Fire88

I have years of bidding construction work under my belt as experience for price. My advice is to always charge retail price minimum for your material if your buying it for less than retail. If your paying retail add at least 10% to cover shipping fees. Time is relevant in all honesty, if it took you 2.5 hrs to do it but you think it should have taken me 1.5 hrs. Then figure out what your acceptable Profit for time is. Say it's $35 that's $15 per hr for your time now but $23.33 for me, as you speed up you'll make more on the hr on that particular product. You have to figure out what your time is worth now and later as you get faster. I will tell you from experience do not cut your what you make on an item because you got faster at doing it always make to same per piece now vs later unless you can get more out of it later or it just won't sell and you must and I mean must have money coming in to keep the roof over your head and food on the table. If you dont set out to make money now you will struggle to do so later as raising prices is tough to do regardless of business. The one thing I have seen not done by most business people is not accounting for tool replacement or purchasing new tools. If you do not account for replacement or buying new tools then when that time comes it's coming out of your pocket. If you take that $5 tool fee per item and put it aside you can buy a new sewing machine in 200-400 items depending on what type of machine, or in 10 pieces you can buy a high end basketweave stamp, in 20 you can buy a mid range head knife. I hope this all makes sense and isn't overwhelming.

Very nice and clean looking. I agree with mikesc put your mark on it and trade it for a couple haircuts. If you choose to charge figure your material base if finished piece is 18x24 then that's 2.5sq ft of body material and .5 of belt material so 3 ft total figure in waste so 3.25-3.75 sq ft total used material, add for buckle and $3 for thread, $5 tool fee. Figure your time to layout/design/cut/sew. My figureing on material based on $6 per square ft, $5 for buckle, $3 thread = 35.75 for materials and tool fee + whatever your time is worth per hour.

That is curl you see, it is quarter sawn curly white oak that I had left over from a cabinet I made last year.

Did some testing with them first thing, bought them specifically for doing boxes. Which I have 3 to do at the moment and just using an awl doesn't work well.

My stiching chisels just came in from goodsjapan got the seiwa 3mm and 4mm in 2&6 prong. Also got the small and medium awl by Elle per the Ian Atchikson site.

Good job those should be super comfy

Very nice, I'm sure she'll love em

Agreed, having a shop I can use and the knowledge to make anything helps. You are correct it is a turnbuckle for adjusting the tension and that is a bolt through it with two nuts to turn the turnbuckle. I got tired of my thead getting caught so when this route this time. The knob allows me to disassemble the two pieces for transport and allows me to turn the clams anyway I'd like to.

Thank You

Thanks for sharing

Very cool, I bet you could sell quite a few of them. Gotta protect thus shot guns, first and foremost.

Bob I will most certainly do, thank you. That is a great accessory

Very nice, wish I had a steam box.

I needed a new stitching pony and a box sewing jig and a 45 guide to cut my miters, so I used some wood I had hanging around my brothers shop.

Very nice, is that sting ray as a panel?

I'm going to be buying a sewing machine in the near future I'm looking at either a 227R or 3500. I'll be doing some bags no less than 6oz total and some fire shields at 20+ and a few holsters and maybe some horse tack and cattle show halters. My concern is I may be at the limits of the 227r too much/limited to 207 Thread and then again worried about stitching 6oz with a 3500. This will be my first machine and I'm limited on room, thoughts?

Great looking bag

Looks good! cut resistant and puncture resistant totally different!

Lots of good info in here, many thanks to those who have given their experiences.

Glad you got your new machine and got great service.

Nicely done

Great use of scrap! Well executed!

Very well done!!! I like it.

If you can't get the weapon, can you get the owner to do the leg work? Like trace it onto poster board with some measurements like thickness and mail you the poster board?

Would making a standard square box not work? Since the fez is round you could make a round box. Take the width of the hat and had 1/2 to 5/8 plus 2x your leather thickness to allow for the sides and miters. This should give you a good starting point.