Wizcrafts

Let me tell you a secret Ewe. There be Puritans in Toledo ;-)

If Puritan says they have parts, they do. As for Ceroxylon, it is clear and has the consistency of thin rubber glue. While wet, Ceroxylon is a lubricant for linen thread. Once it dries it hardens the linen thread, on both sides (since it sews a chain stitch). Although I kept a quart, I found no other use for Ceroxylon after disposing of my Union Lockstitch machine. It does not get along well with regular eye-needle machines, like my CB4500. If you don't want it, I might. I'm up in Flint./Burton, not too awful far from you. I would leave it as a single needle post machine and use it to sew sandals, hats, bags and such.

Are you sure? It looks like the one he wants is the one that's missing! ;-)

I also prefer to use diamond or triangle point needles when sewing 3/4 inch or more. The stitches lay more on top and bottom on the edges than those sewn with S point needles. Thus, 5 to the inch looks like 5 on top and bottom, whereas with an S point it looks shorter due to the inline slice of the chisel point needle. I keep diamond point in sizes 24 and 25 for my CB4500. I also found that the diamond points are less likely to fray existing stitches than the S points, in very thick leather. I sewed a holster that was a solid 7/8 inch and could not do the job with an S point, which kept fraying the thread. The D point went forward and backward without a hitch.

No, straight stitch feet won't fit into the slotted presser bar. Walking foot machine mechanisms are usually too strong for thin garments. You might try buying a wider set of feet, then back off the pressure screw until the adjust is almost all the way up. You can reduce the alternating lift to a minimum ratio by loosening and moving the crank arm coming out the back all the way either up or down (I don't remember which way lowers the lift and I am at home now) in the curved slot that drives the presser feet. The combination of reduced lift and pressure on the feet may allow it to sew cloth. Also, use the smallest round point needle you can get, with standard cotton or polycore garment thread. A #14 needle will do fine with polycore 40 weight thread, or a #12 needle with regular 50 weight cotton thread. Shorten the stitches to 10 or 12 per inch to reduce puckering and back off the upper tension to try to lower the knots into the cloth. You may or may not also have to reduce the tension on the check spring to get it to move with thin, soft thread.

IDK. Try the heat first. If you can free the screw it might come out with a regular screw driver. At least tap on it when you heat it up. This may improve the depth of the worn slot.

Try a combination of a precision torch to heat the screw and an impact screw driver to loosen and remove it.

Fortunately for me, thread-wise, I live in Michigan. UV deterioration isn't much of a problem up here, especially when most of my sewing is on garments, biker vests, belts, holsters, tow straps, pouches and cases.

I just looked up some sources for Tenara thread and the cheapest was $99.99 for an 8 oz spool!

Here ya go, with Roger Miller's Husbands and Wives.

Caba; Why don't you look up Darren Brosowski, owner of Able Sewing Machines and Anne Bonny's Locker (in Australia)? I'm not sure what province he is in, but he can hook you up with good thread for your machine. Ask him about the high tenacity bonded thread that he carries. He may know other dealers closer to you.

That gear driven motor was the SewPro 500GR. The company that built them made nothing else. One day they decided that making the cases out of aluminum and reducing the top speed would save money and shipping costs to the dealers, allowing them to compete with the lighter weight push button servo motors that were the rage. What they didn't know, since they were builders, not users, was that the heat from the spinning motor and coils was going to warp the aluminum casings. The complaints and returns increased suddenly and rather than returning to the old cast iron case (and higher top speed), they decided to close the factory and go home, for good. Poof! No motor for you! This is how things are sometimes done in China.

Post some photos of the thread path and I, and/or others will assist you until Steve is able to get back to you. We will be wanting to see the top thread as it goes around the top tension disks, then around the bottom set, through the check spring , up through the take-up lever, and down to the needle. Why? Because sometime the thread is overly twisty and can twist out of the upper tension disks to the point of having no tension at all.

A #22 needle suggests that the OP is using #138 (T135) bonded thread. A more appropriate needle is #23, with a chisel shaped leather point. #22 makes a very tight hole when you consider that the top and bottom threads are overlapped and form a knot that needs to be brought up. That class 2218 is just a standard upholstery grade, medium duty, compound feed walking foot machine.

TinkerTailor; Beware of drop shipped machines from China. They are usually assembled enough to ship, but not to sew. They expect the importer to be a dealer with a sewing machine mechanic who can adjust everything and make it sellable and sewable. Once major Chinese sewing machine company offered to perform a true expert setup and timing and sew it off for an additional fee amounting to about $200 USD, for a person who was consulting with me. In effect, they would become his dealer, which is not part of their usual business model as manufacturers. As for dealers not responding to emails in a timely fashion, many of them are very small operations with maybe one or two employees. Some are barely in the Internet age and are used to doing business over the phone (via a toll free number). One I know personally spends most of the day actually working on industrial sewing machines for a variety of needle trades. They do not have anybody dedicated to doing email or online inquiries. Like the song says: Some can and some can't.

If this is true, Consew must have improved the low end performance of their oil pumps. Other/older oil pumped sewing machines have definitely required much higher average sewing speeds to distribute the oil to the ends of the long wicks. FWIIW: The last time I sat at a self oiled Singer 192 to service it, it was geared about 2:1 at the motor, thus spinning at about 3500 rpm. The clutch brake was backed off enough that I could feather it down to about 10 or 15 stitches per second. The oil didn't move in the inspection bubble at that rate. When I floored the pedal I got oil flowing. The ladies who used that and similar machines were making hospital smocks or aprons and sewed with the pedal down. This translates into about 58 stitches per second.

As I recall, I used to have to rotate the wheel on my National 300N walking foot machine to a certain position before the bobbin case would come out and go back in. That machine resembled a Consew 206RB5 and also had a horizontal shuttle shaft, like the Consew.

It will be easy enough for Bob to check the oil flow at various speeds, once he has one set up on a table.

All of the oil pump equipped sewing machines require a fair amount of speed to fully distribute the oil. I have no way of knowing if this new model is any different. The spec sheet says that the top speed is 3000 rpm. It doesn't say what the minimum recommended speed is. That is an unfortunate oversight. It is probably included in the user instructions that come with the machine. Based on other self oiled machines, my guess is that it must spin at least at 2000 rpm to get oil to the extremities. That's only about 33 stitches per second. You can do that by winding bobbins before you start sewing. Just unthread the machine, lift the presser feet and floor it as the bobbin winds. You should be good to go for about an hour before you need to spin it that fast again.

Check out our Marketplace forum, under the Sewing Machines > Used section. There are lots of leather sewing machines listed on a regular basis. Some might be in your price range.

That is exactly what you need to do. Congratulations on figuring this out before you wasted a lot of money on inadequate machines, learning it the hard way.

Here is a video I made a few years ago, showing me sewing rifle slings on a walking foot machine.

The Family Sew FS-550s servo motor has a brake pad that can be adjusted for free play, or removed entirely. If removed, the motor will run on a bit, depending on how fast it was spinning at the last stitch. I assume other brands of servo may also use an adjustable mechanical brake pad that could allow run on.

If you buy a real walking foot machine, it will sew up to between 5/16 and 3/8 inch of material, with #138 thread. Most modern walking foot machines yield up to 4 stitches per inch and some go even longer. This means you could buy some Kevlar thread and repair small tears in your work suit. They are invaluable machines for hemming denim pants, sewing patches onto vests, installing zippers, sewing linings to belts and cases, or assembling wallets or sewing banners and tarps along the edges. Triple feed makes the stitch length consistent, even on very long projects. Note: very old model walking foot machines usually lack reverse and often have strange ways of setting the stitch length, and no protection of the shuttle system if the thread gets jammed inside the bobbin case and shaft. Modern machines will have a stitch length rotary dial, a palm operated reverse lever and a clutch that disengages the shuttle drive in the event of a thread jam. Most also have a much larger bobbin than any of the old machines (Consew type M or Juki LU).

The Union Lockstitch sells for about $5,000 and the Campbell Randall for about $6000, base price. Accessories will drive the cost up considerably. I have owned two Union Lockstitch machines over my career as a leathercrafter. Like a fool, I sold them. These machines have square drive.