RockyAussie

Thanks @ljk .....pure genius. Re the needle plate I am thinking it should be possible to just go with a full teflon or nylon perhaps. The grab screw could use a little lock nut and maybe an Allen head do you think? I love the concept and would really like to see it on video. If you took it a little further it should be possible to make the screw adjustable for stitch length adjustment as well. Move and lock. I think as is would be very useful to have all the same.

I knew there was some reason I was following you. Is it possible you could share a pic of this mod? Thanks Brian

@Carrie88 The price is not listed as far as I can see but at any rate I am not a fan of having a skiving machine without an aspirator ( a suction device that helps with the waste extraction). If you are only doing firmer veg stuff it may be alright but for the softer leathers it can be a lot of trouble. Peter Jackson at WMc Jackson is the Australian agent for Fortuna machines and may have something there - http://www.wmcjackson.com.au/www/home/ PM me if you want to phone me to discuss more.

Regarding the sealant put over the soot directly .....I tried several with no success. Any painting requires a good base to adhere to and soot just aint one of them. It just keeps soaking it up and up. What you could try is clean it out and use one of the antique lacquers to replace the dark area you want. Then go ahead with a sealer to finish it off.

For cutting the masking tape using a diode laser I have used the blue 3M painters tape. Here's a link showing it in use -

The 3200 is still a fairly heavy weight machine and in my opinion I would not want to use it for anything under 5oz (2mm). The leather point needle range does not go very small is just one of the issues. Getting the thread knot to be hidden on thin leather is not possible with thin leather and thick thread. I cant say what problems the Juki 341 had that you looked at but it should of had no problem handling that stitch job. Check this machine at Solar out http://www.solar-leather.com/cowboy-cb341 There is a lot of videos out there that show this machine in action. ANYBODY with a 3200 thinks different to what I said above please say so.

Looks good to me and thanks for sharing.

That would be true as well as I keep in a small room with the door closed to keep the temp up. It helps it all connect together better I reckon. I never use any tape or hairspray or any other junk that I have to waste time cleaning up so for me the fastest way is what I do. A bigger platform would be great to get more on in the one print and Ultimaker bowden style that cuts out the need for any x + y base movement and ...and ... one day maybe

For the PLA+ I use 65 degrees C and run the first layer a bit slower to get maximum adhesion and avoid any edge lifting. Aside from not wanting to get any rounding off of the edges when I take off the job or also don't want to upset my bed levelling by forcing it.

Last time I checked was years ago and it was cheaper for me to make them from pipe and dress them up on my lathe. In Australia some things like this can fall into the "specialist" type thing with a Fspecialist price tag. May be different in the USA/Canada? Here you go buy a colour printer for less than the cost to fill it with ink next time. With the heated bed it can take 10 or 15 minutes to cool down enough to get the print job off of the plate so the fan speeds this up to about 1 minute. I just turn it on when the bell that lets me know its finished goes off. If I was truly a bit smarter I would set it up so that the fan switched on when the bell goes off.

Still is I reckon but as the 38mm spacers cost $1.03c au to print including the electricity cost and the fact I can be working on something else as it does it comes into it as well.

I can't say for sure as I have only ever used DXF and PLT - 2 dimensional drawings and images that get converted by the T2 Laser program to G code. The Z adjustment has only come into use for depth of cutting so far.

This is the latest 3D project I am working on that shows the advantage of being able to print spacers for strap cutting work to the exact size width and all the same. Recently I decided to make up a 22mm width spacer for some dress belt fillers in order to not have to muck about measuring up various width spacers every time I wanted to do it. As it worked so well I decided to do myself a heap of 38mm spacers for my strap cutter as well. Previously I have had to cut pipe to length and lathe the ends up and try and get them all the same width. The side wall thickness of the pipe was a little thinner than I would have liked and with the printed version that enabled me to give plenty of side wall thickness at the blade and still allow plenty of clearance in the middle. The pictures should tell the story better than me I think - This is the 22mm spacer as printed These 2 pics show it in use This picture shows all of the 38mm spacers in place and note the differance in the side wall thickness of the old as against the new one. I have an order to do around 1200 of the 38mm width straps to do at the moment so as soon as I get through them I will let you know if any problems develop. Merry Christmas to you all Brian

I believe that the 26 would be the best in this case. It can also go up to a 207 thread and 138 bobbin I believe. The smaller shaped in cylinder end will be a lot better for getting into the tight gusset areas and the shorter needle length will lead to a more consistent tidy stitch on anything under 1/4" 15oz.

Thank you for posting those pictures @RemingtonSteel. This can be very helpful when people run into problems like this.

I just found this video by @Uwe that I referred to earlier in this post - Thanks again Uwe.

It would be helpful I think if we could get a couple of other peoples pictures as well to help establish if there are any differences in the set up. It is one part of the machine that I think could have been set up better and as you say it seems there are no good diagrams/pictures that show much in this area. I also took some off of the length of the wedge that opens the tension discs as it opened the discs ridiculously apart and was near impossible to get even a fraction of foot lift without loosening the top thread tension. (Not good when you want to lift a little to get around a corner etc). Works good now but was just another head scratching thing I ran into. I hope I remember to show Jess and Mitchell this the next time they drop in.

I remember having some similar issue with mine when I got it and I cant say for sure what I have is right or not but here are a few pics that may help anyway.

I had to check out the timing templates.........Thanks to @Uwe I still have one stuck onto my big pulley. I would like to recommend that if you a new owner of one of this breed that you check out Uwe's video that goes with these templates. Made mine work a whole lot better.

And it must be a comfort to know that you are not having to deal with some reselling dealer in China going through the Language barrier and the dubious not understanding you theme.

You left your daughter in the Pilbara?

I have to cut in and say that I had the pleasure of meeting face to face Jessica and Mitchell, the new owners of the Cowboy leather machines here in Australia. They are very new to this and I can assure you that they are very eager to learn every thing they can to be knowledgeable about their new business. There was a LOT of note taking and picture taking and discussion on various machinery whilst they were here and I know that if they don't have an answer to help you they are the type of people that would find out from people who know and get back asap. It would take a little time for them to get on their feet but I have no hesitation in recommending them already. They have also left a variable speed sanding burnishing machine for me to check out and I will get back in another post with my findings on that in the near future.

Dammm....I been drinkin that stuff.......I knew it wasn't the beer

Can you take a picture from the back showing the linkage fully down? Could it be just that the chain needs to be a little shorter? Is it just that the foot pedal can not go any further down? Is the bar that separates the upper tension discs hitting the tension disc rod?

Hi jimi, Yes I have seen that one before and it is the style of thing I was thinking about doing except on the big 441 machine and the pressure of this type of work I will need to build in a lot of support structure where possible to take that kind of load. I may end up trying it on an old 69 Adler first I think once I get a servo motor hooked up to it. I do have a few bags that need these handles to do so........