Wizcrafts

Boy, I couldn't live like that!

Here is a video showing a customer how to setup his new Union Lockstitch machine. The action starts around the 8:30 area and continues until about 9:00. It plainly shows how the foot lifts and lowers as the needle moves the leather.

Wow, thanks Eric! I'd probably enjoy the challenge of working in your factory. It would be a heck of a move though.

The Consew 225, like the Singer 111 it is based upon, is best limited to a maximum of #138 thread. You may have to readjust the hook and latch opener clearances to allow #207 to pass on top without binding or hanging in the hook on the way out. A #23 needle is fine for #138 thread, top and bottom. Use a #24 needle with #207 thread on top if the hook will allow it to clear without jamming it. Nylon sometimes needs a size larger needle than leather of a similar thickness. Only use 135x17 round point needles on webbing or nylon strapping. Leather points will slice the strands and may cause the material to unravel along the thread path. Once you have opened up the hook clearance, concentrate on balancing the tensions and pressures. Often, the top tension beehive spring on these upholstery grade machines is only medium duty, which is fine for light to medium thread sizes up to #92 or #138. If the top tension spring has to be turned all the way in to bring the knots up, back off the bobbin tension. A totally tightened beehive spring won't allow the disks to separate and release the thread tension when you raise the feet. Your machine should be able to hold down webbing with a #24 needle and #207/138 thread. Crank it down if the material lifts with the needle until it stays put. However, you need to understand that the holding strength will be limited by the smaller thread, in this case size 138, which has 22 pounds tensile strength. Your 207 top thread will only be there for appearance, not extra strength. To sew with #207 and larger thread on the top and bottom requires a different type of machine. There are several machine classes that can do this, including the Cowboy CB2500, CB3200 and CB4500, the Juki TSC-441, and the Adler 869 and 969 Eco machines that Weaver stocks and sells for heavy leather sewing.

Thank you, HockeyMender and same back-atcha. Merry Christmas to all our members.

I was seriously looking for a curved needle machine last year to do sole replacements. The expense of the machines and parts/needles made me back off for a while. Also, I was repairing work boots that had soles almost 3/4 inch thick. Not very many curved needle machines can penetrate that thickness.

I am still using clutch motors that were built 20 or 30 years ago. I doubt that my servo motors will last that long.

It ain't going to happen at those speeds! Self-oiling machines need to spin at a couple thousand rpm to fully distribute the oil to the extremities. Most of them are setup with a larger motor pulley than the one on the flywheel. Just barely engaging the clutch can spin them at over 40 stitches per second. While you don't have to sew fast constantly, it should be done at least once each time you begin a sewing job. The Venator Adler 467 was damaged due to a lack of oil at the far end of the wick in the head, caused by dried up wicks from slow speed sewing. The bearings and shafts were scored and some parts were seized.

I dunno about y'all. I learned to drive in a clutch car, where one has to feather the clutch to get going smoothly. I had a couple of clutch cars of my own. This easily carried over when I started using industrial sewing machines, around mid 1984. I can't be the only person doing leathercraft that learned to feather a clutch. My latest acquisition is a 1926 Singer 42-5, with a clutch motor. I set the free play where I wanted it and can easily feather it to 1 stitch per second.

A roller foot machine works best when sewing a single top layer, or over a new layer that is not much different than the main one. Large changes will require you to assist the feeding by raising the roller foot. The spring type walking foot Singer machines work fairly well on new layers, assuming the alternating height is properly adjusted for those changes. These machines are different than modern walking foot machines in that the outer foot follows the top layer as the feed dog pulls from the bottom. As the feed dog drops at the end of its travel, the outer foot lifts and snaps forward. The needle and inside foot only move up and down, whereas modern compound feed machines have those pieces in motion, forward or backward.

I wonder if there are any fur machines that can be run with a domestic sewing machine motor (aka: portable)? I've run out of space for machine tables in my shop!

Curved needle machines belong in the domain of shoe repairs. That's why you don't see too many posts about them here. We are mostly straight needle machine users and at that, most are brand new to machine sewing. A few of us old timers may have used a curved needle machine in the past and a few still own working models, like your Junker. For me it was always straight needles.

I do believe that this item may require an industrial sewing machine dealer to install it safely. The "needlebar rock-frame" may need to be cut away to accommodate this extra wide needle clamp (according to one eBay item I just read about).

You should look up the Campbell-Randall website. They sell unwaxed, "glazed" Barbour's Irish linen thread, in various cord sizes and twists. I used to get their 5 and 6 cord, left twist, for use in my previous Union Lockstitch needle and awl machine. I used their Lax Wax concoction to lubricate the thread as I sewed. It dried inside the leather a few hours later. I think this thread and Lax Wax will work well for your shoes. Who knows" They may even have a random curved needle in a drawer that fits your Junker Sd28.

My bad. I forgot that your motor always spins at 1725 rpm. So, you've pulley'd it down to 1100 rpm at the machine. A 3:1 reducer will bring that down to about 400 spm, which is about 6 per second. You should be able to feather the clutch to 1 per second. If there is any problem doing that, replace the brake on the motor. After the burn-in period it should let you feather it with ease.

Actually, I think that a curved needle would need to be at least 2mm diameter to withstand the shock of piercing sole leather without breaking on impact. It would still run 8 to 10 cord thread.

Okay, I see your problem now. Since neither of us know how the needle number correlates to the thread sizes, I'd wait for the machine to arrive, then try various sizes of waxed linen thread. You can buy them in skeins from various suppliers, including Hobby Lobby and Tandy. My rough guess is that if the needle is a medium size, you'll want to use somewhere around a 6 or 7 cord linen thread. What I don't know is if it needs to be shoe machine right twist, or if the standard left (Z) twist is okay. When the machine arrives, measure the diameter of the needle. Since the needle on the Junker punches the hole without an awl, it needs to be about 2x the diameter of the thread it uses (to account for the lockstitch knots). Thus, a 1.7mm diameter needle (at the eye end) can easily manage 1mm thread without difficulty. That equates to either #554 bonded, or 8 cord linen thread (.83mm D). This needle is double the diameter of the thread.

I used to do the same thing, way back when I started in the biz. My first industrial sewing machine was a Singer 96k40 (I think) straight stitch machine. When I learned its limitations I bought a 31 class spring foot machine. I found that all I had to do was shift the knee lever to hit the foot lifter tang in different positions and slightly adjust the motor position to account for the slight difference in height of the handwheel pulleys. Not happy with that setup, I won a Pfaff 138 at an auction and made it fit on the same table, with a little tweaking. Going completely bonkers, I then acquired a Juki LU-563 and got it to fit the same table and knee lever. The table had a Singer 1/2 hp clutch motor. The oil drip pan was steel. I sure got a lot of use out of that one table! Four machine dropped in with very little tweaking.

You can buy a 3:1 speed reducer setup and new belts to match. You'll have some cipherin' to do to install it next to the slot on the underside of the table and two new v-belts to go from the motor to the reducer's big pulley and from its small pulley to the machine. I am afraid that by the time you run a reducer from your small pulley on the motor, that the machine will only turn over at about 1/2 stitch per second, pedal to the metal. You will be there all day if you have to sew around a long belt or strap.

Is there any reason you didn't ask Henry to send a spool of the correct size and twist of thread?

The Cowboy sewing machines are shipped from Toledo, Ohio. The rate is cheaper if you have access to a loading dock and pick it up there, rather than residential delivery requiring a lift-gate truck.

Almost any compound feed walking foot machine will sew not only 10, but up to 20 - 24 ounces of medium temper leather and webbing. Mind you, the typical maximum thread size is just #138, but each stitch would have 22 pounds breaking strength. Walking foot machines are available in both flatbed and cylinder arm models, from a wide range of brand names and manufacturers. The thing about buying a used walking foot machine is a combination of the wear in the moving parts and the speed that the motors are typically setup to run at. Many leather crafters who buy used machines will discard the old clutch motor and buy a new servo motor, equipped with a very small diameter pulley. This lets the machine sew very slowly and still have punching power.

Ken, if that Bull was based on a Juki TSC-441, it would use the same bobbins as the 441 clones. If based on the big Seiko, they use the same bobbins as well.

Every time I sew a Western drop loop gun belt with bullet loops, or a large weigh lifters' belt, I morn my choice of the 4500 rather than the 5500. I bought mine brand new and picked it up in person, from Toledo Industrial Sewing Machines (Bob Kovar, owner and a paying supporting member here (aka: CowboyBob)). He always takes care of any problems with my machines or motors and sends parts out for next business day delivery. I never worry about support with machines I buy from him. The 25" arm makes this a truly impressive machine. The pedestal stand is much heavier than the one I got for my CB4500. One thing I would like to remind all Cowboy machine owners to do is to open the face plate occasionally and put oil in the tiny oil holes in all the crank shafts in the business end of the head. Use a precision oiler with a needle tube. You will have some oil drops to wipe up, but the machine will operate quieter and not seize up from lack of oil in these critical components.

Strip the old paint off and lay down a fresh coat. That machine will be good for another hundred years. I have a 1920s Singer 42-5 getting repainted right now. It is an excellent chaps machine.