Tips for building your first seat

[crwsctrl]

Hello to the group! I have to say I have been scanning this forum for a few weeks and the feedback and knowledge here has been invaluable.

I am getting ready to build my first custom seat and before diving all the way in I was hoping to get a few tips from some that have traveled this road before.

I build a custom seat pan out of fiberglass following some great tutorials from bikernet.com and I am getting ready to start attaching the foam and then working with my leather.

Some of the questions I had revolve around the leather and this is where I was hoping to get some tips.

When lacing the leather, how much overlap should I allow for from the top to the sides or should there be any? I assumed that I should overlap the leather by 1/4 or more but I wanted to see what most did.

I plan on burnishing the edges to give finished look with beeswax and dremel polishing wheel. For those that burnish any tips or other techniques used?

As I layout the hole pattern I was originally thinking of doing this with a seamstress tape measure and marking every 1/8 to 1/4". Is this the best approach or should I look at using a wheel to mark the pattern?

This of course drops right into the next series of questions regarding the lacing. I have seen tips for punching out the leather holes and then tips on using an Awl to make holes. I realize the difference between pushing leather back vs. removing. I am on the fence now between which techniques to use. What is the consensus on making the holes for the leather laces?

Also regarding the holes, how much space do you allow between the edge of the leather and the holes itself? In most of the images I have seen it looks like about 1/4 inch but I was curious is there was a rule of thumb?

I purchased a lacing book written by Al Stohlman and there are some great lacing patterns in this book. One pattern that I was also interested in was one I saw posted on the forum titled a Mexican braid? I have looked around but I have been unable to find this lace pattern. Does anyone have any other suggestions/instructions on a nice looking lace pattern for a seat?

And finally ( whew) with regards to dying the leather and sealing it. I want to apply a dark (if not burnt( brown dye to the seat for a rich dark look. What is a good dye brand to look at using for a seat and when it comes to sealing the leather what might you suggest as a good sealant?

I know these are a ton of questions and I really do appreciate any tips or suggestions the forum has. I'll post some pics in the near future as soon as I start making some progress.

All the best.

Randy

Edited January 9, 2009 by crwsctrl

[Scary Leatherworks]

Randy, I am very new to this myself but will kick things off here. 1) I allow 3/8" to 1/2" for overlap on top to overlap all sides. 2) For laying out the hole spacing I measure around the seat top (in from the perimeter where the lacing holes will be) then I try and divide my rough hole spacing into it. I like to have an even number of lacing holes approx. 1/2" apart. Depending on the seat sometimes the holes are closer/farther apart. The hole spacing also depends on lacing style. Mine is only for simple cross lacing. 3) I use a wing divider to mark the holes for punching. First I try it out on the backside to see if it comes out right. 4) I use a rotary punch and make my holes a bit smaller than the lace I'm using. Again this depends on the lacing style. 5) As for dye I use Fiebings spirit based dye and finish with "Leather Balm with Atom wax" (thanks David)

What style seat are you doing? Are you going to do a seat with a top and bottom or a seat with a top and sides and wet from it?

hope this helps

Scott

[crwsctrl]

Scott,

Thanks for the input that helps a lot . This seat is going to be a solo saddle. I made the seat pan out of fiberglass so that I could have something more form fitted to the frame. I plan to just do a seat with top and sides. The bottom of the pan is just going to have a heavy fabric and some rubber grommets at contact points on the frame.

You bring up another thought... I had not thought about wet forming the leather to the seat. I plan on using 6oz on the top and then 4-5oz on the sides. As this being my first seat I was following one of the tutuorials by Paul Cox (for those interested: http://www.bikernet.com/garage/coxseat.asp ) where once the seat is dyed and stitched he then used an adhesive to attach the leather the foam and the riveted it down. I was thinking of getting a good fit and then using the rivets and adhesive to "cinch" down the leather. The seat is fairly basic in curves and lines, no dramatic or large pitches in the foam.

Would I be wrong in assuming that by soaking the leather then it becomes more workable when fitting it over the leather and then as it dries it will shrink some pulling it tighter to the seat?

Thanks,

Randy

[Ian]

Randy, do your foam first, of course. High quality neoprene is the best. Then draw the seam lines onto the foam. Make sure your seams are logical.

I agree, 3/8 to 1/2 is a good overlap. I use contact cement to glue the seams before lacing, that way you can punch your lacing holes in the top before you glue it together and punch the bottom holes through the top.

I don't use a ton of spray adhesive, and just on the top to hold it from shifting when I rivet.

I think on of the most important things is to draw a center line and follow that when you are gluing the top down. Also, make sure you line up the top with the seam line you've drawn on the foam. There's nothing more depressing than placing the cover wrong and then have to relift it, damaging the foam. You'll be surprised at how even 1/4 inch can throw the whole thing off.

Good luck

Ian

[Scary Leatherworks]

Randy, I also use 6oz for the top and 3-4oz for the sides. I try to get the sides really wet before forming to the seat. I try not to get the top wet. Yes wetting the leather makes it more workable and it does shrink a bit making it tighter. Unfortunatley it's been my experience that even if you don't have any tight curves the leather will still bunch some especially in the front of the seat. one of the tips I picked up here is to wet form the seat riveting it in place stretching it evenly. You will probably find that there will be some areas that you can't get the bunched up leather to smooth out. Let the seat dry out for a day then remove the rivets in the area that is bunched up then re-wet that area and stretch it some more. If I'm working with a steel pan I use sheet metal screws the first time I form the seat that way I can remove them easily when I re-wet and rivet for final fit. Not sure if that will work for fiberglass. here's a pic of a cover I made that eventually was wet formed

I used two pieces for the sides because that's what I had but one piece works just as well

Scott