Wizcrafts

ANSWERS Q1: No. The term 1/4" Welt refers to the diameter of the round cording and material covering it, that a specially designed welting foot is made to sew. This is an upholstery foot with a rounded out area that sits over covered cords, to sew close to the edge to make piping, which fastens seams together with a professional appearance. Q2: Yes. You absolutely need a walking foot machine for the work you first described. A roller foot might also do the job, but not as well as a compound feed walking foot. Q3: Drop Feed indicates that there are feed dogs under slots in the throat plate. These dogs have teeth that pulls the work to form a stitch length between stitches. Some machines have a knob or lever that actually drops the feed dogs so they never touch the material. This allows one to perform hand or hoop embroidery. Q4: A full rotary hook simply rotates 360 degrees around the bobbin and bobbin case. Many machines use that system, as it is simple to deploy. The opposite is an oscillating hook, which rotates so far one way, grabs the thread off the eye of the needle and rotates a little further, until the thread falls around the bobbin, then backs up to repeat the process. This system allows one to use thicker thread than a full typical rotary system. Q5: For sewing leather on a portable machine you should look for one with a 1.5 amp motor and a built-in speed reducer. Most portable walking foot machines are so equipped. Q6: Alphasew is about as good as any of these portable Chinese machines. Until you spend over $500 you are in the lower end of the manufacturing scale. The Sailrite machines are much stronger and more reliable than the less expensive knockoffs. If you only intend to sew a small amount of leather, or nothing exceeding 1/4", the cheaper machines should do just fine. Pick one with the longest warranty against manufacturing defects, in case a gear or shaft breaks, or the motor burns out. BTW: You initially said you want to sew up to 3 layers of 6 ounce material. That come to 18 ounces, or 9/32" - so look for a machine capable of lifting the foot about 3/8" and capable of sewing 5/16".

None of the machines you listed are going to sew leather. I would recommend that you look into getting a portable walking foot machine. They range in price from about $300 up to over $700. The Sailrite are the cream of the crop. The Consew 206rp? is in the middle and the unpronounceable name brands are at the bottom of the scale. Sewmun at aol dot com - on this forum - has one of those machines he sells, but I don't know the details. He's at the Sheridan show until next week.

I sometimes have my top thread twist off of the regulator spring and disk and form a turn over its shaft. This causes a neat filigree effect as the top thread pretty much seizes and the stitch length becomes 32 to the inch. This is the disk with a take-up spring, typically under the main thread tension disks. When I mentioned checking the top thread to ensure that it is feeding properly, it was from experience.

Here are some possible causes of the bad stitches. The bobbin may be warped or have a sharp edge or gouge that causes the thread to hang as it passes that point. The bobbin case may be the wrong case for your machine. The bobbin case may have a nick where the bobbin thread feeds through the slot and under the spring. The bobbin case spring may be bent up too much and does not provide normal, smooth pressure to the bobbin thread. The bobbin case spring may have a rough spot on it. The shuttle pick-up point may be damaged by the needle hitting it and could cause the thread to bind as it goes around the bobbin case. The needle may be too big for the thread and work being sewn. The needle may have a nick on the point. The needle may be bent or have leather burned onto it. The top thread may be feeding improperly, or catching on the regulator spring shaft instead of feeding around the disk, or could be doubling over the thread guides or a thread post with holes. The top thread might be twisted around the loop in the thread stand. The top thread might be getting caught under the bottom of the spool, on the thread stand. The thread may be defective. The leather may have tough or weak areas inside it that affect the stitch quality. Check all of these items to eliminate them or confirm one or more as the cause. A sewing machine is designed to allow you to balance the top and bottom tensions to achieve a perfect stitch, as long as you stay within the range of thread sizes and needles recommended for that machine. Are you using thread sizes that your machine is made to handle?

That patcher will sew a bit over 1/4" of leather, using #69 thread. It has the small bobbin which will hold enough #69 thread to sew a couple of belts, or a pair of boots, which it was designed for. The maximum clearance under the lifted pressor foot is 3/8", but the working lift maxes out at 1/4". This limits these machines to patching boots, shoes, jackets, or thin belts and straps. They are really good for zipper installations and applying decorative patches to leather vests. The patchers all have top feed only, via the teeth on the bottom of the pressor foot. The foot rotates 360 degrees, via a butterfly adjuster under the head. It is worth $400 to a shoe repair shop. A saddler would be better off buying a cylinder arm heavy duty stitcher.

The point on the oscillating shuttle is only designed to pick the thread off the needle when it moves in one direction. After picking off the loop it allows it to flow around the shuttle and bobbin housing, forming the lockstitch. If you run it in reverse, the timing will be wrong, the point will not pick up the loop on the needle and no stitch will be formed.

What dream machine? I was talking about a portable WF machine that can sew up to 3/8" of leather without bogging down or breaking parts. The $500 price was off the top of my head, not etched in stone. I am not interested in becoming a sewing machine builder or importer, nor do I have any money to invest in such a venture. Had I known that my making a suggestion for an intermediate level machine for new sewers was going to trigger such a backlash, I never would have posted it. I didn't think I was telling anyone what to do. A simple "it's not cost effective" would have sufficed, but you are making this into a big deal. I have no wish to continue this argument with you Art. I'm sorry I ever brought it up.

Art; First of all, the $649 price at AB is for the basic setup version of the machine. Now you are looking at an $849.00 machine. Anyway, a few of our dealers already carry a portable machine that can be beefed up upon request. They are being sold to all kinds of users, from inmates to upholsters, to carpet installers. My idea was to have a complete custom package available for modifying these machines into a leather capable stitcher, within their limitations. You and I don't need such a machine since we are already equipped with serious equipment. But, a newbie to sewing leather projects, with a limited budget, would benefit from this type of machine, as a first leather capable sewing machine. Once the person outgrows it he or she will probably move up to a cylinder arm compound feed heavy stitcher. Are we done arguing now?

The Singer 550 is a home sewing machine, not an industrial model. You will need an industrial sewing machine that was designed to handle and feed heavier thread, that uses larger needles and has a separate motor capable of driving the needle/thread through heavy leather. It will need either a clutch or servo motor, rated at about 400 watts, or more. The exception is the SewPro 500GR that is rated at about 300 watts, but has a built-in 2:1 speed reducer and a 50 mm pulley. I have one hooked up under my table, driving my National 300N walking foot machine. This setup can sew through 7/16" of belt leather, with #207 thread and a #24 leather point needle.

They are already out there Art. Many sewing machine vendors are selling unmodified portable walking foot machines now for well under $400. The buyers can then purchase a Monster Wheel from SailRite for about $125, plus postage and it adds the punching power and smooth slow speed needed to sew veg-tan projects up to about 3/8" - after grinding the bottom teeth off the pressor feet. My idea was that perhaps some of our dealers could get these machines modified at the factory to sew leather, rather than vinyl. They would have smooth bottom pressor feet (to avoid marking the top of the leather), heavier top tension and pressure bar springs, a slightly heavier take-up lever and a wider, heavier flywheel already installed. Unmodified, these machines now weigh 41 pounds, in the carrying case. Add another 9 pounds for a larger, heavier flywheel (which slows the top speed & increases torque) and you've got a 50 pound mini workhorse, perfect for shows, flea markets and hobby sewers. They are not triple feed, but double feed machines. The outer pressor foot moves in time with the feed dogs. This is still better than a straight stitch machine. Having the heavier springs, flywheels and take-up parts made and pre-installed at the same factory that produces those machines would be cheaper than purchasing a standard mini walker and then purchasing or modifying those additional parts, later on. There was a discussion on this very forum where some members have increased the height of the pressor feet to sew thicker leather with heavier thread than the standard portable machine can manage. Others have discussed how adding a Monster Wheel allowed them to sew thick leather. This could be done at the factory for a lot less cost, making it possible to sell already modified machines suitable for hobbyists and traveling leathercrafters lacking the budget for a full size industrial machine. Just a thought. NB: These suggestions and ramblings are aimed at selling a decent portable machine to a leather crafter who wants to get into sewing, at home or on location, but lacks the budget to move into a full-fledged heavy leather sewing machine. It is a cost-effective alternative to a pull lever portable stitcher and easier to use for long runs. There have been quite a few inquiries made on this forum, over the last few months, for machines capable of sewing up to 3/8" of real leather, easily controllable, at about the $500 price point.

I propose that the dealers here contact their parts and casing suppliers and see if they can come up with a portable walking foot machine that is already beefed up and modified to sew real leather, up to 3/8" - without needing to add another flywheel, or grind the teeth off of the pressor feet. Such a machine would be a great first machine for casual leathercrafters or those attending flea markets and shows. Make no more than 50 pounds in a carrying case and sell it for under $500 and you'd have a winner, in my opinion.

Hmmm. Ok. I am not a dealer and I do try to help newbies to sewing leather, as much as I can. Many of these good folks are long time crafters who have been hand sewing for many years. Maybe their art has been noticed by local gun shops, or clothiers and they are going to need to get into machine sewing to handle the expected volume of new business. Let's accept these as given variables. var = "leather crafter" var = "hand sewing exp only" var = "commercial work lined up" var = "needs industrial sewing machine" Suppose that the only assistance we want to offer this person is that you should buy the cheapest industrial machine you can find on eBay, or in a hock shop, and learn to use it, break it and fix it again. When they finally know everything there is to know about getting an old P.O.S. machine to sew leather they will also come to realize that it was the wrong type of machine for their jobs. They will try in vain to learn to control the clutch on the motor, but will have little luck, with many runaway stitch lines. The needle will turn red hot and burn both the thread and the leather, cause the motor is too fast. The machine will not like the heavy nylon thread and large needle sizes that are recommended for heavier projects. Thread will bunch up under the leather and jam the bobbin case. In many cases the first time sewing machine buyer will purchase a machine on eBay because it is shown sewing leather. When our crafter tries to sew a 1/4" thick veg-tan leather belt or 5/16" pancake holster the machine may skip stitches, change stitch length, or fray the top thread. Nobody told him that he needed a beefed up, slowed down, compound feed walking or jumping foot machine, so he bought a straight stitch garment machine, dirt cheap, cause it said "sews leather." Then, after a year of monkey futching around with this P.O.S. machine and ruining dozens of projects and dozens of feet of expensive leather, that would have made him or her some good money if properly sewn, he or she finally decides to call a dealer that frequents these forums and is himself a member here. The dealer takes the toll free call, listens to the rants and raves of the angry leathercrafter who has dinked around with the P.O.S. eBay or Craigslist machine long enough, and after calming him or her down, offers to sell them a brand new fully functional leather sewing machine at a reasonable price. This machine will be made to sew real leather, using heavy thread and large needles, into multiple layers without causing them to go out of alignment, often up to or in excess of 3/4". It will have a brand new servo motor and possibly a speed reducer, giving it incredible punching power at extremely slow and controllable speeds. The fictitious person jumps up and down about the price of the new machine, but finally takes the plunge and buys one from the dealer. After the machine arrives and gets assembled, the fictitious crafter begins sewing with it. After a few phone calls (toll free) to the dealer for explanations about a few adjustment details, the crafter is happily sewing all manner of leather goods for sale; flawlessly. If something jams, he can call his dealer again, toll free, and once again he or she will receive all the assistance they need to get them sewing again. The dealer will supply him or her with quality thread, needles and bobbins. The leather goods that the new machine can sew will not be limited to 5/16" or 3/8" thickness, like they will be on a garment or upholstery machine. If a holster job with a thick filler comes along, up goes the pressor feet, in goes the 3/4" of leather, down goes the needle, in goes the #346 thread, and sewn becomes the holster. Try that on an eBay or Craigslist garment or upholstery machine! With all of that said and out of the way, the dealers on this forum are not out to gouge our members. They are trying to make an honest living selling decent machinery to a specialty market, and provide great service and support to their loyal customers. I have read a lot of comments from members who have purchased new sewing machines from our dealers and I don't recall seeing very many negative comments, if any. Nor do I recall reading about the new machines falling apart. I myself have gone the route of buying garment machines, then "leather" machines (NOT), then heavy stitchers and finally, a needle and awls machine. I wasted thousands of dollars finding the right machines that can sew "real leather." I have spent countless hours trying to jerry-rig old machines to sew thicker material that they are designed to sew. I have bent and broken hundreds of needles, melted thread and burnt leather. My next sewing machine will be a brand new cylinder arm machine from one of our own dealers. I am through dinking around with old, P.O.S. machines.

You are most welcome! Anytime!

TorontoBoy; Welcome to the LeatherWorker Forums! As you may have noticed, we also have a lot of experts in the needle trade on this particular section and also in the Sewing Leather section of LeatherWorker.net. Our experts will be more than happy to answer any questions you post in these forums. Furthermore, you are more than welcome to post pictures or links to commercial sites, or to mention that you have items for sale. We have a For Sale section should you wish to buy or sell anything related to leather working tools or sewing machines. Enjoy you time here!

In my experience, occasional skipped stitches are typically caused by too little pressure on the pressor foot. This allows the material to lift as the needle begins its ascent. If the material lifts with the needle then the thread cannot form a loop under the work and the shuttle has nothing to pick up and bring around the bobbin. Constant skipped stitches are caused by the timing going out after a thread jam, or from broken needles jamming the shuttle assembly. Skipped stitches on Adlers may be caused by using the wrong needle and thread size. Adler 204 and 205 machines are setup for one particular needle size. If you try to go up to a larger needle it may jam and break off at the pickup point. If you go down more than one or two sizes the pickup point will be too far away to catch the loop. If this turns out to be the problem, contact any Adler parts dealer and order a different shim spacer for the bobbin case. The shims move the pickup point closer to or farther away from the needle, depending on their number. A number 200 shim is designed to work properly with a number 200 (US #25) needle.

First of all, if you intend to use household polyester, polycore, or cotton thread, your chart looks accurate. Most people who sew leather professionally are using bonded nylon or bonded polyester thread, on 1/2 or 1 pound spools. The thinnest nylon thread we normally use is referred to as #69, or T70 thread, which is a Government standard. Size 69 bonded nylon thread has a breaking point of 11 pounds and is available in just about every color you could use, in spools from 4 ounces up to 1 pound. Shoe supply warehouses also stock #69 thread in 1 ounce "patcher" spools, for use on shoe patcher machines. I would recommend that you get a few packs of #18 and #20 leather point needles, to sew leather garments (#18) or thin fashion belts (#20). If the machine takes series 135 needles, the leather point number is 135x16. "Sewmun" (Toledo Ind Sew Mach) stocks them as do most industrial sewing machine vendors. Number 69 bonded nylon is perfect for leather garments. For belts you should move up to #92 (#20 needle) or #138 bonded nylon thread. You will need to use a #22 or #23 needle with #138 thread. There is a sticky post at the top of this forum describing how one finds the correct needle size for any size of thread. It makes a good read.

A Pfaff 463 is a bottom feed, straight needle machine and is probably not suitable for upholstery or leather work. Upholsterers use a walking foot machine to ensure even feeding of the layers. A straight stitch, static needle machine, with bottom feed only will allow the layers to go out of alignment, unless you change the pressor foot to a roller foot. Most sewing machine dealers can sell you a flat bottom foot with long rollers inside the front and back, for about $15 (+shipping). Or, you may be able to convert the machine into a roller foot machine by purchasing a special wheel foot, single feed dog and single feed slot throat cover plate, if there is a set made for the Pfaff 463. Roller conversion sets typically sell for about $40 (+ shipping). If the machine is breaking thread and you know nothing about setting up an industrial machine, prepare to spend a bit of time and possibly money getting it into good working condition. You are usually further ahead to try to find an upholstery shop that is selling an older machine, already setup properly and with a walking foot mechanism.

@jbone850 The fellow who is quoted in the above reply sells the Cowboy brand stitchers. If you were willing to drive to Michigan to pickup a 97-10 monster machine, why not drive a little further down the road to Toledo, Ohio? You can actually try out his machines and learn to adjust and control them, from the supplier himself. You will get a lot more machine for the money you were about to throw away.

For the price range the seller is requesting you could purchase a brand new Cobra, or Cowboy, or Artisan, or Juki, or Techsew heavy stitcher, with a walking foot compound feed mechanism. You would get a perfectly tuned and tested machine, with a warranty and customer support, not to mention easy to replace parts and plenty of add-ons and accessories. Compare this to buying an old, out of manufacture for decades machine that is in a storage locker, for God knows how long, no factory support and hard to find (if at all) replacement parts. To me it is a no-brainer to buy a new machine.

Perhaps this will save you the stress of working your way up to a true walking foot leather sewing machine. It took me a few years of buying the wrong machines, then dinking with them to try to get them to sew thick belting, before I found a real walking foot machine capable of sewing 3/8" together. Note my reply in the topic about 132k6 machines. I had one and got rid of it after dinking with it for three months. Just because a machine is big does not mean it will sew a pretty, perfectly spaced stitch, with heavy nylon thread, through multiple layers of smooth top grain veg-tan leather. You really should go to see the Cobra machines in action and see if you can buy one on layaway. You are close to their shop and they have exactly the machines you are searching for. Otherwise, I fear you will waste a lot of time and money working your way up to a proper leather sewing machine.

I had a 132k6 for a while and it was not a true walking foot machine at all. It had a spring loaded outer pressor foot that followed the material as the feed dog pulled it backward, then lifted at the end of the stitch and snapped forward (violently). The needle was vertical motion only, as was the inner pressor foot (not compound feed). All of the actual feeding was done by the bottom feed dogs. I found that the top foot slipped all over the surface of polished leather belts and straps, causing the stitch length to vary all over the place. It was good at sewing webbing and rough top grain leather and latigo, up to 1/2 inch. The teeth are fairly high and did leave deep marks in the backside of smooth pasted leather straps. Finally, I was able to sew with #346 thread, but it was not a pretty stitch and the knots were all over the place. Just my experience. Your mileage may vary.

I see a lot of members asking if this or that sewing machine is a walking foot machine. That question is usually asked by people new to industrial sewing machines, who have never owned a walking foot machine before. To help clarify the confusion about what a walking foot looks like I have posted some close up photos of my own National 306N walking foot machine. You can see that there are two pressor feet on this machine. One is an outer foot, the other is an inner foot. The inner foot has a hole through which the needle protrudes as it goes down, then back up. The inner foot and needle both move together, in time with the single feed dog, which protrudes through a slot in the throat cover plate. While the needle and inner foot are down and moving the work, the outside foot is lifted off the material, allowing it to feed effortlessly. Even multiple layers are fed without losing alignment, because the needle has penetrated all of the layers and pulls them back together, assisted by the inside foot. Once the needle has reached its full stitch length it begins to withdraw from the material. As the needle begins its ascent the outer foot lowers onto the work, securing it, then the inner foot lifts up and moves forward with the needle, to prepare for the next stitch. This action is referred to as alternating pressor feet, or walking feet. This type of walking foot mechanism is known as a "compound feed" or "triple feed system." This is because three pieces are involved in moving the material: the needle, the inside foot and the feed dog. In contrast, a standard sewing machine has but one pressor foot, which remains stationary on top of the material. It always exerts pressure on the work. All of the motion is caused by the feed dog under the work. This can cause multiple layers to be dragged out of alignment, unless the top pressure is reduced to the bare minimum necessary to prevent the material from lifting as the needle withdraws. Should the material lift with the needle there will be skipped stitches.

The Juki DDL-5550 is a high speed, self oiled garment sewing machine, with a straight needle and a fixed pressor foot. It is absolutely NOT a leather sewing machine. They are usually equipped with a higher than standard speed motor and a large pulley, to get the most speed for factory use. Don't even think about using such a machine with veg-tan leather. It is also not equipped to use heavy thread. See my post showing close-up photos of a walking foot mechanism.

Bar tacker machines are perfect for sewing on 3/4" and 1" wide Velcro strips. Lift the foot, position the Velcro under the needle, lower the foot, hit the pedal and in one second it is sewn on with a tight zigzag across the strip. Do that at the center and ends and she's good to go in half a minute.

You will get all the help you need with your new Cobra, here, and/or from Steve Tayrien.