Wizcrafts

What about a "pippin" punch? They cut a hole and slot, similar to a guitar strap hole and slot. You can make one like I did, by welding a 1/4" hole punch tube onto the end of a 3/4" steel chisel. The hole punch needs a piece sawed out so it can be attached and welded to one end of the chisel.

I have an idea! Take some scraps of the garment leather you will be using and go visit all of the sewing machine dealers within nominal driving distance. Include your nearest Joann Fabrics, as they have a Viking and Singer sewing machine department in every store. The ladies running that section know their machines as well as anybody does and may let you try several to see if any of them can sew a keyhole buttonhole in your leather. Or, they may tell you that it won't work, and/or might damage the machines. If you can go to an industrial sewing shop and look around you might find an old buttonholer that they will sell cheap, as a fixer-upper. I have gotten machines for almost nothing that were in poor visual condition and needed a few parts replaced. Sometimes, they will sell you two partially complete machines for the price of one, so you can use parts from one to complete the other. I got that kind of deal once on two post machines, which I turned into one perfectly working sewer. Finally, if you can still get a real industrial buttonholer machine, with motor and table, for under $1,000, grab it! But, try it first with leather. I apologize for the long sentences. That it my literary style (writer's license)

We have already discussed this matter and you were looking into industrial machines that are designed to sew button holes. What happened regarding those machines? You are not going to find a home sewing machine that can properly sew button holes into garment leather. It is too sticky and flexible. You need an machine that clamps the leather from the top and the bottom, then moves the clamped work in a button keyhole pattern. This calls for a specifically designed industrial, cam driven machine. Prepare to visit your bank manager for a mortgage on such a machine. $5,000 to $10,000 should get a decent model, marked down from $14,000+.

Without a picture of the stitching pattern, I am guessing that you have installed a leather point needle, with oval sides on a slight left to right angle. This needle causes the zig zag stitch pattern. You can escape from that by purchasing triangle or regular point needles. However, the regular point needles will hit much harder on thick or dense leather. The oval leather needles go in smoother.

Suem; I strongly advise you to take the machine head to a professional sewing machine mechanic. Without the proper tools and know how, you may damage the moving parts beyond repairability.

It is much safer to exchange email addresses and phone numbers via Personal Messages, on this and all other forums. PM's are not viewable by non-members. PMs are not usually stored in a spiderable folder. It is still better to use the phone and talk to each other.

You may not realize it yet, but you just left your email account on a publicly viewable and spiderable web page. Email harvester bots, sent by spammers, will come around soon and will add your email address to their active account spam lists. Never leave you email address on a web page in plain text or as a "mailto" link. Obfuscate your email address, at least by separating parts with spaces and by substituting @ with AT and .com with DOT COM, or DOT NET.

Bob Kovar may be able to get you a darning T-nut assembly. Send him an email, to: sewmun AT aol DOT com

The clutch on the motor is too far in. Back off the big screw on the front facing portion of the pulley side of the motor (front side of output shaft). It is secured by a large nut. Loosen the nut a bit, then back off the screw until you have the desired free movement, then tighten the nut again.

Contact me by PM and I will find a compatible foot for your machine, from one of my suppliers.

It depends on the type of feed system the machine uses. If it is only driven by the feed dogs, you'll need to change the pressor foot to either a roller or nylon foot.

I got mine from Bob Kovar, at Toledo Industrial Sewing Machines. You might want to get two of the little spring mounting screws and any other screws that are worn on your patcher, while you're at it. His number is: 866-362-7397. He also sells the threading rods, for $5.00.

Here is a closeup of the paddle on the thread regulator spring on the needlebar. Removing the parts, replacing the spring and replacing the parts took me a little over 1 hour; taking my time. It could be done in less time if someone was in a hurry and has experience with doing this. The hold up is usually getting the tapered pins out, without damaging the frames that hold them in place. It also took a few minutes to disassemble the lifting plunger assembly from the trapeze. Here is the needle lifting plunger and take-up assembly, which also needs to come off, by removing the tapered pins.

Oh yeah. Have you called Bob Kovar and asked how much he charges for patcher threading rods? 866-362-7397

Sue; First of all, you should examine the spring on the needlebar to see if it warped. Lower the needlebar all the way down. Aim a flashlight, or clamp light onto the left side of the lowered needlebar and look at the left side of the bar, just above the mounting bracket for the needle. The spring is visible at that point. The thin shaft rides inside a 1/6" wide channel and the bottom looks like a paddle and rests in a cutout. If it is warped the paddle part will not sit squarely across the cutout, but will be twisted. Ditto for its thin strut that connects to the top of the spring, where it is screwed onto the needlebar, with two little screws. A warped spring catches inside the hole as you turn the butterfly and will break off the paddle section. Here is what you will need to pull the needlebar, to replace a warped or broken thread control spring: A 9/16" open end wrench, only if your patcher has a tall hex shaped darning assembly sticking up, with a rotating T bar on top. It will need to be unscrewed before the needle lifter pin can be driven out. a set of drift pin punches, with small, medium and large faces a hammer a medium width flat blade screwdriver a small, narrow blade screwdriver, with a decent handle. Or, a medium jewelers screwdriver and possibly pliers to turn it. The needlebar assembly is in two pieces. The needle is mounted onto a little piece of metal that is screwed onto the needlebar. That screw is above the needle securing screw. Here is the sequence to remove the needlebar: Unscrew the needle holder from the needlebar If your machine has the T bar darning attachment, behind the needlebar, on top, remove it with a 9/16" wrench Use a drift punch to drive out the tapered pin that holds the needlebar to the take-up lever puck. Drive from the back towards you. Drive out the pin holding the take-up lever to its assembly (back towards front) and remove the lever Unscrew the lift height adjusters on the back of the lift assembly Remove the lift assembly from the trapeze, pulling it out of the front Lift the needlebar out of the top Locate the little T shaped thread control spring, just above where the needle holder screws onto the needlebar and carefully unscrew the two tiny screws that secure it. Use two magnets to keep them safe. Keep them in their original positions (left and right) and separated. Remove the spring clean the bar while it is out. Install the new spring and secure it tightly with the little screws. Make sure they are all the way down. Try to install the screws in the same positions, in case they have worn according to their original mounting position. Lightly oil the needlebar and replace it into the top of the hole in the head. Replace the needle lift assembly and its adjusters and the take-up lever pin (front towards back) Replace the pin that holds the needlebar to the needle lifter (front towards back) Re-attach the darning T-bar assembly, if exists. Attach the needle holder assembly and position it so that the needle is centered in the hole in the throat cover plate. You are done at this point Or, take it to a competent sewing machine mechanic and pay him to do all this.

There is a little leaf spring, shaped something like an inverted letter T - inside the lower section of the needlebar. It is needed to hold back the top thread a bit as the take-up lever does its thing. Sometimes, the spring gets bent and makes contact with the side walls. Eventually, the spring will get pulled out of its channel. It will bend out of shape and cause the butterfly action to have hard spots. The spring is replaceable, along with the two tiny screws that secure it. The entire needlebar must be removed to replace the thread spring. If this spring is bent, broken, or missing, the top thread will form loops on top, in random places on the material being sewn. I just went through this and replaced the spring on the bottom of the needlebar, on my Singer 29K172. It is still not exactly right and I still get the odd thread loop on top of the leather. The old spring prevented the loops, but it bent under a heavy sewing load and broke off a few weeks ago.

The solvents will attack the bronze bearings. Mind you, this will be a slow and imperceptible process. Also, it is heavier than actual sewing machine oil and contains parafin, which can gum up bearings over time. The saving grace is that you have a slow speed sewing machine. If you have a sewing supplies store nearby, like Joann Fabrics, or Hobby Lobby, or a Singer store, Walmart, etc, go there and buy a few 4 ounce bottles of sewing machine oil. When you get a chance, order a quart or a gallon of Lily White Sewing Machine Oil, from an industrial sewing supplier. Lily White Sewing Machine Oil: Highly refined, low viscosity and virtually colorless. Perfect lubricant for Sewing and Embroidery machines. Also used in cutting machines and other machinery which comes into contact with fabric. Stains become much less noticeable and easily removed than stains from standard machine oils.

NO! Don't ever use WD-40, or 409 on a sewing machine, except to clean the body of the machine, or the table. Also, do NOT use 3 in 1 oil to lubricate any sewing machine. It contains solvents! Only use 3 in 1 oil to loosen junk that builds up in oil holes, or stuck screws, then chase it out with industrial sewing machine or Lily oil. Bob Kovar, Toledo Industrial Sewing Machines - 866-362-7397 - and every other industrial sewing machine dealer stocks the proper sewing machine oil, in quarts and gallons.

So, I was right when I mentioned that the top end was out of time with the bottom end. This is what I meant.

Take a look at the Cowboy CB-2500. It is a bottom driven (feed dogs), flat footed heavy duty, cylinder arm stitcher, capable of sewing no more than 1/2" of leather belting, with #346 or 415 thread (with a slightly raised pressor foot). The bobbins are cylindrical, like the ones used in the bigger stitchers. They hold a lot of thick thread. The needles are longer then normal industrial machine needles, but shorter than the ones used in the big boys. Also, the price is nice (1/2 of the big stitcher price)! Bob Kover, at Toledo Industrial Sewing machines, is the distributor. His number is 866-362-7397. Tell him Wiz recommended you and this particular machine. Tell him you need it to sew up to 1/2". If you need a machine to sew over additional layers, a walking foot, heavy stitcher is the next step up; sewing up to 3/4". That would be the CB-3500 (9" arm), or CB-4500 (16.5" arm). Add dollars accordingly. Cobra Steve also sells these types of machine, under the Cobra brand.

Call Bob Kover, at Toledo Industrial Sewing Machines: 866-362-7397. He has parts and accessories for most Singer machines and other major brands. No doubt he has various pressor feet that will fit your machine.

If you cranked the pressure spring adjuster "down," you just increased the pressure! Turn it counterclockwise/up. Only apply enough pressure to secure the work between stitches and keep the material from lifting with the needle. A roller foot may be your secret friend in this application.

It appears that your problem is too much tension presented by the raised throat plate and pressor foot. Have you tried reducing the pressure on the foot? ?? ?????

Now that you have stretched the belt to loosen it, go to your nearby auto supplies store and get some v-belt no-slip spray. Mask off the surrounding areas and spray the inside of the pulleys and backside of the belt. Drop some sewing machine oil into the treadle assembly's moving parts. Drop some oil into the oil holes on the machine, especially the oil hole by the rear of the head. You may need to buy a bolt-on pulley, about 9" or 10" in diameter, to get better control of the treadle operation. Drill and tap three or four holes into the original pulley on the base and bolt the smaller pulley to it. Try to keep it centered for balance. Tractor supply stores carry these large spoked pulleys.

I think that you using a Ferdco 1010 would be like using a tank to take out a sniper. You are looking for a machine to sew ladies' purses, up to maybe 3/8" thickness, with #138 thread, tops. That machine is a very slow speed, heavy stitcher, designed to sew 5/8" with huge needles and heavy thread. Further, it is dual feed, with a feed dog underneath and a driven outer walking foot with teeth on it. This could leave marks in your leather, or metal hardware. It's also about $2000, plus shipping. If you really want a production machine to sew purses, up to only 3/8" thickness, I have a better recommendation for you. I've done some homework and found that a Cowboy 227-R might be the perfect machine for your job description. It has a 10+ inch cylinder arm, the preferred compound feed walking feet (triple feed, smooth bottoms of feet), a semi-self-oiling system (with manual oiling once a week), can stand up to production use (you mentioned 4 - 6 hours a day), easily sews with #138 thread and has optional accessories available (attachments, folders, edge guides, pressor feet). The design of the arm allows you to sew right up to the left edge of the outer pressor foot and a 10+ inch arm is plenty for purses and vests. Bobbins are installed inside the cylinder, right at the end and can be changed with work still in the machine. This particular machine comes with a heavy duty table and servo motor. The motor has a lot of power and is easily controllable from under one stitch per second to maybe 10 per second. You may need to sew fast on straightaways, to get the work done in a timely fashion. Most of the big stitchers, like the one you asked about, have a gear reducer pulley that slows the top speed way down. Those machines are not meant to be sewn fast, as it would burn the leather, melt the thread and turn the needles red hot, to do so. This CB-227-R machine is available already tested and ready to go, from Toledo Industrial Sewing Machines. Their number is 866-362-7397. Bob Kovar is the owner and is great to deal with.