RockyAussie

Your welcome, I had to look up Macaroons and they do look similar but I think they would taste much better. Certain aisles I am not allowed in on the rare occasion I go shopping with the missus. If only I could just wiggle my nose and there they be I would be so happy. As for genius my wife is still laughing and I do gotta admit I should have done a couple of more samples before starting this run. I agreed to do a rush one for today for a wedding this weekend. NOT GENIUS. I got it done alright as promised but found I had to come up with another tool to expedite the velvet application to the foam process. That is the pictures I will load next. Thank you Bob. I think I will have to tidy this post up a bit and redo it. I might think about doing a video on one if a few people think so as well. The following 9 pictures are limited to how I do the velvet and foam parts. This above shows a knife that I had made for doing the cutting of the foam. This could be done with just a hole punch and cutting through with a knife later as I did on my prototypes. Note here in the close up I used two foams that I glued together and then covered with this white fabric. This was necessary to get the right depth and the fabric is because the green shade of the foam showed through on some lighter coloured velvets. This picture shows the velvets pre cut now and the cardboard rings to hold the foam in shape in the bucket behind. This shows a few of the stages of the foam being attached to the fabric. Just a thin glue line in the middle as yet. Here are some now glued and pressed into shape. The three on the left are contact glued and drying off ready to get to the next stage This one shows the new ring I did that helps the pressing into shape. As you see when it presses down it nicely contains and shapes the velvet. That's this part finished ready to be inserted later as seen in the following box I did today. Yes it had to be monogrammed as well. More on Friday. Brian

Thanks Darren, I would be good to see what they looked like but I have not had any luck finding any pictures. I will advise how the one's I've ordered from Uwe go when I receive them. All else failing I may think about getting some cast if a few here want to notify if they are interested. The site shows over 400 views so far on this post so I guess it may be possible. I think I will be wanting another set as I often chop and grind these things up to suit whatever the job needs. Regards Brian

Very nice work. The edging looks good and the stitching and even the covering of the snap.

At this stage I decided to test a couple and make sure it works alright. Better than making 88 wrong and find out. Glued up and ready to attach Leather fits in Ok Guiding ring placed Cup pushed in but was very tight Took way too long to get guiding ring out and off. Note that the soft leather has crept up over the ring in the middle. This is a problem. I quickly redrew the guiding rind to be .5mm larger in the hole size. I set it printing next as it will take about 45minutes to complete. While this was printing I all the top and bottom skiving. Pre glued the tops and sides Spray glued the leather tops The new ring worked good and I got the tops and bottoms done in around 90 minutes I think except where I got my counting wrong. As you see the contact works awfully well on this PLA stuff. More tomorrow

Thanks but I wont say that until i finish them. Couple of hick ups today. Yes they are all glued down construction and as I found today very well glued down construction. You have to rip the leather to get it off. I did one to many tops which meant I had one base short. I started with too many but then more orders caught me out. Here is today effort and trials. This shows all of one colour with the top+ bottoms done in the middle This next step shows the top with foam attached Only need to contact glue the tops here All attached in about 5 minutes. Now to prepare the leather for tops and bottoms. both top and bottoms split to 1.1ish mm I decided to split the side strips while I'm at it to .8mm The next step is skiving. I decided .5mm at edge tapering in about 13mm A roller helps a lot on this soft leather I've done one of the other colour to show you the skive better. More to come

Cant do that but I like it a lot. Brian

Will do.Time to see some more of yours I reckon. I can only say I wish I had this technology around 20 or more years back. The ease that so many different projects can be brought to real life is truly amazing. Following are a few more pictures for today. Picture below shows gluing the inside and outer side of the cups. This should be a good amount pre glued to start putting together. First I locate the leather into the 1st folding jig This ring jig helps to position the cup into position exactly Cup into position and ready to push down Above shows after pushed in and ring jig removed Here I am pushing the ring cup completely through the ring jig to tighten the outer edge. Note the inner leather is still loose and now goes down onto the next jig This is a very firm fit Here I use a holding tool and spin the inner jig out. This creates pressure and heat and helps the contact glue to stick well. (and it does) Presto more to come

Following are a few more of the steps I've done today. Shows a few of the parts cut and ready for splitting. Here I am splitting the leather to about .6mm. these pieces will be used where the cups come together in the middle. I did it this way as I did not want any joins at that part. Here I have elected to use spray glue to save time. They could be done after the next stage of cutting but I found it a bit fiddly to hold and glue. At this stage when they have tacked off well they are ready to have their second cut. This picture shows how I have used a clicker press to do the cutting.

This is my first production run on these wedding ring boxes so for future reference I am a taking a heap of pictures as I go. Due to a few rush jobs I have now only one week to get a minimum of 44 of these done. Many are pre sold and I don't think they will be happy if they don't arrive for their wedding. . Details may get a little sketchy as I go.Just ask if you're interested. These show the first prototypes I made This picture shows the cups I designed being printed on a second hand $400 au printer I bought. Here are the tools I printed to help me form the leather to the cups. Actually they come apart to look more like this picture. The large one at the back left is a sander to clean up any roughness inside and outside the cups. Placing the sandpaper part into the cup and spining to remove roughness. Same thing for the cup outside. After this step the cups should all be ready for gluing up. Next step is cutting the leather parts and splitting them to the correct thickness.

No most things we stitch are glued and set into place before stitching. One exception is the circular coin purses which I think can be seen on my u tube. I hate doing them so leave it to the more adequate women here. Hope none of them read this. I would have left the zip completely separated and glued each strip to the liner piece first then to the outer and then joined at the zip bottom. But if I were doing more than the one I would make up a board to 3/4" or so thick to that shape and use it to keep the zip in shape and even on both edges and use it to tap down on where the glue holds it in shape. Though these pictures attached are not quite the same the principle is the same. To cap - zip to liner - liner to outer. Hope that is of some help. Just found a pic of my helper "Molley" who is worn out from toooo much guard duty I guess Brian

Nice looking work and attention to detail on the stitching. Interesting design knife pouch as well. Brian

Beautiful stitching and I think that bag is quite safe being with your helper there. I was wondering how you would go stitching the zip in without being pre glued into place but your competency keeps showing through. Brian

In the past I have found that the softness/stretchiness of the leather means that for one leather the thickness needs to be this and another that. It is frustrating unless you do large runs of a colour and of the same type . On some jobs like bags I do binding but I don't bother with the binding attachments or for that matter even the dedicated binding machine I have. Where fabric tapes tend to stay nice and true and run smoothly many leathers don't like to play by the same rules. In mostcases it is quicker to glue it in place and sew than the time to get everything set perfect to bind. Just my opinion. Brian

From my point of view on this I think being a good maker and being a good marketer are very different skills and some I make for double in their mark up and some as much as 5 times in their mark up and as you said, once they pay my price the rest of it is their own business. 95% of my work is done with other peoples brands on it and that keeps a roof over my head and food on my plate as well as a few others so that's OK. I do prefer making product so that's what I mostly do. Brian

I reckon if there's a clean bench top and your a leather work you just aint been busy enough. Regards to the felt when you get one loaded I found it useful to smooth it out a bit and I've done that by letting it spin against the sander as shown in the picture against the disc. Don't do for too long in one hit as I think the insides of the holder are fully plastic and probably won't take too much heat in one hit. Let us know how you go. Brian

Just curious about what you mean by 1/2"think high end bracelets? Do you mean you think you want 1/2" thick or 1/2" wide bracelets? I do a lot of various bracelets and bangles and such for different clients amongst a lot of other stuff as well. I have seen your posts before and as you never answered or acknowledged any ones offers I did not take you serious. In case I was mistaken here's a few pictures of the things I make but many unfortunately I can't show due to them being for clients brands. I can say that three different jewellers have won awards of the year combining my high end work with their work. Sorry if these are not what your wanting but If you'd care to post any pictures of what does it for you some here might have what you want. regards Brian

I think to give a correct answer to this you would need to post some pictures of the type of products you want to make more specifically. For the majority of the products you mention I use a 40m 69 thread but if your into heaver threads then you may want the bigger machine. The smaller cylinder allows me to more easily get into tight gussets and such where the big machine would have no hope. If you check my web site you should see that on many of my wallet they are stitched all the way around. Many here use larger threads and the products are thicker often as well in which case you could be better with the larger machine.I have attached one of our training wallet pics to show what I mean. The best in the end is often both machines along with a stack of others. Most of the products we make would use the smaller machine. Regards Brian

I should have added that to clean up the felts on this edging tool works by running the felt up and down on soap under running water until no more colour shows. Also by not overfilling the egg cup allows room to get a even amount on the felt.

I think I'll have to post this as a how to topic but for now here goes- first up I could not do these holes on my edging machine as I do with most things and with the edging it needs to be held downward so as to not have the edging running back down away from the application all the time. I needed some way to hold the felt and have it spin while holding it down. This meant I needed to lock the shaft and let it spin some how. I came up with this tool for removing the burr on the edge of plastic that I had already here and by putting a groove in the shaft for holding the felt as supplied for the Dremel it worked. I have here a couple of pictures of how I use it and a couple of links to eBay where you can get the felts and deburring tool as follows - Note the felts come with a couple of holding shafts that fit the deburrer so you dont need to have a dremel or set. All for under $10.00 Regards Brian http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=291098472944 http://cgi.ebay.com.au/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=302394995242

There's not a lot of movement between one notch and the next as it was originally but over 15 stitches it could be 1/2 a stitch or more out longer. With the extra increments and being able to lock it in stopped in wandering out of place from the setting I wanted to stay at. It would be possible to do an extra lot of slots between but I think for now this should be good enough for most jobs. As to the number of pouches I'll have to get round to posting the small revolving edging tool I made up for doing all those holes. Basically it is the small felt out of the Dremel set put into a hand piece that locks it in and allows it to spin as you push it. Worked well enough I ordered another 100 felts from China for SFA. This lot pretty well used up one felt. I'll post more details of later if you like. Brian

Heres a couple of pics showing what I am describing above. Thankfully this jobs finished for now and 1/2 of the sewing machine cost is now booked out. Hopefully I'll have the new feet and stuff before the next 200 they want. Got 1 week left now to make 50 ring boxes.

While doing a rush job of a 60 personal alarm pouches recently I ran into a problem with the stitch length getting longer on the run. I started by getting the stitch length set to have the needle finish just where I wanted and at first I thought I must be doing some thing wrong, I found that with all the reverse stitching the adjuster was moving wider and falling into one of only 2 slots that hold the adjuster from moving. I decided to remove the adjusting nut and put in a few more grooves to stop it moving. I have some pictures here to show what I did but take note of the small ball bearing and spring that comes out when the adjuster is removed. Have your hand ready to catch it all as you remove it.I was in a hurry to do this so it is a little rough and in hind sight I could have used a centre punch and drill bit and followed the ring around where the ball bearing rubs. It worked very well at any rate and gave me a lot more confidence knowing that the last stitch hole was no longer a mystery. Hope the pics tell it better than me. Regards Brian

Now that explains why your so damn capable I reckon.

I have not got that machine but with most of the machines I have it is normal to have to increase the top thread tension as well as reduce the bobbin tension. What I do is have another bobbin case set up for the thicker thread so I don't have to fine tune adjust it when I go up in thread size.Regards Brian

I think the feet I have ordered from Uwe will have an advantage in that the left foot being wider will allow a bit more contact on the throat plate and help in keeping the job flatter as well. The way I designed these pouches I contact glue them first then I can flex them over when I run the stitch line down. I will let you know how they go when I receive them. I can only add that I hope Uwe gets some more into stock as I can see quite a few advantages being able to swap around the different feet options etc. Brian