RockyAussie

Try not putting in the cut slots on the french edge method. Takes some practice to not do the first stitch too tight in the corners but where it seems like it is buckling down from the tightness, after the second stitching is done it will normally flatten out fine. Your second method looks good on the straight but I can't say how it will go on the curves.

If you can buy it at all (very rare) It would be around $26 au. a cm which is measured across the belly width taken at the 3rd scoot down from the front legs. A good second grade will be around $1000au ish. I mostly make the products from skins supplied by the $$$$$$ people. Most own the crocodile farms and sell me a little occasionally for goodwill I guess.

Yes they are. The thread runs around them 1 and 1/2 times and the barrel thing in the middle is restrained by a flat felt or leather washers on either side of it. The more the tension spring on it is tightened the harder it is for the barrel to spin. It used to be a common method of applying tension on the older machines before the came up with the more common modern tension discs.

This video should be of help here I reckon -

Yes ...until it hits the stopper every time. I would consider opening up a slot in the middle foot (shown below) as you can see better and it makes the threading a whole lot easier.

I get that a lot with croc. See picture. If you get a table top and hold down firmly with one hand are reef sideways several times working your way along the length it should come good. If needed break the grain some by running through your hands so that the top and bottom are being stretched at the same time.

In your picture above showing the thread check spring the stopper is set to the top and it should be way lower. You have found that out but have a look and make sure the the thread check spring is not rubbing against the cover as that can act to stop the proper and full travel. You may need to get in and make sure its clearing and it may need to be positioned to be tighter as well. There is a nut inside the cover to reposition the tension if I remember correctly. You undo turn the tension shaft stud and do the nut back up.

Well .....Happy birthday If it is unrealistic to get the table and motor from the same place I would consider using a sewing machine table and servo motor. Don't know where you are so can't suggest anywhere

I would be happy to. I will get back to you on Monday after I get a chance to look into the mailing costs etc.

Nice fix @Matt S and the belts look great

Here is a squatters chair if anyone was wondering.. https://www.ebay.com.au/i/283544519004?chn=ps&norover=1&mkevt=1&mkrid=705-139619-5960-0&mkcid=2&itemid=283544519004&targetid=468509333029&device=c&adtype=pla&googleloc=9069152&poi=&campaignid=1793098973&adgroupid=74958854328&rlsatarget=pla-468509333029&abcId=1139236&merchantid=9840422&gclid=Cj0KCQjwjrvpBRC0ARIsAFrFuV-fbbcrVgWzUo1fb1-U1AgrrYQQI6EvBhryE6gNBGZPaRV8RK_mOGMaAmM9EALw_wcB A better example maybe ...http://www.woodreview.com.au/student-entries-2016/squatters-chair

They would be easily strong enough for that and makes me think of a chair that we over here call a squatters chair. The back and seat are all one and can be reclined back and have a sort of fold out footrest. I like it but again not my market. That sounds like a great idea. I am 5minutes south of the Caves just off the highway. Give me a message when your about to leave and I will pm you an exact location if you need it. Now is that a bit of the Irish in ya ....or just the R next to the T on yoo keyboard..I'm a bit closer to the Caves pub myself......just over 2 k North. A metric tonne of bookmarks at least and more than any library could use I reckon. I don't know about any local groups but I am sure there are some. I will chase that down after Christmas if no members here can make use of them first.

Yea I like the idea but I already have orders going back over a year now and I was thinking that someone wanting to get a cheap start off might be able to make use of it. I could supply maybe 500 a month and I have a few thousand here all ready. They do weave together and look not too bad as well. I have not seen that before but maybe Why smaller strips? They are just over 1 1/2" wide. I could strip them in half but that makes for twice as much weaving I was tempted to make up a wooden rectangle out of some 3x2 and staple the strips across to make a weave then cover the top with a thinner piece of wood strip around the edges, Pop a few 6" legs in the inner corners and you have a flash looking dog bed. For anyone into doin dog collars it could be a good addition to the range. Thanks mate I will check them out. You know Townsville is only a 8 hour drive away.........if you are coming through sometime drop in for a chat and a coffee.

Thanks @chrisash. I'm not sure if there is much around here in Rocky but I might contact the Uni here and see.

I HATE waste but I am running out of ideas on how to use up enough of this left over split leather for belt backing. I use quite a lot up in fillers for my dress belts for which they are most excellent but I have now thousands of these strips and they will have to be dumped if nobody wants them. This last lot of 787 I just finished is 40mm wide by average 2mm thick. It could be used for making up door mats or dog beds if you dabble with wood making as well, but both of these are out of my normal marketing areas. I could re cut to a preferred size if wanted for very little $ Or split thinner as well This is my next lot of dress belt fillers I am working on at the moment (tutorial in progress) Here they are shown attached to the backings This is where some of the last lot are used (Wife's idea)..... I am running out of tractor tyres HELP (THIS IS NOT FUNNY) Brian

I have bought a few things from them including a lot of stuff for building my laser and found them alright. If there is a problem with anything you get make sure you notify them quickly.

Thank you @Tugadude TBH it is people like you that make the sharing so rewarding and easy to do. Nice idea that works well. I can remember doing a similar thing for a hold down on hats.

I think it may help if we knew what country you are in and if possible a picture of the existing bag could motivate a better amount of responses.

Here is another simpler one I just remembered which is more of a friction fit style. As the lid does not get used for lifting the weight the strap only needs to hold itself in place and lock the phone from coming out.

This one I designed awhile back on a prototype but takes up some making time compared to many other fittings. This pic shows where I made up a metal insert for the tab holder This shows it before attaching to the bag front piece Here it is shown attached

It would be interesting to find out more on the drum sander idea. They are rare as rocking horse poo here in Australia and I doubt there would be any for that lower price unless they are fit for parts only. In my experience keeping the leather under some sort of control whilst undergoing the sanding has been very challenging compared to timber. Another factor is trying to keep the job down to a one man operator, meaning not wanting to have a feed out person as well. Another machine I made many years back I still use today uses a rubber V belt to transport the belts as I sand the edges and the belt needs to be rough sandpapered on the run every hour or so of use. If this is not done the belts will shoot through and not get sanded properly on the edges. This one I can use by myself as I am able to reach over and take the belt as I feed another one in. Note at the back there is a rubber roller that sits between the sanding drums and keeps pressure down in order to restrain the belt down onto the V belt. It has a spring that is adjusted down to suit the pressure of the work. This is very little sanding pressure compared to trying to do a whole larger piece of leather. This flasher one below I have been working on does 3 different sanding jobs at the same time but has the disadvantage of being to long for a single operator. It worked well on dress belts edge sanding but the motors were insufficient in the lower rev range for my hornback belt sanding. Further motor testing is now being done. This model I designed so that by turning a wheel on the side I could get the table tops to adjust to the wider and thinner belts with just a simple turn. It will probably be all redesigned to be shorter again to suit a single operator. I will try and load a video or 2 over the next week showing how they operate.

Yes that is how I have the above set up. You still have to have a way to stop it flying through as well though. Another one I have done that suits less wide pieces may be of interest.....

Looks pretty good. How did the edges turn out. Are they tapered or flat? You are still adding a hold in strap yet? Just thinking that I would blunt the tip a little more to avoid in curling from getting knocked about.

Forgive me if I am wrong as it has been many many years since I have used a drum sander on timber. I think that the timber is fed through with rollers at the start and finish of the drum sanding operation. The leather would just bunch up and be shredded as it feeds in I think. On the other hand I remember seeing some sort of a belt sanding operation at the Packers tannery for sanding the back of kangaroo skins that worked something along these lines. I have made up something for sanding the back of the crocodile skins that come in way to thick at times but that only does about 4" across at a time and the skin has to be moved around between the sandpaper and the adjustable pressing guide. It is basically a car wheel with a 5' belt wrapped around it and by inflating the tyre I keep the belt in place. That is built into a bench top attached to a 2 or 3 hp electric motor and a swing down arm that sets the thickness and is held down firmly with large magnets when operating. The magnets stop the bounce chattering you get with springs but with crocodile you get a large amount of variance with the scales and a flatter leather would be a lot easier. Here is a couple of pics that might help the explanation.

I stumbled on this while having a look around on the Campbell Randall web site the other day. http://www.campbell-randall.com/public/index.php/product/fav-1498c-roller-foot-with-30mm-1498-roller If you go back and have a look into the parts section, in this case the FAV parts section there is a large amount of various feet for these skivers. I have a Fav and a Fortuna skiver and have been able to interchange the feet on them so I suspect that this should fit the Cobra as well. There is also an off centre pin that can rotate that holds the feet and that may be handy to have as well. I would give it a try as I think it would work and if so the amount of other variable parts such as the feed rollers and feet could be very handy knowledge to others including sellers on here. There is a member on LW that may be able to assist as well ..... @CampbellRandall