Help.. Which Machine Should I Buy?

[jrshutter]

Ok, so I am new to industrial machines. I did a little research, went to the dealer and purchased a Juki LU 562 walking foot. It is an older machine that works great, but boy was that clutch pedal hard to control. I plan on making leather handbags and I really need slow, controlled stitching. I called the dealer a little stressed out about the control issue and they suggested putting a smaller pulley on the machine. It came with a 2.5" pulley, so we replaced it last night with a 1". The machine is a little slower but it is still not the controlled speed I want. Now I am faced with a dilemma. I just paid 700 for the used Juki and I can either add a 150.00 servo to it and later pay for a nicer table or.... put that money toward a new Consew 206RB with servo and new table for 1250.00. My concern is continuing to putting money into the older machine and ending up within a few hundred dollars of buying new. However, I'm having trouble with the new price because it is SO much money!!! To top it all off today I read on leatherworker.net about a guy saying he needed to add a servo AND a speed reducer to get his machine to a manageable speed. If that is the case, we are talking about even more money. What I need to know is will the servo motor alone be a speed I can handle or will I need a speed reducer also? If you want to give your opinion at to which set up you would do I'm listening. (sigh) Where is the "industrial sewing machine fairy" who can magically give me what I need, so I can just start sewing....

[stanly]

After asking for personal experiences on this issue (have a Consew 206 RB), I decided to put on speed reducer first and being cheap not just a speed reducer, a Monster Wheel type reducer.

Wow, u found a 1" pully! That must just about be a bushing with ridges on the edges.

[jrshutter]

So did you get the speed you wanted from the reducer? You got me to thinking about the pulley size... the guy said it was a 1" so I went out to measure. In reality it measures closer to 1.5 inches. Maybe he wasn't a technician and was just guessing.

[J Hayes]

Depending on how thick of leather and the tannage (is that a word?) You will be able the get a servo motor to run really slow and controllable. Most servo motors can limit the top end, sometimes at the sacrafice of low end torque ( someone else will chime in that knows). I have a Consew CS1000 on a Singer 153w101 with a 50mm motor pulley. With a sharp needle I can easily sew 2 layers of 5/6 oz oil tanned pull up, even 3 layers but at a real slow speed it strains just a bit. 138 thread and 22 needle if memory serves. So it all depends on what goes under the foot.

You may be able to add resistance to your clutch motor by adding bungie cords to the pedal or a Nerf ball under it to make it more difficult to push the pedal down to far to fast.

Hope it helps.

I do like my servos though. ....and you can go one stitch at a time with or without the speed reducer, the reducers big advantage on a servo it the torque multiplication it gives.

On more thing, if you are handy you can build a reducer fairly easy, farm suppy stores will have pulleys and shafts and pillow blocks. It could be built with bronze bearings pressed into hardwood for that matter, keep it wet and it'll run a very long time, old machine tools were built with "plain" bearings and many are still in service today.

Edited November 14, 2013 by J Hayes

[jrshutter]

J Hayes,

Thanks for sharing your experience with the servo. Sounds like it should work for me. I plan on going to the dealer soon to test drive one.

[Wizcrafts]

Whatever servo motor you get, make sure it has a 50mm or smaller pulley installed. Most of the eBay dealers and I suppose industrial machine dealers who primarily supply the upholstery and tailoring trades, supply motors with 70mm or larger pulleys. Some are as large as the machine's flywheel pulley, causing the machine to run at 1:1, or about 2500 to 5,000 SPM. These speeds are typical for those trades.

[jrshutter]

Thanks everybody, I went to the dealer today to test drive the Consew 206RB with a servo, it was AWESOME- Decision made. Can't wait to get it home and start sewing.