Wizcrafts

I sometimes use my Cowboy CB4500 to punch holes for small rivets in belts and wristbands. I use the largest needle I can get, which right now is a #27 diamond point. I set the stitch length to maximum, which is about 2 to the inch. I am thinking about having a bigger awl made to fit my machine, which would only be limited by the hole in the inside foot. It would have to be short enough to not hit the hook, but long enough to penetrate the leather. A 3/32" diameter awl should do the trick.

Also, if you are friends with Michael Weston, check for a timer counting down on a bomb! They make a ticking noise.....

Toledo Industrial Sewing Machines and other dealers sell the roller foot conversion kits. I used to use 1725 RPM clutch motors, until I discovered the SewPro 500GR, which is now sold as the Toledo Sew Slow. I have one on my 31-15 and another on my flat bed walking foot machine. They are easy to control at any speed.

I have a 90+ years old Singer 31-15 that I rebuilt. I finally decided that it worked best on leather with a roller foot drive. These are three piece conversion kits that include a single row feed dog, matching throat plate and a flip-up ball bearing roller wheel. The machine accepts up to #92 bonded nylon thread. To use the 31-15 with cloth would require the removal of the roller foot parts and reinstallation of a flat foot, multiple row feeder and throat plate.

Your only hope for leather-specific sewing parts for a Juki TSC 441 is to ask our dealers if they are willing and able to sell you extra parts off a Cowboy, Cobra, or Techsew 441 clone. These would include the throat plates, harness presser feet, smooth feed dog, edge guides and a speed reducer, if you didn't get one with the machine. You will also need spare bobbins, and leather point needles in the sizes required for the thread you will be using.

There is a spring on the opening side of the pop open bobbin case. The bobbin thread goes backwards through a slit in the case, then under the opening in the spring and out. The spring is secured and adjusted by a screw on one end. There may also be a set screw inside a hole, just forward of the adjuster screw. You would have to loosen the stop screw to adjust the tension screw, then tighten it back to keep the tension from changing on its own. I usually leave my stop screw just finger tight, so I can still change the bobbin tension screw as needed. I change thread sizes every day, so locking down the bobbin tension screw is more of a hassle than a benefit. The lock screw is more useful to folks who use just one size and brand of thread in the bobbin.

Bob Kovar, owner of Toledo Industrial Sewing Machines, sells those guides. They are custom made from a swing away flat edge guide and a sliding roller edge guide. I use thin lock nuts under and over the roller guide's slot to keep it from moving back with the work (the roller is already angled backwards). The thumb nut has to be tightened down a lot to keep the roller from moving backwards.

Check the belts to make sure that nothing is hitting them as you sew. Sometimes stuff on the table can move into contact with the belts from the vibration of the machine. Also, check the belts to see if one is separating and slapping something as it rotates. Otherwise, make sure that the nuts and bolts that secure the motor, the motor pulley and speed reducer are tight. Then ensure that the two screws on the flywheel are tight. Try lowering the top speed of the motor using the up/down buttons, according to your operating instructions for the motor. If the noise persists and is definitely coming from the motor, call Steve.

About 12 per inch, per second, on a good night, with at least 2 MGDs under my English bridle leather belt.

Here I am with my 8 pedal, 9 knee lever Emmons Push Pull steel guitar.

You might be able to sew with unwaxed linen beading thread that is dyed pink.

Congratulations! Go buy some sewing machine oil and keep the machine well oiled. We all have to change tensions when going from thin or soft work to thick, or dense material. You will get a feel for this after a while. Always keep some scraps from each project and use them to balance your thread tensions first. I tend to keep a modest pull on the bobbin thread and mostly change the top tension for differences in thread or work load. Needle size also impacts where the knots appear. A proper needle makes a hole just big enough for the knots to be pulled up into the material. A smaller needle makes a tighter stitch, but requires more top tension to pull the knots up. A larger needle pokes a bigger hole and you get looser stitches, but it takes less tension to position the knots. Too much bobbin tension, offset by equally strong top tension, can warp straps and belts. Use the amount of tension required top get a nice stitch, without warping the leather or cloth. Soft leather, like garment leather warps easily. Reduce the bobbin and top tensions to get the stitches to lay flat on the top and bottom. You can get smaller needles, in type 134-35, for thinner threads. Most cotton thread is sewn using a #11 or #12 needle (75 or 80 metric). If you want to sew with #46 bonded nylon, a #12 or #14 needle will do the trick. Buy leather point needles for leather and standard round points for cloth and webbing.

I've got 8 foot pedals and 9 knee levers! on my steel guitar!

Back off of the top pressure spring! It is way to tight for such soft leather. This is done by turning the hollow threaded screw on top of the machine, over the outside presser foot. It compresses a heavy coli spring inside the head. You can back it off until the marks are subdued, then use the collar nut to keep it in that position until you need to crank it down for harder leather. If you unscrew it too far it will pop out! Use a magic marker to indicate where the last good threads are, in relation to the screw position.

You misunderstood what I meant when I mentioned 10mm. That is how thick the machine can sew, if everything is properly adjusted. 10mm equals 3/8 inch. The length of the needle has a lot to do with this. If the seller can adjust the stitch length to get 6mm in forward and reverse, that is great. This is about 4 stitches per inch! But, 5 is just fine.

You will want to be able to sew as few as 5 stitches per inch (25mm), meaning 5mm per stitch. Furthermore, this should happen at the thickness you actually are going to sew. The machine should be able to sew about 10mm of leather. If this machine cannot sew 5 stitches per inch, or sew into 10mm, something is misadjusted, or it is worn out.

Hotrod; There is a different place on the forum where people should list sewing machines for sale. It is listed under Marketplace - Items for sale- Machinery - Sewing and stitching (New/Refurbished or Used). This part of the forum is for discussing the use, viability, or attributes of leather sewing machines, or pointing folks towards replacement and repair parts and accessories for those machines, not for actual commercial sales (although we do sometimes screw up and list stuff here by accident, myself included).

You first need to acquire the sewing machine and learn to operate it it with what is on it. Then, worry about a knee lever. Ask if the foot lift pedal (shoe shaped) is hooked up to the lifter arm on the back of the machine. If so, you have a foot lift instead of a knee lift. There is still going to be a finger operated lift lever on the back, behind the presser foot.

Yes, that should be strong enough. But, have the seller demonstrate it running at 1 stitch per second. If the motor can slow down to 1 per second, or less, then speed up to about 5 or 6 per second,without changing any settings, it will power the machine through leather. You will need leather point needles, correctly sized for the size of thread you are going to use. There is a thread and needle chart here.

Consew is a sewing machine and motor brand. They make motors with different power ratings, like 1/3, 1/2 and 3/4 horsepower. Motors are also rated at a particular RPM. Leather sewing is usually performed with slow speed and/or gear reduced motors, whereas garments are sewn at breakneck speeds with fast motors having large pulleys.

Most industrial sewing machines use a knee lever to lift the presser foot. All machines also have a lever on the back of the head that lifts the foot and locks it in the up position. Pressing down a a floor foot lift pedal, or mashing the knee lever to the right will lift the foot out of the up position indent and drop it onto the material being sewn. If the machine in question has no knee lever, the shoe shaped pedal is needed to lift the presser foot all the way up, which releases the tension disks.

Baby steps Randy. Learn to control the pedal with your toe and heel, at about 2700 RPM on the readout. This will yield ~3+ stitches per second top speed. As you become more skilled with the speed pedal and your foot positions, you can increase the motor to top speed and use your heel to keep it going slowly. If you have a fancy stitching project that only needs slow speeds, reduce the motor speed to about 400 RPM. This will give you just under 1 stitch per second, with the pedal all the way down. If the machine shakes at high speed, check the following settings: Alignment of the small reducer pulley to flywheel pulley (adjust sideways until directly in line); Alignment of the motor pulley to the large reducer pulley (adjust until inline); Lift of the alternating feet can be reduced to reduce shaking (raise movable crank on back to top position in slot for lower lift); Make sure that all nuts and bolts are as tight as possible, especially in pedestal assembly; Ensure that the floor is flat, or that any clearances under the rollers are compensated for zero slack.

Top thread bunching up on the underneath is almost always caused by one of these things: No tension, or too loose beehive spring tension in top thread disks Excessive spring tension on bobbin thread Bobbin thread jammed against bobbin case or shuttle race Failure to hold back the threads, or at least the top thread, as you start to sew.

Unless the presser feet are way out of time with the feed dog, they won't cause skipped stitches. But, a little mis-synchronization can cause gathering of the material. However, you stated that the machine sews cloth just fine. So, the feed timing must be pretty close to optimum. In this answer, the feed dog is what you call "the bottom teeth." Your type of machine also has top teeth, under the presser feet. What you don't have is compound feed, where the needle and inside foot move in sync with the feed dog. Your material is fed by a combination of top and bottom feed, via the dog and outer presser foot. If the tension is too light on the foot, it may slip before the feed dog has pulled the work all the way back. If the top and bottom feed are not synchronized, the material may gather. Further, if the timing of the feed dog causes it to drop before the outer foot stops moving backwards, the stitches can actually back up a bit and become shorter than they should. The loop that is formed in the eye of the needle is dependent on a couple of factors. One is the timing between the needle's eye, as it begins its ascent from the bottom of its stroke, and the point of the hook as it passes by the gap in the eye. If the hook arrives too late, the loop dissolves and no stitch happens. If the hook passes by too soon, no loop has formed yet. Or, the hook may pass the needle at the right moment, but the needle may have moved up or down due to pounding or loose needle bar screws. If this happens the loop may form and dissolve above or under the point of the hook and not get picked up properly. Another factor that affects the loop is the amount of motion and spring pressure on the "check spring." This is the movable spring that is either around or under your primary tension disks. Your top thread goes around the tension disks, then around and out of the check spring, up or down to a guide arm, then up to the take-up lever. If you fail to pass the thread around that spring, or feed it down through a guide arm, if one is present, the spring action will be off and missed stitches may occur. Finally, some thread is very springy and may twist out of thread guides, tensioners, springs, etc and may even twist over in the eye of the needle. If you unscrew the throat cover plate you can watch what the thread is doing as the needle ascends and the hook meets the cutout above the eye. Watch the loop. It will tell you if something is wrong. You'll just need to find out what that something is.

I'm afraid that you had the best machine for your money, in that Consew. The portable walking foot machines are going to disappoint you and probably cause you grief.