Another week gone by...

I was in Florida last week, for the National Board meeting for the Civil Air Patrol. Orlando is nice, but WAY too hot. I'll stick with Central PA for now.

I took some pictures of the shop, and figured I could give everyone a decent view of the dungeon. I have much more room since I moved the pool table, but now I don't have any place to play. Oh well... guess I can always head to the VFW.

Here's a picture of my one bench. Not a lot of space, but since I moved the pool table, I build a new bench that is 4' by 8'. It is nice and heavy and absorbs the impact when hammering rivets and such.

Here's a pic of my tool belt. Custom? You bet... you can't buy these at the big box stores. I couldn't find one I liked, so I made my own ; ).

Here's a pic of the main work area. Basically everything gets cut with a head knife (the moon shaped blade) and the razor knife. I don't use a clicker, like the high priced guys do. One, they are big, and two, I don't need to make cases that fast. If I wanted production, I would move out of my house.

I use the Tippmann Stitcher for sewing handles and really heavy stuff, but that's about it for now. It's anice machine, and allows my to sew super heavy thread, like #346, close to 1 mm in thickness. Everything else though, is all I use to make my cases, an awl, ruler, straight edge, patterns, etc. All hand made, in the USA. Gotta love it.

Here's another pic of the Tippmann.

Here's a picture of the Consew. This thing is a beast, and I love it. The machine itself weighs close to 40 lbs. It will sew anything you can fit under the foot. It is a compound feed machine, meaning the needle moves WITH that material. It allows very fast stitching, with very little needle breakage. I don't use it a full speed, but instead have it geared down with a 6" and a 1" pulley. This allows me to stsitch at about 200 stitiches per minute, significantly less than the 1200 per minute it is capable of. This machine came out of a garmet factory in New York. This is a SOLID Japanese machine.

I just replaced the clutch motor with a new digital servo motor, so maybe I'll post the retrofit.

Well, that's about it for now. Next time? Making handles...

Brian