AlZilla

Can you run it with the door open?

Got it. I was picturing this thing laying flat on a table. Now I see where you're going. Also - special blades for plexi ... ?! Cool. I might revisit making plexiglass patterns.

Here's a little overview. Nothing about the attachment but a neat little video. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=2_TnDQLBZ2U

Well, put it on Etsy, throw a lot of luxury language and pictures around it and see what happens. Alternatively, fish it past an established small shop already selling luxury items. Commit to making no more than 100 of this exclusive design and stamp a serial number on it.

BUSM (not BUSMC) Pilot. It took a little rabbit trailing to figure out what this one was. British United Shoe Machinery. Interesting old machine but I'm unlikely to ever run across one in America.

TLDR: Double check that you found all the oiling points. I was thinking about this and recalled when I first started playing with sewing machines. I had an old Class 15 Singer with a "tight spot" when I rolled it by hand and a small noise when running. Oil-wait-turn, oil-wait-turn. 'Wasn't getting any better. Back to the drawing board. Turned out that I had missed the internal part of the stitch regulator.

So, I'm going to commit heresy. I've had time to ponder this while spending about 8 hours hand stitching a project. Here I go ... I don't believe that the saddle stitch is any "stronger" than the lock stitch. We often see it said, but I just don't see any reason for it. Hear me out - any given stitch length is the same whether it's locked by machine, or a hand sewn saddle stitch. If the thread is the same, the strength is equal. Each stitch line has the same number of stitches and, thus the same length of thread. The bottom thread on a saddle stitch goes all the way to the other side. The bottom thread on the lock stitch goes half way, thens around and goes half way back. So, everything is equal. I can see the argument that if I break one side of a saddle stirch, I still have the 2nd thread running end to end. That's not "strength", it's durability. I'm willing to be wrong.

We'll often use a stick as a stethoscope when trying to isolate strange sounds on a piece of running equipment. Maybe a dowel rod to your ear and touch different areas of the machine? Possibly you could at least track it down to left/right/top/bottom ...

Kind of like the Sistine Chapel.

A belt sander is effective. Bench mount, not hand held. Maybe just the blade, out of the plane body?

That's a big project. I like working with rough lumber, slabs, etc. Way back in about 7th grade wood shop, we basically started from scratch like that. Much more satisfying than just buying some piece of lumber ready to go. That giant quilt pattern is fun. I'm waiting to see what you use for the centers of the blocks. The couple I've done were smaller and the tool I used is the Seeder (I think). Too small to look right on that larger pattern.

Look closely. I seem to recall that some of these binding machines don't have a regular drop feed motion, but instead the feed dogs just just go front to back. I don't know why this is advantageous for binding.

I still think you had something on your hands. You were eating chips, applying ointment or something. It's inside the panel but outside the carving. No way a random drip/spill/smear was that precise on both sides. Or, maybe something on the tool you backgrounded with.

The so-called splotchiness actually looks purposeful. Inside the panel, outside the carving itself. I wonder if you had some contaminant on your hand while you were carving. I'm not a fan of perfect anyway. Vinyl is perfect. Leather lived a life and working hands don't replicate the exact same motion meticulously, exactly the same, every time for 10,000 times.

Welcome to the rabbit hole. The problem is that whatever machine you look at, the next one up is a "just" few hundred dollars more. But then at some point the machine becomes too big to conveniently do smaller items like wallets, bags, etc. Keep us posted about your progress.

Yeah, that looks good. Don Gonzales has a video where he demonstrates a quilted technique. He laid the diamond pattern out, swivel knifed it, beveled with a shader and used ... I think it's called a Beader ... in the center of each tuft. It looks similar to what you have. Nice work.

Tough call at this point. I think I'd sooner leave it blank, if it doesn't somehow tie into the other 2. Mirrored bass left and right with the initials in the center would have been interesting. Some kind of 2 or 3 part diptych, rather than 3 unrelated panels. I'll be interested to see where you land with it

Put something in the bottom left corner to balance the panel out. A ripple of the water out of which he's leaping, maybe.

I don't know, looks like a seasoned pro to me. Clean, precise, tight. It's going to be great.

I think the challenge in front of you is going to be matching the existing thread if you want an invisible repair.

Well, not a best kept secret any more. That Bruce guy went and blabbed ... Never heard of it before now.

Wow. I didn't know such a thing existed. Definitely one of the best kept secrets in leatherworking. Thank you!

Very nice work. Lucky guy that you get to make it.

I struggled early on. Then I found that wetting the leather like when I'm stamping ended all my problems. Also, an advocate for dip dyeing, but not the 3 to 5 minutes recommended above. Just long enough to get the desired color. I did some larger pieces today and couldn't dip them. A wool dauber and applying the fiebings dye full strength worked fine. Wetted the leather first, of course. I applied the dye at a rate sort of like I was painting a wall - loaded the dauber and worked a section at a time. "Dipping" doesn't mean you need 5 gallons of dye, by the way. A large shallow pan will do or a smaller container that you work the piece through work fine for me. Then return the dye to a container.

I've only been at this leather thing a couple of years now. When I first started learning about leather types, one of the 1st things I read was that "genuine leather" and "real leather" are the lowest form of leather you can find. As above, they can be ground up leather formed into a sheet. That said, I just bought about 20 belts from Walmart on clearance for 2 bucks each because they had nice buckles. I'll incorporate the belts into some low wear/stress function. Maybe.