AlZilla

Oh, yeah, they could hang on the belt and drop into the pocket. Another great idea!

Yeah, I ordered the narrowest ones I could find. Should be fun.

Interesting. Someone on here mentioned a clip-on pocket sheath for non-clip knives a few days ago. I ordered some clips and I'm going to play with that idea.

Nice! So, about $400US. That's more like it! You're going to enjoy having heavy sewing capacity.

Or, let it sit a few days and see if it dries back out. Maybe in the sunshine. Edit: thinking about this, I wonder if there's something in the leather that your efforts brought to the surface? Can cigarette smoke accumulate over a number of years? I can tell you for sure, it accumulates all over ancient domestic sewing machines. And I seem to recall threads on another forum about gun holsters that were hell to clean up.

If it's not running, it's just a pile of parts with a broken table. I wouldn't give a hundred US for it. That probably seems harsh but the only thing you know you have is what you can see with your own eyes.

How about this one, 180 watt: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/176452435645 Or this 250 watt: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/333634374457 If you're mechanically inclined at all, I'd think you could engineer a little pulley reduction setup to increase torque even more without too much expense. Like so:

I think it got a smudge just from me looking at the picture ... Nice work!

This forum can be like a PHD in sewingmachineology. I bet it's not the first time you've posted this but it's the first time I've seen it. So, thank you for it.

Wow. Eagle eyed catch!

I don't see anything wrong with cleaning it and brightening it up. Museums do it to priceless oil paintings. It wouldn't change the actual work you did. Besides, water stains and grime aren't really historical artifacts.

Looks like you've got a steady hand with the straight lines and clean corners. I think I want to see a wriggle on the plain lighter case on the right side towards the bottom. But it actually follows the edge. Nice work.

Another vote for "wow.

If I'm understanding what you want, it's a 6 strand braid. Here are links for a round and a flat. Plenty of utube videos, too. Maybe I misunderstand and you want something more complicated? https://www.instructables.com/6-Strand-Round-Braid/ https://www.instructables.com/Six-Strand-Flat-Braid/

You can get craft foam at most places that carry craft supplies. I get it in copy paper sized sheets, about an eighth inch thick. It's great for prototyping. Better than paper and dirt cheap.

Well, you can't argue with success. You'll encounter limitations like how thick it'll sew or maybe the layers shifting. Certainly, thickness of the thread it'll use will be limited. But if it's serving your needs, you've got a winner. Get some leather needles, keep it well lubed and be grateful for your thoughtful wife.

Well, it never occurred to me to do that. Genius. I guess I'm going to dig that thing back out ...

I've used a food vac sealer a few times. The only drawback is that the bags are textured on the inside, which imprints on your workpiece. Unless you like the texture. Pricing would just be materials, time and a markup. I don't know if that particular sheath, molded for that style of knife, is commercially available, so that might get a premium. Very expertly done.

@chuck123wapati it's definitely not a handcrafted product. But it's still a product and one with a much bigger market than $300 handcrafted leather belts. There's no shame in selling to both markets. Imagine how many you could turn out in a day with pre-made, dyed belt blanks. 5 minutes punching the ends, after 1 minute of sewing. Now, to sell that many ...

Another thing - I was having a similar issue with my 111W. Thread hanging up in the bobbin and causing thread doubled up, an extra thread sometimes dragging along the stitch line. I was holding the thread back too hard and the top thread would split on the point of the hook. I picked this up from somewhere I read to hold the thread back hard. Which is applicable to my 441 clone. Since I started holding the 111 threads back lightly, like on a domestic, zero problems. I don't know if this is your problem, it just struck me when I saw your problem.

I can get nice veg tan 9oz belt blanks for about $7. If I had a market for quantities of belts, I'd think about it.

Looks like about 60 seconds to fully sew a leather belt.

Yep, what he said. Tap them to whatever you can find locally.

That's fun. There was a rebound bible on here lately that made me want to try my hand at it.

Essentially, you made a tapered spacer and put it in behind the blade, at the top?