Wizcrafts

I get 4 to the inch on my 42-5. So, 5 is not standard spec.

I think that a one head, 6 needle Melco EMT16 can embroider leather, because Leather is listed in the left sidebar among the items it can sew onto. It sews on hats, baseball caps, jackets and jerseys. An email or phone call to Melco should get an accurate answer. It would be about the cheapest full commercial embroidery machine that I know about.

We could all pitch in on a Melco 6 head commercial embroidery machine for the OP and do time sharing on it!

I once owned that Singer model. I found it was best used with #138 and smaller thread. Actually, the standard size bobbin doesn't hold much size 138 thread, so I tended to restrict it to #69 or 92. It ended up being my vest and hat making machine. The 153 machines may be physically able to sew up to 3/8, but are more reliable at 5/16 and under. In order to penetrate that much hard veg-tan leather, with a #23 needle and #138 thread, you'd need a speed reducer between the motor and machine.

Will they honor your warranty if you damage the machine? If you tell them you tried to sew/embroider leather or suede, you may void the warranty. The most likely issues you may run into are causing the needle bar to move up from impact with the leather/suede - knocking it out of time - and overheating the motor and overstressing the drive components. Keep in mind you have a plastic body machine containing light duty gears and cranks. It was built with cloth embroidery in mind. You may destroy this machine sewing 5 ounce leather or suede. Do you have another $500 to spend on a replacement machine?

Add that to your post and we'll move it to the Used Sewing Machines section of our Marketplace.

I will move this post to the Marketplace once the OP sets a price.

I can buy both system 135x(16|17) and 190 in sizes 16 through 25. The sizes 16 and 18 are best for sewing #69 bonded thread into about 4 - 5 ozs of leather, or 3/32" of vinyl or cloth. #19 and 20 needles are best fo #92 bonded thread, into about 6-8 ozs leather, or up to 1/8" of material. A #22 needle is for sewing #138 bonded thread into vinyl or cloth and a #23 for sewing it into leather.

Sew it on like you would sew a regular embroidered patch. A straight stitch machine should be fine, as long as you use regular sewing tread on a cloth shirt, or nylon thread on a leather shirt. You can buy heavy duty thread from Joann Fabrics in 100 yd spools. It is very strong. Use a #16 leather point needle with heavy thread, or a #14 with regular sewing thread. Hold it in place with double sided tape. Try to avoid taping the edges along the stitch lines of the star. If the star is to be applied over a pocket or sleeve, a patch machine will be needed. These machines sew 360 degrees, with #69 bonded thread.

Jeff; Needles don't just vary in length. They can also have different upper barrel diameters and barrel lengths, before tapering down to the designated needle size. Your machine may or may not accept or properly seat the system 190 needles in the mounting hole.

Do you mean system 134-35? That is another size peculiar to some Pfaff machines.

When you call CowboyBob, ask if he can set a CB3200 up with blanket feet and throw in the harness set for those occasions when you need to sew something where tooth marks would be a problem. The blanket feet also include a matching feed dog with teeth. These parts provide solid hold and feed of bags and horse blankets. The machine sews with medium to large sizes of thread, like #138 up. The CB227 stops at #138 and possibly #207. You will need non-leather point needles for cloth. They are available in more sizes than the leather point needles. Be as accurate as possible when you describe your anticipated type of sewing. You want to get the best machine from the get go. The 227R is a lighter duty walking foot machine with a rotary shuttle. It will still sew blankets, but straw and dirt in the cloth may jam the shuttle faster than on a 3200, which has an oscillating shuttle that clears dirt better.

I meant to type "rubber" covers. I just corrected it. lol There are two bolts securing the faceplate to the left top of the machine. Unscrew them and pull the plate off. All the cranks inside have little oil holes. Failure to oil these cranks may lead to the machine seizing or binding, as happened to a friend's Cobra Class 4. He simply didn't know about opening the plate to access those little holes.

I placed an M bobbin on top of a Juki LU bobbin to see the difference. It amounts to about 2mm smaller diameter and just about 1mm thinner inside. The LU bobbin probably can hold about 20% more thread.

I just realized that the machine does not have a standard foot; just a hoop foot. Unless you buy or received an accessory presser foot, and can raise a feed dog, you can't sew seams with that machine.

Each needle stroke will weaken the leather. You should only attempt to embroider into soft garment, or thin chap leather, using a longer than usually stitch length. Otherwise, the embroidered letters may filigree the material and fall out. I would say 1/16" would be the maximum thickness for that type of machine. You will have to really clamp the leather down hard to avoid it puckering and definitely, use a titanium needle. Since you will be laying down a high concentration of stitches that will overlap, do not use a leather point needle. It may cut the previous threads. For typical embroidery thread, use a #11 or #12 needle. Do not even think about doing any seam sewing of medium temper leather over 1/16" on that plastic body embroidery machine. It is not tough enough to take the stress. Use a leather point needle if you do, at the longest stitch length it can give.

This is the best alternative for folks to exchange email addresses in plain sight. It is called email obfuscation. It's not foolproof, but at least it gives you some protection from robot scrapers. It will not fool actual eyeball scrapers though. Keep your antennas up.

I realize that this section of LWN allows non-members to post and reply. These non-members do not have profiles, or the privilege of using our private message system. This means that anybody wishing to contact non-member guests who post in this Help Wanted forum will have to give some contact info in plain sight. I want those who do this to be aware of the risk. Posting email addresses in plain text on forums that are world readable (as is LWN) leaves them open to automated "crawlers" that act as email account harvesters. They scour web pages all over the Internet searching for recognizable email addresses and copy any they find to a database that is sold to marketers, spammers and scammers. Don't be surprised if you begin to receive more spam than usual to email accounts that you list in plain text on publicly viewable forums. Our forums are indexed by all the major search engines, as is the text content posted to the various topics. If your email service provides spam or junk mail filters, use them. Add legitimate message senders to your friends or contacts list. Be wary of messages that don't make sense with regard to the post in question. Scammers are experienced in leading people on when those people are looking to buy or sell something or a service. If you post your phone number, watch out for scammers and marketers who may have obtained it via a harvested phone database dump. Members of LeatherWorker.net can keep their contact details from harvesters and scammers by keeping them only in their profiles, which only other members can access. This allows members to contact each other via our messaging system, or by viewing a member's contact info that has been listed in that profile. You can choose not to share this information if you wish. This is a service announcement from Wiz. You can learn more by reading my security blog Members are welcome to contact me about this via the forum's PM system. Non-members can contact me via my website which has a contact page.

I should mention that if b2k is using a large needle, like a #23, he should rotate the throat plate to place the large hole under the needle.

According to the needle and thread chart on the Toledo Industrial Sewing Machines website, #138 bonded thread is: .0163" (.414mm) That is the maximum size thread for your patch machine, although it is foolish to load heavy thread like this in a tiny bobbin. It requires either a #22 or #23 needle. I have the same machine in my shop and limit it to #69 bonded thread.

If it is fully functional, has a servo motor retrofitted and sews when you try it out, it may be worth whatever you are willing to pay for it. This is especially true if the seller offers a 30 day money back guarantee and technical support. Note, this is an upholstery sewing machine. It is not really meant to sew veg-tan holsters or sheathes, unless they are only about 5/16" to 3/8" thick maximum. You will be limited to #138 bonded thread using a #23 leather point needle. Anything made of veg-tan leather thicker than 1/4 inch will need to be sewn very sloooowly. This requires either a speed reducer, or an extra high power servo motor, equipped with a 2 inch pulley.

Basically, all components of Singer industrial sewing machines were discontinued by Simanco. The business was sold off years ago and all parts and equipment are scattered to the four winds. Any parts at all are either recycled from old machines, or made in Asia by aftermarket companies. Internal timing belts are now made in China and commonly available from aftermarket suppliers. However, your model is so old there may not even be knockoff belts for it.

Not even remotely close to it. Two different machines in two different worlds. The 29-4 is a century plus old design with the tiniest of bobbins (about a penny wide x 3 or 4 deep), top feed via teeth on the foot, small stitches that get smaller with age and a limit of 1/4 inch under the foot. The maximum safe thread size for the machine is #69 bonded nylon, although some may be able to clear up to #92. It is purely a repairs machine, for sewing on patches, or repairing purses or shoe uppers. In contrast, the Consew 227 features triple (compound) feed, uses a standard industrial bobbin that measures 7/8" wide, 5/16" high. It can handle up to #138 thread, top and bottom and clears up to 3/8 inches of compressed material.

I have a machine that has been retrofitted with a Juki hook, using the large LU bobbins. I also had a machine that used M bobbins, some of which I kept. The M bobbins are smaller and hold less thread.

Note, that some compensating presser feet also have a built in edge guide flange or spring that rides along the right edge of the belt.