Wizcrafts

You're welcome! As for the needle breaking in a 7-8 oz piece, could the leather possibly contain untanned or raw hide areas? I have encountered this is some 10 - 12 oz Latigo I bought a year or so ago. I was cutting the back to get my straight edge and the blades kept hitting resistance and breaking in a certain area. After slicing it through with a head knife I discovered what I can only describe as rawhide in that section. FWIIW: I have 2 patchers. One is setup with #92 thread and a #19 or 20 needle. The other uses #69 thread and a #18 needle. The #18 gets deflected every now and then by differences inside of layers, or the leather itself. The #20 needles rarely deflect, but I keep them centered in the hole in the plate. Before centering, the needles broke more often. If centering your needle in the hole in the throat plate causes skipped stitches, try adjusting the timing of the shuttle. It is adjusted with a large flat blade screwdriver through the removable cover plate on the lower right front side of the body. There is an eccentric screw that connects the mechanism in the head to the long arm that moves the racks inside the gearbox. Once direction retards and the other advances the timing. Loss of the loop at the eye of the needle can be caused by a weak or broken/twisted check spring on the needle bar, just above the movable needle clamp bracket. Unfortunately, checking this and replacing that tiny paddle shaped spring requires removal of the needle bar from the head. There are a few ways to do this, none of which are much fun.

The needle clamping block is movable sideways. Loosen the upper screw (the one above the needle screw) and push the clamping block whichever way centers the needle in the hole in the throat plate. Then lock down the upper screw.

No, there are no roller feet made specifically for walking foot machines. They are designed to work on straight stitch machines with just one fixed position presser bar. That's not to say you can't alter one to fit your machine's rear presser bar (or possibly replace the bar with one that accepts straight stitch feet), then remove the inside alternating foot. In effect, you will have to convert the machine into a needle feed straight stitch machine (no alternating feet).

I prefer using titanium coated needles on my walking foot machine and my patchers (same needle system). The reason is that I use "leather" tape from Wawak to hold seams down for sewing. The tape tends to grab a hold of regular needles and the thread and gum them up. This is less apparent on the titanium needles which seem to resist gumming up much better. Also, there is less smoke when I sew very fast on long straps, where my speeds often reach 15 or more stitches per second.

I never said anything about the destination being a residence. I was referring to my rented room in an antiques mall.

Drat; I only have 110 volt outlets. Thanks for letting me know.

Thanks Ralf. My type 794 needles are about 2.75 inches long..

Tighten them down. They must have loosened in transit.

These machines have a maximum foot lift of 12 mm, which is about 7/16 inches. They use the medium long needle system 328, which is significantly shorter than the system 794 used in the Adler 205 and the 441 type machines. Conversely, the system 328 is somewhat longer than a standard walking foot machine needle (system 135x16 or 135x17). I don't have any 328 or their equivalent 214 needles around, so I can't be more specific.

Follow the belts and pulleys. Is the primary belt moving the pulley on the back of the machine? Is the bobbin winder release knob still pulled out (disengaged)? It needs to be rotated until it pops back into the drive position. That's when the needle drive engages. I should mention that the knob I referred to is the chrome knob on the handwheel. It pulls out and rotates one way to disengage and the other way to re-engage the main drive.

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.