Wizcrafts

My guess, based upon my ebaying, is that the much cheaper parts are usually shipped to you directly from China, Honk Kong, Taiwan, or elsewhere in the Orient. It could take a month to arrive. The higher price parts are usually in-Country. I would check the location before hitting the Buy Now button. Another reason for price discrepancies like that are when you buy authentic replacement parts from a brand's manufacturer, vs aftermarket parts from the Orient. The accuracy of the AM parts may vary widely.

I have added 3:1 speed reducers to most of my machines. That usually does the trick for me and should for you too. The question is what type of reducer to buy and who is going to install it? Then there's the question about your motor. Does it start up with a jolt at a couple hundred rpm? If so, does it have pushbuttons to control it? That type of servo is very hard to control and I have removed any like that and replaced them with this type of knob controlled servo motor. This motor starts at zero and speeds up to the preset limit of the knob. Heck, you may find that you don't really need a reducer with this motor. Note that when you change motor types, or add reducers, the v-belt length/lengths will change too.

The Class 26, et al, is a compound feed walking foot machine. All of these machines are designed to sew medium density materials, like vinyl, chrome-tan and thin veg-tan leather, draperies and denim. Light cloth tends to get pushed into the hole/slot in the feed dog. It also lifts with the inside foot on the upstroke which caused puckering and skipped stitches. You probably will need a flat bed straight stitch machine to sew thin linings.

Bags like to be sewn on cylinder arm sewing machines. Ask them! The next question is: which is the best cylinder arm machine fits my $2500 budget? If you are buying used, anything you can afford and don't mind dinking with when things go out of wack. But, if you buy new and the dealer offers (and provides) free support, you will easily spend $2500 (shipped). This could buy you a Cowboy CB341 or Cobra Model 26, which are clones of the Juki LS-341 (now superseded by the improved LS-1341). Here is a video of a Cowboy CB341 being demo'd: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVJ9_3AbmO4 There are other brands available used that cost twice as much new as the above mentioned clone machines. Adler and Pfaff come to mind, as well as an actual Juki LS-341, or the current LS-1341.

I was being facetious ;-). Nobody who knows anything about industrial sewing machines is going to pay anywhere near that amount. Maybe if it was cleaned up it might fetch $250. This model 111w153 is a triple feed walking foot, but with low foot lift. It can sew a maximum thickness of 5/16 inch unless it was highly modified. They use standard G size walking foot bobbins and can just handle up to #138 thread, but is better limited to #92. I had one for a while.

If somebody is willing to pay $500, go for it! Sell it on Craigslist to a budding upholsterer.

The maximum needle size is determined by one or more factors, including: the diameter of the hole in the feed dog or throat plate and the position of the hook in relation to the scarf in the needle and how far it can be moved and remain in time. Those are physical limits. Additionally, there are thread handling limits that apply to any given sewing machine. Some machines have stronger or weaker take-up levers and crank shafts in the head. Some, if not most upholstery grade walking foot machines are built with an upper thread size limit of #138 (T-135) bonded thread, which has a breaking strength of 22 pounds. If that machine is threaded with #138 thread on top and in the bobbin, that is its safe design limit. Coincidentally, that thread combination calls for a #23 (Metric 160) needle. While those machines will operate with #138 thread using a #23 needle, they are happier running #69 or 92 thread with a #18 or 19 needle, respectively. All of the stresses are reduced with thinner thread and needles.

If you aren't already doing so, use a #23 needle with #138 thread, top and bottom.

What you want is a leather belt hook, like this one.

You can use the freeware Faststone Photo Resizer to reduce the file size for use on forums with filesize restrictions.

Try to increase the slack thread using the check spring adjuster, There are three adjustments available, depending on what type of check spring system your machine has. The style with the most adjustments has the spring inside rotating disks under the top tension disks. They allow for spring tension (loosen a set screw and use screwdriver blade to tighten or loosen the spring), spring travel (via a curved stop bracket on the bottom of the spring) and a curved slot adjustment to fine tune the amount of extra thread that is allowed on the downstroke. By playing with the check spring adjustments you can get a larger, longer lasting loop for the hook to pick off.

No. I use a #25 needle with #277 thread. A #24 needle hole is too tight to let the knots come up easily in veg-tan leather. You would have to really crank down the presser foot pressure screw and crank up the top tension, and/or lower the bobbin tension.

I would only use an oversize #230 needle if the bottom of the hole healed up before the knots can be pulled up. This might happen on Biothane harness or heavy webbing straps. For instance, I occasionally get hired to sew vehicle tow straps that are 2 inches wide and about 1/4 to 5/16 inch thick along the overlap. I use #346 thread with a #26 needle to offset the hole bottom closing up. This makes it easier to pull up the knots and center them in extremely dense material.

If you advertise the Singer 251 as a tailoring/dressmaker's machine it may sell fast. Dressmakers like to sew fast and that machine sure can lay down fast stitching.

The double needle walking foot machine can be operated with one needle and is capable of sewing leather, vinyl, canvas, denim, webbing and fire hose. The 251 is a bottom feed tailoring machine and not for leather or hoses. If you bought the 251 you made a mistake.

They will be metric thread. Contact an industrial sewing machine dealer to get the right parts. Don't ruin the threads to save a few bucks on local, wrong pitch parts.

If you are hoping for replies to your leather sewing machine question, a photo or video of it trying to sew would be more useful than the landscape photo you posted. As beautiful as the scene is, it doesn't show the machine. A close-up of the hook as the needle begins its upstroke would be most useful.

The Juki LU-563 has a double standard capacity bobbin and compound feed walking feet that allow it to sew 3/8 inch. The Singer 29k60 is a shoe and boot uppers patching machine that has a half standard capacity bobbin and top feed only. It maxes out between 1/4 and 5/16 inch of medium temper leather. As for stitch length, the Juki will probably give you at least 4 to the inch while the 29k may give 5 to the inch at best. and less if the feed motion crank is worn out. Both machines top out with #138 bonded thread using a #23/160 needle. This size thread has a breaking strength of about 22 pounds. Other incidentals that will probably come up are the fact that the Juki takes all manner of presser feet, including those with spring edge guides and piping feet. There is no such foot or attachment for a patcher. You may have a hard time sewing a straight line without an edge guide on a top feed patcher. IHTH

Your question is too open ended. You haven't posted a sample of the type of shoes you make that you want to start sewing on a machine. I can tell you that there are some specialized sewing machines that are used to produce shoes that aren't used in general leather work - and vice versa. Once we see some photos of your shoes we can offer our opinions about sewing machines that will speed things up.

Juki is mostly made in Japan and they certainly have post machines. Because they are so well built they last a very long time and the price reflects that fact. Your other options for European built machines include Pfaff and Durkopp-Adler. USA built industrial sewing machines are few, purpose built and expensive. USA modified is another story. The are quite a few dealers who will modify industrial sewing machines to meet a specific requirement. We used to have Ferdinand and Luberto industrial/leather sewing machines made in the USA, but they are long out of business. There are other ancient design American made sewing machines that were specific to the harness, gun leather, saddlery and luggage trades that can still be found used or rebuilt. They are extremely heavy, hard to master and parts can be extremely expensive, if available at all.

All I have is this manual for the Singer 29k71, 72 and 73. I hope that helps you. 29k71-71-73 Service Manual and Parts List.pdf

I see you're located in:Singapore. You could contact CowboySew/HighTex to see if they have a dealer in or near Singapore. They make post bed, cylinder arm and flat bed sewing machines in your part of the World. The have various types of feed, including compound feed.

Reading the operating instructions I saw that your machine uses either DBx1 or System 134 needles. It depends on the diameter of the bore in the needle bar. I would try the DBx1 first. If the shank is too loose the needle will be off center. Then you could try a System 134 needle.Stay with the best fit and fine tune the needle bar height for the best pickoff.

The Sailrite machines are meant for sewing canvas, Sunbrella and vinyl materials. They are dual feed, with teeth on the feet to assist with the top/bottom feeding. The maximum thickness they can sew is 1/4 inch, with up to #92 bonded polyester thread (maybe even #138). If your projects fall withing these specs the Sailrite may be a good solution for your limited space. Because these machines are built to stand up to sewing soft vinyl and cloth, they may be over stressed by leather. Leather has resistance to the needle and thread. The bottom of the needle hole tends to close slightly as the needle ascends. So, you may need to use one size larger needle when sewing leather. This adds to the work load on the take-up mechanism. You should use leather point needles for leather and round point for cloth and synthetics. There is one more factor to consider if you buy a portable walking foot machine. That is punching power. Leather requires more punching power and the basic setup of these portables doesn't provide that much. You may need to upgrade from the Power Plus wheel to the Monster II balance wheel to get the necessary torque. That adds $125 to the price of the machine. The teeth on the bottom of the standard feet will leave marks in leather. you may need to upgrade to the knurled presser feet, which they sell for ~$32. By the time you are through upgrading a portable dual feed walking foot machine you could probably have bought a Consew P-1206RB industrial compound feed walking foot machine.