Wizcrafts

You are not going to find a new industrial sewing machine for "a few hundred bucks." Check your local Craigslist for used industrial sewing machines. Get what you can within your budget, then buy any parts or accessory feet needed to get it to sew wallets. Try to find a walking foot machine in good working condition. I have seen them sell on Craigslist for as low as $400 to $600, from upholstery or tailor shops. New, these are often worth $1200 to $2000. Stay away from high speed garment sewing machines with self oilers. They need to spin at a minimum speed of about 2000 rpm at the machine to get the oil distributed to all ends. You cannot sew leather that fast. Most leather is sewn at no more than 600 to 800 spm (stitches per minute), with most of our members usually sewing at less than 300 spm. Also, the domestic machines sold on eBay as "Industrial Strength" are just glorified home machines being marketed with a fancy phrase. They may or may not sew your wallets at all. If they do, it will be with a maximum of #69 bonded nylon thread, which is only 11 pounds test. Still, this is okay for thin wallets. You will be responsible for taking care of repairs, accessories and parts, when you buy from a private party (not a dealer). As a first time sewer you will encounter your share of problems. If you purchase a machine from a reputable dealer, they will usually assist you over the hump.

Gregg is too modest. Thanks. FYI: Gregg sells industrial sewing machines and attachments of all kinds, including custom made edge guides. He stocks a bunch of good motors. Gregg needs to think about placing an ad banner on LWN.

I thought you already had a walking foot Consew 206RB-?. If not, here is a link to read its specs. That is a perfect machine for heavy cloth, canvas, webbing, denim and medium density leather (up to 3/8 inch thickness). Your old straight stitch machine will do shirts and cloth pants. I use an old Singer 31-15 tailor's machine, or an ancient Singer 66-1 for flat work with cotton thread. Now, here is a heavy duty leather sewing machine that can easily handle #277 (and more), into over 3/4 inch of real leather.

Yep. They are sold as a 3 piece kit.

BINGO! The smooth round nut IS the pressure adjuster! Turn it clockwise for more, or counterclockwise for less foot pressure. You'll have an easier time turning it if the foot is all the way down, rather than lifted (personal experience).

kpkpkp; Based on what you have been describing, you'll need three machines: A heavy duty stitcher, like a 441 or Adler clone, for use with #277 thread and thick materials. A walking foot machine for jeans, canvas and upholstery. A straight stitch, light duty, high speed, cloth sewing machine that handles thin cotton thread without breaking it.

I can sew medium weight cloth shirts and pants on my walking foot machine, which is similar to your Consew. However, you'll need to back off or remove the top pressure spring and loosen both upper and bobbin tension springs and use a very small needle that best suits the thread (e.g.: a #12 round point needle with #40 or #50 cotton or poly-core thread). The bobbin spring should just exert enough tension to keep the thread from unloading by its motion (install backwards to rotation). A star shaped anti-backlash spring inside the bobbin case helps prevent unloading of the thread with rotation and with sudden stops & starts. Reduce the upper tension to place the knots inside the shirt. You should be able to sew two layers of cotton or similar cloth using this technique. Note: if your Consew has a heavy duty upper tension beehive spring, it may not be easy to balance the top tension against a minimal tension bobbin thread. You can order a lighter beehive spring from Bob, or borrow one from an old domestic sewing machine. FYI: I use a separate machine that is just a straight stitch, bottom feed machine, for flat cloth sewing. The springs are lighter, the feed dogs are finer and the hole in the throat plate is smaller than the big hole inside the feeder on a walking foot machine.

Yep, a 31-15 is the ticket. I put a roller foot conversion on mine and use it at home to sew with #92 thread, into garment or chap leather. It is great for installing zippers.

To clear up some confusion from another member, the L shaped bar is not used to adjust the lift of the foot during normal sewing. It is a darning foot lifter, which raises the foot well beyond its normal range of motion, allowing one to pull the material any distance they desire. This allows for temporary stitching, like 2 or 3 to the inch, or you can use it to cross over rips (darning). Because the foot is lifted so high by that rod, the tension disks are released on the upper tensioner. That is why a second set of disks is mounted on the front of the machine. This set never gives up its tension. The bent rod is lifted by the edge of the knuckle that holds the needle bar, on its way up. The normal sewing lift is controlled by the sliding puck containing the butterfly nut and its bolt on the back of the head. At the maximum lift, the top tension disks should not be opened. That should happen only when you lift the presser foot lift lever on the lower part of the back of the head. With the foot manually lifted, the top disks are forced to open and release tension. The darning lift rod also causes them to open, as it exceeds the maximum closed disks position.

Your take-up lever spring is missing (picture 3). It rides on top of the hump protruding from the top of the take-up lever and connects under the thumb nut on top. Check the thread check spring inside the needle bar, just above the needle mount. The paddle shaped spring needs to make good contact with the thread, or else the loops go away before the hook picks them up. The L shaped bolt is a darning attachment. Turn it so that the take-up mechanism hits it on the way up. This causes the foot to lift off of the material so you can place the stitches any distance apart you want. You need to rethread the top thread through the front disks instead of the top disks to darn stuff.

Glad to help, Andrew.

Here you go: Left toe foot: use when sewing close to the right edge, as in belts. Right toe foot: use when sewing close to the left edge of something, like a shaped holster or case. Blanket foot: use when sewing horse blankets, or similar large cloth items. The teeth on the bottom give added pull and holding power. Slotted throat plate: use when the feed dog has been removed, which makes it a dual feed machine. The narrow slot makes the bottom look nicer, almost like a Union Lockstitch machine. The round top plate is for curved leather projects, like stirrups. It can also be used to sew holsters and objects that have snaps that might be in the way. The raised, flat top plate is for sewing shaped holsters and cases, where the raised or lowered section passes on the left side of the needle slot.

I also sew mostly bridle leather. Sometimes, a section seems to be denser than the surrounding areas and the leather lifts off the throat plate with the needle. This causes an instant skipped stitch. Is this happening to you? Try moving up to a #24 needle, when they arrive, just in case. Too much check spring motion will keep the top thread under tension too long and might interfere with the formation or continuation of the loop. If your check spring moves more than 90 degrees, shorten it's travel to 90 degrees or less. A needle, as it is sewing, gets pulled to the left a bit by the trailing top thread (I can see this happening). If the timing is already marginal, this left offset can cause skipped stitches. Move the shuttle to the left a tad to get the hook to almost touch the needle when it's in the scarf area. Larger needles are less affected by the left-pull factor. Marginal needle's eye to hook timing will lead to occasional skipped stitches. The position of the needlebar can shift upward with continued pounding into leather and a very heavy hold down spring. This changes the position of the eye and scarf of the needle in relation to the point of the hook. Try lowering the needle by 1/16" or 1/8", secure it, and see if this improves the sewing consistency. If it does, you'll need to open the front cover and position the needlebar so that the securing screws are accessible. Loosen it/them, lower the needlebar by the same amount that you manually lowered the needle, then secure the screws. Maintain the horizontal axis position of the needle mount as you lower the bar. Now move the needle back to the top of the mounting hole and reinstall the cover and thread her up. If a shifted needlebar was the problem, it should now be fixed. Finally, if the thread is black, you may be a victim of the Springy Black Thread Syndrome.

The Q-Stitch is a Juki 441 clone, pretty much identical to the Cowboy, Cobra and Techsew machines sold in the USA and Canada. I have a Cowboy CB4500 that is like that Colt and it sews from about 2mm up to about 22mm, depending on the size of thread and needle. Obviously, one needs much thinner thread and a smaller needle to sew 2mm than 8mm (~1/3 inch). If your projects range between 6 and 8mm (1/4" to 3/8"), I think that b207 (T210) bonded nylon, or bonded polyester would do just fine. You would use size 160 or 180 leather point needles with this size thread, on top and in the bobbin. BTW: Get the machine from an authorized dealer who will assist you with its operation, troubleshooting glitches and parts replacements, if needed.

I use only type 3L (3/8") v-belts on my sewing machines. All industrial sewing machine dealers stock and sell these belts.

The old Consew long body is probably very similar to the Singer 139 long body I bought from Toledo Industrial Sewing Machines. It has a triple feed walking foot system, but no reverse. Mine has the stitch length adjuster as a knob that protrudes from the right end of the hand wheel. Turning it clockwise shortens the stitches and vise-verse. This type of machine, should yours match it, will sew up to 3/8 inch of compressed material. Thread capacity is probably limited to #138, or possibly #207 on top and 138 in the bobbin. I have no idea about the size of your machine's bobbin until you take possession of it and measure the bobbins. My machine was converted to a Juki hook, which uses the Juki LU extra large bobbins. Due to the long bed you will have an easy time sewing patches onto vests and jackets!

Okay. The CB227 is a good medium duty walking foot machine. It can handle all the thread sizes you will need for sewing belts and bags, and vests, zippers, hems, etc. All you need is a full range of needles and thread for the work you will be undertaking. Extra bobbins is a must when you start using multiple colors and I always keep quarts and small precision bottles of machine oil in the shop.

I agree with your thread size choices. Always use a thread size (or combination) that allows you to bury the lockstitch knots well inside the layers. Needle size can affect the position of the knots considerably. If the needle is the minimum size for the top thread, the knots will be harder to pull into the bottom. Go too big and the knots may appear on top. So, what kind of sewing machine are you using for these bags?

Chuck; I'll try to give you a better understanding by describing typical uses of the various sizes of thread (in leather work). First of all, the thread uses in leather sewing machines is usually bonded nylon or polyester. Harness stitchers can also use linen thread that is run through a wax pot. The bonded threads are referred to as numbers, or a letter-number, such as #69 or T70 (equivalents). Linen thread is rated by the number of cords that are twisted together and glazed in place (e.g. 4 cord). The sewing thread used for leather increases in diameter and strength as its number increases. If we use #69 = 1 (11 pounds test) as the baseline, #92 = 1.5x, #138 = 2x, #207 = 3x, #277 = 4x and #346 = 5x. The threads uses for hand sewing leather are normally rated by the number of cords that are twisted and waxed together. They seem to average a range of between 4 and 7 cords. Four cords would be about the same diameter as a #207 or 277 bonded thread, but would have much less breaking strength. Linen, cotton, or hemp cord is not typically as strong as nylon or polyester of the same diameter. A holster that one would hand sew with 6 cord waxed linen thread could be sewn with #277 bonded nylon and be just as strongly secured, per stitch. However, the 6 cord thread would actually be thicker and look more impressive to the eye. If you are at all familiar with the thread that is used to sew a normal dress shirt, think of it as about the equivalent of a bonded #33 or even a #46. Think about the thread that is used to top stitch your jeans and it will fall around the same thickness as our bonded #69 or bonded #92. Leather garments are usually sewn with thread sizes ranging from #69 to #138. The #138 is used to hold thicker seams together. It has 22 pounds of test per stitch. Zippers are usually sewn with #69 or #92, so look at the outside zippers on a leather jacket for a reference. Upholstery shops normally use a lot of #69 bonded nylon, unless extra strength (or extra thickness) is needed. Then, they'll switch to a machine loaded with #138 bonded nylon. Marine upholstery sewers avoid nylon where the material is exposed to the Sun and outside elements. Instead, they sew with bonded polyester thread, which is a lot more expensive, but isn't as affected by UV rays or wild temperature swings. Might I ask what you want to sew? I can recommend the best range of thread sizes and types based on your expectations and type/model of your sewing machine. Some sewing machines cannot handle anything larger than #69 bonded thread. Others can go up to #138, or even #207. The big machines that we refer to as 441 clones are able to sew with very heavy bonded thread, all the way up to #415. That is about the same size as the linen thread used to sew leather soles onto boots.

Here is a thread size vs needle size chart. The diameter of each size thread is listed in the right-most column.

The Singer 153 uses a standard industrial G bobbin. It holds a modicum of thread, as long as it is not too thick. I used to own that model and found that it was best used with #69 or #92 thread. Sometimes I would use #138 as a top stitch thread, with #92 in the bobbin. This is a very old machine.

Yes, it is true.

Fair to Midland, depending on how straight the edge is and how thick it is. The spring guides work best when the edge is dead-straight and at least 1/8 inch thick. If the leather is much thinner, or the top is rounded, the guide can slip over the edge.

Unless my eyes deceived me, I did not see you hold back the threads as you started to sew the test strip of leather. You must hold back at least the top thread, if not both. Failure to hold back the thread causes too much top thread to get pulled underneath and it bunches up under the leather and sometimes around the shuttle race. When the thread bunches up under the leather, the teeth can't move it against the tension of the bunched up threads.

The only hope that you will have with a machine like that is to change the foot to a full roller equipped foot. You will lose about 1/8 inch of the available clearance because of the thickness of these feet, compared to a standard flat foot. You will also need to purchase #18 leather point needles and #69 bonded nylon, or bonded polyester thread. That is as thick a thread as these machines can handle. The foot pressure will probably need to be cranked most of the way down, to keep the leather from lifting with the needle. The density, slipperiness, and combined thickness of your leather will determine what changes will be required to sew it properly.