Wizcrafts

It has been my experience that unless a dealer is used to dealing with leather workers and super heavy duty machines, like the Juki TSC-441, Adler 205 and newer, or clones of these, they won't have a clue about what type of machine you will really need. Serious leather sewing machines are a different animal entirely and most are beyond the scope of the upholstery machines that you listed. Tell any prospective dealer that you need to sew 1/2 inch of hard leather with #346 thread.

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It depends on who you are targeting your belts to. Normally, hand carved or stamped belts are between 8 and 10 ounces before stamping. I sew those with #138 thread. This thread has 22 pounds test. Unless a customer wants a carved or stamped belt, I usually make bridle leather belts which range from 13 ounces up to 15 ounces, cut from backs. The heavier weights are great for people carrying guns in holsters on their belt. I use contrasting edge, and/or fishtail stitching as an upsell option and use either #207 or #277 thread on top and 207 in the bobbin.

In theory. The one machine will need to be capable of sewing from the thinnest to the thickest leather projects, at the stitch length you want, with the thread size you want to use. A Juki LU-1508NH is a heavier than usual upholstery machine that sews from a few ounces up to 1/2 inch of soft to medium temper leather, using thread sizes from 46 through 207. The Cowboy CB3200 is an extra heavy duty machine that doesn't do as well on floppy or thin leather or thin thread, but shines on veg-tan stacks with heavy thread. The CB3200 is guaranteed to sew 1/2 inch, but not below about 6 ounces of veg, with thread sizes 138 through 346. It can go outside those thread sizes by one size with less efficiency.

The main differences are the old Singer 29 has a 12" arm with a 1" wide snout that contains a tiny bobbin about the size of a US nickle, while the newer machine has a 17.5" arm and may contain a larger bobbin the size of a US quarter and about a 1.25" wide snout. Both have a 360 degree rotating presser foot. The white machine has a thumbscrew to lock the revolving foot in position. We can't see the head of the Singer patcher cause it's facing backwards. The bobbin winder shaft and tire is missing on the white machine. If they aren't in a parts drawer, you'll be out some money to buy replacement parts.

You should be looking into the Juki LU-1508NH, which does sew with #207 thread, on top and in the bobbin.

The feed is out of sync with the needle's motion and position. The needle must be completely out of the material for it to feed. your needle is moving down, passing the plane of the foot, as the foot is trying to feed the work! Perhaps a previous owner replaced the cam on the rear of the main shaft with the wrong part number (e.g., cam for long arm machine instead of short arm). Also, the foot looks like it is not lowering far enough to get a firm grip on the material. It should come closer to the arm with the throat plate swung away and actually drag on the throat plate when it is locked in working position..

If you use #138 thread, it has 22 pounds breaking strength and the knots are easily hidden inside 8-10 ounce leather straps. Having #207 on top may make it a little more critical when tensioning the threads to bury the knots and won't add to the strength.

I never had trouble controlling my Union Lockstitch machines that were using continuous run motors. The tapered clutch on the back of the machine is very easy to feather. I was able to stop with either the needle up and foot lifted, or the needle under the throat plate and foot down. It stopped on a dime and gave me change when I heeled down on the go pedal.

First of all, buy a pack of new needles in the correct "system:" 29x3 or 29x4, or 135x16 or 135x17. These have the correct length from stem to stern. The wrong length would impede feeding. While these are on order remove the needle and adjust for the best possible feeding of 8 ounces of leather. The foot should pull back then lift off the leather as the needle bar moves up and down down. The lift is determined by a sliding block that rides along the end of the leaf pressure spring. There must be enough pressure applied by that spring to hold the foot down as the needle ascends to for stitches. Too little and the leather will lift with the needle, causing skipped stitches. Too much and the leather will have deep marks and you'll stress out the ancient mechanism. Lower the stitch length adjuster gib with the foot lifted up all the way via the hand lift lever on the back. This is the longest stitch length setting. You can verify if your needle is the correct length by opening the throat plate sideways, rotating the hand wheel (c.c.w.) and watching the hook as it passes the needle clockwise, then reverses and intersects it about 3mm above the eye. The needle should go all the way down, make a slight upward jog, halt for the hook's arrival, then continue lifting. If the needle is too short, the hook may never intersect it above the eye as it makes its jog.

Kevin; You will probably get more answers if you start a new topic in this section of the forum, rather than adding to an old pinned topic that has nothing to do with your brand of machine. There are several Landis owners here that can assist you. Just start a new topic.

To add to my last reply, knife sheathes need stronger thread than an upholstery grade machine can handle. I use #277 on the top and bottom for sheathes and holsters up to 3/8 inch thick, then move up to #346 for anything thicker. Upholstery machines max out with #138 thread (22 pounds test). Here is a thread and needle chart that defines the sizes and how they work together.

Unless a dealer has experience with real leather sewing machines, they will try to sell you an upholstery grade machine as a "leather sewing machine." As far as this forum is concerned, this is a real leather sewing machine for knife sheathes and holsters. Compare its specs with those of the machines you have been looking at. The differences should be obvious. I consider this an entry level real leather sewing machine. To answer your question about adding a walking foot to a non-walking foot machine, NO. A sewing machine is either a walking foot machine, needle feed machine, or bottom feed machine. While walking foot machines come in several flavors, they all have three bars coming down and two alternating feet, as opposed to just two bars and one foot on a straight stitch machine.

I never said anything about the thread size a #18 needle fits. That would be #69 (T70) bonded nylon. I was in fact replying to Shoepatcher's comment.

Most of the good quality hemmers are designed to fit onto full size industrial machines. The right angles binders that do inside curves require a special presser foot set and a throat plate with a cutout for the mouth of the folder. Some even have a special feed dog that goes with the set. Chances are somewhere between null and void that anything like that will fit your portable walking foot machine. I think your best bet is to contact Sailrite and see what they can sell you that they have for their portable machines (LS and LZ series).

I have to agree with Katit here. I too have servo equipped machines without reducers and it is sometimes hit and miss with using my foot alone to stop dead up or down. That means I have to use the hand wheel to find the perfect rotational place . A needle positioner would speed things up by letting one sew fast, do a motion to affect the needle's position at the stop, then either pull out or resume sewing. The machines that have 3:1 reducers are hard to turn by hand unless the brakes are removed from the servo motors. Clutch motors are easier to hand crank for precise needle placement.

Once you get down to a size 18 needle the point isn't so important and can affect the lay of the thread. The way I decide on a point change is if the needle makes an unpleasant noise, or squeaks going into the leather. That tells me that the friction is excessive. I keep three types of point in stock: round, DI (triangle) and slicing (LL or LR). Some points go through with less drag than others. Experiment!

There is a coil spring inside the head, around the presser bar. You need to push down on the bar to get more pressure and hold it down until the locking collar secures it in place. This is a domestic sewing machine for cloth. This forum is for discussing industrial leather sewing machines.

If it is, as I suspect, a clone of the Singer 15-90, it can likely sew 1/4 inch of cloth and about 1/8 to 3/16 inch of soft to medium temper veg-tan leather or vinyl. Seeing as how this is a drop feed machine, it will need help to pass leather under the foot. There are two ways to accomplish this: a roller equipped foot or a Teflon foot. While Teflon feet are easy to find and cheap, they mark easily and will be chewed up if one comes in direct contact with the feed dog.

Unbeknownst to many used to modern sewing machines, the Union Lockstitch machines can be adjusted to lay down the tightest stitches in the World, followed by Campbell-Randall Lockstitch machines. The take-up mechanism is capable of locking the top thread 100% near the top of the upstroke. It is usually also set to a certain amount of lift to position the knots in the dead center of the layers.

You can read the specifications for the Consew 206R, here.

That Union Lockstitch is music to my ears. I've owned two so far and sold both of them off. I wouldn't be surprised if I end up with one more.

Yep. Thread through all of the holes.

Try to locate Tony Luberto. He might be willing to build one for you. Or, he may have one left from the final run.

Take the tension disks off and clean and polish them. Remove any thread fragments you find near the threaded shaft. Make sure that the thread has some back pressure before it gets to the tension disks. This helps keep the thread deep inside the disks.