Consew 199R Change Over To 199R - 3A

[elZeeko]

Just bought a Consew 199R on Craigslist. It is light green, and I think that it is the first generation 199 - made in Japan.

I am interested in converting it to sew the double-step zigzag.

In the parts manual, it looks like you can swap out the cams to do this.

Also, I'd like to switch it to the larger bobbin (199RB), and put in a larger needle plate so it can zigzag up to the full width that the needle can move - right now, you can only go to about 6/10 on the zigzag before it hits the side of the plate.

Has anyone done this conversion? I saw a post on the upholstery forum where Greeg said that they had had problems mixing parts from different vintages of 199.

Here are the parts that I am thinking that I will need to do the job:

Cam 606b

Needle Plate 705a

Hook 712a

Bobbin Case 714a

Presser Foot 721a

Feed dog 724a

Any info/experience would be welcome.

[elZeeko]

hmmmm.

Anyone have any experience with the cams for a Consew 199R in general?

[CowboyBob]

The 199R-2 & 3 machines have the cam on the outside ,the shafts are longer for both the cam & the cam following lever,

You will also have the change the gear on the inside,buy longer shafts,the lever & roller that rides in the cam too.

Here's a pic of a 199R-2A machine

Bob

[CowboyBob]

Here you can see the roller in the cam that runs the zigzag.

I want you to know I am no expert on these machines,I have worked on them alot & reair & get them sewing but when it comes to doing the change you want to do I think it would be cheaper just to get the machine you want in the first place.I seem the remember asking Consew about these parts before because we wanted the change the 2 step to a 3-step & I think the parts were around $7-800.00 5 yrs ago.

Bob

[elZeeko]

Bob,

Thanks for the good advice - I really appreciate how much energy some of you gurus put into these forums. Also, a shout out to Gregg at Keystone.

We were thinking about converting the 199R because we already have a Bernina 217 zigzag, and thought that we could add some extra functionality if we swapped it out for the modified Consew, and I was looking for a mechanical challenge, but can't spend that much.

New to the forum and don't know the etiquette - do people on the forum try to encourage people to use existing mechanics in their area, and am I stepping on any toes in trying to be my own mechanic here?

I've been making bags from fire hose, leather, and found textiles for the last 10 years, but in doing some craft faires in our town, I am realizing that there aren't many industrial sewing machine mechanics around my town, and that there may be a small niche in working on our fellow artisans' machines - so I am learning as I go, fiddling with my machines last 10 years...

On the Consew 199R, the other thing I am looking at doing is putting the larger hook and bobbin into the 199R to make it a 199RB - if anyone has any advice on that. Looks like I just have to slide the feed lifting rock shaft/feed bar over to the left a little to make room for the larger hook - anyone know if the larger 199RB feed dogs have an offset on their mounting holes from the smaller one or if I'm missing anything in making that work?

Zeke

Consew 206RB-5

Brother DB2-192

Bernina 217

Consew 226

Consew 199R

Here you can see the roller in the cam that runs the zigzag.

I want you to know I am no expert on these machines,I have worked on them alot & reair & get them sewing but when it comes to doing the change you want to do I think it would be cheaper just to get the machine you want in the first place.I seem the remember asking Consew about these parts before because we wanted the change the 2 step to a 3-step & I think the parts were around $7-800.00 5 yrs ago.

Bob