Wizcrafts

The only portable sewing machines that can even remotely handle leather work are those made and sold by Sailrite. Period. They have dual feed; top and bottom, via serrated or pebble grain teeth on the feet and feed dog. The inside foot and needle are static. The outer foot moves in sync with the dog. They use Class 15 bobbins, just like the ancient Singer 15-91 and the 30-15 tailoring machines. Sailrite offers a super heavy duty Monster Wheel for added torque. Still, they can only handle up to #138 thread and 1/4 inch of material.

You can contact our member Techsew Ron for a manual. It is a really basic cylinder arm machine cloned from the Singer 153 series. I have one in my shop and like it for light to medium duty sewing of cylindrical work and hemming pants. Until you get your manual, here is Techsew's video tutorials and troubleshooting guides for the model 2700.

Usually, nothing. In the times when these machines were released, they only have cotton or linen thread. This required wax to set the thread and keep it from untwisting. Modern thread is either bonded nylon or polyester and it needs no wax. Howm-so-ever, there is a use for that pot in certain circumstances. If you use leather tape to baste your seams, the needle may gum up with the adhesive as you sew through it. Adding liquid silicon lube to the wax pot will help avoid thread tangles under the needle's point, or in its eye.

Remove the balance wheel. If you lay the machine down, lay it on its backside not the front. Make sure you pad the hand lift lever against direct pressure. Use foam and blankets. Bring a tackle box for small parts and screws. Ditto for loose spools of thread. Pfaff machines are expensive and so are replacement parts. Do as little damage as possible!

I moved this to the Marketplace section where goods for sale belong. Please edit you original post to include the prices, or price range and upload a few representative photos.

Metric measurements in answer to a question asked by an American member using the US inches system are not useful in this case.

Durkopp_239.pdf

Remove the presser spring. Then, if the bar is still stuck, unscrew the crank shafts and pull them off. There may be a burr interfering. Ploish the affected parts and oil. Replace the broken lever. Readjust the lift mechanism and block to limit the travel so this can't happen again.

Spring loaded, walking foot, edge guide feet are sold all over the Interwebs. Most industrial sewing machine dealers sell them. Most use the same inside foot. You can buy them on ebay too. Since you are in the UK, here are some available within your area. They have them is several spacings for the same money.

You would use a post machine to make a bag like this.

Yes, there are various types of walking foot machines. The earliest made by Singer had a spring loaded presser foot that followed the top layer as the feed dog pulled from the bottom. I have one like that; a Singer 42-5. It is quite effective considering its age (100). The same feed was used in one of the 31 class and in the 132 class machines and probably several others. The only negative with this feed is that the outer foot can slip, or get hung up on a new upper layer if it doesn't get lifted high enough to clear that layer. I think of this as a "follow foot." Another type of walking foot has a mechanically driven top foot that syncs with the feed dog; aka: dual feed. It has an alternating inside foot too, but that foot remains static. The throat plate would only have a round needle hole and the feeder teeth would be on either side. The presser foot has teeth on these machines and will tear up veg tan, or soft chrome tan leather. They are meant for webbing, synthetics, cloth, tow straps, parachute straps, vinyl signs, tarps, etc. The walking foot mechanism preferred by leather sewers is triple feed, with the feed dog, needle and inside foot moving in sync as the outer presser foot lifts and lowers. The feet are usually smooth. I call this compound feed. The Singer 111w155 is one of the most sought after used compound feed machines. The Juki LU-562 is a clone, as is the Consew 206 series. Almost any top loading triple feed sewing machine traces its design back to the 111 series. You can adjust and tweak the feed on these machines for lower or higher lift, up to the point where the cranks hit unmovable shafts or the feet hit the needle bar. They usually sew up to 3/8 inch maximum.

Now I'm wondering if this machine actually has a take-up lever as I know them?

No take-up lever!

I have yet to single a photo of the top of the machine where the top tension and take-up mechanism resides. A thousand photos of the needle and throat plate won't help if there is something wrong up above them on top of the head. Let's see how the machine is threaded ON TOP. I mean, the top of the machine, where the top thread goes through tensioners, springs and guides, then through the take-up lever. Show us those areas, please.

That 30-1 is a long arm, but small bobbin patcher. The bobbins only hold a handful of yards of #69 thread. It is a low lift model, like the Singer patchers, which limits the thickness and stitch length. The torsion bar pressure spring on the back will hammer the teeth on the foot into the top grain mercilessly. Now, if you want to attend motorcycle events and sew patches onto bikers' vests, that is the machine for the job!

Aye, Capt'n

I used to own Union Lockstitch machines. You want to talk about heavy? I was able to lift my long arm Singer patcher, with some effort. Not so with a ULS!

Yes. I am a mighty Wizard and I uttered magic words, while opening the page first in WGET Online, after first removing the S from https. This rendered the HTTP page's source code. There wasn't anything suspicious. So, I simply removed the S and it opened as an http website. If the warning persists, simply use Firefox and ignore the warning, accepting the risk. It helps to have the Malwarebytes Browser Plugin installed too. Contact me privately if you need more info about Firefox and Malwarebytes. Many of the current browser security warnings are due to an expired SSL Certificate that either is late being auto-renewed, or hasn't been paid for automatically by a cert buyer who has a dedicated, semi-dedicated, or VPS server account. It is easy to miss an email notice to authorize the payment if a card on file expires before the renewal takes place.

Yeah, at least that. If it is on the cast iron base add another 100 plus pounds. Mine weighed about 225 all setup. It was a blue body Singer 29k172. One of the last ones officially built under the company's name. You can save a little weight by removing the massive balance wheel while transporting it. Use pillows and blankets to protect the small parts on the head. It is too easy to accidentally knock off the front mounted tension disks for the bobbin winder. The Singer 29K60 is a long arm big bobbin patcher. It should handle up to #138 bonded thread, top and bottom. The maximum stitch length could be up to 5 to the inch, depending on the wear in the feed motion mechanism and the movable stitch adjuster position.

I found a YouTube video by Alexander Dyer showing him cleaning and adjusting a Singer 17-23. There are many comments from viewers. He revealed in another place that he was using Tex 105 thread, which he thought was about the maximum size bonded thread it could handle. Here is his webpage explaining his work on the machine, complete with close up photos, which was listed for sale. Note, that his website's security certificate was expired and not yet renewed on November 17, 2021, when I visited the page. I had to bypass a browser security warning to open the page.

Here is a manual for the Singer 17-22 and 17-23. The last page's details show the needle and thread sizes. The larger needles are for use with linen thread, not bonded nylon or bonded polyester. There wasn't any bonded synthetic thread on the market when thisw machine was released. These threads are too strong and less flexible, compared to the softer linen. So, if you want to sew with large needles, use unwaxed linen thread only. 17-22&17-23-manual.pdf

According to a previous discussion, you cannot run thicker thread than #135 (Tkt 20), or sew material over ~1/4 inch in a Singer 17-23. In fact, they may not even handle Tkt 20 thread.

These are the main causes of a failure to sew: The top thread is not going through the top tensioner, the check spring, all thread guides and especially - the take-up lever. If the top thread doesn't go through the take-up lever you cannot pull up a stitch. Make sure the needle is threaded from the rib side to the scarf side. The needle isn't aligned so the scarf faces the hook. Identify where the point of the hook is and aim the scarf in the needle to face it. The hook to needle timing is out. The hook is usually timed to intersect the needle after it has lifted from bottom dead center about 3/32 inch, at 1/16 inch above the top of the eye. If the top thread path is correct, there will be a nice loop formed at pick-off time. The bottom thread isn't set right. Your machine is much different than any other I've ever seen. If the bottom thread missed going through or around some moving part the top thread can't pick it up on the upstroke. Since your machine's bobbin, or bottom thread is far below the usual location, it must rely upon coming up to the top, then feeding inside a revolving shuttle that has a tension spring, then out of that spring.

I got an open inside foot set from one of our dealers. It was either Bob Kovar, at Toledo Industrial, or Cobra Steve.

I believe that the dedicated binder machines only have forward and backward motion feed dog driver components. You may still; be able to sew using a throat plate, but the feed dog will fight you somewhat.