FrogNog

One trick you can do with the tape brake line holders is fold up your brake line and put it into the holders before you put the bottom toggle tab in. This lets you make a thicker fold of brake lines (e.g. triple-folded instead of double-folded) that you can fit in without much trouble (before the toggle tab is inserted) but is retained more tightly during operation. Personally, I just stopped caring whether my brake lines escape once in a while (they usually don't, and if they do it's usually only part of them) and use my eyeballs to make sure I don't put my hand through any brakeline loops while grabbing the toggles. (Yeah, I only screwed that one up a couple times. ) -=-=-=-=- Pull.

This is why I'm waiting: I need my groundlaunching skill and my skiing (or snowboarding) skill to both be high enough to be up to this challenge, which seems to combine the risks of groundlaunching with the risks of skiing. Unfortunately I have precious little experience at either, despite having fallen out of an airplane a fair number of times. Others less concerned about risk might not be as restrained as I. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

Yeah, I have been looking at slop as my biggest clue something is wrong. If something is loose in or on an integral part of the body, I assume that marks the machine for the recycling pile. Today I looked at a Singer 111W115. Now I know what one kind of walking foot looks like and why I don't want to use one until I need to. Darn thing was a thread-cutter. Bigger than I want to start out, too. I wish the guy who sold me that gorgeous other machine hadn't sold it to someone else for $200 more before I picked it up. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

Can any of you sewing machine gurus tell me how to spot a worn-out hook on a machine before I buy it? Due to my general mechanical inclination, I feel like I could spot a number of bad things. But this one sounds like it's real bad, and might not show up during the test drive if the seller has tweaked the conditions just right. (E.g. using the one kind of thread the machine still likes.) If there's some book I should get, I can do that. Or I can take instruction on what part, exactly, of the hook wears out, and look at how that's working on some real live machines. Basically I would like to avoid paying the local commercial sewing machine store an extra $500 over private party sales just to make sure this part hasn't gone bad. If the answer is "talk to your instructor" then I'll call up the local commercial store and see if they'll show me in person. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

The skinny round bed is actually flat on top. The machine will accept a wooden table with a slot cut in it (which I don't have) to pretend like it has a flat bed. The foot does have some ridges on the bottom of it, but I think the machine is fairly dependent on not having to fight very hard to feed the work. From the start, I was concerned about being able to make the box stitch patterns correctly due to the feed strength. It would probably be one of those things where I could do it if I concentrated, but I would sweat every stitch. Good way to start out, though, I suppose. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

I see. So, does that mean that the left column of the table on page 4.048 in my Poynter's Parachute Manual is the Singer needle size? If so, that's handy. I guess I'll have to stick with working on lighter-duty webbing. And shoes. I will keep an eye out for that elusive local bargain 7-31. And the feed on the 29-4 is done by the presser foot lifting and hopping forward on the work while the needle makes an odd little second downstroke, I believe. The foot then pulls back to its normal position after the needle has raised. (No feed parts below the work.) It's not the strongest pull, but it can feed in any direction the operator selects by rotating the foot alignment collar thingie. Nice to have a machine that you could set to feed the work straight toward you, huh? -=-=-=-=- Pull.

Could you do harness work with a Singer 29-4? I just got one for some webbing work that will not be life-or-death in anywhere near the way skydiving is. (Basically I'll be doing some cargo nets for a van, and I might do some scuba stuff. Who knows - maybe I'll make a pair of shoes. ;) I was just wondering what capabilities, characteristics, or qualities separated a Singer 29 from a Singer 7 series. (Besides the treadle - I get that part. ) Plus also I felt I hadn't asked a weird question in kind of a while... -=-=-=-=- Pull.

Here's a sweet door setup, IMO. Don't fail to have a peek at the actual door, too. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

Does anyone have a link to one or more SOS holy war threads? I should like to go re-read them to make sure anything I have to say on the matter has already been recorded. (This would also save me time in immediately seeing any historical replies...) -=-=-=-=- Pull.

I'm guessing about 10 people or six full-size refrigerators. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

The dropzones up here are 80% hot chicks and 20% badass old-timers named "Dave". (The wingsuit guy in back isn't named "Dave", but as I recall he's got three flockmates this day and one of them is.) -=-=-=-=- Pull.

Measure the slider with a ruler and make sure it's the right size for that canopy. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

Jeannie, would you say the Ravens land a lot smoother than no canopy at all? That's why I'll jump one if that's my option. That said, I have been slowly spending the money to try and move to PDRs. Used ones, so I know they work. -=-=-=-=- Pull.

Before they fail. (I am not a rigger. Yet. ) -=-=-=-=- Pull.

I'd get a nice, girly pink. That way when someone sees it they'll wonder "Why didn't he cut that ugly thing away?" and eventually they should figure out "oh, it's a reserve; it's really tough and unadvisable to cut that away." Personally, I like white because it looks "proper". The baby blue just looks gay to me. I wouldn't be sore about this except once I thought I bought a white reserve and ended up with a blue one. That's on the ground. In the air, my favorite color of reserve is, as they say, "open". That orange Swift 245 sure was prettier than the ground... -=-=-=-=- Pull.