Hinckley, Leicestershire. I didn't realise there were so many UK based trimmers on this forum :)

Acrylic / Perspex is cheaper than polycarbonate but it can shatter. Polycarbonate scratches more easily than acrylic but it's pretty unbreakable. You can buy Lexan which is a polycarbonate with a scratch resistant coating so it gives you the best of both worlds. More expensive but it means that it won't be ruined if someone carelessly wipes sand / grit off the window.

Getting hold of any clear plastic in these strange times is tough - most places have been cleared out by the retail / catering sector for making COVID-safe screens and such like.

Try www.westtrading.nl

Thanks, that's useful to know. It's a shame that it failed after such a short time. I haven't bought a new saw yet, there doesn't seem to be a whole lot of choice out there

In my opinion reinforcement isn't necessary on the french seam on a dash cover. The cover is stuck to the dash and supported by it, so once it's fixed in place it'll sit there happily. That would reduce the amount of material beneath the seam.

My leather cutting bench is an 8ft x 4ft surface but I find myself wishing it was wider so the hide doesn't hang off the edges as much. When I get around to it I'll add a wider surface but it's one of those jobs that isn't really a priority but continues to irritate me!

On the plus side: Works for food and belly rubs, has excellent customer relations skills.
Downsides: can't operate a sewing machine, caught sleeping under the bench numerous times.

One of my customers has a bonus scheme for their staff, where the employees are given a percentage of the profit that the company makes, on top of their regular salary. It's a pretty good system as it encourages the guys to focus on efficiency and productivity, because the more money they make for the company the more bonus they get at the end of the year.

Did you buy one of those cutters in the end @Joseph Bennell? I'm looking to buy a new one and I'm wondering how they compare.
If anyone else has experience of one of the cutters in the original post, or has any other recommendations I'd be interested to know.

I try to stay on top of things on a day-to-day basis, keeping things tidy as much as possible. Difficult to spend valuable time doing that instead of chargeable hours on a customer's car, but it helps in the long run with efficiency I think. I set aside the day before the Christmas break each year to do a big tidy up, clear out and do any maintenance / upgrades that I've been planning. This time I had quite a lot to do so I came in for a few days over the holidays to get the workshop ready for the new year. Nobody else there so it was nice and peaceful at least!

I'd like to know what Aaron's views are on steaming leather to get rid of wrinkles. It's been discussed a couple of times on this forum and the opinions seem to go from "I steam the heck out of every cover I make" to "I would never steam any leather cover".
Personally I use steam very carefully, but I have had leather which reacts badly to it in the past, and I'd not go anywhere near perforated leather with a steamer. I know some manufacturers steam their seats on the production line.
I'd be interested to know his thoughts.

That's really informative, given me plenty of ideas for the new workshop! The pulley idea is interesting... will explore that some more. Thank you Aaron and Nadeem.

I take the "Do not resew" label to mean: do not repair in a way which involves unpicking the seams and re-stitching them, such as replacing a torn panel or re-sewing a broken seam. I suppose they couldn't put "Do not repair" because that would exclude things like "smart" repairs for small holes, which more than likely would not affect airbag deployment.

Some interesting points in this thread!

I'm guessing Hal is talking about those panels which have speaker perforations in the middle of an otherwise plain piece, such as on Mazda MX5 / Miata seats with the in-built headrest speakers, or on some door panels. In those circumstances I wouldn't think you could have a roll perforated to your needs because you'd never know how much plain vinyl you'll need surrounding the perforations for that particular job. Unless you do a lot of one particular car and can have the perforated areas spaced to suit.

@Jens Jesberg rolling the hides certainly has the advantage of being space-efficient, and like you say, the hides are protected from UV damage. This may be the way I go with storing them in future.

That's great @Nadeem Muaddi! Looking forward to what he recommends.

@Chris Vining, I get white Plastazote from efoam.co.uk . They do a few other colours too.

Thanks very much for the advice, guys. The link that you provided @Lewis Moore has given me a great idea to solve the yarn feed issues. It also got me thinking about the type of yarn I'm using.
@Nadeem Muaddi it's a Pegasus. Pretty old but I think they're basically an old Singer design.
@Mal Maher thank you for the advice, once I've got the yarn spool mounted and feeding nicely so that it's not complicating the issue I'll have a play with it and do the adjustments you've suggested.

Thanks for your reply @Steve Ingram I am having trouble getting the yarn to wind from the spool smoothly and when it tightens up, it messes everything up. However when I unwind a load of the yarn to get a decent run of stitches going, I'm still left with a messy and loose edge.
I'll have a play with the yarn tension, and get the spool set up so that it unwinds smoothy too.

I'm a big fan of servo motors since I switched. A nicely worn in clutch motor can be nice to use but servos are so much more predictable in my optinion. I don't have the needle position option on mine but they're so controllable you can stop with the needle down (or up) every time I've found.

How is your search for employees going, any updates?

Do they build their own seat frames / buckets etc too? It would explain why I can't find them for sale anywhere!

If anyone knows of somewhere making high quality replicas I'd appreciate it

Sorry for the late response. Thanks for all the replies. My customer is having a break from the project so the steering wheel is on the back burner for a bit, but I'm going to go with the moulding option as I can't seem to find anything off the shelf.

That's a really nice, clean shop you have. Love it.