dirtclod

Sorry I'm so late answering I had some health problems. I got the needles from New England Needle twenty years ago I have no ideal what they sell for now. I hope you find some at a good price.

I hauled one about forty miles standing up in the back of a pickup. It do haul it standing up drive pretty slow and try to miss every bump. It was nerve racking till I got in my shop.

You can try cutting some small triangles out. Try it out on some scrap first. I never have tried doing it that way, so it may or may not work.

I'd try some different thread especially if what you have is old. It won't cost much and if it doesn't help you will still have some new thread.

You can try pulling the thread between a folded piece of paper. That might help by kind of polishing the wax / getting the extra wax off. And might not help at all, but it won't cost much to try and see if helps.

That's neat ! My first though was a steampunk fire fighter.

It looks to me like it's three separate pieces that will need to be worked on at the same time.

The trouble with doing that is if your not careful when you pull what ever your sewing out you will break or bend the needle. You will have to pull slack in the top thread to take whatever your sewing out. I have one machine that's like that and I don't like it.

Cardboard boxes are free. I use them all the time to dye on. One side for black other side for the rest of the colors.

Search line art wolf and the same for the eagle. You should be able to find something.

I would think whoever set it up of checked that. To get the belt off loosen the speed reducer and maybe the motor. You will be able to raise them a little and get the belt off.

I would just make another set of fenders. And keep them to use when you get another saddle cause you will sale or trade the one you have now i bet. In the past I had a couple of saddles that the fenders had been shorten on and NOBODY wanted to buy them ! Lost money on everyone of those saddles.

Get ready to complain some cause priority mail prices went up today. Guess you need to move closer to the supplier and yea I have to order just about everything. Or start your own supply company and get everything at wholesale prices. Five hundred thousand ought to get ya started.

I think you should back both top tensions, back off and start over adjusting the tension. If you have another color thread i would use that ( some people have a lot of trouble with black thread ) when i got my machine i was told to set the tension for the lightest things i would be sewing and that it should be good to go on anything else. That advice has worked pretty good for the last 20 plus years. When i go from 277 to 138 i do have to tighten the top tension just a little. Most of the time when i'm sewing both the top tension and the side tension have maybe one turn. On the bobbin tension i just do it by feel. But i have read on here that some folks use a weight gauge like what you use to weigh a fish with and set the bobbin tension at one pound pull.

If you follow the curves. Pretty quick your curve is gonna be a sharp point or sharper than you want to cut around. Then you'll have to straighten the piece by cutting the points off. A guy I worked for years ago tried that and ruined a side of leather.