Wizcrafts

Can you adjust the position of the control arm to get some free play before the motor engages? If so, make it sew! If not, open up the end of the motor with the control arm and remove the brake pad. This will give you at least 1/4 inch of free play. If you just need to hand wheel some projects, wind the belt off the machine pulley, or raise the motor belt tension adjuster nuts high enough to relieve the friction on the belt..

Indeed, there was a discussion about using bobbin tension gauges back in November and December.

The problem with using industrial threads in domestic sewing machines is that they weren't designed with suitable shuttle clearances and tension springs. Also, the thread top tensioner is usually different and is expecting to have cotton, polyester, or polycore thread wrapped around it. Bonded nylon thread throws a wrench into the works because it isn't as flexible. That typed (as opposed to "said"), I have had good success running #69 (T70) bonded nylon thread in Singer Class 15 and Class 127 machines. I've had less success with Class 66 and 221 machines. When I was repairing domestic machines as a sideline, I never tried testing a plastic body machine with nylon thread. It caused too much trouble and home sewing customers don't usually have industrial thread.

It sounds like hand sewing thread. Using waxed thread on a regular sewing machine is a really bad idea. It sticks to guides, rollers and springs and gums up the eye of the needle. It can also get stuck in the shuttle or the tab on the bottom of the throat plate It is also possible that the machine doesn't have enough clearance in the shuttle for Tkt 20 (bonded 138) thread. This size thread requires a #22/140 needle for cloth and a #23/160 for leather. The eye in these needles will easily pass Tkt 20 thread. What size needle are you using that is hard to thread through the eye? Consult this needle and thread chart for the best combinations for various sizes of thread.

If there is any means of adjusting the check spring, try lengthening its throw a bit to keep the top thread under some tension as the take-up lever and needle move down. If that spring lets the thread loose too soon it can get under the point of the needle and shred. Does a decent loop form as the needle begins to ascend from BDC? If not you might try retarding the timing a few degrees to see if you can get a bigger loop for the hook to pick off. Are you using a leather point needle? What size is the needle? What type and size is the thread? There is a handy needle and thread chart here.

96 dpi is fine for forum use. It will reduce the file size to stay within the forum's upload limit. I don't know about InfranView, but Corel's Paintshop Pro has additional "Chroma Subsampling" optimizations for reducing the filesize with minimal loss of clarity. As an example, I loaded a 1648x1004 px jpg into PSP and began optimizing before re-saving it. Using 15% quality reduction, along with Chroma Subsampling of YCbCr = 4x2 1x1 1x1, the original file gets reduced from 4.34 mb to 346 kb - with barely noticeable artifacts in a few dark areas !!! The DPI on this image is 300.

At a minimum, for a 10 ounce belt, you can use #138 bonded nylon thread, top and bottom, with a #23 leather point needle. This is usually the upper limit for your average upholstery grade walking foot machine. This weight thread has a 22 pound breaking strength. Some higher end walking foot machines may allow you to use #207 thread. Others may clear #207 on top as long as you have #138 in the bobbin. Sixteen ounce belts are a quarter inch thick. This thickness can easily hide the knots from #277 thread, top and bottom. This is beyond the capacity of upholstery grade machines. You'll need a holster/harness stitcher that has an open shuttle and very heavy take-up components. The aforementioned Cowboy CB3200 meets this requirement at an affordable price point (relatively speaking). Read the specs and look at the photos of the machine. This will give you some perspective about what type of machine you need to sew thicker leather.

800x600, 900x1200, or even 400x600 are best for small file size uploads. The jpg quality can be 85% before pixelation becomes noticeable. DPI applies to gifs more than jpgs. Standard resolution, as opposed to high def is preferred for web page photos. On web pages I create, I usually create two sizes per photo, using the smaller image (~300 to 400 px wide) on page and expanding it with the larger image via a clicked/tapped lightbox script. Most smartphone cameras no longer offer these smaller resolutions (my Samsung doesn't). So, unless you shoot with an actual digital camera that does allow for small res's, use a photo editor to reduce the dimensions and quality. I use Paintshop Pro, as well as FastStone Photo Resizer to edit images.

Your Juki uses the same needles and "G" size bobbins as the Singer 111w155. The needles are System 135x17 (round point for cloth) and 135x16 (leather points). They are sold by every industrial sewing machine dealer who sells walking foot machines. Your machine also uses the same feet as the Singer 111w155.

Try turning it counterclockwise. There are grooves on the shaft and a stud on the inside of the knob that rides between the grooves in the shaft. it is common for the grooves to chip or break over the decades since these machines were built. This makes it hard to not only remove the shaft, but to adjust the stitch length by rotating it. If the grooves are damaged, try using a combination of turning and pulling on the knob. I take from your mention of removing all the screws that you also removed the heavy duty spring under the cap screw inside the head, under the access plate and loosened the set screws on the opposite side of it. BTW: If the grooves are broken, there are no new replacements. You'll have to find another similar machine that has a good shaft to replace the bad one. Since this is also the main shaft, there are a lot of parts that will need to be removed and replaced. Alternately, just preset the stitch length in one position and leave it there.

I wasn't being polite to the spammer. I'm leaving this online in case they come back to see if anybody reacted to their one and only post.

A Teflon foot will help feed leather and vinyl. But, all it takes is one or two accidental foot drops, under spring pressure, onto the feed dog teeth to put an end to its usefulness. A better foot has a steel frame and steel rollers inside it. This foot feeds even better than Teflon. The next upgrade would be an actual industrial sewing machine roller foot conversion kit. This consists of a flip up foot with either a 3/4 or 1 inch diameter (sorry about the inches!) roller on ball bearings, a single row feed dog that's inline with the roller, and a throat plate to match.

@BellaBee To do the @ thing, type @username - noting that the username is cAsE sEnsiTive and there is no space after the @. If you do this correctly the member's username will appear under the typing. Click/tap on that highlighted name and the typing will become a link. In my case the link becomes @Wizcrafts

That post was spam.

@BellaBee It's beautiful, but is a bottom feed tailoring machine for cloth. Don't waste your time, or ruin the machine trying to sew leather over a couple of ounces thickness. To do that may require a roller or Teflon presser foot. It will likely be limited to T70 bonded thread, with a #110 needle.

Here is a video showing a synchronized binder in action on a properly setup machine.

Matt described how a 2 motion feed dog works. What he left out is that the reason some of these machines have a 2 motion feed dog is because they are intended to be used with synchronized binder attachments. The forward backward motion helps push the material into the edge binding to get a tighter lay, especially going around curves.

@Vladinard It would help you get better targeted replies if you would include your location in your forum profile.

That's the most beautiful Kingsley press I've seen! My two (M40 and M60) presses look like dinosaurs compared to yours. I love the sliding rack to extend it over the edge of the table. If you ever decide to sell it I've got dibs!!

Parts for Union Lockstitch Machines are dear.

You might have luck if you contact Campbell Randall in Texas. They have ULS parts and rebuilt machines. If they don't reply to an email, their phone number is (936) 539-1400 (Central Time). Otherwise, call Toledo Industrial Sewing Machines at (866) 362-7397 and ask if they happen to have an extra flywheel. As for motorizing it, the standard setup has a top mounted, 110v, continuous run 1/2 horsepower motor fitted with a double pulley. One pulley feeds the flywheel and the other drives the bobbin winder. The flywheel contains a routed conical clutch ring that (foot) presses against a cone shaped metalized material brake that drives the machine. It will take some major modifications to run it from a servo or even a clutch motor. I guess you could force the flywheel clutch to be permanently engaged and use the motor to power it.

You can find the date of manufacture of various Singer sewing machines, based upon the prefix letters and serial number, on Ismacs.

Try this online manual for the Singer 153 series machines Singer has been completely out of the industrial sewing machine business for a very long time. Your machine originally used system 135x7 (1901) needles, but, with a little height adjustment of the needle bar, can use readily available system 135x17 round point (cloth and webbing) and 135x16 leather point needles, available everywhere industrial sewing machines are sold. The machines uses the same G size bobbins as the Singer 111 series machines.

The loop is created when the needle makes its down/up/halt jog. But, the take-up spring exerts pressure on the take-up lever at this point. If the little paddle spring and the area behind it are badly worn the spring pressure will cause the loop to dissolve before the hook can pick it off. The original System 29x needles have no scarf above the eye. The current System 135x16 and 17 have a scarf. You can move the needle clamp to the right to get it closer to the hook than you can with a straight 29x3 or x4 needle.

Okay. I use #92 thread in my long arm, big bobbin patcher and #69 in the small bobbin 29k71. I have round, lr and diamond/tri point needles in every size. When sewing leather I use a leather point needle of some configuration. Most of the titanium needles I now buy are tri-point. They let the thread lay on top more than the slicing point needles do. But, you weren't sewing leather... Webbing is a woven synthetic fiber material. Leather point needles will slice and break the strands in the woven webbing. They are the wrong point. You should use 29x3 or 135x17 round points when sewing woven and cloth materials. Size-wise I use a #19 or #20 needle with #92 (T90) bonded thread. If you are using a #22, the eye is way to large. There won't be any resistance in the eye as the needle makes its down/up/down jog and the loop may dissolve before hook time occurs. You can counter this by playing with the settings of the barrel adjuster vs the top flat spring on the arm. When I encounter difficult materials that cause skipped stitches I try loosening the flat spring and cranking up the lift from the barrel adjuster. This is in addition to checking and tweaking the hook timing. If you have adjusted the timing perfectly and tweaked the take up adjusters and are still getting skipped stitches, replace the paddle shaped spring inside the needle bar.