Wizcrafts

Oops, I forgot to include a good starter machine type. Go for a compound feed walking foot machine to start. It can be an upholstery class machine, like a Consew 206RB-5, or a Juki 1541, or even an old Singer 111w155 without reverse. All of these walking foot machines will sew with #69 through #138 bonded thread. The stock needles are 1.75 inches long and don't flex too much unless they are deflected by misaligned layers.

Try contacting Keystone Sewing in PA. They have been in business since Noah's Ark made landfall. The owner, Gregg, is a frequent contributor here. If you are interested in learning more about Cowboy sewing machines, check out this website. They are located in Toledo Ohio and are one of our premier advertisers. Cobra is a long time member here as is Techsew. Both have ad banners on top of our pages.

I use Wiss thread clippers, which I buy from Wawak.

Convince the boss to have it serviced by a qualified Juki dealer. Offer to watch and record what he or she does to fix the machine. The floating stitch lever may require new springs to hold it down. The rest is adjustments to the bottom feed setup. If you end up personally servicing it, at least download the Juki LU-563 adjuster's manual. It is hosted by a Juki dealer who is a friend of this forum. If you need parts, please order them through his company.

I would like to chime in here about these motors. I have owned and sold quite a few old iron body Singer sewing machines, all of which had either a motor on a bracket or an attached pod motor. I also tune up old machines that customers buy in yard sales, or get as hand me downs. The average Singer motor drew about .4 to .5 amps. Aftermarket motors draw up to 1.5 amps. The most powerful of these mini motors develop about 1/12th to 1/15th horsepower. Most draw so little current that a rheostat or moving core foot pedal can control them without burning up. The most powerful mini motor I've had weighs about 1 pound. Older ones tend to be much less. Any of these little motors can spin a domestic sewing machine. The challenge is getting the needle to penetrate leather at start up speed. Most motors bog down trying to start sewing leather until you give them a hand (literally). Once under way they can usually maintain motion if you don't fully stop sewing. Industrial sewing machine motors live under the tables the machines are mounted on top of. The smallest clutch motor I have ever had was 1/3rd horsepower. Singer used to make them in 1/4 hp rating for light duty tailoring machines. Most modern era industrial sewing machine motors are rated at 1/2 horsepower, with some hitting 3/4. This means that the power difference between the most powerful domestic sewing motor and an average industrial motor is about 6:1. A tenth or twelfth hp motor wont even turn over a walking foot machine without hand spinning it first. It would burn up in no time from the load of driving, or attempting to drive such a machine. An average, modern era clutch motor weighs around 30 pounds, with some weighing in at 40 pounds. Compare that to the mini sewing machine motors that weigh about 1 pound and I think the difference will be self explanatory. A sewing machine is either domestic or industrial. The domestic machines have thin steel take-up shafts and linkages. They are not built to sustain the load of pulling nylon thread up inside dense leather. Even industrial tailoring machines are not built with this in mind. Look into upholstery grade walking foot machines as a starting point for your leather sewing endeavors.

Cowboy has a manually operated harness stitcher that is just being seen in North America, called The Outlaw. It is supposed to be similar to the Boss in capacity. Ask your Cowboy dealer if he has one in stock yet. There are banner ads on top of each page for our supporting suppliers, brands and dealers.

You are welcome!

I moved that thread to this new section of the forum. Did you not see it listed under the new category?

I finally found a spool of Coats Koban 30 weight polycore thread that has three soft plies. It is about the diameter of #135/138 bonded thread. But, it has nowhere near the strength of nylon thread.

I will be in my shop soon. I think I still have at least one spool marked as 30/3. I will compare it to some #92 bonded thread and report back here.

Bob; We have a friend who owns a small 3D printer. He burned some leather stamps (H.D.) for us in different types of plastic stock. The first one was not deep enough and was too soft. The shallow letters bent after two tries in moistened leather. The next stamp had much deeper letters (~1/8") and was made with a tougher plastic stock. This stamp has promise. I still hope to see if he can print with Delrin or something similar. Delrin stamps that we had made by a machine shop hold up really well. The bottom line is use cheaper plastic strands to get in the ballpark, then print the final product with the toughest plastic that is practical for your printer's heat/efficiency ratings. Any printed letter or figure stamping dies may need to be about 1/8 inch deep

Sorry for the misunderstanding. I did some research and learned that 30/3 thread is close to the diameter of T60, which is a non-standard size. That means it is slightly thinner than b69 (T70).

Post machines allow you to sew in any direction by rotating the work. They are about the only type of machine that lets you sew across the outside bottom of a bag to secure straps. I've used them to make and repair hats. I have a friend that makes custom shoes and uses a post machine for sewing partially shaped uppers. Some of the older Singer post machines were purpose built with fixed short stitch lengths (especially those intended to sew decorative stitches on shoes). This might be a limiting factor if you unknowing buy a used machine like that. I had to pass on one selling for $250 with a fixed length of about 24 stitches per inch. I wouldn't even look at a post machine that doesn't let you change the stitch length to 5 per inch by turning a knob or moving a lever. Another thing about the old post machines is that some are limited in their thread size capacity to no more than #69 bonded thread, or less. This would be a negative factor for sewing bags that would require #92 or #138 bonded thread for structural integrity. As you alluded to, parts can be a problem for very old post machines. Some parts can only be had by salvaging them from another similar model machine. That is if a salvage machine can be obtained. The Chinese after-parts network doesn't usually include parts for ancient and obscure sewing machines. Those that are made may or may not fit properly (as in patcher drive gears) without alteration (file, grinder, buffer, Emery cloth, etc), or at all. Old reconditioned post bed machines can be found selling for around $1300, complete with a motor and table. Private sellers may let them go for much less to get rid of them (circa $800 - $1000). Ancient Singer roller foot machines can be found selling for under $600 all set up, as is. Modern post machines are usually more flexible in thread handling and stitch length specs. I've seen as few at Toledo Industrial Sewing Machines that can easily pass #138 thread at longer than 5 per inch. But, they cost at least $2000. Pfaff and Juki make really nice, full featured post machines, but prepare to pay accordingly. Feed systems Post machines come in several different types of feed with the most prominent being a roller foot, which provides maximum visibility of the needle. Variants of that are the common bottom driven only, or top and bottom gear driven rollers. The latter is more expensive and has more moving parts. Another system is compound feed walking feet, which you are aware of and is best for climbing over layers. Last, there are flat foot bottom driven post machines which work fine on mostly flat surfaces. If you are in business, get the best, most recently built machine you or your bank can afford. You don't want down time from a 70 or 80 year old machine that needs a part that is made of unobtanium.

Somebody has misled you regarding the thread size capacities of these two machines. The maximum for the Adler would be #138 and for the Singer, about #92. That 30/3 is 3 plies of thin cotton twisted together. It would resemble button hole thread at the most. Here is a thread and needle chart to help you with thread sizes vs dimensions.

There is a long history of people customizing their machines, as well as their guns.

Recently, we have had some very interesting and technical discussions about laser cutters and 3D printers. Some discussions were under the Leather Machinery category and others were under Leather Sewing Machines. Neither is the correct place for computerized printers and laser cutters. So, we have created a new category under the Fabrication forum, labeled: 3D Printers and Lasers (click the link to go to this sub-forum). I hope that anybody using or interested in using these technologies will partake of this new resource. Not only equipment is being discussed, but also software, drawing techniques (C.A.D.), file formats and online drawing file repositories. So, instead of posting about 3D and lasers in this forum, please visit the new category linked to above.

Johanna and I have created this new category under Fabrication for people to discuss computer driven 3D printers, engravers, mills and laser cutters. You can also share information about software, drawing tablets, file formats, apps and shared CAD file resources. I have moved some existing topics into this forum to get it going. If you are not yet a member of Leatherworker.net and want to join the discussions, please sign up to become a member! It's free to join. If you do, please fill in the details field for your location. At this time, this is not a place for selling equipment. Please post any equipment for sale somewhere under the Marketplace section of LWN. Thank you in advance. Enjoy!

You can do that if the required pinion gear is mounted inside the head, by the opening for the wheel, and a shaft comes out of a housing. Otherwise the cost of the parts may be as much as you paid for the machine itself. The entire top shaft would have to come out to install the gear for the side wheel drive. Further, you may have some interference from the wheel with certain work you are sewing. It sticks out well into the arm area.

This is an ad for a machine for sale, so it has been moved to the appropriate section of sewing machines for sale

Uwe, the Mitzi it is a DU-105.

The Consew 206RB-5 is manually oiled and has a safety clutch that protects the hook in case of a thread jam in the shuttle. It is an excellent upholstery class walking foot machine.

I have never used a #90 needle in a walking foot machine. But, I also don't use thread thinner than #69/T70 bonded nylon. The standard needle size for this thread is #18/110. You didn't specify the size of thread you are using, but if a #90 is ratting it, chances are that a #110 will give a much better result.

Perhaps this video will help you decide if the Mitsubishi is right for you.

Check the entire thread path to see if there is any binding between the spool and eye of the needle. Sometimes thread is twisty and forms knots or tight loops that can get jammed as the thread tries to pass through a guide.

You should start buying 135x16 leather point needles. They are made with different shapes of points. I have slicing tapered chisel and diamond/triangle point leather needles. The slicing points cut a longer hole that is oval in shape with very sharp ends. This causes the ends of the thread to be submerged slightly and gives the appearance of shorter stitches than are actually being sewn. Diamond point needles let the thread lay on the surfaces and make the stitches appear longer, just like round point needles do. Then there are the right and left twist angled chisel points that can cause an offset of the stitches one way or the other (like hand sewing).