Wizcrafts

You are probably not going to be successful running waxed linen thread through any closed eye sewing machine. It will clog everything along the path and gum up the eye, nullifying the formation of the loop the hook must pick off. You will need to have a fairly thick stack of leather (~18 - 20 ozs) to bury the lockstitch knots formed by #415 bonded thread.

Are you sure about that? Have you read the tag on the motor? Most sewing machine clutch motors max out at 3/4 h.p. That 2 could be half of 1/2 h.p, which is a common rating for walking foot machine motors. A machine can be slowed down by installing a very small pulley on the motor. I used to put 2" pulleys on all my clutch motors and was easily able to feather them to 1 stitch per second. The typical machine pulley I have had is between 4 and 4.5 inches diameter across the top. So, a 2" motor pulley would cut the top speed at least in half and double the punching power.

The red machine looks like it might be an old Number 9 machine.

In fact, you can keep the clutch motor and add a 3 pulley speed reducer. The ones sold in the USA have up to 3:1 speed reduction, which means triple the torque at all speeds. If you use the middle pulley to drive the machine, you will get 2:1 reduction and torque multiplication. This may be all the change you need. No fussing with a new motor. You will need 2 or 3 new v-belts though: 1) motor to large pulley; 2) large pulley to machine; 3) optional medium pulley to machine (2:1). The reducers have a mounting frame that fastens under the table, right next to the slot for the belt. They can be adjusted laterally and vertically. The untold advantage of the clutch motors is that they can be adjusted to freewheel a considerable distance on the operator's foot. Some servo motors are freewheeling and others are not.

If that old machine is mounted on an old wooden top table and there are four motor mounting bolts, it is probably the very old style continuous run motor with an external clutch. That setup was replaced with internal clutch motors decades ago and they use three bolts rather than four. One can either learn to feather the clutch, or replace it with a servo motor. Some folks can and some can't. The servo motors have three mounting brackets, just like the internal clutch motors. If the machine you are looking at has the three hole motor mounts, the change is plug and play. Remove all the old wiring, pull off the old motor and install the new one and its wiring. The Family Sew motor you mentioned, from Toledo Industrial, has all new mounting hardware and wiring and a switch box. FS-550 motors normally ship with 70mm pulleys. The ones Bob Kovar sells to leather crafters are usually modified with a 50mm (2") pulley. This adds torque at a slight loss of top speed. I have this motor on an old Singer 139 long body walking foot machine, which is like a long wheelbase 111. It can easily be controlled down to about 1.5 stitches per second. Flat out it blasts away at about 20 per second. The speed changes smoothly over the entire range of motion on the motor's control arm. The previous generation of servo motors were not always as smooth transitioning from slow to fast. You can get larger wheels/pulley for the Singer 111 machines. You'd have to measure the one on the machine and call a dealer with those specs. They'll need the diameter across the top of the belt pulley and the bore of the mounting hole. You can use simple math to figure out what top speed you will get by the ratio of the motor to machine pulleys. A new v-belt will be needed. Some folks go as far as buying a 3:1 speed reducer that bolts under the table. This slows the machine way down and triples the torque/punching power. It will be faster than hand sewing, but real slow on long straight straps or upholstery seams.

Glad to have finally been able to help.

These Google search results should help you choose a compensating presser foot. Most of the industrial sewing machine dealers who advertise here also sell these presser feet, along with all other sewing accessories. Please try to support our dealers.

Forget the warm milk; I'll have an MGD and some Hank Jr. ;-) I misunderstood what you had purchased. If all you need is the motor and belt, a servo motor, like the FS-550s will do just fine. Your motor dealer will help you determine what length v-belt to buy. As for a clutch motor, if that was your preference, get one rated at either 1/3 or 1/2 horsepower at 1725 rpm. The smaller the motor pulley, the slower she sews and the higher the torque. In either case, you should get (included in the box) a wiring harness with power switch and mounting hardware. Ask for a small motor pulley, like 2" (50mm) diameter, for sewing leather projects. The Family Sew servo motors contain a cork brake. A slight press of your toe on the pedal releases the brake and allow you to hand wheel the machine. Go any further and the power is applied (no more free wheeling). Increasing the movement of the pedal increases the speed, to the maximum set by a top speed limiter knob. These motors are pretty easy to control from very slow to very fast and are plenty powerful. A clutch motor is normally freewheeling when not engaged and draws a lot of power at all times. The clutch can be feathered by your foot, like a car clutch, for slower speeds. But, they are touchier nowadays. Once you pass a critical point, it runs at 1725 rpm. The sewing machine will run at the ratio between the pulley on the motor and the pulley on the machine.

You can buy compensator feet where the left or right toe is spring loaded vertically. This allows the foot to ride over two different height layers as it secures the work. They come in a variety of widths to the center slot (not always just a hole). Some even come with a steel leaf spring edge guide. Look into buying a couple different compensator feet of different spacings and edge guide springs. For watch bands, I recommend starting with 1/16", 3/32" and 1/8" from the guide on the right to the center of the needle slot/hole. Piping feet probably won't work because the are meant to sew inside a round on the left of a strap and you want to sew along the outer edge of a raised but not round shape.

OldNSlow; Are you telling us that you bought just the machine head and nothing else? Why? To use the machine will require the additional purchase (and shipping) of a 20"x48" industrial sewing machine table, with the proper cutouts for your machine, a pair of machine pivot clamps to tilt the machine back, a back stop plug, "k-legs" steel frame, floor speed pedal assembly and linkage to the motor, a motor, with blind bolts, rubber pads, wiring and a switch box, a v-belt long enough to go to the flywheel and have plenty of adjustment range, a knee lever assembly, a flex lamp, a thread stand assembly, bobbin winder assembly, and a drawer assembly. Oh yeah, extra needles, bobbins, oiler and thread. When you are done buying these parts, please splain how you ended up saving money buying just the head.

You just handed your email address to every spammer and forum harvester bot in the World. Matters like this should be handled via the forum's private messages system. Only logged in members can access data posted in them. Anybody can see text posted in topic pages.

Depends on what type of feed your machine has. Is yours a straight stitch or walking foot machine?

To your knowledge, will this set fit on a 441 clone?

Don't forget to back off the clutch stop screw on the outside center of the flywheel. Set it to give the amount of free motion that gives your toe the best control over the clutch. All feet and ankles are not the same. Some pivot more than others before tension sets in.

I can pass on another tip for ULS owners. Did you know that you can motor-sew single stitches on your machine? Here's how... First, get married to the machine so you know her moods. Learn to feather the clutch for 1 or 2 stitches per second. This is a prerequisite to single stitching. You may have to back off the clutch screw almost all the way to get lots of free play before the asbestos clutch engages the flywheel. With the free play set to an amount you can feel with your foot, hold onto the hand wheel, then slowly press down on the Go pedal. There is a point where the clutch will begin to contact the inside of the flywheel. As you reach that point you should feel the clutch with your right hand on the wheel. Line up the awl, then take your hand off the wheel until it sews one stitch, then grab the wheel again. Doing this allows you to power through anything, at one stitch as needed speed. I used this technique a lot in repairs and when sewing fishtails onto gunbelts.

Can't you feather the clutch? I was able to feather mine down to about 1 or 2 stitches per second.

I agree with Geneva. I owned an LU-536 in 1989 and could not exceed #138 thread.

Concentrate your search on manually oiled compound feed walking foot machines (feed dog, needle and inside foot move together as outside foot goes up and down). The others are high speed cloth sewing machines not at all meant for leather or slow sewing.

The prices are typical for reconditioned walking foot machines. Are these machines worn out, or have they been serviced? If they are as is, offer about 1/3rd less, knowing in advance that you may have to replace the motor and belt to control the machine for leather use. Why? Because upholstery machines are normally geared 1:1 or faster and the motors are usually 1725 rpm clutch motors. Commercial upholstery sewing is typically done on long straight edges, often many feet long. Time is money in upholstery. So, they sew their machines pedal to the metal. If you are going to sew intricate leather goods, slow does it better. A servo motor will be easier to control than a clutch motor. Whatever the machine costs, if it has a clutch motor, you'll be paying another $130 or more for a new servo motor and shorter vbelt. Try to get a motor equipped with a 2" pulley.

Check out the Consew 206RB-5 and the Juki LU-563. Those will be the best for medium duty leather sewing.

I had one on the 56 Olds my cousin and I shared. It had the Rocket engine and fur dice. The knob was cool and we never got hurt by it.

I meant Barney Knob. Sorry for the mistake. It is a free-spinning add-on steering wheel knob that originated in the mid-1950s. They clamped around the wheel to let the driver spin the steering wheel one-handed, while his right arm was around his girlfriend. Barney Rubble may have had one on his steering wheel.

The over-the-edge stitches are done in one of two ways. 1: Using a machine with reverse, sew backwards from the middle, over the edge and stop with the needle down. Move the direction lever to forward and sew across the strap and over the other side, then reverse a couple of stitches to lock the thread. Twist the thread to the left to tighten it and cut it close to the leather with thread snips (curved Wiss snips work best). 2: Using a non reversing machine, sew across from the middle and over the edge. Stop with the needle down and the take-up lever on the upstroke. Raise the presser foot so it clears the leather. Carefully rotate the work 180º and sew back over the edge stitch, across, then over the other edge. Flip the work 180º again and sew in a stitch or two. I use method #2 on my non-reversing Singer walking foot machine, which is just the right machine for watch bands and the like.

Ed; If you live in Australia (the machine is in AU) this machine is a good option for a starter in the business. It has single feed, from an aggressive feed dog on the bottom. This is well suited to sewing horse blankets and saddle components, where the bottom being marked is not too important. Hand cranked machines take away one hand that would normally guide the material. You may tire your arm out quickly if you have to sew long straps, or doubled rows of stitching, or decorative stitching. Note, that the same type of machine is sold in the US and Canada by several of our member-dealers. A Barney wheel can be added to the hand wheel for unpowered sewing. In fact, Bob Kovar, of Toledo Industrial Sewing Machines, recently posted a photo of a similar machine (CB3200) with a Barney wheel he added to hand spin it.

I suppose you can try backing off the top pressure to reduce the footprint depth. This might also require a reduction in both the top and bottom thread tensions.