Wizcrafts

You're gonna hate me for pointing this out, Gregg, but that post was made in late 2008. The linked to page is long gone.

Thanks Gregg. I appreciate your words and the offline assistance you have provided from time to time. I am even beginning to think about getting a cylinder arm darning machine for use as a patcher. Gotta get something that sews in any direction, before the second week in August.

This tape is aggressive and can gum up lesser quality needles. Only use it with compound feed walking foot machines, or dual feed, as long as there is an inside presser foot around the needle. Patchers have trouble sewing through Venture Tape. I use titanium coated needles on my walking foot and patcher machines. This reduces the sticking when sewing through the tape. Unfortunately, system 794 needles don't seem to be available yet with titanium coating. When they are, I will switch over 100%. Mother Superior (Bob Purcell @ Superior Threads) turned me on to these needles. Embroiderers and quilters use them, as do some factory sewers. Made for better heat dissipation, they also help sew through basting tapes and glued items. However, they do cost more than regular steel needles.

Venture Tape is double-sided basting tape for leather, sold by Wawak.com, a US based tailors' supply company. It is available in 1/4 and 1/2 inch widths, on 60 yard rolls. I buy this tape, as well as most of my zippers and 1 ounce patcher spools of nylon thread from Wawak.

All of my wallets thus far have the backs folded over the interior by a solid 1/4 inch, or slightly more. I use 2oz pigskin mostly, for the entire construction. These are not fancy carved or stamped wallets, but smooth backed functional ones like you would buy at J.C. Penny or Macy's. When I make a stamped wallet, the edges are usually left unfolded, but dyed with shoe sole edge dye. If veg-tan worked back is to be folded over the interior, I skive the edges in about 3/8 inches all the way around.

Pictures of the top and bottom stitches would help. I use an edge guide and press my wallets against it as I sew. I also fold the back tightly over the interior and tape it down with 1/4" wide Venture Tape. Nothing moves this way. Did you run off any test stitches first? Maybe the upper or lower, or both tensions need adjustments.

I am gearing up for a motorcycle show in August and need to get a second patcher, ASAP. I prefer a long arm, large bobbin model, but, will consider a short arm, as long as it has a large bobbin. I only want the head (no base needed) as it will be hand-wheeled around patches on vests. Singer, Claes, or Adler, in good sewing condition. PM me via the forum if you have one you can let go of. If anybody in lower or mid-Michigan, or upper Ohio or Indiana has one I will come get it from you.

The only machines in your list that can safely sew cloth or webbing are the Cowboy and the Luberto Classic. They use the same system 794 needles. The others are needle and awl machines with barbed needles that will devastate cloth and webbing. Furthermore, the Puritans are all chainstitch machines made for use where the inside thread chain is concealed. They are used to sew luggage, golf bags, rifle cases, Wilson footballs and Redwing shoes. Landis harness stitching needle and awl machines are ancient and replacement parts and needles are rare, custom made and expensive. These machines fetch a huge price rebuilt. Randall Lockstitch machines are a hundred years old now and were replaced by Campbell Randall Lockstitch machines, which sell for about $6,000. Needles and awls are quite expensive. My last Union Lockstitch machine used needles costing about $35 for 10, plus postage. The awls were only slightly less expensive. As for getting parts and service for a Luberto, that depends on if you can reach Tony Luberto. Several members of this forum have tried to do that in vain. Others found him. Maybe Tony will see this and chime in about the status of his excellent square drive stitchers, which sold for around 6k. All told, your best option would be a CB4500, which would cost less that 3k shipped, with all available accessories.

If you machine has a safety clutch protecting the bobbin mechanism, it may have been tripped. Unthread the needle. Hold down the button on the bed of the machine, nearest the bobbin area and rotate the handwheel away from you, in a clockwise direction. The clutch should re-engage, if that was the problem. Check the hook to eye of needle timing and then rethread the machine. In the future, hold back the ends of the thread at the beginning of any stitching. Watch you thread patch to ensure that the top thread doesn't get doubled around something it isn't supposed to wrap around. Also, watch the thread at the upper tension disks, to make sure it stays down near the center. Mine popped up out of the middle yesterday and all the top tension was gone with the wind. I ended up feeding the thread under the little steel stud on the right side of the tension disks, then up and around the disks. It isn't gonna pop out of there again!

This happened to me several times on my CB4500 and my friends Cobra Class 4. Both times the thread was black and so heavily dyed, it was like a coil spring. What I did to fix this was simply to pass the thread down the right (forward) side of the little spring loaded clip under the take-up lever. Instructions always show the thread being fed through the left or rear side of the little spring loaded screw in the middle of the guide. This is addition to ensuring that the thread patch was as good as I could get it. Some spring-like threads need to be fed through a hole in a post on top of the machine, then wrapped around and fed through a second hole. This helps remove kinks in the thread that cause it to flip over. This more than doubles the upper tension, so you'll need to back off the upper tension nut if you had a straight feed through the post before. The thread feeding through the forward side of the lower thread guide helped reduce or eliminate coiling over on my machine. Hopefully, it works for you too.

I am looking for a complete bolt-on gearbox for a Singer long arm, large bobbin patcher. My patcher is model 29k172 (blue body). The gearbox bolts onto the left side of the free arm and contains the shuttle, which drives the bobbin case. It should contain the shuttle, both pinion gears, long and short rack gears, throat plate springs and top and bottom cover plates and it should operate freely, without binding, nor with too much slack in the shuttle driver. So far, all I've found online are for small bobbin patchers. Mine uses the large bobbin and bobbin case. Contact me on the form, via a private message if you can sell me one.

Another thing to think about is that flatbed machines have trouble sewing items with raised or lowered surfaces on one side, especially the left side. I sewed padded and suede lined rifle slings for a while on a National 300N walking foot machine. They had a 9 inch foam pad in the shoulder area. Sewing on the grain side caused the presser foot to leave deep tracks in the area just next to the natural raised section, about 1/2 inch in from the edges. Later on, the owner of the shop got a Cobra 441 type machine. We ground down the left edge of an extra standard throat plate to about 1/16" or so from the feed dog cutout in the plate and it allowed the top of the leather to lie flat, while the pad and lining hung down rather than up, as I sewed around the padded area. There were little to no track marks using that cylinder arm machine. I personally bought a Cowboy CB4500, which is used in my leather shop. It sews 7/8 inches of leather, webbing, etc, with thread most folks would call "rope." The CB3200 you are thinking about is this machine's newest little brother.

If you are saving for a CB3200, presumably from Toledo Industrial Sewing Machines, you probably have projects reaching a half inch, maybe requiring #346 thread. This is way beyond the capabilities of the Econosew model on Craigslist, or any other upholstery grade machine. The CB3200, 3500, 4500 and 5500 are type 441 machines. They are often called clones of the Juki TSC 441, but are so highly modified as to be in a class all their own. They outperform the Juki when sewing leather. The Juki is setup to sew buffing wheels, heavy webbing and tents/parachutes, etc. The 441 types sold by our dealers are custom built and modified, then specially adjusted and equipped to sew leather by default.

It says $400 now and that's a good price for a walking foot machine in its apparent good condition. The machine is similar to a Chandler 406RB, or Consew 206RB. A typical walking foot machine, it can sew up to 3/8 inch, but with difficulty. A safer limit is maybe 5/16 inches. It will handle #138 bonded nylon thread, top and bottom, all day, using a #23 needle. If you move up to a #24 needle, you can run #207 on top, with 138 in the bobbin.

I just did an oil and lube job on my second Singer 301A repair. Nice machine for what is was designed for. It took an hour or so to free seized parts. I sewed it off through 4 oz chap leather and the customer was thrilled to have it back and running again.

I've enjoyed all of this topic I can stand. I am out of this thread. See ya.

Doh! I just read your post that you are getting a real walking foot machine after all. Please disregard my previous details about the 15-91.

Since this is your final answer, let me give you some advice for sewing leather on a 15-91. First, make sure the machine turns freely and works when plugged in and the foot pedal is depressed. Some of these pedals lose slow speed range from use. Pedals are replaceable. If smoke comes out of the motor pod, or wiring, discard it and look for something else. Assuming it doesn't catch fire, get sewing machine oil at Wally World or Joann Fabrics and place a few drops into every hole that is marked "Oil," as well as underneath on various crank shafts, which have tiny oil holes. While you are at the above stores, buy a few packs of #110 (US #18) leather point needles. Neither of these chain stores stocks bonded nylon thread. So, order bonded thread online in the colors you want to use, in size 69 (aka, T70). You may need to change the presser foot to a Teflon foot to allow leather belts to advance without dragging down the stitch length. These feet are not indigenous to the 15-91 and may require a conversion adapter. A so-called walking foot attachment helps feed sticky leather, at the expense of almost 1/8 inch less clearance under the foot. Insert a new leather point needle, aligning the flat side into the cutout inside the needle bar. If you get a manual with it, thread the machine as shown in the book. Otherwise, I have a web page with information about the Singer 15-91 and download links for user and adjuster manuals. You will need to adjust the pressure on the foot to prevent it from lifting with the ascending needle. Lifting leather = skipped stitches and bent or broken needles. I found that the pressure screw needed a lot of pressure to hold down 1/8" of veg-tan finished belt leather. Bridle leather is softer and less likely to bind the needle from friction. Start by hand-wheeling, to avoid blowing up the motor or its drive gear. Sew slowly, using a screw on edge guide, commonly available wherever sewing accessories are sold. These guides use two thumb screws that screw into the machine bed, on the right side of the needle. Good luck

Now you are beginning to Grok what our dealers go through on our behalf, to deliver an affordable leather sewing machine.

I watched my current CB4500 being set up and adjusted. It involved doing things I never would have suspected needed to be done. I am grateful to the dealer, Toledo Industrial Sewing Machines, for taking care of the legwork for me. Another thing. My first servo motor quit after one week of use. This was the old push button kind. I placed one phone call to Bob Kovar and a new motor arrived the next business day. Try that on a direct from China machine. Dealer support should not be taken for granted or ignored. If you need parts, accessories or advice and didn't buy from an authorized dealer, you better learn to speak Chinese and wait for the next slow boat from China to arrive and clear Customs. And pray your guitar doesn't get hacked ;-)

Having discussed this with some of our dealers, the answer is yes. 441 clones require several hours of dealer setup time before they sew and can be sold. They are not ready to use out of the box. They are not marketed to end buyers, but to competent dealers who understand the ins and outs of adjusting the hook, needle bar, presser feet, feed mechanism and lifter system. Buyers take it for granted that all the dealer has to do is unbox the parts and bolt them together. Nothing could be farther from the truth.

I kinda miss my Union Lockstitch machine. It had a specially made raised throat plate and narrow presser foot. I could sew very close to raised surfaces, as well as sewing huge, thick straps of all kinds. It had a 12" harp inside the body. I had modified it to sew 7/8 inch.

If Kevin is really unlucky, the Feds will confiscate his counterfeit Asian Scale playing guitar and send it to Langley for reverse engineering. It probably contains the Conficker Worm.

Is the guitar playing Asian scales instead of Western? That would 'splain it Kevin. Your 'puter acquired the Asian Scale Trojan, via an interstitial proximity coinferrence between the cracked guitar (counterfeit, from hack-haven China) and the dial-up modem lingering deep within the motherboard chipsets.

Another way to determine if a sewing machine is built for home/domestic use only is the needle. Home sewing needles almost always have a flat side to help align them properly in the needle bar. Some home machines thread left to right. Some thread right to left. And, some even thread front to back. The flat in the needle bar makes sure you align the needle correctly. Industrial sewing machines normally use completely round shank needles. Another give-away is the motor. Home machines have a tiny motor, no stronger than 1 or 1.5 amps (150 watts), with a small belt to the flywheel, or possibly built into the body. While there are a few industrial sewing machines with internal motors, or possibly user-added bolt on the back motors, most have a huge motor under an industrial table, mounted on a steel frame. Older industrial machines usually have clutch motors, rated at between 1/4 and 3/4 horsepower. The average 1/2 horse power clutch motor draws about 500 watts of power under load. Newer machine tend to come with easier to control servo motors, which also are very powerful.