Wizcrafts

Turek; You mentioned an interest in a CB3200 and also said you sometimes need to sew as little as 4 ounces (1/16"). The 3200 is a heavy duty harness machine and is not recommended for sewing that thinness of leather or thread size 69 that matches 4 oz leather. Unless you want to sew gun holsters, knife sheathes, saddlery, harness and heavy cases, this machine is just not gentle enough the sew thin material with thin thread. Once you move into the sewing aspect of leather work, more machines may be needed. Your first one should be a cylinder arm type. You can either buy a table top attachment, or have one made, or build one yourself. The CB227R is a very good choice and has reverse. It maxes out with #138 thread, which has 22 pounds tensile strength. I have sewn a lot of leather goods up to 1/4 inch thick with #138 thread (top and bottom). FYI: The CB3200, 3500, 4500 and 5500, like the Adler 205 and 969 series are all heavy duty harness and holster machines. They come into their own starting with #138 thread and going up. You would normally use #138 thread when sewing about 7 to 8 ounces, as in lined rifle slings and guitar straps. They have very large feed dogs that have huge slots for giant needles that can move off center in all directions. I have watched my CB4500 literally make a meal out of 2-3 ounce garment leather, as it got pushed down into the hole in the feed dog..OTOH, my standard upholstery grade walking foot machine handled it without any difficulty. As for your Tiger thread, at 1mm, the closest bonded nylon size is #554, which none of the 441 types can handle. To machine sew with #554 requires a Campbell Randall Lockstitch machine, or equivalent. The needle size would be the equivalent of a #30. The 441 type machines max out with a #27 needle. The Class 18 is a Cobra flat bed walking foot machine. It is an excellent choice if you don't need a cylinder arm.

There's not much future in buying obscure sewing machines, unless you know how to restore and adjust them and have missing or worn parts produced in a machine shop.

If you will be sewing thicknesses between 6 and 32 ounces, using thread sizes #138 - #346, a Cowboy CB3200 may be the perfect machine for you. It sells for a little more than what you wanted to pay, but it's worth it. It can sew with thread as thin as #92 and as heavy as #415. But, 10 - 12 ounce jobs are usually sewn with #207 thread, which is very strong. That's what I use on bridle leather belts.

I was going to mention the McKay machines, but, after watching a few videos, realized that they are not really meant for sewing sidewalls. McKays are chainstitch machines and rely upon overlaid insoles to hide the thread chains. If a member owns a McKay, perhaps they will chime in and tell us if the machine can sew sidewalls on sneakers.

Ed; Analyze how your check spring is installed. There will be some method of controlling the position of the spring at rest, as well as where the thread leave the disk around it. Additionally, there will be a screw in the body that when loosened, allows you to rotate the split shaft the spring rides on. Moving it clockwise usually tightens and ccw usually loosens the spring action. Your spring may have been set to minimum tension to control soft cotton garment thread. It is not a leather sewing machine by design.

That machine is a rebranded Chikon CK-563, a clone, made in Taiwan

Back off the bobbin case tension until it has an easy, smooth pull. Make sure there isn't a thread stub sticking out either end, which would interfere with smooth rotation of the bobbin. Reduce the top tension to balance the knots. Less bobbin tension makes for an easier pull on the top thread and will be less likely to rip the lining leather. I would not sew #277 any tighter than 5 to the inch if you are using an S point needle. These wedge or chisel shaped points slice the leather at the front and back of the center of the hole. A triangle or diamond point needle creates a rounder hole on the bottom, with a triangle shape on top. You can sew closer stitches with these needles. Finally, try using #207 in the bobbin. It lies flatter on the bottom and is easier to knot and pull up that #277.

Well equipped shoe shops would often have a pedestal mounted heavy duty Adler 30-something, or a Claes patcher, either costing about 5 or 6 thousand dollars new. They might have a small bobbin Singer patcher or two for lighter and tighter quarters work, like repairing purse straps and strap tabs, sewing close to toes in shoes, or sewing patches onto motorcycle vests.

First of all, I have never heard of this brand of machine. It appears to be a standard straight stitch machine with a horizontal axis hook. S.O.P. would be to insert the needle with the ribbed side on the left and the scarf on the right. The needle system should probably be 16x257. It should be threaded from left to right. You will need to hold back the starting threads or else the top thread may get pulled into the bobbin and get garbled up on the bottom of the material. I can't tell if you fed the top thread through the check spring, across/down around a bent guide, up to the take-up lever and down through any guides to the needle (left to right). Those things are imperative if the machine is going to sew. If it is threaded correctly, including the bobbin case having a smooth amount of tension on the bobbin thread, and the bobbin case is snapped into its cutout in the housing, and the top thread is ratted, then the timing, smoothness, or horizontal position of the hook is off. The hook should arrive above the eye on the upstroke, after the loop forms on the right side of the eye of the needle. If the hook arrives too soon or too late, there will be skipped stitches. If the hook splits the top thread loop, it rats. This could happen if the hook is misaligned sideways and splits the thread instead of picking it off. Another cause of ratted top thread is burrs on the hook, feed dog, or throat plate needle hole. Last, but not least, try varying the travel of the check spring. If it lets go too soon, the needle may split the thread as it meets the material. Increase the travel to correct this. There is a rounded stop bracket under the check spring. Loosen the screw in the bracket and tap the bracket away from the bottom of the spring, in its rest position. This lets the spring move farther down, increasing its travel. It should hold the top thread taut until the needle is past the material. It must let go and give slack before the loop is formed, or there won't be a loop to pick off!

To sew rawhide, crank down the pressure spring over the presser foot to keep the rawhide tightly in place. Use one size larger Tri point needle to resist side fumbling and use the double toe presser foot to secure both sides of the stitch line. The roller edge guide can help to keep the rawhide from moving to the right. So, if you normally sew with #277 thread and a standard #25 "S" point needle, try using a #26 triangle or diamond point for rawhide. You can also secure the layers using thin upholstery or shoe tacks along the designated stitch line, pulling them as you approach them. The edge guide will determine where the stitch line is on the outer edges.

It's safer to use a #26 Schmetz needle with #346 thread. You may need to increase the tension and lengthen the travel of the check spring to control the slack in that heavy of a thread. I normally run pretty strong tension on my check springs.

Your simplest option is to replace the pulley on the clutch motor with a smaller diameter type 3L pulley and a shorter v-belt to match the difference. The change from a 3" to a 2" pulley is 33% reduction in top speed. The larger the existing pulley, the greater the decrease will be with a 2" pulley. Measure the diameter of the motor shaft first to ensure that you buy the correct bore in the new pulley. If the existing shaft has a positioning key, make sure the new pulley is keyed as well. Sewing machine pulleys and belts are sold by all industrial sewing machine dealers I have ever heard of.

I do not recommend filing or sanding the teeth on patch machines. Those teeth are the only means of feeding leather. I have previously sewn hundreds of items on an Adler 30-70 and learned to either back off the pressure spring as much as practical, or smooth the marks with a modeling tool, or just live with them. I do the same thing on my two Singer patchers, but try to avoid sewing veg-tan on them as much as possible. In fact, they are mostly used to sew patches onto bikers' vests, or repair purses. I have much better feeding walking foot machines for sewing veg-tan leather. There isn't a lot of wiggle room for needles when you sew with #138 thread. While you can use a #140/22 needle, it is often harder to pull the leather up into the tight hole. I always preferred a Schmetz #160/23 leather point needle when sewing #138 thread on the Adler patcher. I do not normally use anything larger than #92 in my current Singer patchers. But, on those few occasions, I use a #23 needle and reverse the throat plate to the larger hole side. PS: You might try lowering the lift of the foot. This may reduce the marking.

You probably saved yourself a hundred dollars or more in repairs or replacement parts. As for the Techsew 563, I can't find any mention of it on the interwebs, or the Techsew website. Are you sure about the make and model?

I use a #26 (Metric #220) leather point needle to sew with #346 thread, top and bottom. That needle opens a decent size hole for the large knots to fill. You can get by with a #25/200 needle if you use a smaller size in the bobbin (e.g.; #207, 277). The hole will be pretty tight with a #25 needle, which is why using smaller bobbin thread makes it easier to pull the knots up into the leather. While I mostly sew heavy stuff with #277 thread, when I use #346 on the top and bottom, it is usually in projects 1/4 inch thick and up.

I use my CB4500 to sew bullet loops using the right toe presser foot, reversing on an upward-right angle to the top of the next stitch line, which I mark with points or dots on the top and bottom of parallel soft lines made with wing dividers. The sewing is in an inverted "N" pattern, As you work you way up the belt, you will appreciate the length of the arm on the CB4500.

This suggests that there is a problem with the size and or duration of the loop that's formed by the ascending needle. Perhaps your check spring needs to be adjusted to get a better loop.

I set my CB4500 so that the needle and inside foot meet the top grain at the same moment, or as close as I can get. This insures that reverse stitches will hit the same holes, or at least come close to it. It also keeps the inside foot on the grain side until the needle has fully cleared the leather on the upstroke, minimizing the forward pull from the ascending needle. Getting the lifting of the inside foot and lowering of the presser foot timed is important for maintaining predictable stitch lengths.

I checked out the workout bags website and those bags look like they're sewn with #138 or maybe #207 thread.

I just reread the description of this machine. If you intend to use it for its intended purpose - sewing only cloth and vinyl fabrics - then #554 will be doable. These materials don't offer the friction and resistance to penetration that leather does. Also, the teeth on the feet and feed dog won't mark cloth like they would on leather. In fact, they help feed long pieces of material that would slip too easily on a leather sewing machine. Since there is very little resistance from cloth, a #28 round point needle will probably do okay sewing #554 thread into a stack of thick buffing wheels, parachutes, climbing or tow ropes, etc. None of the aforementioned applies to sewing any leather tougher than chrome tanned. But, you'll still need to exceed the minimum thickness to hide the knots. 8 to 10 mm would do it.

Machine ratings on paper and in reality are often two completely different things. This will become obvious if you try to sew with #554 bonded nylon thread on a 441 clone. This thread is so large that you will probably need to use a #30 needle to bring the knots up (good luck with that). The pressure spring will probably not hold down the leather under such lifting force. It will need to be replaced with a stronger coil spring. Even if it does hold the material down, the shuttle clearances will need to be readjusted to clear that large diameter thread. The holes in the inside foot and the feed dog may need to be enlarged, unless the needle hits dead center. Enlarging the hole in the inside foot may weaken it to the point of breaking. You might need to use a "blanket foot" set which has more metal around the hole on the inside alternating foot and on the outside presser foot. More metal on the leather equals better hold down. So, if you intend to use #554 thread, ask the prospective seller to sew that size thread into a stack of leather 1/2 inch thick and email you a photo or video of the results. FYI: the minimum thickness needed to fully bury the knots of #554 thread is approximately 3/8 inch. If this will be your intended primary thread size, consider buying a Campbell Lockstitch needle and awl machine instead. You would need to order it setup to sew with #554 in advance to ensure the best results (heavier springs). FWIIW: I have owned two Union Lockstitch machines and both had trouble holding down 1/2 inch plus stacks of hard leather when I tried using #554 thread. The needle needed was a #5 and the awl a #6, which is the diameter of a large porch nail. Just withdrawing the awl sometimes lifted the leather unless the foot pressure coil spring was screwed almost all the way down. Then there was the fight holding it down during the viscous take-up cycle.

I have a long body Singer 139w109, which is basically a stretched out 111w153. I have a Family Sew FS-550s motor with a 50mm pulley feeding the machine. Sometimes I have to sew as slow as she can go. Other times I have a long straight run and I'll crank up the speed and floor it. There's a certain excitement sitting behind a 60 or 70 year old walking foot machine that is roaring down the tracks making 90 miles an hour (actually, about 30 stitches per second), with smoke coming off the titanium coated needle! I oil the machine every day, plus the bobbin case every bobbin change.

Eric; I'd like to put my name in for that machine if they decide to retire it!

This is a wonderful tutorial Uwe. Thanks for creating it and posting it here. Also, thanks for also posting the text in German for our members in Germany.

This topic to which you just responded is 7 years old. I don't know if the person you mentioned is still a member or not. But, I did find a link to the vintage Adler manuals and parts lists. The Adler 105 is among those covered. Good hunting sir!