair, cause the toilet is tooo far down the hallway and is painted the wrong colour. That's alright though cause they are important. Normally I wont touch anything political or religious and other stuff like that but when you talk about stuffing up one of the few things in life I enjoy along with others I will bite. If you want to go off and start your own website and rant.... go ahead and I would be interested to see how you handle it when your members go about destroying it.

This is how I normally go about it. Customer sends their logo design to me in high res. As this stamp to be made has to go on 1 or more products I put the outline into corel draw and make the stamp size down to suit. This often has to have some modifications and wording added as well. I send this art work for them to agree on and request any changes they may want. All up I know that the stamp is going to cost me something like $65.00 au to be made so I round the customer cost to $100 or $120 which is a separated cost to them. They get 10 pieces or a hundred pieces is their business and I don't have to do any more factoring in. In over 25 years and many hundreds of stamps I have only ever had one customer ask me for their stamp. Most times you are left to hold stock of the leather,thread, zips, fittings and such so for them to fully cover the cost of their own logo is more than fair.

How bout posting some pictures of it and any details. I know someone over there might be interested.

Starting off wise I would go with the 2600 but for the bags eventually the 2750 will be better sometimes but not so much for wallets. If you check my web page you will see a lot of tote bags and such and most of these have been accomplished on a small cylinder arm machine.

If room is an issue why not sell the 3500 and replace it with a machine that can still cover the large end a bit and cover the middle ground as well. As you have Cowboy range the CB 341 might suit better https://www.tolindsewmach.com/cb341.html . I like the tapered cylinder end for getting around those tight areas on wallets and bag gussets and such way more than a dumbed down 3500 with an overlong needle that has no leather point size for the lighter threads. I agree with Wiz on the Techsew 2700 but I would prefer I think the Techsew 2750 for the tighter areas I stated earlier. https://www.techsew.com/us/techsew-2750-pro-cylinder-walking-foot-industrial-sewing-machine.html I would think that you would be able to sell the 3500 here for enough to make the changeover very affordable.

Took me a bit to work that out but in case it helps the lifting rod should be to the right of the main shaft not the left. Good pick up there @JJN

Do a little light sanding along the edge of the needle plate slot. Round it a bit. other than that the right thread tension needle and thread mix should pull everything back into place pretty well. I just use a bone slicker to rub in a bit if needed.

Sometimes I 3D print it sometimes I cut it out in ply or craftwood and sometimes I just cut it out in thick veg and keep adding layers and trimming until I get what I want. Give the leather a wax polish and she's good to go. For measurements from that cut some strips at the same thickness you intend to make it from about 20mm(3/4") wide and use that as a ruler to get your lengths laid over your mould piece.