McJeep

Pretty much all of the shipping companies charge "brokerage fees" when they bring something north o the 49th. If those fees were fair, they wouldn't be a problem but having once paid $34 in brokerage fees for a "free" ball hat that a jeep dealer sent me, I refuse to deal with them at all. For any Canadian clients you may have - ask them if they have an airport nearby. All of the airports have brokerage businesses that have warehouse south of the border to use as delivery points for purchases - then the company brings the package across. At that point the person receiving the package takes invoicing etc (the brokerage gives it to them) over to customs and does their own brokering (pay taxes/duties etc) and can go pick their package up from the shipper on completion. It saves all of those huge fees that ups etc charge just to do 2 minutes of paperwork stamping. Also, most things "made in america" are totally duty free so the only thing a northern customer should end up paying is applicable taxes. Hope this helps Rob

Nice! I take it you needed to use a drill press or something to put the holes in that much material? I know there is no way I could hope to keep em straight on both sides using just a hand awl

Excellent link - thanks! Did ya happen to read the "about us" section on their home page? Pretty interesting start to a business

Quick question Kate - what's your preferred leather weight for the outer cover to allow for some decent tooling?

I have a couple of commissions for seat reconstruction - this will involve deepening the seat pocket on both. I see where people are using rasps and carving knives for shaping. I see this working for outside curves really well, but am at a loss for how to shape a convcave hollow. Have toyed with *trying* a small angle grinder with wire wheel attachment to sculpt things out but really don't want to experiment with a client's seat in case this turns out to be a very very bad idea What are people using to hollow out foam when rebuilding a seat? Thank much Rob

Thanks much

All great stuff - thanks folks - I'll let ya know how it goes

Interesting - just spoke with Zeliko... Buddy sent me a link to an article on some gurl dying black car seats white! http://voices.yahoo.com/leather-dye-rewarding-yourself-project-to-471107.html?cat=27 Fairly impressive results from what one small picture can provide. Their dye is water based, and tints pretty easily with other colours added to the base. I was *assured* that they've never had any comments regarding cracking and they have a few customers using it on motorcycle gear. I think I'll get a small amount and do some testing on it - if it's up to par, it should greatly expand the choices I can offer customers with regards to coloured gear to match their bike's colour schemes Thoughts?

Well after a day of searching (boy oh boy, sourcing suppliers sure eats a lot of time during startup) I've found a few options: Tina - one of your posts wa what lead me to angelus ;0) What results have you had flexibiliy wise with the dye? My concern is that the flaps on these bags is of course constantly being opened and closed - would hate the customer to have cracking at the arch of the flap - not only because these are going to end up being somewhat of a business card for me, but because I'm pretty demanding of the quality of my output ;0) With all of the vinyl etc knockoff stuff out there, if I'm gonna ask decent $$ for my stuff, it better be highhhhhhhh quality yes? Like - spoke with them yesterday regarding their pink leather - I do like the fact that it's latigo as that should bode well for longevity on the bike, but it's only 3 or 4 oz so will have to double it up I think. Also, the little dash panel bag (for smokes/ipod/whatever) needs to be a molded piece so that lets out latigo :0/ Apparently there is a woman in Cali that uses it for breast cancer related saddlebags already tho so that's a good referral for it The jobs I'm doing for this lady aren't full blown saddlebags but smaller ones that mount on the dash of her bike, and on the guard rails for her hard saddlebags, Third option that I'm searching out now is whether I could actually get a colour matched wood opaque wood stain - then I could use the latigo for the bigger bags, and then stain the wet molded veg tan piece to match? Anyone dealt with these guys? Zelikovitz Leathers http://www.zelikovitz.com/index.php They advertise having leather "dyes" that can be mixed to vary the tint - gonna call them in a minute for details. Their pink dye http://zelikovitz.com/shop.html?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage-ask.tpl&product_id=4343&category_id=115&keyword=zeli+pro+dye Thoughts?? Thanks very much for the replies guys - it's really helping refine my googling Rob

As mentioned in another thread, I have a customer wanting a lot of pink accessories for her motorcycle. Apparently pink dye does NOT exist? Angelus dye (they call it a dye but it's an acrylic paint) will not crack or fade? The projects involve saddle bags etc so there will be some flexing involved - for people who've used these "dyes" can I expect to be able to colour the entire project pink and have it stand up to use and the environment when riding? I would of course seal it up as well as possible. Also what would be the best seal coat to use? I checked cova colour with my local supplier but they said it won't soak in and is likely to crack with flexing Thanks much Rob

I've got a commissioned set of luggage to do for a motorcycle The lady that needs it is heavily involved with breast cancer awareness etc so it looks like things are gonna be very pepto pink in the shop for a bit ;0) The edges of the pieces will be getting burnished and I was wondering what tricks there might be to keeping the lightness of the pink on edges of the finished work. redye the edges after assembly but before final finish? dye before burnishing and again after? Any and all advice appreciated as there are a LOT of potential customers for this gear down the road and I want to get it right as the bike in question will be getting a lot of attention at rallies etc Thanks in advance Rob

Nice!!! This place truly rocks - I've been looking for this very colour for a while as it looks like I'll be doing a bunch of work for women involved in Breast Cancer awareness and fundraising. Thanks guys

Does anyone know if the tandy dies for spots etc will fit the snap'n set tool?? Picked up the tool (love it big time - huuuuge difference in quality of the finished product) and was wondering if I can interchange dies.

Thanks guys - I kinda thought that (as with all things) it would be a lot more complicated than at first glance ;0) Great heads up on the main "stressed" pieces needing a specific area of the hide - would never have thought of that. No doubt those are the most frequently repaired as well soooooooo Cheers, Rob

nuthin??

Great as always David - neat to see the cross offset just that little bit - so used to seeing things like this all done very symmetrical etc

I think I'd make the soft mold as a guide - then glue and stack multiple pieces of leather into a block - use the guide to know how to shape the leather block (grinder with a really coarse wheel should do it and allow good control speed of this part) - then wet mold the finish piece of leather over top of the whole works - dunno much about this type of application but would seem that this might work pretty good?? Nice and solid for long term as well. Hope it helps

excellent - thanks for the morning chuckle

Nice heads up - thanks Lobo

Whoops - missed a couple replies - standby - nuthing real special on the inside - decided not to line it - will get pics now

Awesomeness

Nice

I was just thinking about this very topic yesterday - as a way of putting my makers stamp on natural leather - watching this with interest

Sweet but owweeeeeeeeee