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georgeandgracie

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About georgeandgracie

  • Rank
    Member
  • Birthday July 27

Profile Information

  • Gender
    Female
  • Location
    Beulah, Colorado
  • Interests
    Log houses, cats, blacksmithing, photography, spoon carving, color.

LW Info

  • Interested in learning about
    Sewing leather and waxed canvas together.
  • How did you find leatherworker.net?
    Nice guy at Fine Leatherworking

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  1. I have the same problem with waxed canvas. But I've shown it to Filson people and they don't seem to be concerned. I will be eager to see what kinds of responses you get to this good question.
  2. @gottaknow I never thought that I would become so nostalgic for Fussbudget! Nor so glad to know it will be home soon, even if you don't get a chance to work on it. I just wish it hadn't become such a millstone around your neck, but who knew that life would get strange on you? I have already sent Alberoni a message asking about returning the machine. Hopefully they will stand behind their merchandise. Maybe Bonkers is just a lemon.
  3. Bonkers the 211U567B went completely off the deep end this afternoon. Backstitching is now creating epic snarls. The work will not pull out from the needle - it has to be torn from the machine. The bobbin acts weird. Even the servo I bought for it is unbelievably touchy. I hate this machine and am sorry I bought it. @gottaknow@mikesc
  4. @gottaknowAre there other decent needle feed machines besides the near-mythical Singer 211G157? If Fussbudget will be able to sew flat tool rolls when you get done with it, then I would rather have it back and sell Bonkers. Fussbudget isn't as noisy and it doesn't have habitual thread problems in the needle/bobbin area. (These I haven't yet gotten around to mentioning in this discussion.) If I complain to Alberoni that this machine is NOT "the 211G157 except newer" as they told me, I wonder what they will do ...
  5. @gottaknow Is it a compound feed? Sort of both walking and needle feed in one? It certainly is sewing flatter tool rolls than Fussbudget the Consew 206RB did. To be honest, I don't know how to tell one type of machine from another. For Iack of experience I just go by what people tell me! Eric, should I send it back? If I do, then what? The Singer 211G157 that you recommend is a very rare bird and I've got to have something!
  6. It does not feel like the butterfly is abrading the thread. The felt pad was taken out in the picture you refer to - the thread was simply going through the felt pad's clip. Guess I could put the pad back in - there is no oil in the oiler anyway. That "first thread guide" was set that way when I got the machine - just a few days ago. It is not a very old machine but it is not new, either. Except to me. How does this orientation look to you? I just aimed the opening of the little tube toward the nearest hole in the "second thread guide" - that black thing.
  7. Here are pictures of the thread path. That last thread guide before the needle bar is of a type I haven't seen before, so I may have routed the thread incorrectly there. However, it seems like there was some of this gook on the feed dog when I first got the machine from the dealer.
  8. @mikescWhat causes all this gook to build up? There was a little on the feed dog when the machine first arrived but it has gotten worse. Is it from the thread? Or the fabric? And what is this thread lubrication thing all about? My old machine didn't worry about such matters.
  9. @mikesc It is this 18-ounce fabric from Fairfield Textiles: http://www.fairfieldfabrics.com/18-oz-Filter-Twill_c_12.html And yes, that previous discussion about puckering was started by me. Gottaknow (Eric) thought I should get a Singer 211G157 but I couldn't find one. Alberoni, in Anaheim, had this 211U167B that they said was the same except newer and a little fancier. Eric approved it. Having sent all my needles away with my Consew when I sent it out for repairs, I was stuck with the size 23 needles that came with the Singer. It turns out that finer needles and lighter fabric (such as 8.25 ounce waxed canvas) work MUCH better with the Singer, making it practically a changed personality.
  10. @mikescI do believe I should print out your last response, take it to the sewing machine, and do some studying. What I am sewing is filter twill waxed canvas - by itself not all that terribly heavy. But sometimes there's a hemmed edge that intersects with another hemmed edge, creating a sudden bump. My Consew 206RB (currently out of state getting a thorough going-over by someone who knows about these things) will traverse these bumps but not Bonkers the Singer.
  11. To @mikesc and @Constabulary: Thanks so much! With all three of these manuals available, the odds of finding the needed information have improved greatly. Already I know how to change the stitch length!
  12. Would a manual for the 211G157 be relevant? If so, can it be downloaded anywhere?
  13. It may have been a mistake, but I bought a Singer 211U567B. It's supposed to be a needle feed machine and similar to the 211G157 that gottaknow suggested that I buy. Well, I never could get a 211G157 so I bought this instead - the dealer claims it is the same thing except newer and with a big bobbin. I am having no end of trouble with it. At the very least I need to adjust it so that it goes over thick bumps better. It veers around bumps that my Consew 206RB would take in stride (if it weren't out for repairs). The dealer offered some advice involving the button on top that resets the clutch after it has rescued the hook from disaster, but I can't see that pressing the button, turning the wheel, and feeling the button go down has changed anything. There seems to be no literature about the 211U567B other than parts lists - I have hunted all over Google looking in vain for something to download. YouTube is no help, either. Is there some other machine's manual that would be close enough? That would at least explain how to set the height of the needle bar or change the foot pressure or something?
  14. Bill Williams appears to have had a change of heart about selling the machine. He turned down my $600 offer and did not reply when I asked if he wanted to counter-offer or even if he wanted to stay firm on the $700 price. Perhaps he will reconsider but meanwhile I think it's best to keep looking.

    1. Show previous comments  30 more
    2. georgeandgracie

      georgeandgracie

      A week+ of this misery? Why can't they come up with some way of fixing it faster than that?!

      There was a pack of No. 23 needles in the drawer. They look huge but they seem to work. I can get by with those for a while.

      Alberoni said this machine was "head only" but it came with a table and a servo-ish motor. Not much of a servo. I'm going to get a real one.

      It came with a zipper foot rather than a general-purpose one. Seems odd. If this isn't a walking foot machine, why is this a two-part foot?

      Where they hide the stitch length adjustment, I have yet to figure out. The booklet that passes for a manual does not discuss this little matter.

      The good news is that the machine sews shelter tent fabric without puckering!

    3. georgeandgracie

      georgeandgracie

      This afternoon I tried making a few things "for real" - not just dinking around on scraps. And I have come to the conclusion that this is a psychotic machine. I hate it! One thing after another! I can't control the machine and the fabric all at the same time. Yesterday it seemed like things weren't weird but today they are. Maybe it's the pressure of needing to produce at item without flaws. My level of frustration is such that it's hard to verbalize everything that's gone wrong, but I'll try.

      1. The machine stalls on heavy seam crossings that Fussbudget handles with some coaxing. Example: a corner in a filter twill apron, where a narrow-hemmed armhole edge (3 layers of fabric) meets a two-inch turned-under hem at top of the apron (a whole bunch more layers). So I guess the aprons will have to wait until Fussbudget returns.

      2. Reverse is finicky and that big wide lever requires what seems like an absurd amount of pressure, enough to reduce my ability to manage the fabric. If I don't get everything just right - fast and smooth, no hesitation, no slowing down or stopping to keep from overshooting the reversing point, no finessing, pretty much just hanging on for the ride, whee! - the machine stalls at the end of the forward travel. The needle freezes and thread gets bound up in bobbin case. I don't yet know how to disassemble this horizontal type of bobbin assembly to get the threads out. Surely it shouldn't be necessary to lean on the reverse lever with one hand and turn the wheel with the other - leaving no hands to control the fabric - in order to have some control over the reversing operation?  Is this why they made the 111 with no reverse? To keep people from getting into trouble?

      3. Machine clanks a lot. Is that normal?

      4. Bobbin winder (on the table) doesn't feed evenly in spite of adjustments. There's some kind of bobbin winding setup attached to the top of the machine but it doesn't engage when power is applied.

      5. Machine came with a zigzag foot which doesn't grip very well so the fabric has opportunities to get squirrely as soon as my attention is diverted by the machine's antics.

      6. Maybe it's just me, but it seems like the foot is squeezing things out of alignment. I suppose that is an adjustment issue.

      7. If the machine had a real servo instead of this sort-of-servo motor that Alberoni installs, things would probably be better because speed could be taken out of the equation. One of my Instagram friends sews waxed canvas tool rolls, too. He bought a machine, I think a Consew 206RB, from Alberoni, and had to ditch the serv-oid because it didn't slow the machine enough. He bought a real servo from Toledo Industrial Sewing Machines (the Cowboy leather machine guy) and swears by it, so I ordered the same model this morning. Two or three days until it gets here, probably.

      8. Are these enormous size 23 needles part of the problem?

      9. And so on and so forth! Yet here you are, in great discomfort, and I'm yowling about a silly sewing machine.

    4. georgeandgracie

      georgeandgracie

      Eric, has the crisis finally passed?

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