BoulevardEast

Hey y'all, I'm in the middle of negotiating a lease contract and have about 1,500-1,700 sqft warehouse to work with. It has a large garage door and workshop is close to square. There's a good amount of equipment to move in and I'm trying to wrap my head around initial layout. Who out here is working with a shop this size and feels they have a good setup? My thoughts are to make the flow of work move clockwise starting and ending at the door with cutting/assembly tables in the middle so you can bounce back and forth from step to step. Please critique and give your feedback on adjustment to my workflow below. We are expanding to more than just our Boulevard East line to make corporate branded gifts and private label goods so it could be anything from 50 wallets to 1,000 foil stamped notebooks to 5,000 coasters. Not everything we make will use every piece of equipment, but we all know you have to cut before you glue before you sew before you edge paint, etc, etc, etc Here's my workflow moving clockwise around a square-ish room. Try to imagine it in your head b/c I don't have drawings at this time: Inventory racks for incoming leather and raw materials (3-4 large racks) Wall of Clicker Dies and Rolling Tool Chest of Logo Stamps (100+ of each) 25 Ton Pneumatic Clicker (x1) 12" Band Knife Splitter (x1) Bell Skivers (x2) Heat Stamping Station (x2 Kwikprints) "Glue-Up Station" (Gluefast 20 Colonel and a center assembly table for all gluing needs) "Sewing Machine Alley" (x6 --> mix of cylinder arm and standard machines for various needs) "Rivet and Button Station" (foot and hand press) Edge Sanding/Slicking station (Power Edge Slicker Sander) Edge Paint Station (RC-50 edge painter and table for hand painting) "Shipping Station" - 1-2 large racks for packaging materials and 'ready-to-ship' orders **cutting/assembly tables in center of room (x4)** Does this sound like the correct workflow? What am I missing and what do you think needs to move around? POST PICS OF YOUR SHOP!

@LatigoAmigo I figured that to be the case with any waxy or oiled leathers. Wonder if we can get the leather screen printed like a t-shirt. Any idea what type of paint they use and if it would adhere to leather nicely?

Tried multiple searches but couldn't find anything. If y'all find conversations, please tag so we're not rehashing the same question. Thanks!! So, we're working with a local designer who creates his own shirts, jackets and canvas totes. They heat press vinyl lettering and custom designs in-house (literally their kitchen) and are interested in a collab where they heat press some vinyl designs/letters onto a few different leather pieces we're designing. My question is, has anyone tried heat pressing vinyl onto leather, and if so, how did it turn out? I'm familiar with foil printing, but our designs won't allow for this process. It's a mixed medium design involving vinyl print, acrylic paint and spray paint. Sounds ridiculous, I know, but it's happening. I did test press some vinyl letters onto our veg leather today and feel it will not hold up with a bit of use, but we'll see. Any advice, experiences, etc. are appreciated!!

Bumping this topic to see if anyone else has a good point of contact for football and rugby ball bladders. Thanks in advance!

Wow, I walk away for an afternoon and come back to some great information! Thank y'all for the extra input, videos, pricing and feedback about the machines and binding attachments. This weekend will be spend on due diligence and weighing our options here. I agree with @Uwe how we need to invest in the correct system for the job as we move forward, it's just that a $4k vs $7k allows us to invest that difference into materials, design work, etc. Looks like we have some work cut out for decision time. Thank you all again for your help here. I had no doubt this would be a great forum to join!

Money is definitely a priority, but don't want it to be a deciding factor when selecting the right machine. With that said, $7k is out of the question at this time. Until we move our operations out of my garage and into a real shop, every dollar matters and my wife wouldn't be too thrilled with that purchase! Doing a quick google search didn't give me a good idea of the SewPro price. Is there a rep floating around the forum who's interested in helping out (hint hint)?

Uwe - thank you for the quick response. The Sewpro seems like a monster of a machine, but probably why it's so reliable and highly regarded. What are you thoughts on other models like the Cowboy 3200 or Cobra Class 4?

Hey All, New to the forum, but not quite new to leather working. Wanted to pick the brains of experts around here and get some suggestions as to the best machine and attachment for our needs. We're looking to produce our current leather bag line in-house along with a few additional styles in the coming months, but don't have the correct machine to sew leather edge binding on our bags....or even the bags for that matter. I've been sewing our smaller items with a Brother LS2-B837 walking foot honed in exactly where I like it, but it does not suit the purpose of sewing duffel bags due to the flat bed design. I've prototyped a few duffels in the past on this machine, but it's definitely not ideal for production use! I really have 2 questions. One is about machine selection and the second is about sewing leather binding. Question 1. What machine recommendation do y'all have for sewing our style bags. We use #138 polyester thread on 5-5.5oz veg tan, edge skived, 2 layers minimum, more where pull tabs, handles, etc attach. We're not sewing through anything crazy like 1" of thickness, but we do have a few spots like handle sewing where its close to 20oz of leather. Picture of duffel bag attached for reference..... Question 2. When sewing a leather edge binding, do most manufacturers prefer to glue then sew or use a binding attachment to feed it through? Also, is the binding sewn on the same time as the seam, or is the bag sewn, then the binding attached after? We're low volume at the moment (15-20 bag runs) so not vitally important we're the most efficient at this time, but still need to be able to grow into our machine. Thanks all for the help in advance and excited to see what else I can learn in the meantime! Regards, Joe www.blvd-east.com