Wizcrafts

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.

We refer to all of the machines cloned from the Juki TSC-441 as "441 class machines."

I have a clone of that machine: a Techsew 2700. If your bobbin thread keeps popping out of the tension spring, reverse the direction of the tbobbin. I usually insert bobbins so they feed against the direction of the slot and spring. This ensures good, controllable tension and keeps the thread from jumping out of its channel. Make sure that both little screws are holding the spring in place. The one closest to the exit position controls the tension. The other one keeps it in place on the case. If you are unable to get adjustable tension in the bobbin case, replace it! Assuming you can gain control of the bobbin tension, check the entire top thread path for kinks or sharp turns, or excessive twisting from overly coily thread. If your thread is too twisty, replace the spool and try balancing the tensions again. Or, counteract the twist using the holes in the top guide post. I do that anyway, feeding through the top hole, bringing the thread around the front, then through the bottom hole. This gives a counter twist to offset any twist in the thread cone. Make sure you are threading correctly according to the manual. Adjust the check spring tension so it only has enough force to bring the spring down against the back stop bracket, wherever it is set to stop the spring. Then adjust the position of the slot to give the best lay of the thread without making a popping sound as it goes around the bobbin case and shuttle. Finally, if you still have trouble with the tension, remove the top tension spring and disks and inspect them for burrs. Ditto for all the guides and even the take-up lever. Do not wrap thread around the pin on the right side of the top disks. It is not there for that purpose.

That might be the missing piece to the hook position puzzle.

Don't worry about the vertical gap at the tab in the cutout in the throat plate. Do adjust the finger backwards so it pulls the bobbin case backwards, to almost as far as it can pull, but leave a little clearance. Its job is to pull the tag on the bobbin case to one side so the top thread doesn't get hung up on the tab.

Oi Vey! The "Class" we refer to starts with the model number of the machine. So, any Singer model starting with a 7 is a Class 7. Any Singer 111 machine is a Class 111. Any Singer 31-anything is a Class 31. Any model 15-anything is a Class 15, etc, etc.

When I look at photo #1, I see the deflector bracket in hard contact with the needle, while the hook is far away from it. I can't tell if it is actually pushing the needle away from the hook. I recommend bending the deflector inward and see if this allows the needle to get closer to the hook.