Wizcrafts

I'm sure you can buy a new needlebar for under $200.00.

From the view of the presser feet and (apparently double row) feed dog, they appear to be made specifcally for sewing on bias tape. Taping feet usually have knurled bottoms to grip the bias/edge tape better. If your $250 plus the Efka motor and air setup, plus old feet and feed dog/plate, can get you a standard, narrow, smooth presser foot set and a standard single row feed dog and throat plate, plus a Family Sew FS-550 servo or equivalent, you're flying high and wide. However, Pfaff parts are known to be among the most expensive on the planet.

Hi Steve! I have sewn denim jean cuffs, pockets and belt loops on my Cowboy CB4500 and on a Cobra Class 4. First, you need to switch to a much thinner needle and thread, such as a #19 or #20 round point needle with size Tex 80 jeans topstitching thread (sold by tailoring suppliers like wawak.com). You can also use bonded nylon, size #69, with a #18 round point needle. Why round point? Because a leather point needle tends to slice the fibers of denim and causes them to break apart. A round point needle simply pokes a hole between twines, without ripping them asunder. Your mileage may vary. You will find that the bobbin tension drops to almost zero if you were previously using thicker thread, like #138 or larger. This is a good thing. You want just a modicum of bobbin tension, similar to what you use on your home sewing machines. Then balance the knots by adjusting the top tension up or down. When I sew denim on a leather stitcher, I end up with almost no top tension on the disks. The rest of the posts, guides and the heavier check spring provide more than enough top thread tension to pull the knots into the denim

Upholstery materials, like outdoor canvas (e.g. Sunbrella), Naugahyde, heavy twills, denim, suede, and leather should be sewn on walking foot machines. Most upholsterers and leather sewers use triple (compound) feed machines. Some are built for thinner lighter duty work, others for thicker, heavy duty use. Any other feed system, with the exceptions of roller foot and dual feed walking foot, are less effective with feeding these materials. With triple feed, the needle, inside alternating foot and bottom feed dog all move the material in sync, keeping multiple layers aligned. This feed system is a must for slippery cloth (Sunbrella, sail cloth), vinyl and leather. A heavy duty coil or leaf spring over the outside presser foot keeps the material all the way down, until the needle has lifted out on its upstroke and the next stitch begins.

Juki makes double size hook cylinder arm machines with moving binders and automatic thread cutting and backtacking. Be prepared to offer your firstborn and mortgage your house to buy one. BTW: The double capacity Juki bobbins hold about 40 to 50% more thread than M style. I use them in a custom modified long body Singer walking foot machine.

Yes, that motor will work fine. Be sure to measure the diameter of the pulley on the clutch motor. The servo motor has a 50mm, 2 inch pulley. You will need to order a shorter v-belt to have the same range of vertical adjustment/belt tension, as the original. Subtract one inch of belt length per inch of difference between the pulleys.

Doesn't the Singer 201 have a built in pod motor? How are you powering the machine with a clutch motor? Unless you remove the pod you may damage it and the worm gear inside the flywheel.

Using #138 thread on top will eventually warp the paddle shaped check spring that is inside the needle bar, just above the needle mounting bracket. If this happens, when you try to sew with #69 thread, there won't be any tension on the thread as the needle bar ascends and the loops will tend to dissolve, causing skipped stitches. I always keep a couple of spare check springs in an envelope, in case the one in use loosens, bends, or breaks. I rarely use any thread bigger than #92 in my patcher. My day to day patcher thread is #69 bonded nylon. The thickness that can be sewn on a patcher is the height of the presser foot when raised with the lift lever on the back of the head - minus about 1/8 inch. The well preserved patcher may be able to sew 1/4 inch of leather. A highly tuned and tight model might even make it to almost 5/16 inches. The maximum lift is tied to the top tension disks point of release. When you lift the presser lift lever, you also disengage the top tension, 100%. To continue sewing at this height you will need to pass the thread around the front mounted darning tension disks, if your machine has them. Singer patchers normally use System 29x3 round point (cloth) and 29x4 leather point needles. Most can also sew in time with System 135x16 needles, if their shafts fit inside the hole in the needle clamp. Everything really depends on how much slack is present in the shuttle drive mechanism. The stitch length on a patcher is adjusted by the screw on the sliding puck on the back of the foot bar. The longest stitch is with that puck all the way down, in contact with the top of the foot. A perfectly tight feed mechanism can sew at 5 stitches per inch, into about 1/8 inch of leather. The length tends to decrease as the thickness increases, especially on the 29-4 models. I have had old patchers that could only sew at 8 stitches per inch, until rebuilt.

I should have mentioned that Pfaff, Juki and Adler make large bobbin cylinder arm, walking foot machines. I'm not referring to the 441 clones. These are medium-heavy duty machines such as you are looking for. They aren't cheap either.

I suggest that you contact some of our member-dealers, like Toledo Industrial Sewing Machines, Leather Machine Company, Techsew or Keystone Sewing. One of them will be able to hook you up with the machine you described. I sympathize with you on the standard G bobbins running out of thread. I now only have large bobbin machines.

True, for the CB3500, 4500 and 5500. But, not true for the new CB3200. It "clears" up to 5/8 inch but only sews up to 1/2 inch. The walking feet need vertical space to alternate up and down.

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.