Wizcrafts

You can buy them direct from https://www.campbell-randall.com.

Back in 2010 my buddy Doug, for who I worked as a sideman/sewer, upgraded his sewing operation with a Cobra Class 4; a Chinese built Juki 441 clone. Aside from swapping out the digital servo motor for an analog model, and remembering to oil it, the machine has performed flawlessly ever since. He uses it almost every day to sew items he sells online. One year later, in 2011, I started sewing my own orders at home and bought a new Chinese built Cowboy CB4500. I also swapped out the digital motor for an analog (Family Sew) motor. It too has performed flawlessly ever since. It is now in my leather shop and is used on a daily basis to sew holsters, sheathes, gunbelts and even to hem chaps. I also have numerous industrial black body Singer sewing machines and a gray German Adler. In the past I've owned two Union Lockstitch machines, which I sold off because they were too finicky. My deduction is that there are quality machines built all over the World if you look in the right places.

This just about makes it imperative that you order the Monster II balance wheel to improve the punching power. This balance wheel weighs 7 pounds.

The Sailrite portables line are dual feed walking foot machines, where the feed dog and outside foot move the work, while the needle and inside foot just move up and down. In order to get a good grip the feeder and foot have teeth. In the case of the Leatherwork version, the feet and feeder are knurled instead of having sharp angled teeth. If one is sewing chrome tan leather this is no problem. In fact, their regular sharp teeth probably won't mark up chrome tanned leather. However, when sewing veg-tan leather any tooth pattern or tooth marks will remain visible unless you rub them out. All of the Sailrite portables are factory limited to a maximum thread size of T90; top and bottom. Despite this, some people on this forum have pushed their machines beyond that limit to sew 1/4 inch of leather with T135 bonded thread, top and bottom. This required moving the hook slightly farther away from the needle and using a #23 needle. This combination greatly increases the power needed to penetrate leather, especially veg-tan leather. So, these guys made speed reducers that multiplied the torque. Sewing veg-tan leather calls for adding the Monster II balance wheel to the machine. I believe they also had to find stronger presser foot springs to keep the leather from lifting with the threaded needle. The size of the lockstitch knots in size T135 (v138) thread are more than double that of T90. The top tension spring may also need to be replaced with a heavier spring to pull the knots up. With or without these modifications, the Sailrite portables are limited to sewing 1/4 inch, or ~6.25mm under the feet. Sewing anything thicker requires further modifications.

I bought a used cylinder arm machine from the original owner in late 2019. It had a push button digital servo motor that started with a jolt, running at a minimum speed of 100 or 200 rpm. I ordered a Family Sew 550s the next day. It starts at zero and gradually speeds up as I engage the foot pedal. I have enough pushbuttons on my phone. I don't need more on my motors.

The servo motor I linked to is analog, not digital. It has a simple knob to turn to limit the top speed. There is also a power switch in a separate box. The only other control is a direction slide switch on the back. It is normally shipped to the buyer rotating in the standard ccw direction for typical industrial sewing machines. All of mine have included extra brushes on coil springs in case the originals wear out from prolonged high speed use.

I have been buying my servo motors from Toledo Industrial Sewing Machines since 2011. In that time they have carried three major brands as previous models went of of production or became untrustworthy. Their current motor is the Consew CSM 550-1 It comes with a 2" pulley unless you request a larger pulley. Smaller pulleys slow down the machine and increase the low end torque. I have found that these motors can often use your existing motor mounting bolts and pedal rods. There are slots to move the motor sideways to line up the new belt. Chances are that your old belt won't be a perfect fit. You can figure this out by trying to read the size marking on the old belt. It might be marked in inches or millimeters. Let's say the old belt is a type 3L at 44 inches and the old motor pulley is 4 inches diameter. If the servo motor happens to fit under the old bolts and has a 2 inch pulley, chances are the new belt will need to be 42 inches, plus or minus an inch.. As a reference, I ordered a new Consew 206RB-18 for a friend's school security window blinds business, pre-equipped with a servo motor identical to the Consew CSM, with a 50mm pulley. I sewed on the machine for a year as a side job. I could start it going at 1 stitch per second with a little foot finesse. There was enough oomph to keep it moving at slow speeds when tacking on 1 inch wide sew-on Velcro. When I needed to sew long end straightaways, I floored it and blasted through ballistic nylon (and sometimes Velcro) at about 25 stitches per second. Good motors! Great machines!!

These tilt back machine stops are available for a few bucks on Ebay.

Tap on top of the presser foot bar that is sticking out of the top of the head. Use a rawhide mallet so you don't damage the top of the bar. Then twist the pressure screw clockwise to increase the foot pressure to overcome any friction or out-of-reoundness. If the foot continues getting hung up, open the left cover (faceplate) so you can look into the heart of the beast. With the foot lever lifted, watch as you lower the lever and try to sus out where the mechanism is binding the presser bar.

That might actually be the problem. I tried adjusting the roller to back plate for tighter clearance on my 4500 and learned that too little caused the foot to bind when lifted. I found a happy clearance and never touched it again. That was years ago. If the presser bar is out of round in the top third it can bind after lifting.

The O.P. is in Sweden

@Hairic- This is why there is a field for your location in your profile. When you ask for help on the forum it helps get more relevant answers if people know your location. Now, you will need to convert fredk's prices from Euros into US Dollars.

Try reinstalling the stock feet. Does that fix it? If so, the replacement/aftermarket feet may be the wrong height.

Do you want an inline S point, or some slanted chisel point? Schmetz makes the S point in system 134-35. I have a pack I use once in a while on my Singer walking foot machines. My machines are timed so that I can use these slightly shorter needles and not skip stitches, but only on one direction machines. If your machine has reverse you might want to lower the needle bar 1/2 mm or so to put the eye at the same position as the system 135x16 needles. Machines with reverse are more finicky when it comes to timing in both directions.

I searched for a while and this is the best source I can come up with at this time. https://sew-europe.com/schmetz.htm The list Schmetz and Gross Beckert on the home page. I hope this helps.

I usually use a #23 needle with #138 thread, top and bottom. Link please!

I know that this topic has reached its intended outcome. But, I want to share my primary source of YKK zippers and zipper parts and tools, as well as the double sided tape I use to secure them for sewing. Wawak.com stocks a huge amount of zippers in tooth widths up to #10 (chaps size), in various lengths and colors. They have top and bottom stops, pullers and tools. Here is the Zippers landing page. The double sided tape get from Wawak is called HyperStik and is listed on this page. This is really aggressive tape. If your needle sews through the tape it will tend to gum up. To counter this I only use titanium or Gebeder needles when sewing through the tape. Plus, I keep a jar of Goof Off nearby and dip a dauber into it, then wipe the needle down every so often as I sew through the tape. If the machine has a lube pot, I pour in silicon lube and run the thread through it. Both of my patchers have stock lube pots and it's trivial to pour in a bit of silicon lube.

I still have a couple of spools of black thread that are so coily that I feed them up from the floor to the thread stand guides, then do my counterclockwise wrap around the top post holes. Without these countermeasures the thread would be useless and it cost a lot of money when I bought it.

Check out Gross-Beckert and Organ brand needle suppliers on Ebay.

I moved your post to the Marketing and Advertising section. If left in Help Wanted, all replies have to await approval from a moderator and can only be posted in that topic. Here, any member can reply to you, including via our private message system. Good luck in your endeavor!

You might have overly twisty thread that is wrapping around itself, or around guide posts, suddenly increasing the top tension. Or, the thread may be poorly wound on the spool. Or, the thread coming from the spool may be caught under other windings causing uneven tension off the spool. If your machine has a top mounted thread guide post with holes on the top and then about an inch below, try wrapping the thread through the top, then counterclockwise around to the bottom hole and out. This will counteract any excessive clockwise coiling from the spool. It's also possible that the bobbin thread is jumping out of the tension spring because of how it was wound, or due to coiling. Pull out a few feet of bobbin thread and get a feel for the smoothness and evenness of the pull. If it seems to lift out of the spring, pull out the bobbin and reverse its direction of feed.

See if you can find an old Singer 31-15 and convert it into a roller foot machine. The conversion kits contain 3 parts: A roller foot, a wide single row feed dog, and a matching throat plate. With these parts installed and the machine threaded with either #46 or #69 thread, it will sew wallet interiors with ease. The rollers are usually available in 3/4 and 1 inch diameters. The smaller wheel makes it easier to make sharp turns. The visibility is incredible with the needle coming down right next to the bottom edge of the slanted wheel and no other foot in the way. Note, this setup requires some stiffness in the leather to keep the leather from puckering up with the needle, which can cause skipped stitches.

Marks on both sides tells me he sold you a top and bottom driven upholstery walking foot machine. That type of dual feed uses teeth on the top and bottom to drag difficult materials through the machine. It doesn't leave marks on seating vinyl, outdoor canvas, duck cloth, sail cloth, most upholstery leather, webbing, Velcro garment leather and cloth and denim. Dealers who don't specialize in selling to leather workers and harness makers make this mistake a lot. The type of machine you actually need to sew leather that is mark-able without leaving tooth marks, is a compound (triple) feed walking foot machine, with smooth feet and feed dog. We have dealers who support the forum and who specialize in sewing machines that don't leave marks on leather. Some even supply stainless steel feet to avoid darkening moist leather. Two of those dealers are Toledo Industrial Sewing Machines, in Ohio (Cowboy), and Leather Machine Company, in California (Cobra). Techsew is based in Canada, but exports to the USA. These three are very knowledgeable when it comes to recommending the best machine for a particular range of sewing jobs involving leather and other materials. I have dealt with Toledo Industrial Sewing Machines multiple times, as well as Leather Machine Company. I have never been sold a machine that wasn't suited to the job I intended to use it for. As a professional sewer, I welcome you both the the USA and Leatherworker.net. Working with leather sewing machines has a life of its own. Buckle in and enjoy the ride! Since you have experience working on shoes, you no doubt have used shoe patchers and sole stitchers. We frequently discuss patchers and once in a while curved and straight needle stitchers are brought up in topics. These machines have cousins in the heavy leather field in the form of harness stitchers using a barbed needle and a stabbing awl.

There most definitely is a Cowboy dealer in Australia. We have a lot of members down under who are valued contributors to this forum. I will try to get you the name of the Cowboy dealer in Australia.

The Juki and Adler you listed are among the best. They are also very expensive, You can probably find an authorized dealer of these brands and visit their shop to test them out with your materials. You haven't listed your current, or new location in your profile. What city and State are you living in? There may be industrial sewing machine dealers within driving distance. If you find an industrial sewing machine dealer and settle on the type of machine, or machines that are suitable, report back here about your preferences. Maybe we know someone who sells clones of the machines that are perfectly capable of doing the same job at half the price.