Wizcrafts

Sand and buff the leading and left edges on the plate. A high polish is always a good alteration. I went a step further and ground off a bit of steel from the left edge, then radiused and polished it. It lets me get closed to items that have raised portions or hardware on the bottom, without switching to a different throat plate..

I can compose rich text posts and replies from my computers, but not from my smart phone. What link do you want posted? Have you looked to the right side, just above the message reply box, for the little arrow that shows/hides the formatting toolbar?

The lube pot may or may not require a new or larger diameter hole to be bored in the head. The Cowboy paddle feet are a special set of three pieces. Due to a difference in height, after installing the inside foot and one outside paddle foot, you may have to reposition the big crank arm protruding out the rear of the faceplate, with the large hex-head screw, to take up any difference in height between these parts and the originals.

As far as I have seen, yes. I sometimes us a Cobra standard plate on my Cowboy, because it is totally smooth on top. The stirrup, holster and flat slotted plates also interchange. The swing-away edge guide requires a special adapter that has a long slot cut out from the right end. It is T shaped. If you don't have one, order it from Toledo Industrial Sewing Machines (Cowboy) or Leather Machinery Company (Cobra). I suppose Techsew also sells this combination. Anybody using raised throat plates should bear in mind that you will lose the height of the plate above4 the base level in sewing capacity. So, if your machine allowed you to sew 3/4 inch with the standard plate, you might end up with just 7/16 inch with the stirrup plate and 1/2 inch with the holster plate. For machines able to sew 7/8 inch, the numbers are 1/8" taller. I actually ground down my holster plate a little, then buffed it to a polish.

I am now replying on my Windows 7 PC, using Firefox. As soon as I clicked inside the text area, the formatting toolbar appeared. I can type rich text, add links and emoticons , change font faces and sizes, etc. I see two interesting button options on the toolbar. One is on top, on the far left. Clicking this button toggles between rich (formatted) text and plain text. Apparently, this option is always selected for smart phone users, no matter what our wishes. However, when using my PC, I can toggle between plain and rich text. When toggled into plain text, all formatting options are grayed out. The second interesting button is on the far right, just above this text field. Clicking the little arrow hides the formatting toolbar completely. Without rich text formatting, one cannot embed links, or emoticons, apply underlines, italics, strike-throughs, lists, or change text alignment. What gives? Why are smart phone browsers, which do have Javascript enabled, not presented with the text formatting toolbar when posting and replying?

This reply is typed in Google Chrome, on the same smart phone. There is still no text formatting toolbar option. I am forced to type in plain text. This also means no hyperlinks.

As I type this from my Samsung Galaxy S3,using Firefox for mobile, I have no text formatting toolbar present. There isn't any show/hide button for it. Plain text is my only posting or replying option.

Eric; I clicked on the "Quote" button in your post and a "Reply to this topic" text field opened, with a complete set of formatting options, including the link icon. It is directly to the right of the "numbered list" icon, and under the "Size" selector for fonts. I do notice a tiny arrow on the right side of the formatting toolbar. If you hover over it the tool-tip says: "Collapse Toolbar." If you click on that arrow/button, the formatting icons and fonts disappear. Maybe those who cannot see the formatting icons and options have had their toolbar collapse, with or without their knowledge. Perhaps it is the Russians invading our forum with microbots, stealing our formatting tools. "All your formatting tools are belong to us!"

Eric; We seem to have a problem with the forum posting function when it comes to mobile devices. The HTML and text formatting options don't seem to appear when mobile devices compose posts and replies.

I spoke with Bob Kovar on Saturday and he informed me that all of the new batch of Family Sew motors shipped to him will be factory equipped with a 50mm pulley. No more fabricating an inside collar to mount a larger bore pulley to these motors. Even with the 2" pulley, if it feeds a 4" machine pulley, the top speed should be around 1800 RPM, or 30 stitches per second. This is fast enough for upholstery and most garment sewing work.

Take your machine and table to that dealer and have them swap to the new motor. That way you'll have the right belt, tension and pulley for your intended speed range.

I had to perform the stupid optical cheater trick on my previous digital servo motors in order to have good slow speed control. Not so on the FS-550.

The brake on the FS-550 is composed of 3.56672389725 mm thick, medium high density, extruded and composited, triple resublimated Thiotimoline.

Here is a machine built to sew leather wallets, holster and sheathes. It has a capacity of 1/2 inch of hard leather and handles up to #415 bonded thread.

That link has a period at the end of .com that is breaking the link, resulting in a Server 400 bad request response. The correct link is: http://www.fairfieldfabrics.com/

Have you contacted any of our supporting and contributing industrial sewing machine dealers? Most have ad banners on top of every page on these forums. You've got Leather Machine Company, Toledo Industrial Sewing Machines and Techsew as advertisers here. Plus, Gregg at Keystone Sewing and Dan at Campbell-Randall are contributing dealer-members.

Consider it gone.

I use #23 needles for both #138/138 and #207/138. But, I move up to a #24 needle for 207/207. The Schmetz and GB S type needles are a special (inline oval) shape that causes the thread to lie low in the top layer in a straight line. You feel it with your finger, but the ends sit down in the hole edges. Diamond and triangle point needles cause the thread to lie fully on top, with a long appearance for the same stitch length setting as S types. Usually, type 794 needles are leather points and usually, type 7x3 are the same dimension in standard sharp round points. I use the round point needles to sew webbing and denim. Leather points rip the fibers of those materials, where rounds penetrate without damaging the filaments. This is especially important when sewing heavy webbing tow straps.

All straight needle, single bobbin machines use left twist (Z) thread. Curved needle sole stitching machines use right twist, as do the right side needles on dual needle, vertical-axis-bobbin machines, if those bobbins rotate in the opposite direction (CCW) to the right hand bobbin. This can lead to confusion.

Your work list falls mostly up to 1/4 inch of leather, which any flat bed, compound feed, walking foot machine can handle. However, your last two items are circular or shaped bags, which are best sewn on a cylinder arm machine. Let's analyze the thread range requirements. Wallet interiors are usually about 1 or 2 ounces per piece and doubled up. So, you need to be able to sew down to 2 or 3 ounces minimum. This calls for no larger than #69 bonded thread. The correct needle size for #69 thread is either #16 or #18, leather point. Wallet backs are typically about 4 or 5 ounces thick. Add this to a 2 to 4 ounce interior package and you get between 6 and 9 ounces total. This can be sewn with #92 bonded thread, using a #19 or #20 leather point needle. Belts and lined guitar straps are usually range between 8 and 12 ounces total, which is best sewn with #138 thread and a #23 needle. Lined, padded leather rifle slings have two separate parts that overlap where the tail attaches to the body. If each lined piece is about 6 to 8 ounces, the maximum thickness at the overlap area would be between 12 to 16 ounces, which #138 sews together nicely. If you have carved or stamped veg-tan bodies, that adds about 3 or 4 more ounces, for a total package of about 20 ounces (5/16 inch). These are best sewn with #207 bonded thread, using either a #23 or #24 needle. Messenger bags made from 5 ounce leather would have about 10 ounce seams to sew inside out. #138 thread will do fine. Synapsys Your work will range from 2 or 3 ounces up to about 20 ounces. Your thread requirements range from #69 through #207, but #138 will do. The Techsew 2700 or Cowboy CB227 are the best machines for these items, thicknesses and thread sizes. Both are cylinder arm machines, with 10.5" arms. They use the standard walking foot system 135x16 leather point and 135x17 regular point needles, available everywhere industrial sewing machines are sold. This needle system is available in sizes from 12 up to 25. Your work would require needles in sizes 16 or 18 through 23 or 24. The aforementioned machines max out at 3/8 inches under the feet. They are medium duty, triple feed, walking foot machines, with reverse. They take all manner of presser feet. If you decide that you want to sew holsters, weight belts, gun belts, knife sheathes, motorcycle saddlebags, and horse tack, that class of machine will be underpowered and incapable of sewing the thickness of material or thread required. This is where the CB3200, 3500, 4500, or 5500 come into their own. Ditto for the Cobra Class 3 and 4 and the Techsew 4100 and 5100. These are known as 441 clones, based upon the design of the Juki TSC-441, but at 1/3 to 1/2 the price. They sew items ranging from about 6 ounces, up to about 50 ounces (7/8"), with thread sizes #138 through #415, using needle sizes 23 through 27. While some people have success sewing lighter leather, with thinner thread and non-leather point needles, it requires a major readjustment to dumb them down for light work and thin needles-thread, then smarten them up for heavy work, needles and thread. Tis best to have one machine for light work, with thin thread and short needles and another for heavy work, with long, large diameter needles and thick, taut thread.

The 3-6-9 should do the trick. It gives you two output pulley/reduction options. Either will cause you to increase the top speed setting, yielding higher low speed torque.

That ad was posted in October 2012, 1 1/3 years ago. Have you used the inquiries email address provided at the end of the ad?

Due to its limited lift, the stirrup plate is impractical on the CB3200. The stirrup plate is 1/2 inch tall and the feet can only raise 5/8 inch above the low throat plate. The presser feet need at least 1/8 inch clearance to alternate up and down. Thus, if we subtract 1/2 (4/8) from 5/8 inch, we are left with 1/8 inch - 1/8 inch for foot alternation = zero thickness can be sewn. The amount of alternating foot lift can be varied by moving a crank that protrudes out of the back of the body, up or down in a curved slot on a housing on the back. In practice, one could move the presser foot control lever all the way up, reducing the amount of alternation to maybe 3/32 inches. This would allow you to use the stirrup plate to sew about 1/16 inch of leather, before the mechanism binds. One could buy a Cowboy, Cobra or Techsew stirrup plate and have it ground down to 3/8 inch rise, then reshaped and polished. This would allow the CB3200 to sew into about 8 ounces of leather.

You can dye Barbour's glazed linen thread. I used to do it using alcohol based leather dye. I think that 6 cord is the equivalent of #346. Campbell Randall sells Barbour's thread in one pound spools, in both left (straight needle machine) and right (curved or hand needle) twist. You can hand wax the thread as you prepare to sew.

No, it has two brushes. Two extras are included in the packaging, along with a spare brake pad. The motor has a multi-position speed limiter switch on the front panel, with a pointer knob. You can change the top speed in a second, even while you are sewing. I have one powering my CB4500. I ordered it from Toledo Industrial Sewing Machines with a 50mm pulley, which is not the standard size from the factory. Bob Kovar used a special interfacing collar to fit inside the new pulley, which has a 3/4 inch bore. The motor has a 38 inch type 3L v-belt feeding the large pulley on the speed reducer. The small pulley on the reducer feeds up to the machine. It can sew through 3/4 inch of veg-tan leather, with a #25 needle and #277 thread, at one stitch every five seconds, or into 1/4 inch double leather belts at 5 stitches per second. This is all easily controlled by your foot. For occasions where I need to sew patterns, like fishtails, I set it to the slowest setting and sew with the pedal all the way down. She chugs along at about one stitch per second. I hope this helps 'splain the motor.