Show your Shop

[Big Sioux Saddlery]

5 minutes ago, Rossr said:

Well big souix....that is one heck of a lot of machines and shop you got there,    I suspect you could make just about anything you could dream!

 

I can't make boots and shoes, and I don't do clothes.  I'm really looking forward to getting everything completely set up.  Most of the heavy machines are still at the old shop.  Bench machines are scattered here and there, everywhere but on the benches.

[Rossr]

Just now, Big Sioux Saddlery said:

I can't make boots and shoes, and I don't do clothes.  I'm really looking forward to getting everything completely set up.  Most of the heavy machines are still at the old shop.  Bench machines are scattered here and there, everywhere but on the benches.

what you meant to say was you havent tried to make boots shoes or clothes.       You will be living once you get things set the way you want!!    Cant imagine how long it took yo to amass all those machines and tools

[Big Sioux Saddlery]

23 minutes ago, Rossr said:

what you meant to say was you havent tried to make boots shoes or clothes.       You will be living once you get things set the way you want!!    Cant imagine how long it took yo to amass all those machines and tools

I would like to make a couple pairs of boots for myself someday, sooner rather than later.  But dang they're intimidating!   I started doing leather work about 40 years ago, so I guess you could say it's taken me 40 years to acquire my "collection".  That makes me feel kind of old, now that I see it in print.

[bikermutt07]

4 hours ago, Big Sioux Saddlery said:

I would like to make a couple pairs of boots for myself someday, sooner rather than later.  But dang they're intimidating!   I started doing leather work about 40 years ago, so I guess you could say it's taken me 40 years to acquire my "collection".  That makes me feel kind of old, now that I see it in print.

That is a heck of a lot of stuff you have there. Thanks for sharing.

I was tooling around Lisa Sorrell's website the other day. She has a two week course on boot making where you leave with your own boots that you make. And that includes a pair of lasts that she shapes for you  and her DVD collection. It's expensive, but seems like a good deal given the price her boots demand. Maybe that would make a nice vacation for ya.

[Big Sioux Saddlery]

4 hours ago, bikermutt07 said:

That is a heck of a lot of stuff you have there. Thanks for sharing.

I was tooling around Lisa Sorrell's website the other day. She has a two week course on boot making where you leave with your own boots that you make. And that includes a pair of lasts that she shapes for you  and her DVD collection. It's expensive, but seems like a good deal given the price her boots demand. Maybe that would make a nice vacation for ya.

If I was 25 years younger, I'd think about it.  I absolutely don't want to make boots for the public, and that's a lot of money just to make a couple pairs for myself.  Not saying her course isn't worth it, just that it wouldn't be worth it for me.  Right now a vacation sounds good though, to somewhere that it doesn't take 15 minutes to get dressed to go outside, and then once you're out there you realize you have to go to the bathroom so you go back in, take everything back off, do your business, then get dressed all over again.  Yep, that's getting real old and it's only the first week in January.

[bikermutt07]

3 minutes ago, Big Sioux Saddlery said:

If I was 25 years younger, I'd think about it.  I absolutely don't want to make boots for the public, and that's a lot of money just to make a couple pairs for myself.  Not saying her course isn't worth it, just that it wouldn't be worth it for me.  Right now a vacation sounds good though, to somewhere that it doesn't take 15 minutes to get dressed to go outside, and then once you're out there you realize you have to go to the bathroom so you go back in, take everything back off, do your business, then get dressed all over again.  Yep, that's getting real old and it's only the first week in January.

Then that vacation wouldn't work, she's in Oklahoma. Ha!

I think the class would be worth it, but it is way out of my tax bracket. If I could afford that, wife would have us at Disney world.

[alpha2]

So, Big Sioux, how much stuff have you re-discovered that you'd forgotten  you had?

The other side of that coin is that when you finally get it all put away again...you still have to remember where it is NOW.  I hate moving.

[KingsCountyLeather]

Who makes the clicker dies for you? 

Thats an amazing amount of stuff. There’s a lovely smell of leather as I walk into my workshop  you must get a high from the sell of leather in your shop? 

[Big Sioux Saddlery]

4 hours ago, alpha2 said:

So, Big Sioux, how much stuff have you re-discovered that you'd forgotten  you had?

The other side of that coin is that when you finally get it all put away again...you still have to remember where it is NOW.  I hate moving.

Lots and lots!  Like 7, that's SEVEN lbs of black 277 thread when I really only ever need two lbs at any given time.  Bags and bags of hardware that I'd doubled and tripled up on when I couldn't find the first bag.  For the last 7 years I've been cramped into an old, cold, dark farm shop building.  It was supposed to be 6 months at the most, but many of you know how a divorce can go.  During that time I had inventory stashed in every room in my house, a semi trailer, my garage, my horse trailer, and my barn, besides the building I was working out of.  It was a miserable hellish seven years.  Ultimate goal is too have a place for everything, and everything in it's place.  As it was, I'd spend way too much time looking for stuff, and my efficiency was terrible.  I've dreaded this move at the same time knowing that things would not get better until after the move.  I still have nightmares from the last time I moved, and that was just my household stuff!

3 hours ago, KingsCountyLeather said:

Who makes the clicker dies for you? 

Thats an amazing amount of stuff. There’s a lovely smell of leather as I walk into my workshop  you must get a high from the sell of leather in your shop? 

The clicker dies I've accumulated over the last 25 years, from a number of places.  The first ones I got from Big Sky Die, and they aren't around anymore.  Quite a few I got used, and aren't marked so Idk where they came from.  I have some from Texas Custom, Cut Rite, International, Viking.  

Unless I've been away for a few days, I can't smell the leather anymore.  Once in awhile, if I get a new batch of quite a few sides at a time, it'll smell good for a few days, but that was in a much smaller space.  I'm not sure with as much space as the new shop is, it'll be concentrated enough to smell it.   Everyone else takes a deep breath when they come through the door and comment on how good it smells, so  I guess a person gets somewhat "immune" to it.  Too bad that doesn't happen with the glue!

[Jake907]

I've been so inspired by all of you and your workspaces, from the little hole in the wall places to the big professional shops. Thank you everyone for sharing. So, now I've decided that I "need" a dedicated leather workspace of my own, so I gave away my old recliner and set up a table in the corner of my living room by the wood stove.