Wizcrafts

From your work description I believe that a decent upholstery grade walking foot machine will suffice. Let me use a Chandler 406 RB as an example (there are many other brands similar to it). This machine was designed for use in the upholstery trade. It has triple feed that ensures that multiple layers stay aligned. This machine has a large bobbin, style M, that holds about 50% more thread than most industrial machine bobbins. It has a heavy upper tension spring to properly tension thicker thread than any home machine can handle. Best of all, the presser feet can walk to a height of at least 1/2 inch, or slightly higher. This allows the machine to actually sew 3/8 inch of compressed material. The next difference between upholstery grade machines and home or garment machines is the strength of the ciol spring that holds down the presser foot (feet). The Chandler in my example has a strong enough spring to hold down 3/8 inches of leather as the threaded needle ascends. Should the leather overpower the presser foot and lift with the needle, it will skip stitches and may bend or break the needle. The Chandler sells for about $1200 shipped, so it is within your budget. I hope this helps. When you gain more experience and take on work that is circular, you will need to move up to a cylinder arm machine. That is a whole nuther story.

I now use and recommend the Family Sew FS-550 servo motor that is sold by Toledo Industrial Sewing Machines. Ask for the 50mm (2 inch) pulley instead of the 75mm that is installed by default. It requires a special inside collar to allow 3/4 inch ID pulleys to be installed onto a roughly 5/8 inch shaft (actually some Metric diameter). You can re-use the interfacing collar with other 3/4 inch pulleys, should you wish to experiment. Tell the dealer what your existing motor pulley diameter is as well as the length of your v-belt. Sewing machine v-belts are type 3L (3/8") and are usually measured in inches, in the USA. The belt may be stamped with a 42, or M42, meaning 42 inches outside circumference, or some other number. Upholstery and garment making machines are normally setup with small hand wheel pulley and large motor pulleys. I often see 44 inch belts on these machines. After converting such a machine to use a FS-550, the belt will need to be shorter, one inch per inch less motor pulley diameter. So, if your existing pulley was 4 inches and the new motor is ordered with a 2" (50mm) pulley, the new belt needs to be 2 inches shorter.

The cutaway area is to allow thicker thread to push under and over the bobbin without binding.

First, make sure that the needle is ascending as the hook point approaches. It should intersect the needle, inside the cut-out scarf, about 1/8 inch above the eye. If that isn't happening, e.g, the hook intersects right at the level of the eye, the loop cannot form in time to be picked up. Ditto, if the hook arrives after the eye has passed it completely, or too low on the upstroke. How about your loop? Is is persisting as the hook reaches the scarf of the needle, above the eye? Or, is the loop dissolving before it can get picked off? A dissolving loop can be caused by too much swing of the check spring, or if you fail to feed the top thread around the spring at all. If the material is very sticky, the top thread might stick to the needle and the loop may not form at all. This sometimes happens when we use double-sided leather tape to hold layers together.

Ferg; The 3200 is a 441 type machine. It does not sew under about 6 ounces and is best used with #138 and larger thread.

I also have a modified walking foot machine, which when equipped with the longer system 190 needles can sew almost 1/2 inch. Before I modded it, it barely cleared 3/8 inches of leather. With the standard system 135x16 needles it only barely sews 7/16, after grinding down the inner top surface of the presser foot. The modification involved routing out the back of the head to allow the walking foot crank arm to lift higher. Despite this alteration, the machine struggles with #207 thread.

The company has two names: Campbell-Bosworth and Campbell-Randall. Bostitch is a stapler company. You can use any thread you want to in a Campbell lockstitch machine. But, bonded polyester has a softer hand than bonded nylon and works better with its tension mechanism. Ideally, one should use glazed linen thread, run through liquid Lax-Wax, in these machines.

None of the machines in your list are capable of exceeding 3/8 inch, if they can even sew that thickness. Plus, none can use thread heavier than #138 at that thickness.

Agreed. But, make sure it works properly and is not missing any parts. Pfaff parts cost through the nose.

I have and use some diamond point needles on my Cowboy CB4500. They produce a very straight stitch line, with the thread sitting on top of the leather. The effect is the opposite of the more common S (wedge) point needles supplied with these machines. The S needles tend to lay the thread into the top layer, with a smaller visual gap between stitches. I find that some top tension increase is usually needed to bring the bottom knots up into the leather with diamond points, after using S points.

It's possible that somebody before you ordered or replaced the original beehive spring with a lighter duty spring. This is typical for machines that are used in tailor shops and garment factories, where the dominant thread is soft cotton, not hard bonded nylon. If your top tension beehive spring is too light, you can buy a heavier duty replacement from most industrial sewing machine dealers, like Toledo Industrial Sewing Machines. Otherwise, loosen the bobbin tension spring, checking for thread particles inside the case, or under the spring. You can also move up one needle size to punch a bigger hole. This makes it much easier to pull up the knots.

I buy my servo and clutch motors from Toledo Industrial Sewing Machines. Their number is: 866-362-7397. Their website is at www.tolindsewmach.com

Nope, it needs those long needles.

Welcome to the Brotherhood of the Bobbin, Seth!

Keep in mind that this is not the machine you need to sew sheaths or holsters. It is purely for light duty leather, of medium denim, or garments, moccasins, caps, etc.

I have repair-ed your machine. There is a no charge (Insp. Clouseau).

Post machines are normally used in the manufacturing of moccasins, shoe and boot uppers, hats and caps, and other items whose shapes are best sewn over a post, rather than a cylinder arm. The pictured machine may be capable of sewing with up to #138 bonded thread, into about 5/16 inch (20 ounces) (the feet lift up to 14 mm, or 9/16 inch). Doing so will require a #23 leather point needle. The machine is valued at $4500, plus or minus, new.

The hitting or pinning of the needle means you either have to relocate the shuttle to the right, or have already reached its maximum needle handling capacity. Contact an industrial sewing machine dealer to see if they have any hooks capable of clearing that needle and thread combination without making contact. You run the risk of breaking needles and scoring the hook if you continue to operate the machine in this fashion. The hook should just pass through the scarf of the needle without pushing it to the right. The stitches are already doing that as you sew. Schmetz needles are an improvement over Organ, especially for sewing leather goods. Schmetz has a larger eye and scarf.

It is a five in one machine used by shoe repair shops. It cuts sole leather, bevels a 2" wide overlap for blending the sole onto the insole near the heel, trims the glued on sole to the proper stitching distance, compresses the insole and outsole together and can also cut straight strips in various widths, using a sliding gate as a limiter. They have very limited use outside of shoe shops.

Seth; You definitely will need a different machine for sewing garment leather. For very thin leather, like maybe 3 - 4 ounces, a straight stitch machine with a roller foot, or a even flat Teflon foot will be your daisy. I use an ancient Singer 31-15, equipped with a roller foot and a single row feed dog combination for garment leather projects. When I need to sew cloth, I change it back to a medium hole plate and matching multi-row feed dog. The machine now has a servo motor that allows for easy speed control. These machines work best with thin thread, not exceeding #69 bonded nylon/polyester, or #80 jeans thread. They are used in garment making, dry cleaning and tailor shops around the World. Almost every industrial sewing machine company makes several types of straight stitch machine, many of which can use standard replacement and accessory parts. They are usually limited to sewing about 3/16 inch of material under the foot, depending on the needle and presser foot in use. If your work involves slightly firmer leather, like might be used in cell phone cases, wallets, chaps, vests and jackets, a flat bed, upholstery grade walking foot machine is best. The Consew 206RB-5 is highly recommended for this type of work, especially if it is equipped with a Family Sew FS-550 motor, or newer. These machines typically use bonded thread in sizes 69, 92 and 138, and once in a while, maybe #207 on top and 138 in the bobbin. They usually are able to sew through 3/8 inches of medium temper leather, jeans, webbing, etc. Some walking foot machines can be modified, or custom ordered, to sew thin, soft garment leather without problems. Contact our member-dealers to see what they can offer you in this category.

Your work appears to be best sewn on a heavy duty leather stitcher, like the 441 clones, rather than on a light duty walking foot machine. The machine I mentioned before would probably fit the bill perfectly. They are really well suited to work ranging from about 12 ounces and up, where you can use heavy thread, like #207 and 277. Why? I have multiple industrial sewing machines in my shop. I use a long body flat bed walking foot machine for thin leather pouches, and for sewing patches onto vests and new zippers and fringes onto Biker chaps and jackets. I usually keep #92 thread in it. Occasionally, I have to sew over a thick leather seam of about 3/8 inch. The long body machine makes an unhappy noise every time I do this. Still, it does sew through these seams. My CB4500 can walk through a 3/8" seam like butter, with absolutely no hesitation or mechanical interference.

As for sewing wet leather, the Cowboy 3200, 3500, 4500 and 5500 all have stainless steel presser feet, feed dogs and throat plates, which will not darken moist veg-tan leather. I occasionally sew still-moist holsters to get as close to the shaped areas as possible with the stitches. Then I finish the shaping and let it dry with a blue gun inside, or the actual gun, wrapped in Saran Wrap. I usually back off the top pressure spring to relieve the force on the presser feet. I also sand the sharp bottom edges of the harness feet, then polish them on a buffer. All of this reduces the foot drag lines, but never completely eliminates them. A wide modeling spoon also helps smooth out presser foot tracks.

I was recently having intermittent problems where the top thread got caught between the top of the shuttle and the shuttle race. I couldn't figure out why, as I always hold back the threads when I start sewing (on all my machines). The cause and solution turned out to be rather simple and was due to an adjustment I had made months ago and forgot about. Several months ago I wanted to sew with thin thread, to sew in something really thin. I set the bobbin tension to a light pull, so as to not pucker the thin leather. Then I tried in vain to balance the knots by backing off the top tension adjuster, but they stayed at the top no matter how much I backed it off. After checking for binding thread (wasn't) I finally traced the excess top tension to the check spring, which is attached to the bottom disk shaft. By default, it is set to a high tension to control thick and stiff threads used in heavy leather sewing, for which the CB4500 is designed. Anywho, I loosened the nut on the back of the head, which locked in the bottom disk and check spring shaft and rotated it CCW, until it only exerted enough tension to return all the way down, with the top thread loose. After sewing that light job I forgot all about this adjustment. Over time I began experiencing trapped top thread, loops on the bottom, bad bottom on reverse, etc. The other day I manually handwheeled the machine and watched the top thread jam into the top of the race. Frustrated, I called Bob Kovar and told him what was happening. The first question he asked was "are you holding the threads back?" I told him I always do. His next question was, "have you loosened the check spring or shortened its travel?" Silence on my end while I pondered this question... I told him about the time months ago when I changed the setup to sew light leather with #69 thread and how I had to back off the check spring tension to balance the knots. He told me to tighten it up, increase the travel a bit and try again. The machine has worked flawlessly since I made that adjustment. Lesson: These machines are built with heavy components, including the pressure and tension mechanisms. Dumbing them down throws off all of the adjustments that allow them to sew dense or thick leather, with the heavy threads in sizes 277 and up. If one has to sew frequently on a cylinder arm machine with thin thread (e.g. #69 or #92), into 1/4 inch of material or less, buy another machine for that purpose. The 441 machines work best with thread sizes #138 and UP, sewing into 3/16 inch and MORE.

No icons over text field in Chrome for Android. I shall investigate why.

You are correct Ryan. I am typing this reply on my smartphone and there are no icons over the text field. I am using Firefox for Android. I will log in with Google Chrome and see if the icons appear in it.