Wizcrafts

Unless you know what you are doing, I'd stop right there and take it to Gregg. You've never seen this happen before, but I'm sure he has and knows where to start looking. It is possible that a C clamp has popped off one of the crank shaft mounts inside the head, or a screw has worked itself loose inside the body.

I read the description of the bag you linked to and they say that the tabs and straps are made out of bridle leather. I work with bridle leather for belts and horse tack and it can be stamped or tooled with alphabet stamps and leather craft tools. If you want to dye the impressions, use acrylic paint with a fine point brush. Wipe off any overflow on the top grain with a wet cloth. Add a clear sealer to make the dark impressions permanent and you should be good to go.

They are the latest new craze in the Asian shoe making trade. The answer to the McKays with their limited availability, hugeness and heavy weight. I have seen these machines online, with a few different name badges, but not in person. I think it would be interesting to get more details about them.

I cannot imagine any way to convert a walking foot or any other type of lockstitch machine to sew like a McKay. It is a machine unto itself. McKays only have one thread, which is fed up a long tube on the bottom, with a very special mechanism that forms proper stitches on the outside, with chain stitches on the inside. The end of this tube has a bent horn to hold a shoe upside down. That horn and the assembly it is attached to are movable in any direction, as you hold the shoe upside down and sew through its outsole and insole. Here is an instructional video by a McKay user...

Nope. The shop is under 600 square feet. The trailer is 890 square feet.

There has to be more than a different name tag to account for a price difference of $2,500. Somebody is pulling your leg. You get what you pay for in sewing machines. Ask for a warranty that covers parts and labor for x number of months, just in case, plus ask if you can call the dealer for help when things go south.

Out of 6 domestic machines I have for sale, only one can really sew through 8 ounces of leather on its own. That happens to be a - wait for it - 1902 Singer Model 27. I have demo'd the machine sewing #69 bonded nylon thread into 8-9 ounces of bridle leather, as well as 2 layers of 4 ounce suede split. It starts sewing on its own and continues, at slow or fast speed, until I back off the pedal. All the rest of the old machines need to be hand wheeled to start sewing into more than 4-5 ozs.

My bad. Sorry bout that Chief. I am not yet versed on the 1341. But, I can tell you from my very brief investigation, they sell for the mid to high 4k US range. That would put the price in Canadian dollars at least at $5,000. So, I assume you are buying a very used machine for only $1900 CDN

Make sure you get a demo of the machine sewing your own leather. Ask all kinds of operational questions. Record the demo sewing and all adjustment tutorials you are offered. Buy all manner of needles, bobbins and thread. Buy a quart of Juki oil. Get thread snips. Make sure you are comfortable with the position of the knee lever, or get it readjusted before you take the machine home. Get any accessory feet, folders and edge guides at the time of the sale. Juki machines are well built, no matter which Country has the factory. The parts and tolerances are high quality. Parts are available all over the World and there are hundreds of aftermarket accessories that fit them.

My last Juki was an LU-563. The 1541 shares a lot of features with that old model. Both use large LU bobbins that hold a lot more thread than even the large M style bobbins used in some industrial sewing machines. The 1541 is more geared toward casual users than the more expensive 1508 series. It should sew 10mm thickness, but that is the maximum. After that, parts will hit each other and all hell will break loose (literally).

Have you checked with Techsew yet? They are located in Montreal, Canada and carry all major brands, plus their own Techsew badged clones. Techsew is a long time advertiser and supporter of Leatherworker.net. Was the $1900 price for a machine purchased inside Canada, from a Juki dealer? That is not such a bad deal considering the conversion of your dollar and, that if anything goes wrong, you can probably have it serviced without it leaving the Country.

These machines "can" sew light weight leathers if you adjust them properly. This means reducing all spring tensions for lighter thread, possibly removing the feed dog and using a flat slotted throat plate (rendering it into a dual feed machine), getting small size needles (not available in leather point below #23) and backing off the top pressure screw. In my opinion, unless you intend to sew with #207 or thicker thread, the medium duty walking foot machines are a better match for work that is mostly below 1/4 inch thickness. And, if you sew thin leather, the lighter duty parts are less likely to eat it. These machines readily handle #138 bonded thread, which has 22 pounds tensile strength, per stitch. The 441 clones are designed for very slow sewing of dense and thick leather and cloth, using very large thread (up to #415). They are not built for light duty sewing and need to be dumbed down to do so. If you will be routinely sewing at and above a quarter inch, these machines are your better choice. They can lay a line of #277 thread inside the layers, which has 44 pounds strength per stitch.

If that is a misspelling and you meant Juki, they are one of the foremost brands of industrial sewing machines in factories around the world.

I'm thinking Jollins may have been on the right track asking about twin needle machines. Here's why: A twin needle machine can sew two parallel lines at a fixed spacing that doesn't vary unless one sews a tight curve. The stitch lengths and positions will be matched. Many shoe uppers are sewn with parallel stitch lines. When a single stitch line is needed the left needle can be removed and the machine will operate just fine. A walking foot machine is a plus, but is not always required for sewing uppers. It depends on how much difference in thickness there is between overlapping pieces. Technically, a roller foot machine would do just as well. Jollins, can you upload some photos of you shoe work here? It would help us fine tune our advice on the best machines for the job. Note that none of the machines used to sew uppers will be able to sew soles. That is a completely different type of machine (e.g., McKay Chainstitcher).

If you are only sewing up to a quarter inch, or so, the lighter duty, 10" arm CB227R is fully capable of handling your work. This is basically a clone of the Consew 227R machine. It has triple (compound) feed, uses standard walking foot needles and handles #138 thread with ease. A knowledgeable dealer may be able to tweak the clearance of the hook/needle/opener to allow the machine to sew with #207 on top. But, this was not what it was made to sew with. I sew all thicknesses of material and leather. I prefer to use a standard walking foot machine for anything under 1/4 inch. After that I move up to my Cowboy CB4500. My walking foot machine handles bonded nylon thread from #69 through #138. The CB4500 prefers thread sizes starting at #138, although I have managed to dumb it down to sew with #92 thread. As for positioning motors, they are normally only used in factories, or by sewers who cannot manually control the motor speed pedal slow enough to stop where they want it to stop. Their only purpose is to force stop the machine with the needle either all the way up or all the way down. I have a servo motor on my walking foot machine and can easily sew slowly enough to stop with the needle up or down. I can also do the same thing with the clutch motor driven 42-5 machine I use for chaps and seat covers. But, that's a whole nuther story.

Did anybody mention to you that you absolutely MUST hold back the top and bottom starting threads until you have either sewn three stitches forward, or reversed and crossed over them on the want forward. All of these machines will eat the top thread if it is not held firmly back.

You got a photo of that outsole foot set?

Here are some things that I have found causing my machines to have variations in the position of the knots in leather. This happens to any and all of my 6 industrial sewing machines. Twisty thread that twists out of the center of the top tension disks Twisty thread that folds over guides and jams the top thread or at least doubles the tension Thread that has twisted out of the thread guide above the spool in the thread stand Thread that is badly wound on the spool. I have some spools with the thread getting caught under the bottom of the windings and it comes off herky jerky. I have other spools with the thread literally unwinding all over the place because of improper bonding and loose windings.. Poorly wound bobbins (loose here, tight there, starting stub folded back over the side and back into the bobbin) Thread stubs not clipped close enough to the hole in the bobbin Sharp edges on anti-backlash/ejector springs inside bobbin cases Burrs on bobbin tension spring or shredded thread strands under it Burrs on the hook Totally dry hook that binds slightly in one spot at a certain speed Top and bottom tensions either too loose or too tight for a reliable stitch Dirt, material or thread particles inside the shuttle race Check spring travel too short or tension too light for the weight of the thread Oversize needle hole allowing too much room for error Sticky tape or glue between layers gumming up the needle (try using titanium coated needles and clean them with Goof Off) Hard or soft areas in the leather, caused by tanning inconsistencies. I have actually hit sections of rawhide in some cuts of leather I was using for belts.

Welcome back Tony!

I use the strongest thread size with which I can hide the knots inside the material. This equates to the following general purpose outline. The thicknesses are not fixed in stone. You may want to use a thicker thread on top and thinner thread on the bottom, for a bolder topstitch appearance. Or, you may decide to groove out a stitch line and fill it with smaller top thread that lies below the surface. The strength of each mixed size stitch is decided by the smaller size thread. #69 thread into about 3-4 ounces (~11 pounds test) #92 thread into 5-7 ounces (~15 pounds test) #138 thread into 8-11 ounces (22 pounds test) #207 thread into 12-15 ounces (32 pounds test) #277 into 16-32 ounces (45 pounds test) #346 into 33-64 ounces (53 pounds test) #415 into over 3/4 inch (72 pounds test)

The part of operating a 269 that I used to like the most was the resounding CLANK at the end of each stitch cycle! I'll tell you one thing about them; when you sew something onto something else with a bartacker, it ain't coming off by itself!

FWIIW, 26 years ago, I used to operate the same bartacker. It didn't have anything air operated. It was purely mechanical. There was a foot lift/thread cutting pedal and the GO pedal. We used it to sew Velcro onto Police gear made of vinyl. We ran #69 bonded nylon in the top and bobbin, very successfully.

Nandy; I moved this topic from its previous incorrect location. Although this is not a leather sewing machine, this section of LWN is as good as it gets for info on various types of sewing machines. Hopefully, someone watching this forum can help you out.

That machine's description and the photo remind me of a McKay chainstitch sole stitcher. You sew with the bottom up on a McKay, which forms a chainstitch on the inside of the shoe. That stitching would then be hidden by a glued on insole.

Frobana outsole machines come up for sale now and then, mostly in Germany and Holland. The last one I saw was sold by Seike.de for 750 Euros.Power Shoe - in Holland - also sells Frobana, when they have them in stock.