Wizcrafts

Can you look at you needle package and tell me what point it shows? It could be P, S, D, etc. Also, are you already using a #25/200 needle?

Some of the dealers who advertise or assist on this forum can get you a Juki LU-1508NH and set it up for your requirements. Maybe even find a clone that costs less!

Threaded needles tend to stick in heavily glued or dense leather. If you have a lube pot on the machine, try adding liquid silicon lube to the top thread as you sew. It works wonders when sewing through leather tape or heavily glued leather. This silicon is sold by most industrial sewing machine dealers, like those who advertise with us. O&S didn't say what machine he has. But, if titanium coated needles are available for it, they also work better in glued and taped layers.

You need a real walking foot machine that has triple (compound) feed. The so called walking foot attachment for domestic sewing machines is not driven. It is a passive device that is meant for quilters to keep the top and bottom layers from getting out of sync as they sew. They are also called "even feed" attachments. Don't be fooled by marketing jargon! Nothing converts a straight stitch machine into a walking foot machine. Adding a bigger motor to a domestic machine does not make it industrial. However, you appear to be in the Jackpot. Until you can afford the real deal, consider buying a Teflon presser foot. These feet glide on top grain leather and textured vinyl. Steel feet drag on leather. Just be very careful to never set that foot down on the feed dogs or it will get torn up and become useless for leather. Better than Teflon feet and a new generation of steel pressers that have small rollers in the front and back. The rollers are on top of the material at all times. You can crank down the foot pressure much more than with a Teflon foot and the material will still feed under the rollers.

I'm not sure what you mean. I don't sell sewing machines, other than a couple I have used in my shop and want to replace. I make leather things and sew for a living (when I'm not onstage playing Country Music). You may have gotten the wrong idea because I posted a link to the Juki LU-1508NH, which you were referring to as the 1508H. This is a high end, expensive professional sewing machine for production use. It has more clearance in the hook that allows it to sew with #207 thread on top and bottom. It also uses a slightly longer System 190 needle that allows it to have a 2mm longer up/down stroke than the DNU-1541, and a correspondingly higher foot lift. This makes it capable of sewing up to 7/16" of material. They also have true rectangular feed dog motion, which is unusual in walking foot machines. Note: some dealers modify their LU-1508NH to use the standard System 135x16 and 135x17 needles, which reduces the sewing thickness back to 3/8 inch. Ask before you buy. If you don't expect to sew over 3/8 of an inch using #138 thread, any modern walking foot machine will do just a good a job at half the price, or less. If you anticipate needing a higher sewing capacity or thicker thread, these machines won't do the job.

@aguwa; The actual Juki model number you are looking for is the LU-1508NH

We have a section called The MarketPlace that has a sub-forum for people to sell used sewing machines. Good deals show up there on a wide variety of sewing machines. But, in order to make sense of all this you need to define the type of leather work you need to sew (soft, medium or hard temper), along with the range of thickness you will be sewing. Then, familiarize yourself with the different sizes of needle and thread. Next, see what types or classes of machines can handle that range of thicknesses and thread/needle combinations. Last comes buying the best machine to get started sewing. A basic starting point is to know that tailoring machines, like the two you were asking about, are designed for cloth, not leather. They are optimized to sew with light weight thread, often at high speeds. They are almost always bottom feed machines (via feed dogs only). These usually max out at 1/4 inch, with #69 thread and a #18 needle. The next class of machine up is walking foot upholstery class machines. They are built stronger and beefier to handle the pounding imposed by sewing leather, heavy vinyl, denim and webbing. These machines are either dual feed (top and bottom with static position needle), or triple/compound feed (needle, inside foot and feed dog all move in sync). Some max out at 5/16 inch, while others can sew into 3/8 inch. Most can handle thread sizes up to #138. This is probably the type of machine you will want. The next step up involves harness/saddle/holster stitchers that can sew between 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch and more. They use much thicker thread than the upholstery class machines. Here is an entry level holster sewing machine that is very popular with our members.

In a nutshell, bonded nylon in size #69 / T70 is about twice the thickness of common cotton garment thread sold at Joann Fabrics stores. It would probably be about 1/8th or 1/10th the thickness of common hand sewing thread. The actual decimal diameter is .0115" and has 11 pounds breaking strength. This size bonded thread is commonly used to sew wallet interiors, leather pants and skirts, light upholstery leather and vinyl covers. It is not a heavy duty thread in leather sewing terms. However, it does exceed most garment threads in strength. It requires a #18 needle in most instances.

The Nakajima would probably be more modern than the Singer. It woukld be useful for sewing wallets, phone cases, leather garments, even chaps and dress belts. Yes, #69 is what is usually used on store bought belts. It holds the layers of mush they call leather together. Those machines can't come close to handling the thicker thread used in harness and holster stitchers. Not no way, no how.

The Nakajima has reverse, the Singer does not. They will both sew up to 1/4 inch of soft material or soft leather. You're guaranteed to be able to use #69 thread, but either may or may not handle #92 thread (reqs #19 or #20 needle).

Please tell the members what you want help doing. Also, we call the process coloring using Fiebing's oil and alcohol dye: "dyeing" rather than painting. This is because the dye penetrates the surface permanently. Paint only lies on top of the surface and can wear off.

In all likelihood, the machine in the photo is a very early 29-4, not even a k sub-class. Old machines of this ilk are usually shot by this time, as they are at about a hundred years old. As they wear down the maximum stitch length diminishes from the factory 5/inch to as little as 8/inch, or less. The timing gears get so loose that the timing changes as you sew. When the 29 series was first built there was only linen and cotton thread. The 29s used light shoe thread to sew uppers on shoes and boots. They were known as Cobblers' machines. They are meant for repairs.

I own a Singer 31-15. When I raise the foot, either by the hand lever of knee lever, at a certain point the U-shaped crank gets rotated to push the pin that pushes the tension release to separate the disks. That is how it is meant to work. The gap between the crank and pin can be adjusted to fine tune when and how much the disks separate. The disks should not separate during normal sewing operations. If they are doing that, something is wrong with the positions of the parts that affect this action. Also, don't try to sew more thickness than the machine is designed to handle. My 31-15 is good to a little over 1/4 inch. It can lift higher to clear the material, but not to sew it. This machine uses DBx1/1738/16x257 system needles which are too short for thick sewing operations.

Or convert it to a later model bottom shaft that has a slot and use a newer shuttle driver.

My 1923 Singer 31-15 has the shuttle driver pinned to the shaft. The only way to (slightly) alter the timing is by bending the driver arms in or out.

Try contacting this company. They sell this brand, but different models and have downloadable manuals..

The other point: round/sharp point. Lol Use standard round/sharp point needles when sewing cloth, webbing and synthetics, including vinyl. Although there are several types of leather point needles, with varying faces and angles, they are meant for slicing through leather. Round point needles may be blunt or sharp to the touch, but are always round in geometry. They are designed to separate strands of material, rather than slicing it apart. So, in a nutshell, there are only really two types of needle: round/standard and leather point.

Sorry, I have work to do in my own shop. Maybe somebody else can help you out.

The Singer 31-15 is a tailoring machine. Unless it is a later model, you're pushing the machine's limit to use T90 thread (depends on the shuttle and springs). In any event, I use at least a #19 needle when sewing leather with T90 thread. Always use a leather point needle with leather. Always use a round point/standard needle with cloth, vinyl and webbing. Know that the tension and check springs are weak compared to walking foot machine springs. This means you'll need more top and less bobbin tension to balance the knots. You can play around with the throw and tension of the check spring to get the best achievable results with your machine. A longer throw up and down holds the thread taut longer during the downstroke cycle. This may help to tighten and stabilize the top thread as the needle approaches the bottom of its travel. But, it must have stopped moving down before the needle starts back up or the loop will dissolve before it can be picked off by the hook.

Load image for editing Crop to remove unnecessary details Resize (reduce) dimensions to something suitable for a web page (e.g., 400x600, 600x800) If reducing the size dulls the sharpness, check the box to sharpen (set to 15%) on the adjustments tab page. If you still need more reduction, use the Settings slider on the right side of the Output Format selection on the main page to reduce the quality of the jpg. I find 75% quality is virtually unnoticeable on web page size images.

It would be useful if you list all of the accessories, tools and extras that will come with this machine.

You can crop, reduce the image dimensions and file size, as well as sharpen the reduced image, with the free FastStone Photo Resizer.

Janome has a user manual on the HD3000 page, linked to as: Download HD3000 Manual This is a hobbyist level garment sewing machine. It has an aluminum body to keep it from breaking apart if you sew denim jeans. Do not buy this if you need to sew leather thicker than about 4 or 5 ounces. It should be limited to soft temper garment or light chap leather for a machine like this, which feeds from the bottom only. It will max out at #69 bonded nylon thread, using a #18/110 leather point needle.

This topic actually started out as a discussion about industrial sewing machine manuals. It has since morphed into an anything goes discussion. So, I am unpinning it and making it a standard topic. Regarding manuals, Johanna and I are thinking about starting a new forum where sewing machine and needles manuals can be uploaded and kept in one place. I will let you know if/when this forum goes live.

Mizzy; Can or have you tried uploading the photos from a computer, rather than your phone?