Wizcrafts

My answers are as follows, based on my personal experience with both Cowboy and Cobra 441 clones. Question 1, you are concerned about how hard it is to turn the wheel. This is because of the 3:1 speed reducer between the machine and motor. Going from bottom to top is easy. Going from the top down is not. The motors currently in use have a cork brake that is engaged until you press down on the speed pedal. It disengages when you press on the big pedal. It stays off until you take your foot off, or heel down. If the motor switch is on, you can feather the pedal with your toe to help turn the hand wheel. Question 2 deals with the presser bar sticking in the up position. This can be caused by a slightly off center hole in the pressure adjuster screw. If you just turn the screw slightly with the foot up, it will probably let it drop down. If this is the cause and you find a best position, use the locknut to keep the pressure adjuster in that position. This makes it a crap shoot if you are constantly changing foot pressure, as I do. I just used a round file to open up the diameter of the slot a little bit. Now, my presser foot never sticks in the raised position. Oil that sucker! Question 3: The right foot lift floor pedal is used to temporarily lift the feet. It is not locking at the top. For that, use the hand lift lever with the ball knob. Make sure that the lift chain from the machine to the pedal has a very little slack when the feet are lowered. I set mine to about 1/2 inch free motion with the feet down. Question 4: If your edge guide is a swing away guide that slides right and left in a T shaped plate, it should sit at the level of the throat plate when in use. Try loosening the screw on top of the roller to let it drop down, or ask for a replacement guide. It could even be that the T plate for the guide is not perfectly inline, or its mounting screws may have come loose. Tighten the two screws that secure the T plate to the body and see if the edge guide roller comes down. If you bought the drop down edge guide that mounts to the back of the head, it has two set screws that raise or lower it, plus two screws that let it move forward and backward. I hope this helps.

I would watch how the thread uncoils off the spool. Maybe it is hitting sticky spots, then loosening, then grabbing? Twisty thread can also cause the knots to move. I also recommend that you wind a different bobbin with the same thread and see if the problem persists. Some bobbins have a longer end to end profile than others. Over-length bobbins squeeze the bobbin thread against the shuttle driver frame at certain points of rotation, as the thread feeds out. I I've actually had to sand down and polish a few over-length bobbins for my harness/holster stitcher.

Anne Bonny would be proud of you, Darren! Harrrr

I don't know anything about other locations for Thoroughbred than Kentucky. But they are part of a group of companies belong to Tasman, one of the largest hide brokers anywhere. Thoroughbred is an old school, wholesale leather tannery business (not for hobbyists). You call on the telephone and talk to one of the people running the business. If they don't answer, leave a message with your name and phone number. You get the details on the phone, prices on the phone and place your order on the phone. Once you are on- file in their system, all you do is call and order what you want. Not all weights are in stock at all times. You may have to wait for them to receive the tanned and finished leather of that color and thickness. Ask for long backs if you make belts, as there is less waste and no belly to throw out. Some backs I get exceed 105 inches with one reaching an incredible 110 inches from the butt to neck! PM me for the phone number. If you are a wholesale customer with Weaver, you can buy Thoroughbred bridle leather from them. It is slightly more expensive, but usually in stock.

I will take your word that the machine is threaded properly. But, are you using the proper needle system? I have seen patchers that had a needle that was too short and would never sew. You should be using either system 29x3, 29x4, 135x16, or 135x17. The scarf side of the needle must face due right and the ribbed side due left. Adjust as necessary and try sewing. If happy happy, rejoice. Otherwise, move on down. That still leaves three other things that must be set right for proper sewing. Two of those affect the stitch quality and one determines if the machines sews or skips stitches. Later, I'll describe a fourth item. That's were you need to focus first. If everything on the top is set as per factory specs and the hook is not picking off the thread loop, the hook timing is off. It is adjustable on your machine via a screwdriver hole in the right front of the lower section of the machine. Inside that hole, around the center of the base, there is an eccentric screw connecting a shaft coming down to a shaft running to the far left, through the cylinder arm. That eccentric retards or advances the hook to get the best timing. There is supposed to be a locking nut on the back of these coupled shafts. You will need to loosen that nut using the proper size box end wrench before the eccentric can be turned. Do so. After loosening the lock nut, swing open the throat plate to expose the hook. Hold the top thread upfrom the needle, between the legs of the foot and hand wheel the needle down. When you reach BDC, slow down. Carefully watch the needle until it slightly raises up and halts, just before it starts back down. It is during this slight jog that the hook needs to intersect the loop that is formed by the jog motion. If the point of the hook has not reached, or has passed the loop before it starts back down, use a long, wide, flat blade screwdriver through the hole in the body to turn the eccentric screw until the hook does meet the needle while there is a noticeable loop. Hand tighten the locknut, raise the needle, close the throat plate and try sewing again. If it sews, tighten down that locknut and rejoice. If the hook has been timed correctly to the needle, but the thread loop dissolves so the hook can't pick it off, One of two common problems exists. One that is easy to fix if the flat spring on top of the take-up lever (trapeze) is too tight. There should be a thumb screw on top of the spring that you can back off until it stops pulling the thread loop up before the hook picks it off. If that doesn't get the loop back, the only thing left is the paddle shaped check spring inside the needle bar, which is either bent, worn out, or missing. It is an operation to replace and will take some time and skills.

Thus, it should accept the same bobbin cases, with a positioning tab on top. Correct?

I recommend that you start a new topic for this, please.

In that case, yes, it is a good buy. New, it would have sold for 2 or 3 times what a 1541 sells for.

I haven't used W&C bridle/harness leather is a long long time. I buy all my bridle leather from Thoroughbred Leather, in KY. I have never had a needle stick in their leather. Some of their backs are almost a quarter inch thick and they still sew easily with a #25 needle and #277 thread.

Here is another topic about the Singer 44-90, from a year ago. It is a glove sewing machine with top and bottom feed. If the bobbins are the same as the 31-15, just buy Class 15 bobbins at Joann Fabrics or Wally World. This is NOT a domestic sewing machine.

None of the domestic sewing machines currently available are suitable for sewing much more than 4 to 6 ounces of leather. It's not so much that they can't penetrate the leather. They can, if you use leather point needles. The real problems are the bottom only feed, the thread size limits (no more than bonded #69/T70), light tension and pressure springs, thin steel levers and cranks, plastic gears and bodies and feeble motors. Other than that they are fine home sewing machines ;-)

The Juki LU-1510N-7 (link to Juki page) is as much a replacement for the ancient LU-563 as a Dodge Viper is for a Grand Caravan. Apples to oranges. The 563 was a first or second generation walking foot machine from the 1980s. The 1510 is from the space station. Do you have a fat wallet? I hope so. This is a very expensive sewing machine. If you are looking for a Juki that is priced more affordably, look into the DNU-1541, or one step up, the 1508 series.

This is always a crap shoot. You could try using saddle soap on a sponge to clean up the stains. If they remain, you could over-dye the seat with a related leather dye (e.g., Saddle Tan, Tan, light brown). This is penetrating dye and needs to be smoothed on with a tight sponge. But, the surface finish, oils and waxes need to be stripped first with acetone. Sometimes the easiest path to follow with seat covers is to use "Leather Refinish" to cover dye the entire surface to a new color. This dye is formulated for upholstery and comes in 4 ounce jars. It can be spread in wide circular patterns with a tight sponge. They also have a dye preparer and a final conditioner in 2 ounce bottles. You can find this product on eBay.

Ryan; You just replied to a post that was last updated in 2007.

The package I got from Bob says "Dia" - which means diamond. The actual geometry is triangular. It has three sides that converge to a sharp point.

I encountered a job where the S point gave me fits. I switched to a diamond/triangle point and it did the job without any more issues. The diamond point lets the thread sit on top, rather than getting drawn in on the ends. It gives a more pronounced effect. Bob sells them.

You are doing fine so far. But, if you can take some small file size, but close up pictures of the clutch and the shaft it is on, and upload them to this topic in a reply, that would help us troubleshoot your problem. A closeup video of the machine sewing backwards would also be helpful. It would have to be hosted elsewhere, like on YouTube, and linked to/embedded in your reply.

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.