claybuster101

Has Tandy Corporate thought about becoming a stocking dealer or distributor for Rings or any of the other manufacturers? The deeper the pockets, the less financial risk is involved. They could do the return mail similar to Blockbuster or Netflix. When the customer leaves the store (pre-paid on the rental with his/her charge card number) they also receive a postage paid envelope to return it back to the store, better yet a UPS package so it could be tracked. OR, if Tandy Corporate didn't want the individual stores to have them, they could come from a distribution point. 4 distribution points would provide good to very good coverage for the lower 48 states. I am willing to bet if they did their homework and came up with the 10 most popular and sought after models and provide enough for each distribution center (say 4 of @model x 10 most popular x 4 distribution points) they could buy them real right (kinda sounds like a math question for "Are you smarter than a 5th grader, ha,ha).....after 2 or 3 dozen rentals, they sell them for what they paid for them and order fresh. If a customer wanted to purchase one or more for their own holster making, Tandy could also sell new. From a "real time" perspective, I think it is terrible that the handful of companies that make the replica firearms take FOREVER to get one to market after it has been introduced. There seems to be either terrible commuications with the manufacturers OR the chosen few holster makers are given first shot (no pun intended) to produce leather/kydex etc as a new model pistol/revolver is introduced. Ok you say, what if a request comes in for one Tandy doesn't have? There are 2 clear answers here. The customer can order one for himself/herself, or Tandy steps up and orders 1 to be put into distribution. If Tandy should get backlogged on requests for that particular model, they increase their distribution inventory with a lesser number. There may be some models (Colt 1911, Glock 23, Springfield XD & XDm) that require more in distibution to satisfy demand. While I applaud entreprenural ideas such as this, I can see late fees backlogging due to various reasons (customer changes something, I screwed up the leather and am waiting for more, additional orders for the same gun came in and I need to bogart the replica a while longer...etc, etc) Food for thought..... Everyone have a nice day! Dennis

My family (wife, faithful dog and now caring for my mother-in-law), live north of Detroit...at least during the week. What we consider home is 4 hours north of Detroit in an area called Black River, Michigan. Right on the shores of Lake Huron. While that place sits on about a fat acre, we have 130 acres of state land that adjoins our property and also borders Lake Huron. Hiking, biking, atv trails are cut through the state land and we enjoy that very much. The marina is only 6 miles away so if we want to spend time on the boat it is a no brainer. While the salmon fishing has dwindled a bit in recent years, with a little luck you can catch enough for dinner and put a couple of fillets in the freezer. My youngest son and I do our fair share of small game and deer hunting in the fall. The shoreline is rich with fossels and we have found several prehistoric sharks teeth and some limestone rocks with different fosselized creatures embedded in them. It is peaceful and easy to relax up there. This past weekend the fog was rather heavy and you could hear the great lakes freighters sounding the horn every couple of minutes. The Presque Isle lighthouse is said to be haunted. It was featured on a program dealing with lighthouses. During some restoration, the workers found a womans wedding band stuck in the mortar. Funny thing is, this supposidly came from the same woman who had disappeard years ago and her husband (the lighthouse keeper) told everyone she just up and left! For the last 2 years we have a nesting pair of Bald Eagles somewhere on the state land. The name of our boat is "Victoria's Seacret", the name of the little Zodiac we have for a yacht tender is "Thong"....It usually gets a laugh or two. Dennis

Hi Badger..... Where I come from Badger's are one tough nugget! I am sure you will be on the mend in no time! Dennis Michigan

I met this gentleman Saturday at a local outdoor flea market in the Romeo, Michigan area. As a hobby he has several bee hives. He has been accumulating the wax for sometime now. I indicated I was interested in a small amount for my leather working projects. While he didn't have any beeswax with him Saturday he indicated he would bring some with him Sunday. The beeswax is very high grade, not like the stuff from the local barber supply company. While the beeswax is a by-product of the honey production for him, he would like to find a market for it. So, if any of you fellow leather artisans have need please contact Starman_10_8@yahoo.com His first name is Mike.

might you have a springfield arms XD 9mm compact pattern for an iwb? pete Pete....just finished this IWB with Mag holder for a Glock 27. Still need to wet form it. The pattern for the XD is basically the same, the stitch line is just a tad bit different. Dennis

Karl, best wishes for a successful operation. We are all pulling for you!

"The U.S. has less social mobility than most other developed countries." Social mobility? While those 2 words can take on a broad meaning, I recall my most recent extended trip to Europe and crossing into Switzerland. I was driving a new Opel with Duetschland plates. The border crossing security service were carrying fully automatic weapons ready to extinguish any threat they encountered. Good for them! While travel among the EU has drastically improved over the last decade or so, can you imagine if crossing from state to state here in the US the National Guard or Blackwater forces were checking for people who didn't belong and took decisive action when they found someone? But as soon as this would happen the ACLU and other liberal rights orgs would be crying foul. Since the time of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a sector of our nations population who have been born into welfare, continued to live on welfare, fostered children (many times with as many number of different sperm donors) into welfare. The system has been abused and yet this group of people are the ones who support the hands that feed them. I shouldn't have to mention the word Democrat here, but I will so there is no confusion. The most recent statistic is that teenage pregnancy is on the rise. Fostering more Democrats for generations to come. You mention education, specifically in Germany. You failed to mention that they have little or no welfare as we know it here in the United States. The idea of trade school or university goes back several generations well prior to WW2. The Germans by and large are a very proud people. They do not put up with filth, petty theft and the assorted crap that we as Americans have come to ignore but it is a common everyday occurence. So when you make comparisions, try to at least show the larger picture so the people who read this can draw a educated conclusion. While all this banter could go on forever, only time will tell how the dust will settle. The goverment has forced the auto companies into non-competitivness, to submit to such an extreme that the cancer the goverment has injected into our manufacturing sector will festor for generations. Fair trade for US manufacturers is not fair trade at all, and has not been for sometime. If you thought George W was in bed with the oil companies, just wait....you will no doubt see multiple menage-a-trois's with King Obama, Biden, Pelosi, Feinstein, Levin, Stabenow etc. So much so, it will make anything George W did look like a handholding instead of a full blown goverment orgy.

So congress instituted a plan to balance out a proper number of minorities to be hired into jobs they would not have otherwise qualified for. Affirmative action was still discrimination, just against anyone who is considered (non-black) white. For the longest time the SBA had "special" considerations for females looking to get startup business loans. They (SBA) lowered the standards to allow these applicants to qualify. The US postal service used affirative action to discriminate against white males vs. non white males on test results for becoming a postal carrier (I have first hand knowledge of this). Since the world changes hands about every 50 years or so, how is it that 80% (using todays population stats or stats from 1969?) are worse off? Worse off in what ways? And other than Washington bleeding the average American dry, who is the designer of such a scheme? You want to talk racism? I am willing to bet if I applied for a scholarship to get an advanced degree through the NAACP they would turn me down and probably have a good laugh doing it. The other tidbit of Barack O'Trivia that I find disgusting is how he and his "peoples" play up the fact that his mother was white and his daddy was black. That must make the black gene the dominant force in his life. At least he knew who his daddy was. Like a Phoenix rising out of the ashes in less than 4 years we as the American people have the real power to correct the wrong and set the ship back on course. In the time it took to compose this reply, the illegal alien counter said 794 more illegals have inflitrated our sacred borders....drug dealers, prostitutes, gun smugglers, rapists, thieves and several more leather craftsmen....don't you just hate the additional competition.

One other issue to remember in all of this. There is not a business in the country that has ever paid a single penny in taxes, fees or whatever. 100% of those have all been passed on to the consumers, just in a hidden form. Hmmmm....let's all take a moment to digest the above quote. Let's assume that I make, ummm, leather holsters. Ok, leather holsters it is. I need to have the following, including but not limited to: Some type of facility to work from...(where I live they charge an arm and a leg for property taxes, most of which funds a failing educational system that has been run into the ground...by guess who? Michigan educators and state goverment considered to be Democratic). Unless I use cave-man tools I will no doubt need electricity for lights and to run equipment. I still have a mortgage on the facility so I pay that every month. I need to maintain that facility (mechanical and structural) as well as weekly maintenance (lawn cutting, etc) Unlike some of the homes in Detroit that the people don't care what they look like. Uh, forgot to mention that I heat with natural gas and while we have dialed down, I have added extra insulation, new windows and doors to help control waste. Before I can even begin to consider a project I need to buy supplies. Leather, thread, tools, finish you all know the list goes on and on. BUT WAIT....all of this is not worth a damn if I don't have a customer to provide the goods for...that may require some advertising and promotion. If the customers are not forth coming, my supplies sit on the shelves and gather dust...in the meantime I still pay the above mentioned bills regardless of how much product has been sold. So, I guess the point of this is what the hell do you think pays for this stuff? It comes from PROFIT! Which in my vocabulary is not a dirty word. If I invest, take the risk, I deserve to profit from that risk. After all, that is (was?) the American way!

The old saying goes, "be careful what you wish for, because it might just come true!" Rush Limbaugh made the comment that the Republican party is extinct. While most everyone wanted changes this past election, those who voted for Barack Hussein Obama may not have realized that along with his savoir-faire demeanor came a whole lot of excess baggage in the form of old Clinton cronies. What change is that? One step forward and two steps back? I am not here to alienate fellow craftspeople who may not share in the opinions expressed. But, as a business person I am dissapointed that the future generations are left to wonder why they should work hard when it may be for nothing. I enjoy the fruits of my life's labors. Comfortable home, cabin in the woods, the boat docked at the marina, the constitutional right to bear arms and the freedom to make decisions (not all have been winner's by the way). It was an interesting conversation with two of our sons when they found out they were on opposite sides of the politcal fence for president. It was like an episode of "Point-counter-Point" times 10. Mom and I just looked at each other and since they have out grown beating the crap out of one-another physically, we let them have at. The "trade union" son, wanted change. He wasn't happy about the war in the Gulf, but on the other hand conceded that a strong military is needed to protect the US. Now, he indicates that in his latest monthly "union" newsletter they are "concerned" over Husseins agenda and are asking everyone to write their Congressmen/women and Senators to "voice" their concerns. What, they didn't see that coming? The law enforcement son sees the weakening of our borders and the issues surrounding "illegals" here in SE Michigan as a very local threat. But try going to any, and I mean any local emergency room....Your insurance doesn't buy you a better seat. You still wait and wait and wait to been seen. In the meantime, many people who have no legal right to be in this country are seen by the same doctors and nurses...but guess what? The hardworking people, who made sacrifices along the way to have the means to pay for their care also are paying for everyone else. I'm done.

In Michigan if you file a dba (doing business as) with your local county clerks office be prepared to be deluged with a bunch of bullshit mail and propaganda. The first thing to come is usually an application to become a Notary of Public. From there the list of crap can be endless. As an added bonus, the local legal newspaper will publish the fact you have registered as a dba, may or may not have your listed address (don't think that people of ill repute do not read the legal news!) As far as the "home office" deduction goes, unless you have a dedicated space of "X" amount of square feet is it even worth it to claim it? I would think that investing in better tools or equipment (rock solid depreciable expense), and certainly all the leather, thread, rivets etc, etc are used up so there is nothing left in inventory at the end your fiscal year....right? I would think since you (just like myself) do not want a steady stream of off street traffic at your front door (makes my Pit Bull crazy anyway) consider renting a mail box at the local mail boxes etc or kinkos or other similar venue. The numbered box usually is listed as a suite number (box 101 becomes suite 101). Creates a "business address" where items can be shipped to, provides a higher degree of anonimity and a safety net for you and your family. Just my 2 centavo's worth. Like the old guy taught me....Cash never made any enemies.

I told my wife is she posed for one more holster I would have to put my foot down....ha, ha! Good work. Maybe Victoria's Secret will want you to design a complete line of ladies ready wear leather....one can only dream. P.S. If that happens, save all the scrap cuttings for me.

See all of the "hidden talents" you have unleashed.....Pretty amazing group here. I played keyboards in a rock band in the 70's and would do some wedding stuff just to pick up extra cash on the side. Our rythem guitar player went to California and played session work with some real pro's but got wound up in the lifestyle and died at way to early an age. The drummer still plays country and western on occasion. Great memories of a mispent youth.....thanks for the thread! Dennis Michigan

Different Dremel problem but my son was able to save it. The Dremel would still rev up to wide open throttle, but the shaft wasn't turning. He took it apart (something he has been doing to things around the house since he was a child) and found that the shaft was connected by what he called a plastic or hard rubber sleeve that had cracked. He epoxied the sleeve and voila....Dremel works. I asked him how gunked up it was on the inside and he indicated that there wasn't much gunk on the inside. Since your Dremel might be DOA, consider taking it apart and seeing what the inside looks like. Maybe a gentle blast with some compressed air might restore some life into it.

The customer and I touched on that very subject. He indicated he had a set of lens caps on order. I could just picture it, you have the Buck of a lifetime in rnage and as you withdraw your firearm a big chunk of snow falls out of the tree onto your scope.... Thanks for the reply.. Dennis Michigan

Lobo...a couple of questions on the shoulder holster configuration. Does the webbing in the back form an "X" and go from left shoulder to right midsection and vice-versa on the other side? Is the suede padding on the top part of the "X" configuration? The firearm appears to be a baby Glock or some derivative thereof, I do not see a strap over the reciever. Was the holster molded to be a press fit for retention? Thanks Dennis Michigan

Jason, if you are reading this....Yo, wasssssuuuupppp! Thanks for all your help in getting me started. Wishing you much success in the heartland of America! Dennis Washington, Michigan

Looks great!

One suggestion would be while you are at the Ford dealership waltz into the parts department and ask the parts person if they have a replacement seat cover in stock. I doubt that they will, but you can get the Ford part number and just for grins see what they charge for it. Chances are good it is produced right here in Auburn Hills, Michigan. They may be willing to assist you in your endeavors. http://www.eagleottawa.com/ Good luck on the project! Dennis Michigan

I went throught this process when the boat store was in business. While most people liked to stay in touch there were a couple of past customers who viewed it as junk email and let me know it. One suggestion is to start the email as a simple hello and let them know what you are doing and you are there to help in any way you can. Always include in the close of the email that if they choose they can "unsubscribe" from your list. Also, all the recipients that you are sending emails to, use the Bcc (blind carbon copy) section of your email header. This will keep their emails private. I hate when my buddies include me in a blanket email along with dozens of other email addresses for everyone to see. I would use my own email in the "send to" and then Bcc everyone else. As far as items for sale, have something new and exciting to share with the list every month. Come up with something that everyone needs and consider making it a "loss leader product", not quite a freebie, but something that might interest them enough to purchase. Or, depending on how big your list is, a give away to the first X amount of people who answer a simple question....For example June's giveaway might be a key fob (I would do fobs with the signs of zodiac, heck everyone has a birthday right?) and the question would be something like "Who is buried in Grant's tomb?" Sounds kind of silly I know, but the whole idea is to drive people to your website or business. Just a thought...Good luck! Dennis Michigan

Heys DC...While you were applying for employment, did Ring's give you a tour of the shop? Are they injection molding each replica? If not, what is the process they are using? With a 3 axis router or Pantograph duplicater they could conceivably mill a duplicate mold from an original. They could machine it using Kirtsite and get hundreds of pieces out of a die set. Did you see any containers of "plastic" pellets laying around? Dennis Michigan

I know, I know "The road to hell is paved with good intentions". My wife tells me that on a daily basis. It sure seems like all the people trying to get the replica guns have a hard time...(long waits, backorders etc) Plus many of the firearms are not available to mold a holster from (XDm for example). I might give it a shot and let ya'all know how it turns out. Since no gelcoat is involved it should be a rather straight forward process....time and money!

With respect to gun molds. Has anyone tried to "cast" a particular firearm using a mold from modelers clay? There are a couple of options here. I have not tried it yet, but might give it a shot. What if you had 2 slabs of modelers clay. One for the left half and one for the right half of the firearm. For obvious reasons the clay would have to be wider, longer and deeper than 1/2 the thickness you are trying to achieve. Take a sheet of kitchen plastic wrap (Saran ?) and lay it on top of the clay. Depress the firearm down to at least 1/2 halfway. If it goes a touch deeper both halves could be sanded and epoxied together for a final dimension. Do the same to the other side of the firearm. Now you have molds for both halfs. Remove the firearms and the plastic wrap. It should leave a very exact duplicate of the original firearm. Apply a release agent to ease the removal of the molded part. I doubt highly that the mold could be used more than once, but it would be worth the effort to try. Using a resin mix (polyester) is the less expensive, I would add shreds of fine fiberglass to reinforce the piece being molded. Always do a small test batch first to check set up times as ambient temperature, humidity etc have an effect on the resin. Once you have determined that the resin will set up properly pour the resin into the molds. Once it is set and cured (overnight will probably do it) remove the firearm halves. You can check the width dimension against the original firearm. A light sanding may be required to get a flat mating surface for the two halves (maybe a bit of Dremel work as well). Epoxy the two halves and there is your replica for doing holster molding. As a possible bonus, a coloring agent could be added to the resin mix to help distinguish say a Springfield XD from an XDm so you don't grab the wrong mold off the rack. This may have been posted in days gone by here on LW.N but I thought I would throw it out anyway. Dennis Michigan

http://flint.craigslist.org/tls/1106724249.html Bumped across this ad in CL. I think it is the same unit. Location: Flint, MI it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

I am currently using S-18 from R-H Products Co in Acton, Mass. I use a ton of their HH-66 adhesive on vinyl projects. I do thump the pieces with a plastic dead blow hammer and then roll the surface with the wooden wallpaper roller. Probably because I have used one repairing inflatable boats for so many years (old habits are hard to break). I have a belt/8" disc combo sander gathering dust. I was never 100% happy with the disk portion of the sander. The distance between the table and the disk to me, does not seem to be close enough for getting a fine edge sand on leather. The fact that the smaller belt only moves in one direction (down) caused the leather to curl in that direction. Maybe I just don't have the touch with that particular machine when it comes to sanding the leather. I did get to fire up the oscillating sander for a couple of minutes till my wife told me to get it off the antique chest...I will be bringing a nice new roller cabinet home this weekend to set it on.....then the sparks will really fly!