luke213

Personally I'd prefer they be made mostly like Ring's in the sense that they emulate the real gun. For me that's the reason I haven't bought any so far too much work fixing them to work with my process. I'd say most guys who've worked with the other guns on the market have their own ways of dealing with those issues and would rather do it themselves or at least that's how I see it. Only other suggestion would be target some of the oddball guns that no one makes a dummy gun for. IE HK P7 PSP and the Colt revolvers for instance, but I'd stick to those type of guns that are fairly popular but not supported by Ring's and lesser by Duncans. Another plus to building them this way is they could be used for tactical training as well and be marketed the way Ring's does to law enforcement etc. Luke

I'm curious what process did you use to offset the front like that, I've seen that in knife sheaths etc and I've always wondered how it was done. Luke

Hey Chris sorry to see you go I had planned on picking up yet another for a backup;) Glad to hear you're going to spend more time with family, time fly's and we all know too well it goes far too fast. Take care and good luck with everything! Luke

I would say most small compressors will work but like he said it's how long it keeps up the pressure. I ran on a really small one in my shop in the motohome for the first year+ without much issue just couldn't stitch a full belt etc without stopping to let it get pressure back up. I would put a small pressure guage near the machine and just watch to make sure your above about 80psi and if it gets down slow down or stop and wait for it to rebound. Either way they do run on smaller compressors fairly well. That said you can also add in an extra storage tank and get them to run longer between cycles, I used to run 2 extra 5 gallon tanks in line bringing my capacity up to around 15 gallons in my portable shop which helped allot. Longer cycles to the recover but less constant running. Because of my lack of space at the time the extra tanks worked when I didn't have enough room for a larger compressor. Just a few other ideas;) Take care! Luke

Not sure which bit your talking about, a picture of the part or a part number from the manual on Tippmann's site would probably clear it up though;) Take care! Luke

Well I'm right there with ya sir;) I wish I could take credit but the gun/picture aren't mine, just one I found on the net. I do however carry a nice old beat up 1911 that was made in 1940's;) It however isn't very pretty, missing a great deal of the bluing from carry but it's a dang fine old shooter, this is a pic of it in my old horsehide rig before I upgraded to my fancy exotic Texas holster. This is my current carry rig that happens to be on my hip at the moment with that gun in it;) Looking good;) Interesting take on the design with the reinforcement piece, should work just fine with a light gun like that:) Take care! Luke

I should mention that Thad's rigs seem to always include a welt in the designs, somewhere I've got an edge picture of those rigs as well. But I agree, in my little bit of testing there wasn't any sight snag. I love the look of these rigs, but I'm a bit of a practical sort when it comes to carry and I don't like to sling a full sized 1911 on a single belt attachment, I prefer to distribute the weight even on a good gun belt. So I prefer two attachments but I do love the look of his rigs even if the carry of them isn't for me;) Take care! Luke

Same model, different holster: Here are a couple others of his work, different rigs: None of these are my pics by the way, just some I found, I keep a collection, these are google search though. Take care! Luke

Yep I like his work allot, just the style of it is very distinct. Even if you were to make a straight copy of his rig, it's different, and that's what makes this job/hobby fun;) Take care! Luke

Are you talking about the presser foot cylinder? I've not actually taken the cylinders apart, but depending on how they are sealed and how the piston is built it might work. If you can cycle it by hand then I would say there is a pretty good chance it will work fine. I can't think of anything it would hurt other than the cylinder itself if it didn't work so I would go for it;) Take care! Luke

Your likely thinking of the Thad Rybka "Rhodesian" very nice simple design, as allot of his rigs are, I love his simple look and apparently business style. He doesn't have a website, nor post a phone number, you have to mail him to contact him;) Which I find to be well interesting in this day and age, but also adds allot to the intrigue of his work. Could be wrong but that's the only rig I've seen built like that before;) It's kinda like an upside down speed scabbard, here is an example of the rig I'm talking about. Take care! Luke

Well I've been running mine for quite a while now as well and I've learned way more than I can type out here about them:) Mine came, well not functioning, so I got the joy or fixing and building bits as needed. Now nearly a year later I finally have it working as well as it ever has, lots of little minor problems that I would bet most guys never see;) I think though I've replaced all the old parts that were worn out or broken when I got the machine and it should be pretty good and stable going forward. I would say my experience with the Aerostitch is that it's a great machine that can take a little tinkering from time to time to keep running right. That said, most of it is coarse enough work that it's fairly easy to keep going with parts and some phone help from Tippmann. Tom is the man to talk to down there about the Aerostitch's and I've spent quite a bit of time talking with him about my machine. Mine actually came out after the last manual, and they never produced one for my model, it's actually slightly different than all the 4 manuals they made;) So he at one point drew out a pneumatic diagram for me to redo the hose's and replace the missing ones. Good luck and feel free to shout with questions, most everyone here who has posted myself included would be happy to help;) Enjoy the machine! Luke

On leather I've had really great luck with Springfield Leather, you can get Hermann Oak there which should have a nice napp on the back of the leather. www.springfieldleather.com They are also a sponsor of the forum but they have some of the best customer service I've ever received. Good luck! Luke

That makes sense and I hadn't really thought about it in that manner as far as the leather going before the thread. I guess I was focused on abrading the thread or it being cut and unraveling, because I know how difficult it is to remove a saddle stitch and lock isn't easy but it's certainly easier than saddle stitch to remove. Either way I'm not too worried about it just was wondering if anyone else had any ideas, I guess I could have worded it as a way to stop unraveling. I guess if we overstitch to lock out stitching double stitching on top seems to me like it would lock every stitch so to speak, but I admit that it wouldn't look very good aesthetically. Either way just a brainstorm of sorts;) So I took your advice and I think I improved. I actually broke the top thread at about the half-way point and that's why there are two spots with overstitch. I used a small flat headed hammer to tap the threads after lightly casing the leather and it looks like it removed nearly all the marks from the foot(well I also took the foot and filed off the sharp edges then buffed it with 2000 grit wet paper). I missed my groove at one spot but I think it's an improvement. Any suggestions as always are appreciated:) Oh and I forgot to mention I know my tension was a little tight on the needle side I didn't notice till half way through, and I've been fighting with tension quite a bit. Actually that's another question in itself. I seem to have too much top tension but it's nearly completely off. I've double checked that it's threaded per the manual and I'm really lost. Basically to get it to work properly tension wise the primary and secondary have to be at around 1/2 turn(rather than 1.5 and 2), and the bobbin tension is actually not 1lb. or so of pull I would guess I'm running like 3lbs. just to try and get some adjustment to the top side of the system. If I'm understanding the mechanics of the operation getting the bobbin down to 1lb. of pull would require even looser tension on top(which of course you can't get when you're as far adjusted as it goes). How much tension should I have on the top thread is lbs? When pulling through the needle for instance? Just trying to get a ballpark because I suspect my problem is something either in one of the tensioners is wonky or perhaps I'm threading it wrong despite reading and watching the video's. Thanks again for all the help:) Luke

Good info all around thanks;) When you say oversew are you saying that you run back over your start point. Say making a square or circle, coming back to where your first stitches are and running over 3-4 of them to lock the end? I assume that's what your saying, I had tried that with better results also I'm just thinking on my normal popular rig the Texas holster I've got stop points where the clips are on either side of the rig, for the rest of it I can over-run but in two places I'm going to have to figure out a start like this;) One other rather odd question, lockstitch and it's strength vs. handstitch. I know hand stitch is stronger but what about laying two lockstitches in every hole, it seems to me that would be as good or better than running a double stitch where they are separate. I'm just kinda brainstorming here but I've been trying to think of a way to make the lockstitch even stronger. Thanks again! Luke