Wizcrafts

I use a special inline foot set on my Cowboy cb4500. The width is about 1/4 inch, or a little less. The presser foot sits behind the alternating inside foot and sews inline on narrow flanges. If your machine is a 441 or clone, you can get these feet from Toledo Industrial Sewing Machines, who are advertisers here.

The 5/8" is when the feet are lifted up by the foot lift pedal or knee lever. The needle must be fully up at TDC in order to lift that high. This high lift is so that thick seams and fur linings can clear the feet and needle when you position the work on the machine. Once the foot pedal/knee lever is lowered, the feet will alternate about 3/16ths of an inch up and down as you sew. The alternating action maxes out at about 3/8 inch with System 135x16/17 needles. Trying to sew thicker stacks may cause the bottom of the needle bar to hit the top of the inside foot, or even the outside foot if they are a narrow set. This limits the useful sewing height despite the specs referring to a higher lift number. I experimented and found this to be the case.

The 289 is still an upholstery class machine. As such, it can handle #138 thread with a #23 needle, or possibly #207 thread with a #24 needle. The maximum thickness would be the same 3/8 of an inch of soft to medium temper leather. I might be able to sew two 8 ounce pieces of bridle leather, but not hard veg-tan or latigo. I own a similar machine made by Singer. I use it to sew patches onto vests and hats. When I first got it I tried running #207 thread in it. The machine struggled and tended to jam up. It has no trouble with #138 thread. But, it didn't like hard veg.

Did you try searching our forum? I did and got this first hit:

I'd advance the shuttle a bit so the tip arrives a little higher above the needle's eye.

@Zonker62 I always load my bobbins so they unload against the direction of the slit under the tension spring. That sharp turn adds some tension but helps keep the thread under the spring. If your bobbin suffers from run-on rotation, get an "anti-backlash spring." Some are round and some are star shaped. They simply drop in under the bobbin and hold onto it as the shuttle spins. They bring the bobbin to a better halt when you stop and start rapidly.

His ip address shows that he is in Canada.

There should be a push button somewhere on the bed of the machine. You push down on it while rotating the balance wheel backwards until the safety clutch mechanism connects, with a noticeable sound. If the safety clutch engages too easily, there may be adjustments on it to stiffen the action more.

All upholstery shops have walking foot machines. Every now and then they buy a new machine and retire an older one. Call around to any upholstery shops to see if or what they have available to sell. If a walking foot machine is still in good working condition, it may sell for between $500 and $800. Anything less means the machine is in questionable condition. A bonus of buying a used upholstery machine is that they seller knows how to thread, oil and adjust the machine. They can demo the machine for you, and may even teach you how to take care of it yourself. This is worth a lot of good karma, and will save you headaches down the road. A lot of new members on LWN ask basic operating questions because the bought a machine from somebody that didn't know anything about it, and couldn't demo or explain its operation. Another option is to try to locate an industrial sewing machines dealer near you, go there in person, and buy a new or used machine after getting hands-on instructions.

I also have a Singer 107w in my shop. It is handy for jobs requiring a zig-zag stitch. It can sew with #69 bonded thread into 5-6 ounce chrome tanned shoe upper leather, like that tanned by S.B. Foot. But, that's not all it's good for. I also use the 107 to sew linings and cloth that would be eaten by my walking foot machines. To do this I move the stitch width selector on the back to zero throw. This places the needle on one side of the presser foot. I use the stitch length knob on the rear to get a longer stitch. The maximum throw is about 1/4 inch, or slightly wider. While this wouldn't be a first machine to buy for a leather shop, it would be a good addition. Your first machine should be a compound feed walking foot machine. An example is the out-of-production Singer 111w155.

This is a question that you should ask the manufacturer, if you can find their website, and if they have a contact form. If you can't find the manufacturer, contact the company that sold you the machine. Maybe they know how to reach the builder. You attempted to link to a flat bed attachment, but neglected to include the URL. Please try again.

That part is known as the "latch opener." It should be set to pull back on the bobbin case as the thread goes around it, then let go after the thread knot is pulled up past the notch in the throat plate. There is a small amount of wiggle room in that cutout for the little tab on the bobbin case/shuttle to move forward and backward. Pulling it back at the right moment frees the thread to go up without hindrance. It should not be set to pull back hard against its stopped position. Leave a tiny amount of clearance at the pulled back position so you don't break anything or wear out the pulled parts.

The Class 26 is not a 441 clone. Its maximum needle size is probably a #24 or #25, but a 25 might be aweful close to the feed dog hole diameter. Ask the dealer. The Class 26 is not too heavy duty for wallets and belts as long as you use #92 thread with a #19 needle or larger. I don't know how well it nandles #69 thread and #18 needles.

I have a Kenmore 158 that I used to use in my shop when I had to sew cloth and linings. It is a good machine and was well built. I don't know about the availability of parts though. I think they are strong enough to sew soft leather, or to sew patches onto vests, but not over pockets. The Adler you have is a 30-70, not the other way around. ;-) It is a great machine for sewing patches over sleeves and pockets, or for sewing in zippers.

The cb3200 is one of the 441 class sewing machines, but, at 1/2 inch, it has less thickness capacity than the cb4500 and similar large models. The arm is shorter too, measuring in at 10.5 inches. Other than that, it uses the same needles, bobbins and thread. However, the Cowboy raised holster and stirrup plates are too tall for the 3200 due to its lower thickness capacity. Further, the optional drop-down edge guide doesn't fit on the 3200. If most of your projects will be between 1/8th and 1/2 inch thickness, this machine will serve you very well.