Wizcrafts

Your 100+ year old patcher has a worn down feed motion cam. The parts can only be replaced by taking them from other. less worn Singer patch machines. Bob Kovar (Toledo Industrial) has as many parts for patchers as anybody I know on this continent. The old part must be removed from the bottom of the barrel shaped front of the machine. This probably means disassembling the needle bar from the take-up barrel on the top. Use caution when pounding the tapered steel plug out. Bob can advise you about disassembling the head in order to get the front off, then the feed motion ring and cam. You would be farther ahead just taking or shipping the machine head to him, in Toledo.

If the sliding stitch regulator "puck," which fastens behind the foot, is as far down as it can go, with the foot lifted by the hand lift lever, and the foot lifter block on the rear mounted torsion spring is as far to the center as possible, and the feed motion cam is not worn out, the machine should easily sew 5 to the inch, into 8 ounces of leather.

I would use a #19 (120) or 20 (125) needle with #92 (T90) bonded thread. Little doubt that is your problem. The hole is too tight on the bottom. A larger needle pokes a wider hole, reducing the force needed to pull the knots up.

You should read this topic which is all about how some members have modified their push button servo motors for extra fine speed control over the full range of travel.

Nick-O-Sew is an industrial sewing machine company located in Tennessee and has ad banners that rotate on top of our pages. Toledo Industrial Sewing Machines is located in Toledo, Ohio and has all manner of machines, new and used. They are also advertisers in our rotating banner ads. Give them a call during the week, in normal business hours.

That indicates that either the presser foot is not lifting the proper height to move forward all the way, or that the sliding stitch length regulator on the presser foot shaft is too high up, or that the feed motion cam is completely worn out.

I guess you will find out if you get busy sewing. Just a recommendation from somebody who used the same machine in a major business setting. These bobbins run out fast. Having two or three preloaded bobbins inside properly tensioned bobbin cases will let you get more sewing done before you have to unload and wind another bobbin.

You should also buy an extra bobbin case, complete with two springs and a center post with the thread hole on top.

You can buy bobbins from any industrial sewing machine dealer who sells parts and accessories. Ask for "large" patcher bobbins. Most dealers also stock the threading rods. I buy my bobbins, thread and threading rods from Toledo Industrial Sewing Machines.

With used machines in private sales, it's like a box of chocolates: ya never know whatcher gonna get. If possible, find a friend who understands industrial sewing machines and take him or her with when you go to look at these machines. Often, the lower the asking price, the more work, and/or parts the machine needs. This is not always the case, which is why you need to bring somebody with who has a better understanding of sewing machines. I'm sure that the last thing you want is to get the deal of a lifetime, only to find that you have to pay somebody else to bring it up to specs. As for motors, clutch motors are usually long-lived. The clutches are replaceable if worn out. Pulleys can be replaced with smaller ones (and shorter v-belts to match) to reduce the top speed. Down the line you can swap it out for a modern servo motor. Prices Consider the overall price, including the cost of upgrading the motor and replacing worn or missing parts. Will your $750 Pfaff end up costing $1000 after improvements and repairs? It might be a little less for the 7 year old Consew. How does this compare with the price of a brand new complete unit, set-up, tested and warrantied?

$800 is a reasonable price if the machine has tight clearances on all the moving parts and is in excellent physical condition. I would want to test it before buying it. Take some leather with when you test it. It's also a good idea to ask the seller what size thread and needles they have for it. I makes no sense to sew 5/16" or 3/8" of leather with #69 thread to test the machine. You would be using #138, which is that machine's limit, at that thickness.

I used to make my pancake holsters equally molded on the front and back. Now, they are mostly flat backed and molded on the front, if at all. We thought that a 20 ton press would speed up the molding process a lot more than it seems to be able to do. Nothing beats a strong set of thumbs and some bone folders!

We finally got the top and bottom steel plates back and installed. Our first attempts to mold blue guns, both revolvers and semi-automatics, were feeble at best. It may be due to our design technique where the back stays flat and only the front gets molded to the guns. We typically use well-soaked 8-9 ounce veg-tan tooling leather for our holsters. I will post some photos later this week (Thursday or Friday). Basically, after stacking one or two 12" x 12" x 1" pieces on top of the leather, the top-most surfaces mold well, but the trigger area is barely depressed inside the trigger guard and we cannot get the under-the-barrel/slide sides to go down anywhere near the actual sides of the guns. We have tried stacking two pieces of 1" thick 40 Durometer Buna-N and also tried 2 layers of the soft rubber from KnifeKits.com (virtually useless). I may order a couple 12 x 12 x 1" sheets of harder Buna-N (50 Du) and maybe one more 40 Du and see if that improves the molding results. We did one trial holster using some scrap 5-6 ounce veg and it molded much better than the 8-9 oz. But, that weight is useless for our designs. So far, my partner has invested about $300 in the press and top/bottom steel plates and I have purchased $100 worth of rubber sheets, with probably another $50 to $100 to be ordered in the harder/more rubber.

Practically, I found 5/16" to be about the thickest leather or other compressed material it can feed and still deliver a decent stitch length. They can tension #138 thread with ease, but nothing larger. Because it uses the same "large" bobbin as the Singer 29k series, it can only hold enough #138 thread to sew 4 or 5 average belts along the edges. The needle system is an extra long 332LG, which is specific to this machine. Schmetz needles work best in the 30-70 and they are not cheap. Assuming it works normally and no parts are missing, anything under $1200 is a good price for the machine mounted on a pedestal table with a clutch motor. Missing Adler parts are often very expensive.

They are a great low cost option for holsters and gun belts, as long as you never need to exceed 1/2 inch thickness. Also, due to their lesser maximum clearance, they don't accept the accessory raised throat plates for holsters and stirrups.

LOL. The lube pot is not for the machine's oil. It is for the top thread, in case it is too dry. In that case, one can pour liquid silicon in the pot and route the thread through it.

The 29-4 only came in short arm and small bobbin configuration. It wasn't until the second generation 29k models that they introduced the larger bobbin and longer arm options, along with a removable gear box and a top adjuster for the amount of thread take-up on the upstroke.

The long out-of-production Singer 29k models are capable of sewing 1/4 inch (16 ounces), with up to #92 thread. I know this because I own one of the last ones made, with what they refer to as the large bobbin (yeah, right!) and an 18 inch arm. It sews well with #69 thread and so-so with #92. As for anything thicker, forget it. The stitch length decreases as you sew beyond 1/8 inch. So, instead of 5 to the inch, you'll only get 6, if the machine is in like new condition. If the foot driving cams are worn out, you might not even get those stitch lengths. All 29 type machines are top feed only, using teeth on the presser foot to pull the work in the desired direction (which can be 360 degrees). IHTH

No. The hook should pass inside the scarf area above the eye without actually making contact. Some adjusters use a standard business card to set the clearance between the hook and needle.Most 441 machines are setup by the dealers who sell them. Most set them up with a #25 needle and #277 thread. It is possible that the dealer who setup your machine had it adjusted for a #22 needle. This would allow the hook to miss the needle with the spacer that you found. Then they forgot about it and gave you a pack of #25 needles and they are making contact with the misadjusted hook. Usually, the hook on a 441 or 205 can be set to just miss touching the largest anticipated needle and still pick up the loop 3 needle numbers smaller. Thus, a well timed machine setup with a #25 needle should also sew well with a #22 needle. After that all bets are off. But, it doesn't work the other way. You should get the hook set for the largest needle you will be using, with the stitch lever in the zero position. This balances the hook between forward and reverse motion. Make sure the hook just misses making contact with an empty needle, as it passes inside the scarf area.

First off, remove the throat plate and hand wheel until the needle reaches BDC. Slowly continue hand-wheeling until the needle ascends about 3/16 inch above BDC. The hook point should be near the center of the scarf on the right side of the needle, and definitely well above the eye. If the hook is above or below the cutaway scarf, either the needle bar or the shuttle has moved from the original timed setting. With thread jams, it is often the hook that gets retarded, causing the hook to intersect the plane of the needle at the wrong time. If you see the needle has moved up about 3/16" and the hook has not yet intersected it inside the scarf, you will either have to lower the needle or advance the hook. Lowering the needle bar is the easiest fix people apply when the timing changes. But, if the problem was caused by the hook being retarded, the lowering of the needle reduces the maximum thickness that can be sewn by the amount it has been moved below factory specs. Consult your owner's manual to learn how to adjust the position and timing of the hook.

Almost all modern industrial sewing machine motor pulleys, the machine pulleys, as well as speed reducers, all use 3/8 inch wide v-belts, which are known as type 3L.

The shaft goes through a hole in the frame. Can't recall if it is smooth or threaded. The nut on the back stops it from turning.

Loosen the hex nut on the back of the housing for the bottom disks, then turn the split shaft one way or the other to change the tension on the check spring. Lock the nut down when you are happy with the spring tension.

They are just straight stitch tailoring machines, capable of sewing chaps, pants, zippers and other light weight items. The presser foot typically lifts about 5/16 inch maximum, depending on how thick the foot is top to bottom. Thicker presser feet may only allow 1/4 inch under them to be sewn. The thread handling capacity may max out at either #69 or #92 bonded thread, depending on the condition and configuration of the bobbin case, shuttle race and shuttle driver. Mine maxes out with #69 thread. The machines are good for light density leather at the most. Forget horse tack!

Enough to follow the thread as the take-up lever descends and hold the thread taut in the eye of the needle as it reaches the top layer of the work. I should not overpower the top thread tension disks. I usually set my check springs to have enough spring action to snap back to the top when I pull them all the way to the lower stop position. Sometimes you have to increase the spring tension for heavy threads, then back them off a bit for thinner thread.