Wizcrafts

In this case, aside from asking for opinions and suggestions here, why not package up some samples of your work in flat rate boxes and ask industrial sewing machine dealers if they will have time to sew off your samples on this or that machine (with this or that thread)? Mail them out and check the sewn results.

In one close-up shot you can plainly see ADLER on the upper body of a patcher.

Tandy Leather stores often put on workshops on Saturdays. They usually employ advanced customers to instruct newbies. There are leather trade shows a couple times a year, during the spring and summer. The biggest is in Sheridan, Wyoming. You can get bi-monthly tips and techniques from the Leather Crafters and Saddlers Journal. They have information about trade shows and equipment and supplies vendors. We have a section of the forum called How Do I Do That, and one called Resources, and another named Suppliers. These are excellent places to peruse or ask your own questions. Finally, this sub-forum is not for general leathercraft questions. It is dedicated to industrial leather sewing machines. If you have questions about your industrial sewing machines, ask them here. Questions about hand or machine sewing techniques, thread and needles belong under the Sewing Leather forum. We have lots of sub-forums. Explore them and enjoy your new craft!

You will see the difference when you install each of those needles and sew test strips. There is nothing to be gained from me spouting off my opinion before you have a chance to try it for yourself.

Sometimes, if I only want one set of stitches to show, I set my stitch lever to zero and simply run two stitches into the same hole to start sewing. Then I drop the lever to the preset length until I reach the end. I usually do the same trick at the end of these jobs.

Once you get the smaller needles the bottom appearance will improve. You will also be able to tighten the top thread for a tighter lay on the surfaces. Did you order leather point needles?

I don't own a CB3200. I have a CB4500. I repair all kinds of leather and non-leather items, including Kydex. I have no idea how thick it was last time. I only recall changing to a non-leather point 7x3 needle. This is the same thing I do when I have to sew webbing tow straps. I have 3 types of needles for my Cowboy machine: leather S point, triangle/diamond leather point and round point for cloth and webbing. I can also tell you from experience that a CB4500 can sew through 1/8 inch thick plastic liners used in motorcycle saddle bags. The only major difference between your 3200 and my 4500 is the maximum lift and strength of the presser spring. I have an extra heavy foot pressure spring that's needed when I sew 3/4 inch stacks of veg-tan leather.

I use a #25 needle when I sew with #277 thread. A #24 needle pokes a hole that's too tight, unless the bottom thread is smaller.

Using a needle 3 sizes larger than optimum pokes oversized holes that don't hold the thread lockstitch knots firmly in place. Further, the appearance of the stitches will be shorter because of the larger holes at each end of each stitch.

Yes! Kydex is easy to penetrate. You can use a regular 7x3 round point needle to prevent slicing the bottom strands of the Kydex, should that turn into a problem. Use #207 thread and a #24 needle. Note that a diamond point needle will probably work as well on Kydex as a round point.

Back off the foot pressure screw on top until the leather just begins to lift with the ascending needle, then add some pressure to keep the leather down. If that doesn't fix the problem, let the leather fully dry before you sew it. You can also lower the lift of the feet via the crank arm protruding out the back of the machine and fitting to a curved slot on the lift mechanism. One direction lowers the lift and the other increases it.

A number 22 needle is way to big for #92 thread. I use a #19 and get easy to position placement of the knots. The holes are tighter with a #19 needle, allowing you to have more leeway with the top and bottom tension adjustments.

If you care to join the forum and list your location and other details, I will move this to our Leather Sewing Machines forum where you will get plenty of answers. As it is now, every question and reply must wait for a moderator to approve it before you can see it. It is a restriction of our Help Wanted forum, which allows guests to post. There happens to be two moderators floating around these days and nights and I am about to go to bed.

Back when I was new to industrial sewing machines and wanted to sew holsters, I was talked into buying a used Singer 132k6. The dealer, from whom I had already bought several lesser machines, told me that this was the last sewing machine I would need to sew thick leather with very heavy thread. As it turned out, nothing could be further from the truth. While the machine could indeed load #346 thread, it skipped stitches and the stitch length varied as the spring loaded outside foot slid hopelessly across the slick top grain leather on finished belts and holsters. Fortunately, I was able to sell it for what I paid for it, which was around $1300 in 1986. That huge machine was actually built to sew buffing wheels, not holsters. It had an excellent grip on the canvas wheels and easily penetrated the 1/2 inch thick cloth.

Try to learn about the ranges of thicknesses, densities and thread sizes that different types of sewing machines can "normally" handle. There are always exceptions that knowledgeable individuals can dial in. Industrial sewing machines are purpose built with specific types of sewing and material and thread handling capabilities designed in from the start. Leathercrafters can usually (but not always) ignore most of the tailoring, embroidering and specialty machines and concentrate on walking foot machines of varying capabilities. These are usually classified according to the type of work they are built to handle without breaking down. Upholstery class machines can typically sew from about 1/16 up to 3/8 of an inch. Some can't quite sew that thickness. Most are able to properly tension up to #138 bonded (nylon/polyester) thread. This thread has a breaking strength of 22 pounds. In order to sew efficiently with thicker thread and/or thicker/denser leather requires a much stronger mechanism. That is why many of us buy big harness stitchers like the Cobra Class 4, Cowboy CB4500, Techsew 5100, Artisan and Adler super duty machines and even the venerable Juki TSC-441. Know that as much as an upholstery grade machine has difficulty sewing thick material with heavy thread, a harness stitcher has an equal and opposite problem sewing thin material with thin thread. Big machines can be dumbed down, as I have blogged about on my profile, but this is time consuming and not as efficient as having a less heavy duty machine already setup to sew things below the sweet spot of the bigger machine.

I use FastStone Photo Resizer.

Yes, that pretty much summarizes the situation. For instance, I ordered a post machine that can sew with #69 through #207 thread. My machine arrived threaded and sewn off with #207 thread, top and bottom. Normally, that machine would max out with #138 thread. The dealer fine tuned the hook and timing to meet my requirements. It is safer to market a walking foot machine with a #138 upper limit and let the dealers adjust them for more or less capacity.

No, it's same user name/alias since I joined the forum. Why do you ask that?

Glue is for holding pieces aligned for sewing and for holding lining layers in place. SOP is to glue the flesh sides together. The flesh sides will come loose and begin to separate under sufficient pull. When I first got into making holsters I sewed them together using left twist, 6 cord, Barbour's Irish linen thread run through liquid wax. The sewing machine was a Union Lockstitch needle and awl harness stitcher that weighed 250 pounds (head) and which sold for about $6,000. You guys have no idea how good we have it nowadays to have access to harness sewing machines that almost anybody can learn to operate in one day, that sew dry thread and can be bought for under $3,000 brand new.

I'd say that warrants a phone call or contact form submission to Sailrite. They should know if their foot is compatible with your machine.

Is this foot of use on your machine? https://www.sailrite.com/Leather-Foot-for-Ultrafeed-LS-1-Sewing-Machine

Juki uses those prefixes to assign the intended end use, or sometimes the bobbin size of the machine. The suffix describes certain capabilities of a sub-class. A DNU machine is a typical medium to heavy duty, triple feed upholstery walking foot machine, while an LU is a heavier duty walking foot machine. Both use a double capacity U style bobbin. The DU series are top and bottom feed walking foot machines. The DDL are bottom feeders only and are better suited to cloth or non-sticky materials..

I usually first unthread the machine. Then follow this sequence... Remove the screw above the needle securing screw then pull off the needle clamp assembly from the bottom of the needle bar. Try to drive out the tapered pin holding the take-up barrel to the needle bar. It drives out from the back. Unscrew the four bolts holding the rounded head to the left side of the body. They are on the right side of the head assembly. Two near the top and two near the bottom. If operation #2 was successful, go to #5. If not, go to #7 Carefully pry the round head assembly off the body. Hold the needle bar at the bottom so it doesn't fall to the floor, then pull it completely away from the body and lay it down. Pull out the needle bar for inspection and cleaning. Use Emory cloth to smooth any thread tracks and replace the tiny paddle shaped spring if it is worn or twisted. Reinstall the tiny screws for the paddle spring into the same positions as they came out! This spring is important! If you can't drive out the tapered pin holding the needle bar to the take-up barrel, pull the head away at a suitable down-left angle to let the needle bar smoothly exit as the head is pulled away. Avoid hitting the end of the cylinder arm. The needle bar will be left hanging from the top knuckle joint on the take-up barrel. With the head in hand, unscrew two screws on the bottom that hold the revolving bushing to the inner parts. Remove the butterfly ring and stitch length motion assembly and separate them. Check the hollowed ring for damage, then clean and oil it, or replace if damaged too badly. The part with a puck on the end that rides inside the ring is what wears out. Either buy a replacement part or braze bronze rod over it and taper it with a file. Shape for the best fit with 360 degrees rotation and polish on a buffer. Reassemble, oil and hopefully get 5 stitches per inch at 1/8 inch thickness.

Machines that are capable of sewing 5/8 inch of leather, with a regular closed eye needle, use system 794 (aka: 7x4) needles, which are at least an inch longer than System 135x16 walking foot machine needles. They are typified by the Cowboy CB4500, Cobra Class 4 and Techsew 5100 machines. They have massive pressure and tension springs, cranks and take-up arms. These machines don't do as well with thin needles and thread, or thin, floppy leather or cloth. Their design specs call for thread sizes 138 through 415, using needle sizes 160 through 230. The needles are the size of roofing nails.

I was not implying that a Cobra 26 is limited to a quarter inch thickness. I was just agreeing that it could sew the 15-16 ounces the members wanted to sew. Later information suggests that the machine can tension #207 thread. This makes it a very good intermediate duty machine.