Become a Patron!

Making a leather sleeve / case for your mods

Huckleberried

VU Donator
Diamond Contributor
Member For 5 Years
VU Patreon
I have 6 and planned on making a case for all of em' but that seemed a little overkill. :)
Nah...
no.gif
 
This article is the very reason I signed up for this forum! I am looking to buy one of these beasties soon, and thought to myself " Withe the brushed metal look, and those brassy bits, this mod would look SEXY with a leather wrap with brass wiring wrapped on the edges to finish it!" :D
 

Huckleberried

VU Donator
Diamond Contributor
Member For 5 Years
VU Patreon
This article is the very reason I signed up for this forum! I am looking to buy one of these beasties soon, and thought to myself " Withe the brushed metal look, and those brassy bits, this mod would look SEXY with a leather wrap with brass wiring wrapped on the edges to finish it!" :D
Amazing, aren't they??! Welcome to the forum :)
 
Greetings y'all.
I'm a brand new member here and actually came across this discussion while searching for leather cases for my mods. My question is for Magnetik.
Would it be possible to make a case similar to yours with leather that has been already softened and dyed for its original use ? I have some pieces of black leather that was cut from an old pair of motorcycle chaps, that I was considering using for something like this. Would it be feasible to use it, or would it be too thin and flimsy ? Would I need a piece of thicker, untreated leather instead ?
Thanks,
Karl
 
If you start with fresh craft leather you be able to wet it and it will shrink and form nicely around your mod. Also when it is wet you will be able to press in any details like lines, shapes etc that you want to accentuate.

Using the type of leather you are describing will need more stitching and will be more complex in order to fasten your mod so that it doesn't slip out.

You need vege leather for wet forming.
 
Would the craft leather have to be a certain thickness, or have a maximum thickness as to be able to access the buttons, without them being down in a "hole", so to speak ?
 

scarecrowjenkins

Silver Contributor
Member For 4 Years
Unlisted Vendor
This is an awesome thread! I've tried my hand at this in the past, but i had a problem with the leather stretching while i was cutting it. Any tips on keeping that from happening, or do i just need to use really hard leather?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
This is an awesome thread! I've tried my hand at this in the past, but i had a problem with the leather stretching while i was cutting it. Any tips on keeping that from happening, or do i just need to use really hard leather?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I think that if you used a harder leather, it would probably be too stiff and more difficult to get it to form around curves and corners. I could be wrong, it's just a thought.
 

magnetik

Member For 4 Years
fwiw.. you can use thicker veg tan leather and slowly moisten it. It will harden as it dries. I spritz a little warm water and let it sit for a bit and keep doing it until the leather is workable. Some people wet lightly and put into a plastic baggie but it takes longer. The more water.. the more stretchy / rubbery the leather gets. It's pretty forgiving so if it get's too wet.. just let it dry and it will stiffen right up. As far as the question regarding thickness and still being able to use the buttons.. I actually like it to be thick enough for the button to be inset (this prevents firing while it's in my pocket). You could always punch a little bit bigger holes if you have big fingers like me. You can sometimes wet mold leather if it's not completely dyed on both sides by just wetting the insides. Depending on the dye, it might not take wet forming on the outside dyed part. If you just want black.. vinegaroon may better allow wet molding after application. Vinegaroon uses a chemical process instead of dyeing the leather. You can make vinegaroon with distilled vinegar and 00 steel wool.

https://www.adamsleatherworks.com/vinegaroon-a-k-a-vinegar-black/
 
Last edited:
Yeah I dunno why those pictures are so small. Can you even see anything? Maybe if you click on them or something. The leather is ostrich quill. It feels pretty nice.

The next one I will use half the thickness of leather. It feels a bit chunky in the hand.

i glued the ostrich and tooling leather together the day before with contact glue. Then measured it slightly longer and talker than was needed. Stitched it, then I wet the inside, (most of it but stayed clear of the stitching section, i didn't want it stretching there) with isopropyl (rubbing alcohol), I didn't really soak it, just squirted around evenly covered, because I was feeling impatient (it works fine, it shrunk up real snug) then once it was dry I did the cut out for the buttons and display and then shaped some finger grooves into it using dremel, dyed the grooves black.

Then chopped of the excess on the bottom, dremel sanded the edged a few grits then burnished it with the dremel and a small door knob, I put a bolt through the middle and ground down the thread to fit the dremel, some spit on the edges and run the spinning door knob along edge until smooth,

dyed the outside black (it was brown) with edge finish stuff. Wipe on the sealer to keep the dye from rubbing off then withe the shoe polish brush I spread around the bees wax and buffed it off with terry towel.

Anyone could do it. I just did the criss cross stitching on the inside and running stitch on the outside then cross over on the inside etc. oh yeah so I shaped the inside edge at the join so it would butt up nice otherwise there would be a gap where I didn't cross over on the outside with the running stitch.

I mark the stitch holes with a fork then just drill with the dremel.
 

Eric DeCastro

Silver Contributor
Member For 4 Years
this is awesome. this should really be in a forum that gets more traffic. I just stumbled upon it.
 

magnetik

Member For 4 Years
It's been a while and I've moved onto squonking and need a case for my GBox and a few other mods I have lying around.. thinking of possibly digging out the leather making gear again. stay tuned
 

Just Frank

Platinum Contributor
Member For 5 Years
I haven't seen this thread before. Great looking stuff in here. My grandpa used to do leather work projects. He would make me belts and stuff like that.
 

VU Sponsors

Top