Wizcrafts

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.

Toledo Industrial Sewing Machines: Call 866-362-7397 toll free. There is a contact form on the website, where you can send a request for machine specific parts and prices. They do not have an online shopping cart.

I'd recommend setting it to about 1/2 inch of free motion on the floor pedal before the clutch starts to engage. That should give you enough time to anticipate the action of the clutch and learn to feather it in. With a steady toe, you should be able to feather it down to about 1 stitch per second, or so. I do that on my clutch equipped sewing machines with no trouble. You can move the swivel cup and linkage all the way out to the last hole on the motor lever to get more travel and better slow speed control.

Oops! I reread your question and realized that I mistakenly replied with info about a Singer 31-15, when you asked about a 15-91. I used to have a 15-91 and I threaded it with #69 bonded nylon thread and a #18 leather point needle. It was able to sew thin leather and vinyl if it was slick on top. If the material was in the least bit grabby, the stitch length was all over the place, sometimes in the same hole. A Teflon or roller foot is necessary to feed the leather without separating the layers. The motor required hand assistance to get it going in leather. It grunted and groaned until I got it moving. Eventually, the motor smoked, so I rebuilt it, then eventually sold it in my leather shop (I rebuild and sell old iron body Singer machines). One of the problems with the old Singer home sewing machines was that most have very limited presser foot clearance before the bottom of the needle bar and thread guide hits the top of the foot. Changing the foot to a thicker Teflon, or roller, or "even feed" foot will reduce the usable sewing clearance even more, possibly to as little as 3/32 inch.

Yeah, a Singer 31-15 will sew thin wallets, especially if you fit it with either a Teflon or roller foot and heavy duty feed dog and throat plate set. It will be happier if you don't exceed #69 bonded nylon thread, which is perfect for pigskin wallets. Almost any upholstery class walking foot machine will do wallets and interior parts (with #69 or #92 thread). I have a Singer walking foot machine that was custom built for me. Others use the newer Consew 206RB-5

Maybe this needle and thread size chart will help you. I buy Cowboy bonded nylon thread from there too in various sizes and colors/shades of brown.

I get my bonded nylon and sometimes polyester thread from several suppliers. They include the following: Toledo Industrial Sewing Machines Superior Thread Campbell-Randall Weaver Leather The Thread Exchange Wawak Sewing Threadsrus Various eBay sellers who have the size and color I need for a job I buy various sizes of bonded thread, ranging from #69 through 346. I have the most color options with #69, followed by #92. Between those sizes I probably have 24 different colors or shades. I don't use #138 as often and only stock about 6 colors in that size. #207 gets used a lot in my Cowboy CB4500 and I am always looking for new colors to buy. My most awesome find was three one pound spools of #207 in Harley orange. All together, I guess I have at least a dozen colors and shades in 207. Once you get into #277, the color choices shrink considerably. Still, I have managed to obtain about 10 colors/shades in that size. #346 is a challenge to find in colors. Fortunately, I have been able to get about 8 different colors, including silver. I would like to mention that the primary brand of thread I get from Toledo Industrial Sewing Machines is their own Cowboy bonded nylon. It is prelubricated and bonded. But, the best thing about it is that various color codes match across all available sizes. I can choose a shade of brown and buy it in all sizes they have (say from #69 through #277) and they are all the exact same shade of that color.

FWIIW About a half year ago I bought a set of 4 spring edge guide presser feet for my Singer 31-15 straight stitch machine. When I took them out of the bag and tried them for fit, one was facing slightly sideways, so the needle would hit metal rather than the hole, and another was actually on an angle along the bottom plane, not laying flat on the feeders. All were made in China. I sent them back and got replacements. Even then, one had a slight sideways alignment. But at least they all now sit flat on the bottom. It does require a slight rotation of the needle bar to align the one that is off center. I am guessing that your now returned presser foot was similarly cast on an angle. It is a crap shoot to get properly made parts from Asia.

Probably #92 bonded nylon, which has 15 pounds breaking strength per stitch. If you have a patcher, use #92 bonded nylon, with #19 leather point needles. If you're hand sewing, get very thin leather point hand sewing needles and use a thimble or sewing palm to push them through. You can get more strength from #138 bonded nylon, or bonded polyester thread. It requires a #23 needle and will push a patcher to its limits.

Slide open the plate over the bobbin and shuttle and watch the top thread as it is picked off the needle and dragged around the shuttle. If it binds anywhere in its travel, try to assess what is causing it. This may lead to your solution to get it to sew with #207. Sometimes all it needs is more top thread on the downstroke. This can be done by playing with your check spring travel. If the thread snaps on the way around the shuttle, try reducing the check spring travel so it stops sooner and allows more slack in the thread as the take-up lever moves down. BTW: When the take-up lever is at BDC, the thread should be wrapped 50% around the bobbin case/shuttle. In other words, the top thread would be at the farthest point away from the needle when the take-up lever is all the way down. The check spring adjustments can influence how loose or tight the thread is at this point. These matters are best discussed in the Leather Sewing Machines section of the forum. That is where machine gurus and tekkies hang out.

No, it cannot. The Class 66 is wonderful at sewing thin satin linings used in coats, vests, pockets, etc. Your walking foot machine will simply eat those materials as they get shoved into the big, long hole in the feed dog. Ditto for light cloth repairs or construction. These things need to be sewn with thin cotton or polyester thread using tiny needles, with very low thread tensions. Your walking foot machine has too much spring action all around to sew with standard garment thread. You'd have to back off all tensioners to almost zero and try to find thinner than usual #11 needles. Of course, if you have no plans to do general repairs or tailoring (hemming, lining replacement, pocket repairs), this is a moot point.

There's still the issue of the spacer shims that are used in Adler shuttles. Did Weaver mention that?

1/2 hp clutch motors can be bought for under $100 and excellent servos for under $150. If you change to a new clutch motor you can either keep your existing motor pulley and belt, or buy a smaller pulley and belt to lower the top speed and add torque. A dealer can advise you on both options. I get my motors, thread, bobbins, needles, oil and machines from Toledo Industrial Sewing Machines. I also get some hard to find parts from Keystone Sewing.

Any remaining unsold/unused (NOS) genuine Singer industrial sewing machines parts will be held by dealers who were in sewing machine business in the late 1980s or early 1990s, while Singer's industrial sewing division was still in operation. Both of the dealers listed by Constabulary meet that criteria.

If you are sewing into thin, soft temper leather, button or topstitch thread will hold it just fine. A lot, but not all, of the vests and jackets I repair are sewn with heavy polycore thread, not nylon. That said, 95% of my sewing is done with bonded nylon thread. I have machines set up with different sizes of thread. I switch machines to change thread sizes. All I change on most of my machines is the color of the thread. Most of my machines have thread stands holding 4 or 5 cones in different colors. FYI: Bonded nylon thread is rated by its tensile strength. B69 is 11 pounds. B92 is 15 pounds. B138 in 22 pounds and thus. Dopuble the size, double the breaking strength. You also get bigger lockstitch knots once you exceed #69 thread. At #207, the knots are well over a half millimeter in folded diameter. Black bonded nylon is usually double dyed and even tougher to fold into small knots.

If you want the top stitches to stand out in thin leather (or cloth), you must use a topstitch thread. This is similar to button thread. It is a heavy weight but soft thread that still forms nice tight knots inside the material. Wawak is your friend when it comes to all tailoring supplies, like this type of thread. You can test out button or topstitch thread by visiting your local Joann Fabrics' sewing department. Don't say anything about sewing leather or you'll lose the sales people. Just say you want a heavy topstitch or button thread that can be used in quilts, jeans, or overcoats. They understand that concept. You may want to try using the same construction of thread, but a size thinner, in the bobbin.

Judging by my own foot powered Singer patchers, I'd say about 5 stitches per second (~300/minute). I have two pulleys on the treadle base and two on the machine. I set mine up with the smaller treadle pulley and largest machine pulley. If I reversed the pulleys I could sew faster (~7 /second). But my ankles would give out after about one minute or so. I just remembered that you want to power a compound feed machine with a treadle. The force you'll need to overcome is probably double what I overcome on my patchers. So, you may be able to treadle it at 4 or 5 stitches per second, but your ankles may give out before the work is finished. That is if the belt doesn't slip and the machine comes to a halt while you treadle madly away.

You will have difficulty centering the knots of 207 bonded thread in such thin material. You are more likely to have success sticking to a maximum of #138 thread for this thickness.

I didn't say that. You can modify the N thread handling capability and tension and pressure springs to NH specs. That is only a part of the difference between those models. The NH is built to sew thicker material (almost 1/2 inch) and uses a longer needle system (class 190 Pfaff system). There are both mechanical and physical differences between the two machines. That's why there is a big price difference to match.