Making stitch holes using a drill.

[JohnBarton]

Hi,

Just thought I'd share a tip from our shop. We often make our stitch holes using a leather needle from the sewing machine which is shaped like an awl inserted into a drill.

This works well as we can set the needle point exactly where the hole should be and it makes a precise and neat and small hole without taking out excess leather.

We used to use a drill bit - I know, it's not traditional and there is hot debate on the morals of using a drill bit to make sewing holes. :-)

The problem we had with the drill bits were that even the smallest was too big in our opinion and if we slipped when setting the bit and pulling the trigger then the drill bit would ruin the piece.

I am sure someone has already posted this technique but on the off chance that it hasn't been here it is. Drill plus leather needle - easy holes.

[Rawhide]

Hi,

Just thought I'd share a tip from our shop. We often make our stitch holes using a leather needle from the sewing machine which is shaped like an awl inserted into a drill.

This works well as we can set the needle point exactly where the hole should be and it makes a precise and neat and small hole without taking out excess leather.

We used to use a drill bit - I know, it's not traditional and there is hot debate on the morals of using a drill bit to make sewing holes. :-)

The problem we had with the drill bits were that even the smallest was too big in our opinion and if we slipped when setting the bit and pulling the trigger then the drill bit would ruin the piece.

I am sure someone has already posted this technique but on the off chance that it hasn't been here it is. Drill plus leather needle - easy holes.

John,

You can take the same needle and put it in a sewing machine. This will punch all your holes consistently and spaced perfectly without the tiring out your arm.

just my .02.

[JohnBarton]

John,

You can take the same needle and put it in a sewing machine. This will punch all your holes consistently and spaced perfectly without the tiring out your arm.

just my .02.

:-) We already do that. I guess I should have clarified that this tip is for places that don't fit in the sewing machine for whatever reason.

On our cue cases we have several areas that need to be hand sewn and due to the complexity of these particular places or parts we have found that pre-punching the holes using the sewing machine on both parts leads to the holes and parts not lining up right later. So we went to assembling the parts using glue and clamps and then punching the holes using the drill/needle setup and it works great.