Kcstott

the glue I use is weld wood contact adhesive. yes leather stretches especially if wet or oil contaminated. how much is not really a standard as it's a natural product. it will depend on how much tension you need to drive what you are running. I like the hog ring hook though.

Yes it is belting, and the ends can be joined by skiving down the ends and gluing over a 1-2" long section or how we use to do it in the screw machine shop. two very small steel plates with holes drilled for clearance and drilled and tapped. 4-40 screws to hold it together.

if you have some rough specs to show i could see if it would be something I can make. do you have a material preference?

sorry for the delay. https://www.super-lube.com/Content/Images/uploaded/documents/TDS/Technical_Data_Sheet_Multi_Purpose_Grease.pdf

Super lube make a non silicone version clear grease. good stuff I have a tube of it in the garage.

I'm one of them. 3 in 1 is light Turbine oil. great lubrication, great antioxidant, great load carrying ability. and it's no $12 an oz. like a lot of the gun oil.

I have to agree. The same BS is perpetrated in the gun industry. for 99% of applications oil is oil and grease is grease. Few things need anything specific.

You were advised to call Cobra. As in the Leather machine co. In Ontario California. talk to Steve they will ask questions and walk you through the problem over the phone.

That’s one of the reasons I had no problem dropping the money on the machine. if it turned out to be a bad idea for me I can sell it and take near zero loss.

what type of leather?, what ounce thickness? and how many layers? I have a Jenome HD1000 that will sew maybe two layers of chrome tanned 2 oz. Thats a home machine. it will not sew anything any thicker or stiffer. the Cobra class 4 handles ever thing else.

Aside from that very beautiful work I like the added touches on the basket weave. I'm brand new to tooling and told myself years ago I'd never do it. Well I now have a few dozen stamps and a swivel knife so I guess that argument is over. Now it looks like I need a new stamp to add those accents like you have on the basket weave

The sling is good to go as is. I mean the stock sleeve. There's nothing wrong with just lacing it up with leather lace and leaving the grommets out. Just be sure to punch holes far enough from the edge not to tear through. This of course only applies to one you would make from a pattern not a kit. Pre punched with holes big enough for grommets you have no choice. I'd still wrap a piece of split leather under the grommets though

beautiful work. One suggestion. don't have metal on wood contact. your grommets will leave marks on the wood. and on my rifle that would be unacceptable.

Thread tension has nothing to do with how "hard it is to remove the material from the machine" Leather requires lots of tension. you stitch will tell you when you have enough tension. I could not believe how much tension is on a #25 needle and #277 thread but that's of no consequence. tighten up your top tension and be done. Now to remove your material and not fight the machine. Stop the machine just as the needle is headed back down. and the take up arm is up. Use your finger and pull the thread out at the take up arm with the presser foot up releasing tension on the thread. pull out a few inches. this will allow you to remove your work without bending or breaking the needle. As to your back stitch you need to engage the reverse when the needle has just started to come back up out of your work. This is the start of the stitch and reversing anytime before that could put the feed dogs in a position that would not allow the needle to track in the same holes. Also that just looks like poor material control. You have to guide the machine to stitch in the same holes. if the material is not fed straight forward and back well it will look like a drunk painted the lines in the road

it's called back stitching. I do it even if I've sewed in a circle and back over the top of the start. You reverse the stitch by three to five stitches this will lock and finish the stitch.

to put it simply the belt on the outside of the curve has to travel farther to end at the same place as the inner belt. when sewn flat they are fine, when wrapped around something the outer belt will be in greater tension that the inner belt. Thing is it don't mean a hill of beans when you glue and stitch. Leather will stretch as needed in these instances. Now if you had Dinosaur leather say of the 128 oz variety and glued and stitched two belts back to back, that would be thick enough to cause a problem. thing is I don't think you can get a #500 needle and #4000 thread let alone the Cobra Class 1 with optional Diesel engine.

If it was sewing along just fine and all of a sudden stoped sewing fine. That is 99% user error. I bet if you found someone in your area familiar with industrial leather machines they could help you figure the machine out. I doubt it's the machine.

I just googled it asking for a cost. It popped up at 450,000 Indian rupiahs had to convert that to USD. do that’s what the machine is going for in India and tha may not translate to a North American price

That’s still more money than I care to spend anytime soon. But you never know. A few years ago I was looking at a tippmann boss. I just skipped over that all together and bought a cobra class four. I couldn’t be more happy with that machine.

I got a little ahead of myself. It was supposed to have a strap to wrap around and close it. Well I stitched in the liner one step to early.

I feel like John Carter looking at this thing price tag has to be $10K or more nope just over $6K USD

I did too

The company I work for Solar Turbines San Diego manufactures some very large round pieces of exotic metal and supper alloy parts. Not to mention the run of the mill cast iron and stainless. We have machines that are 50 years old or older retrofitted with NC control (now CNC for the younger crowd) the older machines are typically more reliable than the newer ones outside of the Mori Seki and Mazaks and operators that crash them. but that's not the machines fault. The reason any new machine typically doesn't last as long as the older ones is very simple. Labor and materials 50 or 100 years ago was far cheeper than is is today. Labor is also not valued as much as it was 50 or 100 years ago. How many people wear hand made shoes anymore? when was the last time you commissioned anything? Leather craft has proven there is still a respect for finely crafted goods. Industrial machines are considered disposable by the people that buy them. They typically are disposable when you run them at 150% of their capacity and delay maintenance due to production needs. Any good machine will appear to be a POS to someone that doesn't know any better. I don't know what it would take to make a Cobra Class 4 last 100 years but with proper maintenance im sure it could.

Beautiful work love the color and border work. I'd be more than happy with it as is. that said with a little redesign you could make this really stand out. Now may I be so bold as to offer some design hints? 1. rear stock cover opening angle should be reversed to flow with the lines of the rifle. 2. connection points should be rounded gusseted to the sling mount. longer gusset in front shorter gusset in back. 3. front gusset Minor refining of corners and edges, lines should flow with lines of rifle. 4. Butt pad, And this is difficult to say for sure. I'm thinking make the butt pad over lap the the sleeve for a 100% smooth surface on the butt. and I'd make the butt out of heavy 12 or 16 oz saddle skirting. But none the less it's beautiful work and is perfectly fit for the job. I'm just a little particular

I thought never hand stitching again was high tech? seriously though, there are very high tech machines out there but they look nothing like a conventional sewing machine. Kinda like a production printing press looks nothing like a desk top printer. I think things are advanced enough for what I need. mid like to see better speed control on the servo motors but that’s just me.