Wizcrafts

Yes, that part adds or subtracts slack thread during the take-up cycle. When you move it down from the top (Dunn), the adjuster forces the check/take-up lever to stay above the bottom position, pulling more thread from the spool. Set it for the best results in thin, thicker, or maximum thickness projects. One thing the adjuster does when in action is to let you get a longer stitch in thick material. It accomplishes this by taking some back pressure off the needle and foot because of the extra slack thread. If the adjuster is all the way up, the thread tension pulls hard against each stitch. This doesn't matter much in 8 to 10 ounces but sure does matter at 1/4 to 5/16 inch. You are already losing maximum stitch length due to the pendulum effect. Adding some slack thread will return a little bit of length.

Have you tried adjusting the slack adjuster and the take-up spring on top? The adjuster ranges from no effect at the top to lots of slack thread at the bottom of its adjustment range. If you set it at the top position, only the spring on top comes into play. If that spring is spread out, or weak, it can't maintain tension on the top thread as the machine cycles through the take-up motion. That could cause the screw-ups in the shuttle. Another part that affects the quality of the thread loop at pick-off time is the paddle shaped spring in the needle bar. If that little spring is twisted/bent, or broken, stitch quality will be inconsistent and hard to maintain. If you need patcher parts, contact Toledo Industrial Sewing Machines (an advertiser here via top of page banner ads), or our member, @shoepatcher.

I looked up prewound bobbins on Wawak.com, where I buy zippers and leather tape, and the Size G bobbins contain 30 yards of #69 (T70) bonded nylon thread. If the job calls for #69 thread, it will sew about 90 feet, minus starting and ending wastage. I would guess you would lose a yard or two on the ends. A prewound bobbin with size 92 thread contains 25 yards. I'm thinking a steel G style bobbin loaded with #138 thread might only hold 12 yards of bonded thread. You might get the same, less, or maybe more thread on a tightly wound bobbin. The windings would have to be precise. Since I sew for a living, I buy boxes of prewound bobbins in style G. I have three machines that use those bobbins. Some are b69 and others are b92.

Yes, start with more foot pressure. But, if that doesn't solve the problem, it could be the needle is too small for the density of the leather and size of the thread.

It sounds like either the needle bar or hook is slipping. This could be a simple matter of tightening down (or replacing) the appropriate set screws. But first, do the following things. Set the needle bar height and hook timing according to the specs in the attached manuals. Or, watch this video by Uwe Grosse that shows all the steps and measurements to set the timing of a Singer 111 class machine spot on. When the timing is right lock down the needle bar, hook and timing gear screws so they can't move. If any of those screws have worn slots, replace them so you get the tightest adjustments possible. Your machine has a safety clutch that trips to disengage the hook drive in the event you get thread jammed in it (like from failing to hold back the starting threads). Make sure that the clutch has not been tampered with, disabled, or removed. It stands between clearing a thread jam, pushing a button and rotating the handwheel to resume sewing, or stopping work to retime the hook. 111W152_W153_W154_W155.pdf USNavySinger111WConsew225REPAIR.pdf

Aside from the top mounted bobbin winder it looks much like my 211G156.

A year or so ago a customer dropped off some super heavy woven webbing to have me sew big loops on the ends for use in towing cars. I used #346 bonded thread and a #26 round point needle. The stitch length was 4 to the inch. The sewn parts were 1/2 inch thick. He was a happy camper and those straps never came apart due to thread breakage.

@Kovant- Take a look at this thread and needle chart. It will give you an idea about the diameter and strengths of various "sizes" of sewing threads and their recommended needle sizes. As a hand sewer you are probably used to using thread ranging from .5 to 1 mm diameter. While that is a typical range for hand sewing it is not typical for sewing machines. 0.5mm thread equates to #207 bonded machine thread. That calls for a #24 needle if you have the same thread on top and in the bobbin. It is also at the extreme top end of only the strongest of walking foot machines that might show up for sale in marketplaces, or online. Your average upholstery grade machine cannot handle that thickness of thread. Here are a few sewing machines, sold and serviced by our supporting advertisers, that can tension #207 (aka: #210) thread and still use thinner thread for thinner work. Consew 206RB-5 flat bed walking foot machine. Cowboy CB341 cylinder arm walking foot machine. Cobra Class 26 cylinder arm walking foot machine. Techsew 2750 cylinder arm walking foot machine. If you require a machine that sews with heavier thread, larger needles, or sews a higher thickness, you need to move up to a harness/holster stitcher that can tension #415 thread using a #26 or #27 needle that is a wide as a roofing nail.

Folker, that throat plate for the Singer 16 does not look like the plate on my 45-2. It will not fit if the O.P's feed dog is like mine, with the second row of teeth on the right side. My throat plate measures 3 1/4 x 2 1/8 inches. I will post a photo of it later.

I too have a 42-5 and aside from needles and bobbins, replacement parts are made of Unobtanium. That is unless you can find somebody selling one cheap or for scrap.

It sounds like you may have threaded the top take-up lever incorrectly. Download these manuals and rethread the machine if necessary. Also, make sure you use System 29x3 or x4, or 135x16 or x17 needles and install the needle with the long rib facing due left, then thread from left to right. If the machine was threaded correctly, you might have an advanced or retarded hook to needle timing problem. If your model uses an eccentric screw to adjust the timing, loosen the locking nut on the inside bottom of the base, then insert a wide blade screwdriver in the hole in the lower front of the base and turn it left or right to move the hook one way or the other. Then cycle the machine until the needle goes all the way down, then lifts slightly and halts. This is pick-off time. Adjust the eccentric screw to position the hook so it intersects the needle above the eye. If the machine is threaded and timed correctly but the loop is dissolving before the hook can pick it off, the paddle shaped check spring inside the needle bar may be shot. Replacing it is not a job for a beginner unless you have thin steady fingers and a good magnetic jewelers' screwdriver. 29-4-users-manual.pdf 29K1 TO K4,K10 TO K18,K12 TO K23,K30 TO K33.pdf

That machine looks good for shoe uppers. I don't know much about Artisan, but two of our sponsors sell similar post bed machine, roller driven machines. Cobra 8810 Cowboy CB8810

The projects you described suggest a cylinder arm compound feed walking foot machine that has a removable flat table attachment to support flat work. The bobbin should be an M style that holds much more thread than the standard G size bobbin used in the Singer 153, which is the forefather of modern cylinder arm walking foot machines. You'll want a machine that sews equally well using bonded thread sizes 69 through 138 and perhaps even #207 on top with 138 in the bobbin. Here is one that meets these specs.

I've worked on a few old 111 machines and sometimes it is very hard to tell the differences, even if the model tags are in place. I do know that the w101, 151 and 153 have lower lift than the 155. We had a 153 in our shop but I let my partner take it home to make room for a zig zag machine. The 153 only lifted 3/8 inch and sewed 5/16 inch, and then only if all the lift parts were adjusted correctly. The 3/8 inch lift is with the right foot pedal or knee lever. They all use the same G style bobbin which is often referred to as a standard 1x walking foot machine bobbin.

Using Google image search I saw Mercury M111 machines that were straight stitch tailoring machines and some that were walking foot machines. The company has been out of existence since about the year 2000. The availability of parts or any manuals will depend on exactly which major brand and model is was a clone of. Buying off brands is risky, especially if the company is out of business.

Open the front cover plate. It is time to oil the small crank shafts anyway. There are screws holding the presser foot bar (aka: presser bar) in place. The bar might be slightly askew causing it to hang when lifted. Oil all the tiny holes on everything that moves inside the head. You should eventually find out where the presser bar is hanging up and free it. I routinely swap coil springs if the work is softer or harder and my presser bar doesn't hang up under light spring pressure. The presser bar also has a rolling wheel on the left side of the head, looking from the left side. It moves against a steel bracket that is adjustable. It could just need a little tweaking of the steel plate to let the roller move up and down freely.

Personally, I prefer to use a #19 titanium needle with #92 thread, top and bottom. If the work is dense, or has double sided leather tape holding the seams together, I move up to a #20 needle. A #21 needle would work better with #105 thread. Titanium coated needles resist gumming up much better than all steel needles. If you don't sew thru goo, buy the cheaper steel needles, but always use leather points when sewing leather.

I'm happy my advice helped get you machine back into proper timing.

You can get by with a Family Sew FS-550s motor attached to a 3:1 speed reducer. That's what is driving my big Cowboy CB4500. It easily punches through 3/4 inch of veg-tan leather and then some.

Try heating up the parts that should move. Also, apply some WD-40 to them after heating if the parts are sill stuck. A rubber mallet won't damage parts. The next option might be a rawhide mallet. Anything is preferable to bending the hook (which is not made to be bent).

The pin it there to hold the tension disks in place so they don't rotate with the moving thread. The pin on these types of sewing machines is not meant to have thread wrap around it. First, this puts kinks in the thread, causing unpredictable tension changes. Second, it eventually wears a groove in the pin that will rat the thread.

As @kgg mentioned, 135x17 is a needle "system," not a needle size. Each needle system will have a range of available sizes that are shown in either the US Singer numbers or the Metric system. The proper needle size for Tex 135 thread, top and bottom, is Singer #23/Metric 160. As already mentioned, system 135x16 are leather points. So, you need to buy System 135x16 needles in "size" 23/160 to properly sew with T135 thread. By the way, T135 is almost the same as B or V 138. Here is a convenient needle and thread reference chart that shows the diameter of different sizes of thread and the proper needles to sew those sizes. Where two needle sizes are shown, the larger is used in denser veg-tan leather. The smaller would be used in softer upholstery and chrome tan leather.

You might get straighter stitches with a D point needle. It has a triangular shape. I find that they also lay the thread more on the surface and don't submerge the ends like the S point needles.

Try moving up 1 or 2 needle sizes. A bigger hole takes pressure of the thread knots and makes them easier to pull up.

The reason there are classes of various machines is because Singer often produced several different varieties of particular models. For instance, the 111 series, or class, started with the 111w101 and concluded with the 111w156. Some had a different letter depending on where they were built, but were still part of the class 111. Some were compound feed walking foot machines, while another had needle feed and a flat foot. Some sewed higher than others and one had reverse Then there is the 29 class that began in the late 1800s and continued until the late 1970s or early 1980s. The bodies were similar but each incarnation had an improvement or additional function missing in previous sub-classes. I have had an early 1900s 29-4 all the way up the the last model they made: 29k172 and several in between. Now I have a 29k71 and love it. They were all Class 29 machines, for better or worse. To add to the confusion, Singer also produced specially modified sub-classes that ended with the letters: SV, for Special Version. They fell under the main class of machine they were built upon. Also, a lot of both domestic and industrial tailoring machines use the same bobbin as the early through mid 20th Century Singer 15-88,89,90 and 91. Those bobbins are sold as Class 15 bobbins.