Wizcrafts

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.

Yes, Trace. Get a boat made of thiotimaline infused Unconstructium! The boats are sold by the same people who distribute the Unobtanium needles.

The change in stitch length is due to the pendulum effect of the needle bar pivoting from the top of the machine head. The longer the needlebar and needle combination, the greater the loss of stitch length as the thickness increases. One other workaround is to sew these projects on a Campbell Randall or Union Lockstitch machine.

There is either a sharp edge on the presser foot, or it is tilted up one way or the other. I would expect to see a smooth tract that is the width of the outside toes, but not those stab wounds. Remove the outside foot and feel it to see if there is a sharp edge. Use Emory cloth to smooth out the offending edge and polish it on a buffing wheel with green rouge. If the foot has too much slack on the presser bar, it might shift up or down from true horizontal.

Unobtanium needles are actually constructed of an immeasurable amount of triple resublimated thiotimaline, rendering them absolutely clear to the naked eye. The needles exist, so to speak, but cannot be seen. They are meant to be used to sew invisible thread, also containing triple resublimated thiotimaline.

Fascinating video. I must get a walking foot post machine!

Glad to help. The other machine is best suited to a garment factory or dress makers' shop. There, little old ladies wearing babushkas sit and sew on machine like this, 8 hours a day, at 90 stitches per second.

Those needles are now made of Unobtanium

Yes, it will do fine on 6 layers of vinyl. What is is not good at is sewing thin material or using thin thread. The 2500 is best used with #138 or bigger thread, with #23 or larger needles. You could use #22 round point needles with #138 thread to sew vinyl. Then move up to leather point #23, 24, 25 and 26 to sew heavy thread into double leather weight belts.