Wizcrafts

Aw shucks, thanks. :-)

No. It is a domestic, cloth sewing machine. Don't try to sew anything thicker than garment leather on it.

Joe; Take some time to read my sticky topic about the kind of sewing machine you need to sew leather.

Deloid; I believe that I have Grokked your problem. The Spice must flow and so must your thread. Your lower disks, as you surmised, do nothing serious to the tension on the thread, at 2 wraps of #138. But, I'll wager that the check spring was setup for #277 thread and is waaaay too tight for #138. In effect, that lower spring, if too tightly wound, will override the top tension disks. This is more evident when switching from a #277 or #346 setup to #138 or smaller thread. Happens to me too. When I have the machine balanced for heavy thread it is too tight on top even with the top tension almost unscrewed. What to do Find the 10mm wrench in your machine tool kit, or tool box. Locate the large (6mm?) metric Allen wrench that came with the machine, or one you buy at AutoZone. Proceed thusly: Remove the thread from the needle only Lower the presser feet if they were lifted. Rotate the hand wheel until both presser feet are all the way down and neither is lifted up (there is a happy place where this happens). Use the Allen wrench to loosen the bolt on the large arm behind the upper part of the rear of the head. This crank feeds the motion to lift the presser foot. The hex head bolt is visible from the top rear. Remove the C clip from the crank connection that feeds from the upper crank to a lower crank that goes into the head. The clip should be on the outside left on the crank arm. Pull the two piece double arm crank off the top and bottom pins Use your box or open end 10mm wrench to fish behind the head, inline with the shaft for the lower tension setup. Turn the locknut on the back of the head counterclockwise a bit to loosen it. Use a small screwdriver to rotate the split shaft whichever direction reduces the spring tension on the check spring. Leave enough tension for the spring to move all the way down after lifting it up, but not much more. Tighten the locknut to secure the check spring's lower action. Re-install the double crank onto the pins and install the c clip Tighten the hex bolt on the upper arm Thread the eye of the needle Make sure you have a straight path for the top thread. Don't wrap it around the upper post; just feed it through an eye in the post. Try the machine for knot placement. Report back here.

Speaking about my CB4500 setup, I have a decent amount of motion on the pedal. I can watch the needle move and carry on a conversation before it completes one revolution. I'd guess it sews as slowly as one stitch in 10 seconds. My total reduction is 9:1. On my Singer 139 walking foot machine, the same motor, with the same 50mm pulley, feeds directly to the machine's 4.5" pulley. It doesn't like to sew below 1 stitch per second, steady rate. The torque drops off at startup speed. A reducer really helps power these machines through leather at slow speed.

Ask that dealer if he sells a servo motor similar to the Family Sew 550s and has 3:1 ball bearing speed reducers. If not, you can buy them and bring them to the dealer for installation. New belts will be needed. They will definitely need the head and table. If you opt to have the work done at home, receive the parts, and change the motor and switchbox first, leaving the three bolts a bit loose. Mount the reducer so that the smallest pulley is as directly under the machine pulley as possible. You don't want side pull on the belts. After lining up the reducer and machine pulley move the motor to line it up with the big pulley on the reducer. Batten down the hatches. Use a tape measure across the top of the pulleys to get the length of the two belts: shorter one from motor to large reducer; longer one from small reducer to machine pulley. You must make sure that the smaller belt is long enough to allow you to adjust the vertical position of the motor. Try to stay in the middle of the adjuster bolt. The belts are type 3L. Set the belt tensions for about 1/2 inch deflection. Relocate the bobbin winder toward the new vertical belt. Fine tune the alignment of the belts so they are as inline as possible, then try it out. You should get about 1 stitch per second at full tilt, on the slowest switch setting of a Family Sew 550s. I cannot speak for other servo motors, other than the SewPro 500 GR, which are no longer available, except as old new stock. That motor sews even slower than a Family Sew, but has half the power at slow speeds.

I enjoyed watching people hold their hands over their ears when I ran my Union Lockstitch at 800 RPM! What a wonderful hurruction! It was like a thrashing machine in the house. It wasn't the awl that cut the previous stitches on my ULS. It was the barbed needle, on the way back down.

The SewPro motors I have are not powerful enough to turn over a machine like the Adler 205. The machine needs a 3:1 speed reducer installed, powered by a slow speed capable servo motor. I like the Family Sew 550S that I have on my big CB4500 and on my long body Singer 139. It would be best to commission a dealer to take care of this conversion. FYI: I have a big Cowboy CB4500, which is sort of like your Adler. It is powered by a Family Sew FS550, feeding a 3:1 ball bearing equipped reducer. All told, the speed reduction/torque multiplication from the motor to the machine is 9:1. If I set the motor speed limiter switch to the slowest setting (350RPM), holding down the pedal gives me a full speed of just under 1 stitch per second. This might be what you are looking for. I just remembered that you don't have the use of your legs. You will need somebody to rig up a lever you can throw to engage or disengage the motor by hand.

Yes, that is what I mean. It looks like glass or metal from the side and usually lies close to the flesh. The side of Latigo I bought from Tandy 2 weeks ago has rawhide across the middle, starting at the backbone. I believe it came from Argentina.

Did anything change tension-wise with the top or bottom thread? Hear any different sound when the bad stitches occurred? Knots or the actual bottom thread showing on the top grain are either caused by sudden increase in top thread tension, or decrease in the bobbin thread. A properly balanced system places the knots in the middle of air. What can cause these changes Top thread getting caught under other windings on the spool Top thread going under the spool on the stand Top thread coiling over itself or a post, or tensioner, due to excessive twist and springiness Top thread coiling back over the lower tension disk set and jamming Bottom thread flipping out from under the bobbin case tension spring Lint under the bobbin case tension spring A starting thread stub catching on the bobbin case ejector spring Too little pressure on the feet Very soft area inside the leather Too little combined thread tension Bad thread

I will share a secret tip used by advanced needle and awl machine sewers, like me. It is a method we use to sew in reverse without ratting the previous stitches. Remove the thread from the looper. Sew empty to poke two or three holes forward. Spin the leather around 180 degrees Place the thread back inside the looper Hold the threads back and sew to the starting hole Spin the work facing forward again Carefully handwheel until the needle grabs the thread from the looper Turn the leather slightly sideways so the barbed hook in the needle is facing outward a bit to the left. Slowly lower the needle, ensuring it goes down facing away from the direct stitch line Do this until you clear the last previous stitch. Sew to the end Repeat steps 1 - 9 End after two or three backwards stitches, making sure the hook faces away as you lower it. Twist the starting and ending thread strands to the left in your fingers and cut them off close to the stitches. This process involves wiggling the leather sideways to angle the needle's hook away. Sometimes I set the needle so its hook is already on a slight angle to the left when facing the front of the machine. If the looper is perfectly set, it will still feed the thread into the barb. That reduces the wiggling needed to backtack without ratting. You can sew webbing on a needle and awl machine, if it between pieces of leather. OR, ..... use the smallest possible needle that just barely holds the thread. If the barb is full of thread there is little or no room for webbing to get caught as the needle descends. This technique also makes backtacking easier. Note: using too small of a needle will cause the thread to get pulled off by previous stitches, or by dense leather or other material. I didn't use undersize needles all the time, just when absolutely needed.

When replacing the needles, make sure that the cutout "scarf" faces due right, or very slightly to the right-rear direction. Don't angle the eye so it faces forward on the right. That places the loop farther away from the hook, which arrives from the rear moving forward. Ensure that the needle is pushed all the way up into its mounting bracket and tighten it securely. Check the top thread path to make sure the thread hasn't twisted over something unintentionally. This causes excessive top tension and will pull the needle way off course. It also leads to skipped stitches, or filigreeing of thin leather if the top thread flips over and locks up around the lower disks. This happens more often with black thread which can sometimes come off the spool like a coil spring. Rawhide inside the leather can break or deflect needles. I recently cut some belts from a side of belt latigo from Tandy. There is rawhide running across the leather, from the backbone downward. It broke two strap cutter blades. If I had tried to sew through it, the needle would have bent or broken.

The Campbell Randall Lockstitch machines lay down a stitch that cannot be matched by most normal walking foot class 441 or 205 machines. I have sew on an old Randall Lockstitch, at Freedman Harness (a long time ago) and owned two related Union Lockstitch machines, also needle and awl. The stitches are tighter, the underside cleaner and with a single right toe foot, you can place the awl and needle right up against the beginning of a raised surface. The Campbell and Randall machines are very nice to multi-cord, left twist linen thread, run through liquid wax. Campbell sells their own white milky Lax Wax, while Puritan sells a clear waxy lube, called Ceroxylon, that closely resembles gum tragacanth. One thing the needle and awl machines do better is sew with super heavy thread. I have sewn with #554 bonded nylon thread on a Union Lockstitch, with the proper needle and awl. The same machine was able to sew with #138 thread by changing the needle and awl. Where these machines are at a disadvantage is in backtacking. Hooked eye needles tend to rip out existing stitches. They also rip apart nylon webbing. A Cobra or Cowboy 441 type machine is much cleaner when it comes to backtacking, or sewing webbing or Biothane. They also have reverse, which the needle and awl machines lack. Finally, a Cobra class 4 and Cowboy CB4500 and Techsew 5100 all have a 16.5 inch cylinder arm, compared to 12 inches inside the body on the Union Lockstitch and only 9 inches inside a Campbell Randall Lockstitch machine. A brand new Cowboy or Cobra sells for about 1/2 the cost of a factory rebuilt Campbell Randall. Most new users learn to operate them successfully in one or two days. A needle and awl machine has a much longer learning curve. I know this for a fact, having used both types.

Adjust the height of the needle bar until the hook passes about 1/8" over the eye, on its way up. Make sure you are using the correct system DBx1 (1738) needle.

About the motor being hard to turn: Barely touching the big pedal should release the cork brake inside the motor. The brake is there in case you sew fast, to prevent run-ons. If you can't adjust to the brake, unplug the motor, open the read cover and use the correct Allen wrench to remove the two screws holding the brake to the control lever. Not sure why or what the needle is hitting. Conduct an experiment. Turn the wheel without any thread or leather and see if it enters the middle of the hole in the feed dog. If so, either the leather is deflecting the needle, or the top thread tension is so tight the needle is being pulled so far to the left it hits the throat plate. This will be obvious if the plate now has needle point wounds.

Holding both threads, or at least the top thread, I start sewing in reverse about 3 stitches (or about 1/2 inch) past the desired beginning position. I sew backwards, with the stitch lever up, until the needle is almost at the edge, then throw the lever down and stitch forward through the same holes. This locks the thread in place. Let go of the starting threads after you successfully cross back over them. Do the same at the end to lock the thread in place.

For Tex 90 (v92), use a #19, or #20 needle maximum.

Do post photos of the work you sew on this machine.

Check with Mother Superior to see which colors are in stock. I found limited options in certain sizes and formulations of bonded thread. Now, if you want cotton or polycore thread, Superior is one of the better places to go to, especially for Tailor Made thread. The cotton thread they sell is among the best available. The Thread Exchange has a huge supply of nylon and polyester bonded threads. Toledo Industrial Sewing Machines has long racks packed full of bonded nylon and bonded polyester thread. Their prices are among the best for 1/2 and 1 pound spools. They are the distributor for Cowboy brand lubricated nylon thread. That said, both Superior and Wawak are stocking more varieties of nylon thread than previously. I just received a shipment from Wawak, with an 8 ounce spool of lemon yellow #69 nylon and a dozen 1 ounce patcher spools in various colors and shades, also in size 69. Furthermore, Wawak is where I get my Venture Tape leather tape. It's available in 1/4" and 1/2" widths.

If the machine works for what you are sewing, who cares what anybody else thinks? But, if you haven't bought it already, opinions won't be favorable for this, or any brand of portable walking foot machine. All the current crop of portable walking foot machines are dual feed only, using a combination of a feed dog on the bottom, moving in sync with the outer presser foot. There are teeth on the foot, so you see tooth marks top and bottom. But, smooth feet can be found or teeth ground off. Moving past that, these machines are often poorly cast and sanded, and have soft metal moving parts that bend and jam fairly easily. I bought one on eBay that apparently was dropped in shipping. The box was intact, but the machine had a broken rear belt protector cover and was hopelessly jammed and could not be freed up. While trying to get it to turn, I opened the top cover. The casting was horrible! Rough edges everywhere. Shafts and bearings were junk Chinese steel. The arm that moves the outside foot was bent. Aside from any manufacturing flaws or shipping problems, the machines are able to sew with #138 thread with a #23 needle, but only up to 1/4 inch of leather. If that leather is dense, the machine may not penetrate it under its own power, unless you hammer down on the pedal to get started. The tiny motor has limited slow speed punching power for a walking foot machine mechanism. If the leather or material is not too dense, and doesn't exceed 1/4" to 5/16" thickness, a portable walking foot machine may do the job, (unless UPS drops the box on its rear side during shipping, jamming it beyond repair).

I sew chaps and zippers on jackets with my CB4500. I rethread it with #138 top and bottom, using a Schmetz #23 leather point needle. Back off the bobbin tension (should happen automatically if changing from previous #277) and top tension.

Toledo Industrial Sewing Machines and Wawak for my thread purchases.

I usually insert my bobbins so they feed counterclockwise, in all sewing machines. But, on my CB4500, sometimes the thread is extra grabby under the bobbin case tension spring. In those instances I will flip the bobbin so it feeds clockwise, which tends to be smoother. What a lot of folks are either forgetting or ignoring is the beehive shaped coil spring inside the bottom of the bobbin cases on all the 441 clones. The spring serves to help eject the bobbins for quicker reloading. BUT, it also acts as an "anti-backlash" spring. These springs are meant to keep the bobbin from spinning on its own from the inertia of the thread being pulled out at high speeds, which could lead to jumbled up thread inside the case. Most 441 clones are operated at breakneck speeds like 1 or 2 stitches per second! Not much spin develops at those speeds. This is just my opinion. Take it or leave it.

The hook is retarded by at least 1/4 turn. You may need to find out how to advance the hook. But, first you should set the needlebar to the correct factory setting, to make sure it is not adjusted too high. This could happen if the needlebar screw got shaken loose by the pounding of sewing hard leather. It could have slid up a smidgin at a time until it went completely out of reach of the hook. Ensure that you are using the specified needle system.

I use a CB4500 every day, in my shop. I can't imagine having anything shorter or less powerful. You will really appreciate the long arm if you start sewing long western gunbelts. I did one Monday that was over 5 feet long. I often flip these items around to back tack, so I can see the needle as it approaches the previous hole. It's hard to see this when sewing in reverse. It's an old habit I developed while sewing on Union Lockstitch machines, which don't have reverse. Earlier in the day I sewed a vinyl motorcycle seat to repair a rip in it. The total package with the inside patch was about 6 ounces. I used #207 thread on top and #138 in the bobbin, with a #23 Schmetz leather point needle. My machine is routinely used with thread sizes 138 through 277, with needle sizes 23 through 25. Occasionally I sew something huge with #346 thread, using a #26 needle. The thickest item was just under one inch. Bottom line is you will NOT regret buying a CB4500.