Wizcrafts

My 211g156 gets 5 spi in both directions. Check the crank shafts connecting the feet for excessive slack. Check the feed dog for too much slack. Loose screws holding the moving parts together will cause loss of stitch length.

@TZHunter, This is a high speed machine, rated at about 5000 stitches per minute. As such, it has a built in oil pump and should sit on an aluminum oil pan with a cork gasket. If you choose to sew fast, fill the oil pan with sewing machine oil. It is sold in quarts and gallons. If you only sew slow, you can manually oil the moving parts that are on top and underneath the machine. Failure to oil it may cause it to seize.

Check for too much slack in the feet. It sounds like the feet are slapping at speed. Also, try reducing the amount of foot lift and see if it runs smoother.

It could be that the builder expected users to sew short stitches and balanced the forward and reverse for that length. I have a Singer 211g156 that I was able to adjust for 5 to the inch in both directions. It has a push down reverse lever. If I don't press down all the way the reverse is shorter than forward. I currently own 10 industrial sewing machines and only 3 have reverse of any kind. Two of them have levers like yours that I raise to sew backwards. One stays in place and the other is spring loaded and has to be held up. They all match the forward and reverse stitch lengths. One required a metal washer shim on top of the stitch length nacelle and the other is the aforementioned Singer 211. It has a cam that I was able to tweak to match the stitches.

If all I'm stamping is a name on a belt and dye or paint the letters, I brush the sealer directly on them.

I have table top attachments for my Cowboy cb4500 and Techsew 2700. I rarely ever use them. But, when I do it's because I'm sewing something that must lay flat. With that in mind, 12 inches is about the minimum width I'd find useful and 15 or 16 is closer to an actual industrial table width, which is 20 inches front to back. Since both of these table tops are in my shop, I'll measure them later and post the results.

@JAM, You should look into a 7 inch tall post machine with a roller foot and roller feed dog. The 7 inch post will let you sew in a circle over the post to combine the uppers, and to sew decorative patterns. Most post machines are able to tension #92 thread and under. Some may even handle #138. Many cowboy boot pattern stitching is done with #33 or #46 bonded thread. The seams are combined with #69 or #92 thread. You'll need to stock up on several needle sizes and points, including these: size 12 for #33 thread, size 14 or 16 for #46 thread, size 18 for #69 thread, and size 19 for #92 thread. Most leather is sew with some shape of leather point needle. Some shapes cause staggered stitches. Others lay down a straight inline row. If you want to sew flat work before combining the edges, get an upholstery class walking foot machine, like a Consew 206rb-5. That machine handles from #18 through #138 thread with ease. It is too strong for #46 and thinner thread, but it could be dumbed down with softer action tension springs. You may need to use a McKay or Landis sole stitcher to attach soles to the insoles, or welt. It really depends on how you construct the bottoms. You may be able to just use contact cement.

That's good to know! @CowboyBob has sets of actual Singer taps and dies that he uses to repair old Singer sewing machines in his shop: Toledo Industrial Sewing Machines.

Almost 40 years ago, I went through the growing pains of finding a proper sewing machine for leather projects and holsters. I started out by getting what turned out to be a tailoring machine, but looked like it could handle anything. WRONG! I kept buying heavier machines from people who insisted that their machine could sew anything you put under the foot, or feet (walking foot machines have two feet). The most I could sew on a Singer 111w155 turned out to be about 5/16 inch on a pancake holster, using #138 bonded thread. I've owned over two dozen industrial sewing machines since I started in this business. The machines that are built to sew thin work are too light duty to sew thick items, and vice-versa. I keep different machines for different types of sewing. All holsters are sewn on a Cowboy CB4500. No ifs, ands, or buts! I have standard walking foot machines to handle thinner work, upholstery, patches, and repairs. I suggest that you read this topic that I started a number of years ago:

I have successfully sewn leather soles onto a shoe with my cb4500 using a narrow inline foot set I got from @CowboyBob- at Toledo Industrial Sewing Machines. However, they had a 1/4 inch minimum width flange stitcking out past the upper toe box. A 5/16 or 3/8 inch flange would work better. Trim the excess afterwards. That said, the walking foot mechanism is wrong for sole stitching. It is best to buy a Landis 12 that somebody is getting rid of for peanuts after going out of the shoe repair business.

That is the foot lifting lever. It mounts somewhere along the back of the head with a large bolt holding it in place. There may also be a spring that goes over it to force it to stay down until you want to lift the feet using the floor foot lift pedal. There may be a chain feeding down with S clips to connect it at both ends.

You *can* do it on a post machine. The only trade off it that you won't have a flat surface for zippers or certain more critical seams. I prefer to sew in zippers on a flat bed machine. It keeps them aligned properly. Sewing them on a cylinder arm or post machine distorts the alignment between the zipper and the two layers of leather that are doubled over inside the zipper pull path. Then, there's the hanging weight to consider. If the jacket gets heavy, the hanging weight will try to pull it off the arm or post. You may get bad stitch lines. I have hossed a lot of leather jackets around sewing in zippers and I prefer a flat bed if they are heavy. I suppose you could try using a cylinder arm machine with a table attachment and see how it works out. I have one that is mounted on what's called a U shape table. With this table there is a flat surface, albeit a foot below the arm.

First of all, if you must use #138 on top, use a smaller bobbin thread, like #92. It will be easier to hide the knots with a smaller bottom thread. Next, ramp up the bobbin tension for s strong but steady pull. Balance the knots with the top tensioner. Stronger tensions may help keep the knots hidden in the same position from the bottom. Just don't ramp it up so far that the leather puckers! Next reduce the slack in the top thread by moving the check spring disks to the left. There should be a curved slot with a set screw inside it on the outside check disk. Loosen the screw, back off the thumb nut a bit, then rotate the disk to the left. Tighten down everything you loosened. Less slack may help center the knots more reliably. Set the stitch length to about 6 stitches per inch. Finally, change to a #21 needle. If you have a choice of points, a diamond point is close to a straight point in the results. A diamond point lets the top thread sit on top of the leather more than an S point or chisel point.

@jayl65 There are some walking foot machines that have a large knob on the top that alters the foot lift amount and ratio, from low to high. A machine like this would let you set it to extend the inside foot all the way down when you drop to a single layer, thus pressing down directly around the needle to get perfectly balanced stitches at the transitions. The trick is to set the inside foot position so that it makes contact with the top of the leather at the same time as the point of the needle. The closer these two things are, the better the results.

I've been sewing leather since 1984. My Father had a tailor shop for over 6 decades and he only owned one sewing machine: a Singer 31-15. Once he set the tensions, he was good to go. But, he only sewed cloth. Armed with this history, my first industrial sewing machine was a straight stitch Singer 96k40. I bought it to sew a leather vest that i was constructing from a pattern and leather that I bought at my local Tandy Leather store. After gluing the varipus pieces together I began sewing across some back seams. The moment the foot encountered a new layer, it stopped in its tracks. When I used the knee lever to lift the foot, the stitch tension got screwed up, then the needles broke. I went back to that dealer with the vest in hand and he sold me a Singer walking foot head only. It dropped into the same table. That machine sewed the vest without any hiccups or readjustments. It was the old style spring foot mechanism with an oscillating horizontal hook. Decades have passed since then, and I now have a shop full of walking foot machines. The absolute best one for climbing up and down while maintaining good knot placement is a Cowboy CB4500. The next in line is an Adler 30-7 patcher with a top feed walking foot that turns 360 degrees to feed the work in any direction. The rest of my machines are compound feed walking foot machines. Some have issues changing to different layer and others are not so bad. All of my machines have check springs with adjustments for tension, stopping position, and importantly, slack. When sewing thick seams, it is best to give the top thread more slack via the check spring adjuster. Most of my machines have a common round disk covering the check spring. There is a curved slot on the top area with a set screw that can be loosened and tightened to control the amount of slack in the top thread. If you are going from a single layer to a double layer, preset the adjuster for the maximum slack, then adjust the top tension to hide the knots well inside the single layer..You should get them drawn up to about the same depth when you come to the new layer. While this holds true for moving UP to a new layer, it may or may not be the same going down. Sometimes, the first stitch or two will draw the knots right up on top of the bottom layer because the foot is not directly pressing down around the needle. Here's where using a compound feed machine excels. It has an inside alternating foot that pressed down directly around the needle. As long as that small foot makes hard contact with the bottom layer, the stitches should be properly buried. Another bad thing that can happen when transitioning from a higher level to a lower one is that, without intimate presser foot contact, the bottom layer may lift up as the needle ascends. This not only throws off the knots, but causes skipped stitches because the thread loop on the needle dissolves before pickoff time..