Adjustable Leather Stitching Pony

I designed this because I really wanted one of those fancy stitching ponies, but I wasn’t about to drop $180+ on one of the adjustable ones, lol. I started designing my own. I wanted something compact but feature-rich: built-in magnets to hold my needles, smooth surfaces that wouldn’t catch or tangle my thread, and handles that stayed out of the way. After a few iterations, this is what I came up with - a pony that works with me, not against me. That “hole” in the front is there for a future addition. I'm going to be adding a handle extension to hold large pieces of leather out of the way.

There are a lot of moving pieces here, I hope this helps you piece it together the right way. Most of my hardware I purchased from Lowe's, but I'll get you as much information as I can so you can buy your own: 

Parts:

2x: 9mm x 35mm Compression Spring

1x: 3/8-16 Hex Nut
1x: Hillman 3/8" x 3" - Half Thread Hex Bolt
2x: 5/16" x 2 ½" Hex Bolts
2x: 5/16" Hex Nuts
1x: 1-¼" Aluminum Threaded Post
1x: 1" Aluminum Threaded Post Extension 
2x: 19mm Magnets

The clamp down at the bottom of the pony is going to be the most crucial part to make. You have a few different options for this section, you can use 5/16 bolt for this, or, if you get the opportunity to get one - a Swivel Screw like the one I ended up using. 

The swivel screws look better, in my opinion, but you can do whatever you have available to you. I can't remember where I bought mine from, but you can find several in Amazon. You can always buy this later and replace it. 

There are two types of Bolts Covers here. Because not every bolt has the same sized “head”, I made them intentionally deeper than normal. Add the bolts to the covers and then use some sort of adhesive to permanently attach them to the bolt. You can also use Hot Glue to make a “semi” permanent.  

The clamps are going to be attached using the aluminum threaded posts. This makes it look cleaner (Look at the 4th photo below). But, if you don't have any, or you can't find any at Lowe's / Home Depot, you can use a regular screw and thread. The screw needs to be 5.5mm diameter or less, and the length is going to be 2 ½ Inches. 

Make sure that you take this time to also attach the springs to one of the bases using hot glue. They're a pain to put together if you don't do it now. 

To complete the clamp attachment, you'll want to the nut and bolt together. I would recommend that you add the nut and bolt and get them threaded BEFORE you permanently attach the cover to the pony.

Attach the clamp following the same process. The only difference here is that I didn't add a cover to the base of the pony to hide the thread. This is mainly because of the size of the nut and bolt. I couldn't find a way to hide it more than I already did. 

I used 19mm magnets for this next piece. You can just plop them in, and use some sort of cement to hold them in place. When you're done, you can use the same cement to wrap a piece of leather around the tips of the pony. This will give you the grip you need to keep your project from moving around.