Wizcrafts

That would be the best type of walking foot machine for sewing bags, purses, pouches and cases, or arm holes on vests and heavy garments.

I once had a Pfaff 138 zig-zag machine. It was very quiet and smooth to operate. I remember that the width of the zig-zag wasn't very wide, in my estimation. I believe it maxed out at about 5 mm or so. The feed was good, although bottom only. They are great machines for cloth and sail repairs. The teeth on the bottom get a good grip and move the material along nicely. The 138 was not very good at feeding soft garment leather, which is basically sticky on top. The thread capacity was #69, if I recall correctly. It didn't do what I wanted it to do and I traded it for something else. That said, sailors love these machines for repairs to canvas or building new items made of sail cloth.

As for the motors, try out various machines that are equipped with different motors. When you find happiness, ask how much that motor will be with the machine head you are going to buy. The whole package will be assembled for you and setup. You should ask for basic starter instructions, so you don't jam the machine or sew your fingers together. It may turn out that the motor you like best costs more than the one they normally sell on out the door machines. Pay the extra money to get the better motor.

Sproggy; You can see my National 300N walking foot machine in close up action, on YouTube (link). All real walking foot machines work like this one. The feed dog on the bottom (not shown) works in concert with the moving needle and inside "vibrating foot" to move the material, as the outside presser foot lifts to let it go. When you go to the dealer to look at machines, this is the action you want. They may try to steer you towards a less expensive machine that has dual feed: feed dog on bottom and claw teeth on outside presser foot. Avoid it like the plague if you intend to sew leather that would be ruined by tooth marks on top.

Check out the zig-zag walking foot machines on this page

What I would do in your situation is buy a walking foot machine to sew the leather parts together. Then buy a good quality domestic sewing machine, new or used, to sew the linings and cloth interiors together. Join the already sewn interiors to the leather edges on the w.f. machine. You may be able to do the interiors with a straight stitch machine, which could be an old iron Singer with the motor on the back. I have three domestic machines at home that are only used for light duty flatwork cloth sewing. When business picks up you can buy an industrial straight stitch machine.

I think that the Singer 292 is just another high speed, straight stitch, garment factory machine. Expect to sew at 5000 stitches per minute (83/second) to keep the oil circulating to the extremities. The stitch length will be about 8 to the inch, using #46 bonded, or T50 cotton thread. It is meant for flat work cloth.

There are ways to "dumb down" a walking foot machine, to allow it to sew thinner cloth. It will never be as smooth at it as a bottom feed only garment machine. But, a garment machine cannot be smartened up enough to sew real leather. In reality, you may need two different machines: one for leather; one for cloth. Try a walking foot first and see if it can sew your cloth bags.

I just learned that Toledo Industrial Sewing Machines also sells a table attachment for their CB227R cylinder arm, walking foot machine.

Techsew sells a cylinder arm walking foot machine and has an optional table attachment for it.

I'd sure could use a hand cranked curved needle sole stitcher in my business.

Yes, the Techsew 3650, aka GA5-1, aka CB2500, all based upon the Singer 45k, will do what you want. They all sew up to 7/16" of leather, with up to #415 thread, using bottom feed only from aggressive teeth on the feed dog.They use an oddball needle system, 328, which is typically only available in sizes 23 through 27, in leather point. These needles are shorter than the type 794 needles used in the aforementioned 441 clones and Adler 204 and 205 machines. I recommend that you send some stacks of your horsehide strips to several dealers and ask them to sew them together with heavy thread, on the best, most economical machine that can do the job. Compare the stitches and bottom appearance and pick the machine that looks best.

I use a Singer patcher for sewing gloves. But, I mostly do repairs, not new builds. Patchers are cylinder arm machines, with narrow snouts, small or tiny bobbins, and long arms.

I think you should select a leather stitcher, like the Cowboy CB3200, 3500, or 4500, or a Cobra Class 3 or Class 4 and be done with it. The 3200 can sew an honest 1/2 inch with #346 thread. The rest top out at almost 7/8 inches of just about anything you put under the foot. All are triple feed walking foot machines, already equipped with very powerful servo motors and speed reducers.

What we have here is a failure to communicate. What I was trying to suggest to you was that after you loosen the set screws on the small worm gear that secures the hook shaft, you should be able to rotate the hook freely by hand. Nothing else should move underneath; not the worm gear, ring gear or any other shafts. Perhaps I mistook the location of those gears. I believed that they were under the hook.

Set the needle bar for the 135x16 needles, then retime the hook to intersect above the eye, inside the scarf.

Probably just stuck after decades of being there. Try loosening the screws #5 and see if the hook moves freely.

If that machine is just a bottom feed straight stitch machine, with an oil pump on the bottom, forget it. It is for light duty, very high speed sewing, using thin, soft cotton thread sewn into shirts, pants and aprons (aka, flat work). The needles they use are short and too thin for the thread you will need to hold your horse hide project together. You will at least need a well-maintained walking foot machine to sew 14 ounces of horse hide together. Expect to run it at its thread limit, with light colored #207 on top and #138 in the bobbin, with a #23 or #24 leather point needle. You may have to replace the original clutch motor with a more easily controlled servo motor, equipped with a small 2" pulley. This will call for a shorter v-belt if the original motor has a 3" to 4" pulley (if the motor mounts in the same position, you lose one inch per inch less pulley diameter on the belt.). If it was me, I would use my big Cowboy CB4500, with #277 thread. But you don't have one of those (yet).

I have sewn hundreds of guitar straps and rifle slings, both with padded suede linings and plain. A typical tooled strap is about 8-9 ounces thick. There is no sense using thread under #138 bonded nylon, especially if there is any lining on the back. A 4 ounce lining makes the package about 12 ounces thick (3/16"). The best needle size for this job is a #23 (160) leather point. There is only one type of machine I can honestly recommend for these jobs: a compound feed, walking foot machine, with a large M style bobbin (Consew, Chandler, Adler, Pfaff, Seiko), or a Juki DNU-1541 or LU-1508N, which have a double capacity Juki LU bobbin. Any of these machines can sew up to 3/8 inches of real leather strapping, using #138 thread on top and in the bobbin, with spacing over 4 to the inch possible. They are manually oiled, with large bearings, and can be sewn very slowly, at one stitch per inch if you are so-inclined. If you speed up to about 10 stitches per second, smoke will come off the needle. The machine you mentioned is a very high speed tailoring and garment factory machine, meant to be run at about 50 to 60 stitches per second. Also, those stitches will be close together. The maximum regular thread handling capacity is #69 bonded. It will be a stretch to get it to sew with a #23 needle and #138 thread, if at all. Finally, it is a bottom feed machine and has lighter tensioning parts that are suited to garment sewing.

The sewing machines that are meant to handle waxed thread are needle and awl harness stitchers, or shoe sole stitchers, or Puritan chainstitch machines. Regular lockstitch machines fair badly when waxed thread is run through them. I tried it on my CB4500 and only got about one or two inches of stitches before the thread broke. It tends to stick inside the eye of the needle and this stops the loop from forming on the upstroke. No loop = skipped stitches. One might possibly have better luck by using a #26 or #27 needle and spraying silicon lube on the needle.

You have misinterpreted the numbers 30/3. Here is what thread they represent: "Regular Jean Thread 30/3 T-60"

A machine rated to use #80 or #100 needles is not going to work for you. It is certainly a light duty post machine for use on shoe uppers, moccasins, or soft leather hats, using very light weight thread, not exceeding #69 bonded. A #100 needle will just barely feed #69 thread. It is better limited to #46 bonded, or T50 cloth thread.

TeddyCrafts; You still don't understand how these machines sew. Walking foot and straight stitch machines used in our trade are lockstitch machines. Google this term. Lockstitch machines have bobbins on the bottom, which form the bottom half of the stitches. Bobbin thread can be any color you choose, since the operator of the machine usually loads his or her own bobbins from large spools of thread. As for the feed dog leaving marks, this is not going to be noticeable on textured leather. Further, you can reduce the pressure on the presser foot/feet to minimize and marks on the bottom. As I suggested, go buy a home sewing machine and learn how they work. Experiment with different thread and presser feet. Move up to an industrial machine once you really know what you want. This will save you a lot of aggravation and pestering of your suppliers.

What I should have said earlier is that on a straight stitch roller foot machine, you need the bottom teeth on the feed dog to pull the leather to form the stitches. The top roller on a roller foot machine spins with the top grain to avoid drag, while still holding the leather down between stitches. If you get a walking foot machine, the needle and inside foot feed the material, with the assistance of the feed dog. Some folks fill in the teeth on the feed dog with rubber or silicon, or such, to reduce the effect of the teeth on the bottom. I don't think tooth marks on the bottom will be a problem for watch bands..

From the first comment I suspect that you have absolutely no understanding of how sewing machines work. You would do well to purchase a used home style sewing machine and watch how it moves material along. You need a better understanding of the mechanics before you start telling dealers what you want them to order or build for you.