Wizcrafts

The seller is in Hong Kong. Buyer beware! Also, there may be a 25% duty imposed on the machine and shipping costs.

Yes, as long as there is nothing missing internally and it sews, that is a very good price. A couple years ago I paid $400 for just a 29k71 head. Then I got the base elsewhere for another hundred fifty.

It is a clone of the Juki LS-1341. Cowboy offers one just like it that has the designations CB6900 or CB1341, depending on which continent you are buying from. These machines are a slight step up from the older Juki LS-341 and Cowboy CB341. You can get the actual differences and price from our Cowboy USA dealer, Bob Kovar, owner of Toledo Industrial Sewing Machines. Last time I spoke to him he had a CB-1341 (aka: 6900) in the warehouse.

Should you want to sell this, or any other leather work machine, place the ad in our MarketPlace, under the appropriate sub-section.

No matter the make or model of sewing machine, you are going to need one that takes accessory presser feet, because you will need a left toe only presser foot to get close enough to the edges to line up an edge guide as close as these bands require. Whew, what a long, compound sentence! Here's the deal with the Sailrite LS-1 (straight stitch only): it has a wide double toe outer foot. You would have to order their left toe foot to get close to the edges They sell this as a zipper foot and it has teeth. If you wanted a set with the serrated bottoms it would be a special order and might be expensive. These machines are dual top/bottom feed and need some grip on top. It might be possible to sew your watch bands using a roller foot machine with a very small roller wheel. The wheel is on the left normally. These machines can be had in flat bed, post bed and cylinder arm configurations. Typically, they are bottom feed only, with some even having a round feed dog that revolves instead of doing a 4 way motion. Old models from yesteryear had no reverse. You will want to avoid those because it will be nigh impossible to spin the work to lock the stitches when you are sewing 1/16th inch in from the edges. So, if you want to go this route, look for a roller foot machine that has reverse. If neither of these types of machine appeal to you, it's remotely possible to use a straight stitch machine with a zipper foot and bottom feed via a feed dog with aggressive teeth. These are aftermarket feeders that come with a matching throat plate. In fact, in the past I have purchased a three piece roller foot conversion kit for straight stitch machines that already had pretty aggressive feed dog teeth. The rollers are available in small, medium and large diameter and have serrations to grip the leather. You would have to ask the sellers about the actual diameters of the rollers they offer. Aside from the Sailrite, which is specifically targeted to people doing onboard boating repairs, these are all industrial sewing machines requiring a special work table with a heavy duty servo or clutch motor underneath. While most are 20 x 48 inches, some are available cut shorter, or for cylinder arm machines, as pedestal stands. I don't usually get involved in discussions about using domestic sewing machines when the discussion is about sewing leather.

Your needle is much too small for the thread you are using! For v138 thread on top and v92 in the bobbin, you should use a #22 needle. It should be a leather point, preferably an S or LR point. If you must have the tightest holes, try a #21 needle. Here is a needle and thread chart that may help you choose the best combinations.

Needle feed machines work best if the material is slippery on top. Otherwise, it will drag against the presser foot. The amount of drag depends on how much pressure is applied to the foot. That pressure varies with the thickness and density of the material being sewn as well as the sizes of the top and bottom thread and the needle. The lockstitch "knots" may be very tight inside the holes and can fight against the pressure spring and actually cause the leather to lift with the needle on the way up. This leads to skipped stitches. If you are buying this machine to sew veg-tan leather, you'll probably need to crank down the pressure screw to keep the leather from lifting with the ascending needle and thread. The more pressure you need to hold down the leather, the more drag the foot has against the top layer. The foot will fight against the feed.This is not a good situation. OTOH, if you are buying the machine to sew heavy cloth or synthetics, like buffing wheels, smooth Kydex, bioplastics, or webbing, it should be a good match.

It takes System DBx1 needles.

Read this topic from 2020 about setting up a Fortuna skiver.

These are clones of the Fortuna bottom feed bell knife skiver. Techsew has four bell knife skivers listed, including one with a vacuum hose port. What you need to know is that the drive is accomplished by an oblong shaped wheel that revolves under the round blade. There are soft rubber, hard stone and serrated metal wheels available. The soft wheel is strictly for garment or chap leather. The stone wheel is pretty standard and can push along cowhide garment leather (but probably not soft Plonge), up to medium temper veg-tan (up to maybe 12 ounces). The steel wheel is meant for hard belt, sole and saddle skirting leather. Some used skiving machines may have more than one roller and presser foot included from the previous owner. That will save you a lot of money over having to buy them later. Most parts for Fortuna clones are commonly available, especially the material rollers, presser feet and bell knives. Other parts that wear and need replacement are the movable disks that sharpen and hone the top of the cutting blade and an optional roller under the blade to remove burrs after sharpening the top. My machine lacks the bottom deburrer so I use a fine hand held sanding stick that came with the machine.

Sewers in factories may just sew and somebody else may change spools of thread. Just saying. I always change my own when I sew for others, but, I sometimes change thread for my replacements and oil the machines when they are done.

Yes, you are correct. It is only on machines where one shuttle turns clockwise and the other counterclockwise that different thread twists are advised. The Landis 12 series sole stitching machines all require right twist (waxed linen) thread. It's likely that other old shoe sewing machines have that right, or S twist requirement.

There is only one foot pressure screw on the 441 clones. It affects both feet If the pressure spring is too stiff after backing off the top screw, order a softer spring from any dealer who sells these machines. Our supporting dealers are Leather Machine Company (Cobra), Techsew (Your brand) and Toledo Industrial Sewing Machines (Cowboy). All have banner ads in rotation on top of each page. Reloading the page loads a new set of 6 banners. The cost of a softer or harder pressure action spring is trivial.

The check spring setting affects the quality of the loop.

Since the subject of using hand sewing thread on a sewing machine came up in this topic, here is something new sewers need to know. Due to the manner in which sewing machine shuttles revolve as they pick off the thread loops, most modern single needle machines will cause multi-strand thread to separate unless it is left twist thread. In the case of twin needle machines, one side must be left and the other right twist to keep the thread intact. This is important whether the thread is bonded or not. Another matter that sometimes comes up is overly twisty and stiff bonded thread. This thread will coil clockwise as it comes off the spool and tends to form knots as it turns on itself on the way to the needle. Certain black and dark brown threads are double dyed and are extremely twisty. The best solution I've found to offset this is to feed the thread counterclockwise through two holes in a thread guide on top of the machine. The farther apart those holes are the better. I use the top and bottom holes in the top guide on my Cowboy CB4500 to counter the overly twisty thread from Weaver and others. I feed it through the top inline hole, then around towards the front, then through the bottom inline hole. This counterclockwise turn helps with twisty thread while creating the least drag on the thread. It still adds top tension that must be dealt with on the tensioners.

I don't have any experience with this machine. That said, if it is shredding the top thread and it gets jammed in the shuttle, it could be caused by an improperly set, or actually bypassed check spring. That spring comes after the top tension and any secondary disks and before the take-up lever. It would help if you could post a photo showing the top thread path from the top tension disks until it goes through the take-up lever (and on to the needle).

Let us know if you run into any roadblocks. I'm sure we have experienced them and learned the solutions. One thing I can suggest is to remove the faceplate every now and then and oil the cranks inside the head. I use precision 4 ounce oilers with thin brass ferules. I get them from Bob Kovar.

I usually buy two spools of any color and size together and use one for the top and the other to wind bobbins. Most thread stands hold two to 4 cones. But, you can cut the thread on top and use it to load a bobbin. Then clip the excess and tie it onto the remaining cut thread and pull it through the machine, stopping before the knot hits the needle.

First, is the thread coming off the spool smoothly, without getting hung up along the way? If the thread is hanging up between the spool and top tensioner, your tension disks will always be unpredictable. If there is anything amiss in the top thread feed, fix it. If the top thread is feeding smoothly, tighten the bobbin tension enough that you also have to add more top tension. Also, make sure the top thread stays inside the tension disks and doesn't lift out as you sew. That is instant zero tension.

Number 18 (metric 110) leather point needle. Number 69 bonded nylon top thread. Number 69 bonded nylon bobbin thread.

I got a flat slotted throat plate with my CB4500. The slot is long enough to allow for a half inch stitch length. The width is just 1/8 inch. I use that plate on the most difficult sewing jobs that call for this machine. Mind you, this was before I got the narrow dog and plate from Brian. My sense is that the flat slotted plate would be an excellent solution for sewing fleece and shearling. The feed dog must be removed to use the flat plate, making the machine dual feed. The consequence is that forward and reverse don't usually match unless you manually watch the needle come down in reverse and fudge the stitch lever to align the needle with the previous holes.

I still see 6 ads on top of each page, as usual.

Here is a web page that explains how to use a roller foot on a domestic sewing machine for difficult to feed materials. If you want a link to buy one, PM me via the forum Private Messages.

Read this topic about the type of machine you need to sew leather.

You may break the 99 trying to sew veg-tan leather that thick. The take-up components and needle bar aren't beefy enough to take the pounding from penetrating medium-hard to hard density leather. You might could use it to sew thin chap leather if you get a roller foot instead of the fixed flat foot. A Teflon foot will also work (until you forget and drop it onto the feed dog teeth! Ask me how I know!). I used to refurbish and sell old Singer iron body machines and sometimes tested them on 4-5 ounce leather. One layer happened, but not two, at least not reliably. The stitch length was unsustainable due to drag from the presser foot having to be cranked down to prevent the leather from lifting with the needle and thread. Further, the top tensioners have soft springs meant to tension cotton thread, not bonded nylon. I found I had to back off the bobbin tension almost all the way to bring the knots into the middle of about 6 to 8 ounces of chap leather. The only models that didn't choke on it were the 27 and 127 with the bullet shuttles. Those maxed out at 8-9 ounces of bridle leather, using #69 bonded nylon thread and a #18 needle. But, they sewed it perfectly.