Taming The Beast! Slowing Down A Fast Upholstery Machine

[harnessman]

Hi All

Here is a little different approach to slowing down a way to fast upholstery machine. I got this hardly ever used Singer 211 machine for a song a while ago, complete with 1750 rpm clutch motor, but no table. I finally got around to building a table and getting it set up to sew. Right of the bat the thing is wicked FAST! I think the Singer book lists it at something like 2900 stitches per minute which on leather is way WAY to fast - I could stitch right of the end of a wallet before I could get my foot off the pedal! I replaced the 4.5" motor pulley with the smallest pulley available, I think it is a 2" and while manageable it is still way faster than I wanted. I tried a step down intermediate pulley but with the clutch motor the two belts in the system seemed sluggish and not very controllable, and it still was stitching faster than I wanted. I am very happy with the 300 spm that my big harness stitcher runs and that is the range I wanted with the little Singer, so I could put one stitch at a time exactly where I want it. My solution, which I have not seen mentioned on the forum was to bolt a monster 10" industrial pulley on to the cast iron machine pulley. A little careful layout work and tapping the 1/4" holes in the cast iron pulley and this thing just purrs along. I use 138 thread and #22 needles and it just powers through anything I can get under the foot. The big pulley also makes it much easier to hand turn the machine to carefully place stitches into the corners. Works great for me anyway and only cost me about 1/2 hour in the shop and $12.00 for the 10" pulley.

Jim

[Wizcrafts]

That is ingenious! Nice job of blending it in with black paint. What are you getting, 1 or 2 stitches per second maximum, with about 1500 pound feet of torque?

[Stocksuspension]

I'm goin to look into that mod for my juki ddl550

[harnessman]

That is ingenious! Nice job of blending it in with black paint. What are you getting, 1 or 2 stitches per second maximum, with about 1500 pound feet of torque?

Yea, about that, did I mention that the clutch motor is 3/4hp to boot, punching power is not a problem ! I ran a 12 oz piece of sole leather thorugh with #24 leather point needle and 277 thread just to see what it would do it and it just happily chunk, chunk, chunk's right through it. Nice thing is that the original pulley is still on the machine and when I feel the need for speed, like last weekend when I did some seat covers for a customer, I just put the original shorter belt back on and away we go!

Jim

[Stocksuspension]

were did you buy that pulley?

[harnessman]

were did you buy that pulley?

Hi

It is a Hubless weld on stamped steel pulley used around here in Wisconsin on farm equipment. I bought the pulley at Mills Fleet Farm, the local farm supply store. You can also find them at any farm implement dealer. If you do not have a farm implement store handy you can probably find them on line at TSC (tractor supply co.)

Jim

[Wizcrafts]

Hi

It is a Hubless weld on stamped steel pulley used around here in Wisconsin on farm equipment. I bought the pulley at Mills Fleet Farm, the local farm supply store. You can also find them at any farm implement dealer. If you do not have a farm implement store handy you can probably find them on line at TSC (tractor supply co.)

Jim

I can't find any such pulley online, even at TS. If you get a chance, would you post the part number and brand (if any) and a phone number for the farm supply store where you bought the hubless weld-on pulley?

PS: I went to the Mills Fleet Farm website, searched for pulleys, and nothing like that appeared in the results.

[harnessman]

I can't find any such pulley online, even at TS. If you get a chance, would you post the part number and brand (if any) and a phone number for the farm supply store where you bought the hubless weld-on pulley?

PS: I went to the Mills Fleet Farm website, searched for pulleys, and nothing like that appeared in the results.

Hi

Fleet Farm really does not sell that much stuff on line. At TSC the link is

http://www.tractorsupply.com/agriculture-farming-ranching/hubs-sprockets-chains/hubs/weasler-pulley-1-5-8-in-id-x-10-in-od-4300135

They really do hide them well! Hope this works for you.

Jim

[QDaddy]

I think I'll be making a visit to Tractor Supply today.

How did you go about bolting it on? Washers? Spacers? Any tech info would be appreciated.

How did you compensate for the belt offset?

Needs more pics!

Edited September 2, 2010 by QDaddy

[harnessman]

I think I'll be making a visit to Tractor Supply today.

How did you go about bolting it on? Washers? Spacers? Any tech info would be appreciated.

How did you compensate for the belt offset?

Needs more pics!

Hi

Unfortunately it did not occur to me to take pictures of the process, sorry. Pretty simple though, First I removed the pulley from the end of the drive shaft of the sewing machine. Then layed out four holes, the Singer pulley had a nice convenient flat already machined on the outboard end of the pulley so it made it easier. Drilled and tapped the holes in the pulley. The tricky part is to propperly alighn, concentricity counts, the small pulley in relation to the large one. I did it by placing the large pulley on the small one and spinning them untill they were centered, then clamp them togeather and used the holes in the pulley to mark the location of holes in the large pulley. By the time I was al done with it I was about 1/16 or so off and the pulley wobbles a little, but it really does not seem to make much difference to the actual opperation of the machine. I did not use any spacers, just four grade 5 bolts and washers to hold the two togeather. The belt alighnment was not an issue, again the extra long belt and angles compensate pretty much for that, The clutch motor pulley moves in and out anyway and the motor was ofset slightly to begin with to compensate for that movement. I did have to carve a much larger slot in the table to allow for the larger belt angles.

Hope this helps.

Jim

[QDaddy]

I wasn't able to get started on the project since it was a holiday weekend, but when I do I will document the whole thing. I hope I'll be able to make a contribution to the community so others will be able to benefit from your great idea.

Updates soon.

Q