Wizcrafts

I find that many vertical axis shuttle machines can start sewing without holding back the threads, but horizontal axis shuttles cannot. Hold back the threads for a few stitches, or until you backtack over the starting stitch For example, I don't need to hold back the threads on my Singer 66-1, or my Janome New Home embroidery machine, my Kenmore 158.19142, or my Singer 29k172 patcher, all of which have vertical axis bobbins. I do have to hold the threads back on my Singer 15-91 and 31-15 (both class 15 machines), on my National walking foot, my Cowboy CB4500 and my Union Lockstitch machine. The thread holding or not holding procedure seems to be dependent on the geometry of the shuttle.

Every sewing machine in my possession has to have the threads held back for a few stitches. Failure to do so causes exactly the result you are seeing.

Check the bobbin for burrs, or starting thread stubs protruding inside or outside the holes. Try this: Load a bobbin into the case and make sure the thread goes under the spring and pulls out smoothly and easily. Insert the loaded bobbin case into the shuttle and use the top thread to draw up the bobbin thread. Lift the feet and keep the needle up. Pull on the bobbin thread. Is it now tight? If so, unscrew the throat plate and Grok what is going on under there. If not, turn the wheel until the needle is down and starting up.Pull the bobbin thread again. If it tightens up at a certain point of rotation, try to identify what parts are squeezing the bobbin thread. A flashlight, or aim-able work lamp will help. It may help to have a narrow strip of leather under the feet to test under actual sewing. But, check it without any payload first. Check the feed dog plate to see if it is causing the thread to jam.

I meant two hundred dollars. The Consew 206 has a push button stitch length lock over the knob, while the 406 doesn't. It just has detentes behind the knob, like my National. You'd have to ask a dealer for more specific details about any differences.

Two hundred

Here's your answer, as sewn on my National equivalent of the Chandler 406. The leather is 9-10 ounce bridle leather. The needle is a #24 leather point and the thread is #207, top and bobbin. The last one shows the back, which looks much like the top.

The machine is missing the stitch length lever, with which one sets the length of the stitches. Something is also not right with the needle bar. You should not buy that machine without trying it first. If you cannot try it, ask the seller if all parts are sold with the machine. I think it is being sold as is, missing parts.

Piece of cake then, for the CB2500 or GA5-1. These machines don't stress out until you sew about 7/16 inch of leather. If the leather is very hard, the sewable thickness would be reduced. Note, these machines are available with and without reverse. Read the specs carefully to know what you would be getting for a given price, then compare prices. The size of the needle and thread also determines how much thickness of leather can be sewn. It is easier to sew with a #25 leather point needle and #277 pre-lubricated nylon thread, than with a #26 needle and #346 thread. But, if you are going to be sewing 3/8 inch or under, all you'll be using is #277 thread, tops. At 1/4 inch, even #207 will do. This drops the required needle to a #23 or #24. The correlation between the thread/needle/thickness/hardness is related to the strength of the pressure spring that holds down the presser foot. With hard leather, you may need to exert so much foot pressure (to keep the leather from lifting with the ascending needle), that is becomes difficult to feed the package without causing deep tooth penetration on the bottom. A roller foot conversion will reduce the feeding issues, but may leave its own track on top. Heck, any presser foot leaves some trails when a lot of pressure is exerted on top. You could submit a glued together sample of your leather and state the desired thread size and have the dealers sew your leather on their machines. When you get it back, assess the appearance of the top and bottom. These issues are greatly alleviated by a triple feed 441 clone. They have smooth feed dog and two presser feet, along with a moving needle. The pressure springs are even stronger on these machines, which can sew over 3/4 inch, with #346 or larger thread.

I posted this after reading what our new member went through after making this mistake. Actually, computer and website security are my main pastimes and online pursuits. Anybody interested in keeping up with computer and website security is invited to bookmark Wiz's Computer and Website Security Blog I also make frequent security announcements on my Facebook and Twitter profiles.

Friends, whenever and wherever you post information on a Forum, or social networking site, do not type your email address into a post in the normal mail-to format. If you do, email harvester bots will capture it and add it to a master spam database, and sell it to spammers. You will soon be spammed and scammed to death. It is much safer (but not 100%) to let other members contact you through links provided in your members only profile, or the PM (Private Message) button that appears under your Avatar, if you allow PMs in your account settings. If you feel you must publish a contact email address in plain view, obfuscate it (make is un-obvious) by separating the prefix from the @ and the suffix from the . whatever domain extension. Examples: Instead of typing the usual format: your-account@example.com use "your-account AT example DOT com" or "your-account at example-dot-net" or "your-account^example-com" or something else humans can understand and can copy and fix when they want to contact you, but bots won't make sense of. Be creative. We have smarts. You can also create an image in a graphics editor, with your email address, and upload it here as an included img tag set. Apparently, some members falsely believe that since one must be a member to post or reply, that only members can read posts. This is simply not true. Anybody, anywhere can read the text on our posts. But, images and contact buttons are only displayed to logged in members.

That was a great explanation. However, the OP is not sewing lather. He is sewing webbing. Still, the same principals apply. To overcome the resistance of the dense and thick material, you need more tension on the top thread. This can be achieved both by tightening the beehive upper tension spring, and/or by wrapping the top thread around any posts on the top of the machine, ahead of the upper tension disks. While increasing the needle size does help bring the knots up in leather, it probably won't have as much impact in webbing. But, try it anyway. If you are trying to sew with #138 bonded thread, using a #22 needle, substitute a #23 needle. It can't hoit! If you think the bobbin spring is too tight, loosen it a tad. It should feed smoothly, without any herky-jerky motion. There needs to be a modicum of bobbin tension to ensure consistency of the bottom stitches and knots. You balance the top tension as needed, with the adjuster, or extra wraps around posts.

Wait till DoubleC sees this. She'll love your website. I'm there already. Nice idea.

Unless you buy a walking foot machine, you are going to be disappointed with a bottom feeder when you try to sew medium or hard temper leather, or anything thicker than about 3/16 inch. The straight stitch tailoring machines don't have strong enough pressure and tensioning springs. The take-up lever is not built for pulling tough thread up into resistant material like veg-tan leather. These machines have light moving parts in order to gain higher speed operation, which is preferred by tailors and seamstresses, or garment factories. Sewing 1/4 inch or more of veg-tan or bridle leather requires either a very heavy duty bottom feed machine (45k type, like GA5-1 or CB2500) with aggressive teeth, or a jump foot-needle feed (e.g. Ferdinand Bull, Adler 105, Union Lockstitch, Campbell-Randall), or preferably, a triple feed walking foot machine (from beefed up upholstery grade, to Adler 205, to Juki TSC 441 or 441 clone). The larger machines can sew with bonded nylon thread exceeding #207. Upholstery grade walking foot machines max out at #207 or less (some can only tension up to #138 thread). A 441 clone or Adler 205 can handle up to #415 thread. A Union Lockstitch or Campbell-Randall machine could care less about the size of the thread, as long as the awl punches a big enough hole for the barbed needle. You need to define your leather sewing parameters; like thickness, temper of leather, size of thread, stitch length, type of feed, then go after the best machine you can afford that will match your specs.

This is a light duty, straight stitch tailoring machine, meant for sewing cloth. It will sew light weight leather, using #69 bonded nylon thread, with a #18 needle. You might need to change the presser foot to a roller or Teflon foot to allow sticky leather and vinyl to feed evenly. You may also need to change the feed dog and throat plate to a heavy duty set.

Sure. Look around online, or call our member-dealers, for a Singer 111w155, which was one of the first triple feed, walking foot machines in mass production. It has the poor mans' reverse you like (spin the work 180 degrees) and they're built to last about a hundred years. Equipped with a standard industrial bobbin, these machines can sew with up to #138 bonded nylon, or bonded polyester thread. They use the most common walking foot needle system 135x16 and 17. If you look hard you can find one of these machines in good working condition for about $350 to $400, with a 1/2 HP clutch motor. Toss in another $165 for a Sew Slow servo motor and you're good to go on vinyl and leather upholstery, cloth, denim, drapery, jackets, et al. The only thing they are not good for is delicate work. They will tear up any very light weight cloth. But, you can hem jeans all day, sew seat covers, make vests, etc. They don't lift as high as modern walking foot machines, so you'll be limited to seams not exceeding about 5/16 inch. These are great piping machines for 1/4 inch thin piping and are a typical first machine purchased by starting upholsterers. Your second machine might be a Consew 206RB-something, or a Juki LU something. Baby steps...

Bottom line: you need a compound feed walking foot machine, with a servo motor. End of story.

I can't read it, but the model number is on the oval brass tag under the stitch length lever.

You've probably knocked the shuttle out of time.Does your machine have a push button on the bed, near the inside bobbin cover? If so, unthread the needle, then press and hold down on the button and turn the handwheel toward you until you hear and feel a distinct click. That would be the shuttle returning to the timed position, or close to it.

Here is a machine that matches your specifications. It costs about $1149 with a servo motor, plus shipping. There is absolutely nothing new available in the price range you specified. If you can't afford to pay over $500 for a walking foot machine, you will have to find one used in the Marketplace section of the forums, or on Craigslist.

I am tired of discussing motors for now. Let's not worry about what-ifs, until they actually occur. Get to know your motor and machine and learn to sew well with it. Get the knots in the middle and keep the right distance from the edges. If the motor you got with your Pfaff has not been over-used, or abused, it may have years of life in it. If it was good enough for the original owner, who almost cried when he sold it to you, it will be good enough for you.

You may or may not have to burn in a new clutch motor to get the same ease of control you have with the old motor. Some people sand the clutch disks, others may spray on a light lube, to help glaze the fresh surface. Eventually, the clutch will behave the way your old one does. Some clutch motors will feather smoothly right out of the box. With a clutch motor you have an adjuster nut and bolt on the output end of the casing. Tightening it brings the clutch action on sooner and vice-versa. You can back off the bolt to have more free play before the clutch engages. As the clutch wears in, you can screw in the adjuster bolt to compensate.

Chimera; The short effective range of travel on the current generation of servo motors is a manufacturing problem. We can try to trick out the control levers, but that is just masking the real problem: poor light beam controls, or components.that are out of the design tolerance range, or are just marginal. It wouldn't be so bad of a problem if there were trimpots that the dealers could adjust to fine tune the range of motion to the widest range with lots of slow speed control. Unfortunately, that is not how they are made at this time. Right now, these OEM motors are like a box of chocolates: ya don't know whatcher gonna ge-et.

Nah, it's just that until you get foot-on experience with the various motors, you aren't in a good position to make suggestions to those who are having problems adapting to their motors. From your first description of your new machine, you won't have any trouble feathering the clutch for slow speeds. If you find that your motor is a little weak when you sew the thickest load it can clear, move up to the next higher motor in horsepower, or install a smaller motor pulley, or install a speed reducer pulley system. One advantage your clutch motor gives that many servo motors don't provide, is a physical brake that releases before the clutch engages. Releasing the brake allows you to freely hand-wheel the machine for precision sewing around strap tips, turnarounds, buckles and dee rings, etc. There are some servo motors that have a brake, like the SewPro 500, which is now sold as the Toledo Sew Slow. Touching the pedal releases the brake, so one can freewheel the machine. It has a knob on the back that limits the top speed, as mentioned by Ferg, in his reply #7. There is another family of brake equipped servos that I recently discovered, but have not been able to test yet. They also have a single knob to limit the top speed, rather than the awkward up/down push buttons and their strange sequences to set startup and top speeds. If you find that the motor tends to get away sometimes, put a tennis ball under the floor pedal. The squish-able ball provides resistance that can help you control the motor. It's an old trick I learned in an industrial sewing machine shop where I worked for a while. They used that trick with new sewers, especially if they bought high speed Jukis. When I say high speed, I ain't kiddin' Pilgrim. I'm talkin' 3000 stitches per minute, flat out. By comparison, leather sewers usually gear their machines down to a top speed of about 360 to 600 stitches per minute. The big 441 clones are geared down by as much a 9:1, meaning a 3500 RPM motor actually turns the machine at only 400 stitches per minute, or about 6.5 stitches per second, top speed. With no releasable brake, these machines are very hard to turn by hand for single stitching. Stick with your clutch motor until it needs a clutch reline, or until it burns out. Then worry about a replacement. If you find you need more precise low speed control, contact our dealers to see what servos they have that will drop into the three holes in your table, and have the control lever on the bottom of the motor. My SewPro (aka: Sew Slow) is built that way. Something else you may want to consider is that if you are sewing mostly nylon webbing collars and leads, you can go really fast without burning the material or thread. Leather heats up the needle markedly at high speeds. I often have smoke coming from the needle as I sew the edges on production strap runs. Last tip: Get a swing-away, or drop down edge guide for your machine.

Chimera; You have a lot to learn about motors. Baby steps... Clutch motors have been the standard of the needle trade for the best part of a century. They are made in various configurations, like 2 phase 110v, 3 phase 220v, 1725 RPM and 3450 RPM. Most garment machines used in factories are equipped with 3450 RPM motors. Most motors sold for personal use, or for use on walking foot machines are 1725 RPM. Walking foot machines usually have a 1/2 HP 1725 RPM motor as standard equipment. Pulleys are available in diameters from under 2" to 5" or bigger. To add to the confusion, most of the older motors have a 3/4 inch bore, but some have a 5/8" shaft. Servo motors are built in a variety of drive systems and with varying shaft diameters. I have some with a 1/2 or 9/16 inch bore and others with 5/8 inch. You need to spend some time actually using you motor and machine before jumping to conclusions about the characteristics of this or that design. Furthermore, the motor/reducer systems used on the 441 clones are completely different than anything you are yet familiar with. You cannot accurately comment of these motors until you have actually used one or more for a period of time. Each one acts slightly differently from the others. Some have fabulous low end control, while others have a hair trigger between off and full on. It sounds like you got really lucky with your machine and motor. If the clutch wears down you can buy a replacement brake or clutch, or replace the entire motor with either a new clutch, or new servo motor. Then, you'll have a learning curve with the rebuilt or replaced motor.

I've added some new details to my post #51. If you read it when I first posted, please re-read it.