Wizcrafts

I was in a similar situation in 2013 or 14; I can't remember which, I sewed at home part time and had a Union Lockstitch that I rebuilt over a 2 year period. I invested over $1000 in parts, thread, needles and awls, in addition to the cost of obtaining it in the first place. By the time I was finished modding the machine, it sewed up to 7/8 of an inch. During the summer of 2012, I moved into a shared, one room - 280 square foot leather business with a fellow crafter. By that time I had also acquired a brand new Cowboy CB4500. There was only room for one of the big machines and the Cowboy won. So, I put the Union Lock up for sale and it went fairly quickly. I used the money from that sale to fund a used Singer 139 long arm walking foot machine and a Fortuna skiver. I brought home the standard size walking foot machine that was in the shop and replaced it with the Singer 139. The skiver was on a short table that Bob Kovar custom built for me. It fit between a display cabinet and the wall behind it, which amounted to something like 32 inches. As much as I miss the awesomeness of the Union Lockstitch machine, with its needle and awl system that I had adjusted to space station accuracy, I make more use of the two machines that replaced it than I would have if I'd kept it. Sometimes you have to let go of machines that aren't truly needed and move on to others that are more useful for the work at hand. As things turned out, last summer we took over a second adjoining room that had even more footage than the original. It is loaded with machines and a cutting table, plus rows of storage cabinets and stacked drawers. I could have easily fitted the ULS into the new room; now dubbed the sewing room. But, that's not how it played out in my timeline.

Yep, the driving pinion needs to be replaced. In theory, if you replace everything under the arm with well fitting but not binding parts, as well as the foot driving cam that lives under the revolving head bushing, the machine should sew like a brand new old one. You can probably buy all these parts, plus a new take-up lever and a new bobbin case, for around $300.00.

Another cause of skipped stitches can be glue or double sided leather tape clogging the eye of the needle.

Open the throat plate and see how far you can rotate or wiggle the shuttle with your fingers. If it has 1/8" or more of slack, the gears are worn out. If that's the case and the machine was using anything thicker than #92 thread, you can guess that the oversize thread wore it out.

If your patcher has a ~7/16" hole in the lower section of the front right of the head, you probably have an adjustable timing model. You can stick a large flat bade screw driver through the hole and angle it into the large slotted eccentric bolt that couples the mechanism from the top to the racks inside the arm. You may need to loosen the locknut on the inside of the adjuster couplings first. The offset bolt allows for advancing or retarding the hook timing by about 1/8 inch. If you don't have this adjustment in your patcher, you'll need to replace some or all of the gears and racks under the left end of the arm.

You asked if I use #69 thread in my patchers. Absolutely! I only use #69 thread in my 29k71, which is a small bobbin, short arm machine. Even with light weight thread, the driving pinion gear and bearing have worn to the point of needing to be replaced. The machine is out of service until the parts arrive. Fortunately, I also have a long arm, large bobbin, Singer 29k172 patcher. I normally use #92 thread in it. Now, it has to do double duty with #69 and #92. I have compromised and use a #19 needle that handles both thread sizes. I just load some bobbins #69 thread and others with #92. It pays to have 4 or more bobbin cases and dozens of bobbins for different colors and sizes of thread.

You should try loosening the thread tensions to the minimum needed to bury the knots. Start with the bobbin by backing off the little tension spring screw until there is just a modicum of resistance when you pull the thread out of the bobbin case. Sew a test run and reduce the top tension to position the knots in the center of the leather, or at least out of sight inside the bottom layer. Use a #18 needle with #69 thread, and a #20 needle with #92 thread. The one size larger than needed holes will allow you to reduce the thread tensions and still get the knots well up inside the leather. The only remaining adjustment that your 29-4 has available it to loosen the little leaf spring on top of the take-up lever. Back it off a bit to get a little extra slack thread on top. There will be a spot where you will see benefits. Going beyond that point will make matters worse and may let the needle pierce the thread and separate it. Note; I am not referring to the long leaf spring on the back. This spring is on the very top and rides on the take-up lever to assist it with pulling up the top thread between stitches.

Possibly, as long as your thread comes off the spool without binding, isn't like a coil spring as it unravels, and you have well balanced top and bobbin tensions. The knots (actually interlocked stitches) may be visible from both sides, even if they are placed at dead center. That is because of the combined diameter of two interlocked #346 threads being over 1/16th of an inch. The #26 needle hole is fairly large and makes it harder to hide these big knots. I think you'll have much better success if you limit #346 thread to projects over 5/16 of an inch. I personally don't use #346 in anything under 3/8".

Nope. The original owner had it on the table and I have no problem with it being there. The only reason I can think of for having a hold down tab is to keep the bed from lifting if the knee lever rod raises too high. This used to happen to me when I shared one table with three machine heads. I would try to reposition the knee lever for to each machine. But, if the bent rod was too high it would sometimes lift the front of the body up out of the housing cutout in the table. The lock down tab is also useful for transporting a fully assembled machine and table.

The heavier the top thread, the sooner you will wear out the teeth on the driving pinion gear. As this worsens, you'll notice that there is more slop in the shuttle carrier and the timing will become erratic under load. After a while the hook will become too retarded to effectively pick up the thread loop on the needle and you'll start seeing more and more skipped stitches as you sew. Another negative impact from using too heavy of a top thread is the extra pressure it puts on the feed cam for the foot, as it drags the leather against the force of the stitches. It will cause it to wear faster than otherwise if you had thinner thread and less overall thread tension. This will cause the stitch length to suffer. FWIIW: When I had a 29-4 and completely rebuilt it due to the aforementioned experiment gone bad, I limited it to #69 bonded thread, top and bottom. Less thread tension = less foot pressure required = less wear on the driving cam and shuttle drive components. It is also less stressful on the take-up lever.

That machine is absolutely not a leather sewing machine for the purposes normally discussed in this forum. It is a vinyl and webbing sewing machine that somebody has used to butcher a leather knife sheath. The motor on these mini-walking foot machines is rated at 150 watts under full load and develops most of its power at higher running speeds. They have a tiny 2 speed reducer pulley between the motor and machine. If the machine has that much trouble starting in a fairly thin leather knife pouch, like in the above video, it won't stand a chance trying to penetrate a quarter inch of veg-tan. It usually takes a 1/2 horse power, 550 watt motor, or stronger, to penetrate 16 ounces of veg-tan leather from a dead stop. You basically need a motor that is 5 times more powerful than the one in that Sailrite machine.

I have a part that resembles that to hold down the front of my Singer 42-5 flatbed sewing machine. The tab goes on top, while the rod goes through a hole in the table. The butterfly nut tightens it under the table. You loosen the nut and rotate the tab away from the edge of the machine bed to tilt the machine backwards to oil and lube it.

I did the same thing to a Cobra inside foot I bought. After grinding off the groover tab and buffing it to a high polish, I re-positioned the now shorter inside foot so it meets the leather with the point of the decending needle. All if well when that happens.

I am worried that this experiment isn't going to end well for our gentle new member...

Try to find out the exact length of the belt for your machine. If it has the same total circumference as a 41 tooth belt, it should fit on the cogs.

The seller is fibbing. That is a garment sewing machine with a flat foot. It may lift high enough to sew 1/4" or so of cloth, but not leather tack. It will not allow the use of heavy nylon thread either. It will probably sew vinyl and canvas with #69 thread, maximum. But, due to its only having bottom feed, via feed dogs, it will slip if the length or weight of the material is greater than its ability to secure it. The solution to this would be to first replace the feed dog and throat plate with a heavy duty tooth set, then crank down the foot pressure spring to prevent unwanted slippage. Most marine and awning sewing is performed on walking foot machines. You may want to look into a Consew 206RB-5 instead. It has compound (triple) feed and can sew up to 3/8 inch of material, with up to #138 bonded thread.

Those old link and cloth drive belts are sometimes salvaged from machines bought at factory auctions. Check with Gregg at Keystone Sewing or Bob Kovar at Toledo Industrial Sewing Machines. One of them may have a 153w101 carcass with a decent belt they can pull and sell to you.

All I can see from the photo is that it's a straight stitch machine with a reverse lever and stitch length dial. The AC cord sticking out from the bottom is curious. Did the previous owner mount a home sewing machine motor onto the back of the machine?.Or is it just laying there by accident? My guess is that this is a tailoring machine. A model number will help get more details about it and its cloth handling capabilities and speed. FYI: Tailoring class machines are not meant to sew anything thicker than garment leather without sometimes major modifications.

The Rex 188 types are upholstery sewing machines. The only leather normally sewn on them is unmarkable, chrome tanned upholstery hides, about 4 to 6 ounces thick. I wouldn't even think about using this type of feed system to sew a leather holster. But, if you are into Kydex or ballistic nylon, it is the perfect machine for the job. Since you aren't familiar with this machine, it is a dual feed machine with teeth on the presser foot and feed dog. The outside, or presser foot is driven in sync with the feed dog to pull the material through, on top and bottom. This helps when sewing long sections of couch materials, drapery, sails, animal leads, vinyl banners, tents and boat or truck covers. If you intend to machine sew holsters, start your search with compound feed walking foot machines, with totally smooth bottom feet. A Cowboy CB3200 is an excellent machine for this type of work. It sews up to a solid 1/2 inch of veg-tan or bridle, or latigo leather, with up to #415 bonded nylon thread and up to #27 needles. This is way beyond the capabilities of any upholstery class sewing machine. It is distributed by Toledo Industrial Sewing Machines, owned by Bob Kovar and his Son, Bob Jr. They always perform an expert setup and sew off before they ship a machine. My Cowboy CB4500 holster sewing machine came from Toledo Industrial with a sample stack of leather over 3/4 inch thick, sewn off with #277 thread. I have managed to sew one holster on it that was a solid 7/8 inch thick along the outer edge, using #346 Superior brand bonded nylon thread and a #26 needle.

Belt play is usually measured half way between two end points. This means about half the distance from the motor pulley to the machine pulley. In practice, I usually set the play at table level, at the belt slot, behind the bobbin winder wheel. If you don't have a bobbin winder on the table, just figure where the 50% point is and push inwards on the belt. If it deflects between 1/2 and 1 inch, it has enough slack. If the belt slips, tighten it until it stops slipping.

It depends on the model number and what type of material you plan to sew with it. If it is a 188 series Rex, it is best used to sew upholstery cloth, denim, webbing, Naugahyde and ballistic materials. It can also sew 2 layers of medium thickness BioThane. The machine works really well with #138 thread and #23 needles You would use a #24 needle to sew BioThane on the Rex 188. Make sure that both feet are on the machine as replacements can be costly. If the seller has piping feet too it will save you some money.

I am not aware of anybody who is currently making spring guide presser feet for 441 clones, or 205 clones. The market share is so small that any feet other than standard would have to be custom milled. The small market also keeps the prices higher than those of ubiquitous presser feet. We do have members who own or work in metal shops and they may be able to modify or build presser feet. I have been told that a piping foot set has been produced and is being tested in the USA. I've also been told that it may be undersized for most welts, aside from motorcycle seat diameters. I'm sure that once feedback makes its way to the manufacturer that other diameters will be produced. I will pass along a wishlist request for spring guide feet. This will probably fall on deaf ears since edge guides are readily available (swing away and drop down). We do or did have a member who was printing plastic throat plates for our 441 machines. I have a couple and the last one was pretty good and is usable. I don't think that the plastic they use is strong enough for a presser foot, but it may be worth trying. Anybody out there with a 3D printer wanna volunteer?

You can see a slightly newer Mitsubishi dual needle machine, with reverse, in action in this YouTube video. It will show you the speed which it is meant to be operated at and the type of material it is built to sew.

I would like to expand on something Eric mentioned in the previous post. He and I both use spring guide presser feet. These are either the outside foot of a walking foot set, or the sole foot on a straight stitch machine. They have a pivoting steel tab on the right side, at a certain distance from the center line, where the needle passes. There is a tiny coiled finger spring on top of the guide tab to hold it down. It is useful for times when a regular edge guide attachment isn't feasible. I buy them with 1/8", 3/16" and 1/4" distances from the center to the guide. The spring loaded guide tab is fully upwards compressible so it can ride along the same bottom plane as the fixed parts of the foot. This lets you use it for regular top stitch sewing when the guide isn't required (like poor man's reverse operations). Note, that because of the length of the sprung guide tab, doing inside curves can be problematic if the radius is too small.

This subject has come up before. I want to lay out some details about what it takes to have an online shopping cart for a sewing machine and parts business. This is only in broad strokes, minus a lot of boring but terribly important technical details that must also be taken care of, on an ongoing basis. Such an undertaking involves a lot more than placing add-to-cart button code on html pages and a checkout page for payments; that's fairly straight forward copy and paste from your payment portal provider (who takes about a 3% commission on each sale). It requires somebody at the business location to compile a database of items they have for sale, complete with photos, descriptions and prices, which may need to be updated from time to time (as new parts are added, old one deprecated, or prices change), as well as whether or not each of those items are still in stock at any given time. It actually calls for a dedicated department for Internet orders and inventorying. Some of our friends in the sewing machine business are very small operations, with one or two people running the entire business and a delivery and pickup driver. These few people are usually as busy as they can possibly be just setting up and repairing machines and taking and returning phone calls from customers. When you see a sewing machine company with an online shopping cart that is updated and leads to a smooth checkout, with full HTTPS encryption and safe-seller verification certs, as well as malware, intrusion and DDoS protection, you should know that they have staff dedicated to running that part of their business on a regular paid basis. The website would not be hosted on a low cost shared hosting server, but on a VPS, dedicated, or cloud server, costing magnitudes more than a static shared hosting informational site. The actual Webmaster would only need to be paid once in a while to write new pages, or descriptions, or add new links or buttons. He or she would have nothing to do with the physical maintenance of the inventory and its database, unless he was employed on-site at the shop (a very high paying job, ~25/hr or more). Some larger sewing machine businesses can afford to hire qualified, technically adept people who specifically handle the database, inventory and Internet end of their business, on an ongoing, highly paid basis. I would love to have a job like that.