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Everything posted by Matt S
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Finding a more powerful motor will help, but it's not going to take you past the limits of a domestic machine. For a 110V motor @ 1.5A your motor will be consuming about 165 Watts. A similarly powerful motor designed for and run on 220v would only draw 0.75A. They certainly exist, try contacting your local machine dealers and asking what the most powerful domestic machine motor they carry is. I've seen them advertised as much as 180W before. Assuming you can obtain a more powerful 220v motor there would be no advantage to operating a 110V 1.5A motor. In comparison the motor on your Cowboy machine probably consumes at least 500 Watts, and possibly as much as 1000W. Sadly I find that a lot of online advocates for domestic machines on leather either don't know what they're talking about or are trying to sell you an inappropriate machine for more than it's worth. A 165W motor simply does not provide much punching power on leather, nor is it the only deciding factor. Your Pfaff will probably be okay for very light leather work -- a couple MM of soft leather using TKT40 thread will probably be the maximum. You'll still have to deal with dog-marks, layer slippage, short stitch length, small bobbins and inconsistent stitch length.
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Strictly it arrived a couple weeks ago but I've not had much time to fiddle with it until now. Singer 19-10 feed-up-the-arm zigzag from 1951 in very tidy condition. There's very little information available on this apart from what's in the Singer catalogue: Uses A/15 type bobbins and is a drop-feed. Bed gives about 9" of space behind the needle. Uses an unusual presser foot -- from the parts list it looks like a couple were available, one with some sort of guide blade for butt stitching (missing from mine). I'll try and improvise something from standard feet. Stitch length up to 3/16" (4mm) and ZZ throw up to 5/8" (8mm). No reverse. Mine looks like it's had very little use. Apart from a few shipping injuries (anyone got a spare Simanco 7170 lifting lever?) it only needed 60+ years of dried grease cleaned out and a heavy oiling to stitch beautifully. Listed needle size is 16x87, which is now obsolete so I picked up a few different sizes of 16x230 which apparently is the same except with a scarf. When it arrived it was stitched off with TKT30/V92 jeans thread but not having any of that on hand I tried TKT20/v138 nylon, which is what I normally use on a similar weight machine. Unfortunately it kept binding inside the shuttle race and skipping stitches at the right throw of the ZZ. The shuttle driver is pinned so can't be adjusted. TKT40/v69 works great. Overall I'm very pleased with this machine. Although it wasn't exactly cheap it was a lot less expensive than any other transverse-feed machine with similar capabilities I have been able to find. I'm excited about the new designs I can offer which this opens up for me.
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Yes I have one of these. They are a Chinese copy of a German machine designed for bookbinding. I have had very little success with mine, but plenty of ruined leather, rude words, and some blood. They may be suited to lighter leathers than I am trying to use them with, which would make sense since they are intended for bookbinding.
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Juki DSC245 - any experience with this machine
Matt S replied to plinkercases's topic in Leather Sewing Machines
I have a clone of the Juki 246. This is essentially the same as the 245, but with a larger hook. There's not many 24x machines around, or their clones. I like the 246 because it combines a lot of features I was looking for: it takes M (large) bobbins; it takes common 135x16/17 needles; it's a walking-foot machine that takes common 111-type feet; it has a fairly small diameter cylinder bed; it's got reverse; it can run TKT20/v138 thread all day and TKT13/v207 thread in the top if you ask it nicely. I used to use it as my primary machine until I made space for a flat-bed machine. However, this is an upholstery weight machine. It'll do about 8mm (5/16") thickness maximum, and struggle a little there. As I said above the biggest thread I have used is TKT13/v207 on top but this is marginal and I prefer to use or smaller TKT20/v138 with any regularity. Having a smaller hook the 245 probably won't deal with v138 too well, and with the smaller bobbins you'll be changing them more often. A real Juki will have a much better build quality than my Chinese clone machine so it might deal okay with heavier thread even with the smaller hook, but I don't know. If you're making, say, pocket holsters and little knife pouches this might be alright but I think you'll be disappointed. The other issue is that there are very few accessories available for the 24x series of machines. I think that Juki only made them for a few years and from the few references I've found online they don't look like they were very popular. There's some binding parts and that's about it. I've looked at parts designed for the Adler 69, which is quite similar, but because the 24x series has a 4-motion feed-dog (rather than the 69's 2-motion) extensive modifications would be needed, which makes it a lot more expensive. -
I vote for Barnsley. They're proper workman's tools. Tandy tools make me think of those fishing lures, which are better designed to catch the fisherman's wallet than any fish. George B went out of business 20 years ago but his grandson now produces the same knives under his own company Woodware Repetitions. Abbey England stocks a range.
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- tandy
- round knife
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I actually use an equal-grind kiridashi as a paring knife. The very hard core makes the edge last longer I reckon. English paring knives are traditionally longer and wider. This helps getting the knife quite low to the surface for a long, shallow bevel. I hear those hacksaw blades make good paring/skiving knives, especially if they're made from HSS.
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Barnsley knives are very good. No fancy tropical hardwoods or supersteels -- beech handles and Sheffield crucible steel. The sort of tools that don't need a mortgage to buy but will do years of work with a little occasional maintenance. Geo Barnsley went out of business about 20 years ago but his grandson now produces the main lines under his own company's name, Woodware Repetitions. Abbey England now stock them, along with some Barnsley, at very reasonable prices. About £3.50 for a shoe knife, £5 for a paring knife, £16 for a quarter-round head knife, £18 for a half-round head knife (all plus delivery and VAT).
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I reckon that the edge groover serves two purposes: to pull all the stitches into line and to sell another £10 tool. Stitch neatly and you don't need the groove, which weakens the leather. Furthermore I have found that the usual Ivan/Tandy edge groovers aren't sharp and clog easily, both of which increase the likelihood of the groove wandering off in the wrong direction. Much better to mark the stitch line around the border of a piece with a wing divider, or a scratch awl and some sort of template when going across the middle.
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I use one most weeks but never owned one. They can split thinner and floppier leather than a fixed-knife splitter like those you mention, which are really only good for thick, stiff leathers. Band-knife splitters though are physically large, heavy, complicated and expensive machines.
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Which machine for attaching shoe uppers to insoles?
Matt S replied to Elennah's topic in Leather Sewing Machines
Elannah, you can get a basic Chinese clone of the 45K in the US for about $1000, including a modern servo motor. Needles in all sorts of sizes are cheap and readily available, as are a selection of accessories. This also avoids the wear and parts availability issues of buying a 'real' 45K, which has been out of production for decades. Alternatively if stitching the upper to the midsole like the photo you show is the heaviest work you're likely to do, you might want to look at a slightly lighter duty, more general-purpose leather-sewing machine like a Consew 226. This should handle (what looks like) 8mm thickness just fine. The beauty of such a machine is that you could then change needle, thread and adjust tension to sew uppers, or indeed many other sewing tasks, with the same machine. -
Have you tried a white wax? Harness makers used to use a mixture containing white lead when doing fancy stitching. Nowadays we know how toxic white lead is, but powdered chalk or something similar mixed into melted beeswax would probably keep the thread white for longer.
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Singer 45K25- treadle talk me into it or out of it!
Matt S replied to Kabob's topic in Leather Sewing Machines
The 45k was a mainstay of industry for decades, in both cylinder bed and flat bed formats. They can sew just under 1/2" maximum thickness. Needles, bobbins and hooks are readily available, as are a very limited selection of feed dogs but most other parts are pretty rare. Be aware that the 45K25 has no reverse function -- not a game changer but can be useful if you want it. All of the 45K class (apart from a few darning subclasses with no feed at all) are drop-feed machines, which can cause marks on the underside of the work -- again not the end of the world, and these can sometimes be removed with some hammering or rubbing with a bone folder. If you want to learn machines, the 45K is a great starting point -- they're really simple and there's not many tiny fiddly parts to drop between the floorboards. $1000 seems like a lot of money but I guess the treadle stand is a big part of that price, so long as it's a true industrial treadle stand and not a patcher or domestic treadle stand. For that price you can get a brand new, guaranteed, Chinese-built clone of the 45K with a servo motor: http://www.tolindsewmach.com/cb2500.html Is the seller of 'your' 45K a proper, bona fide dealer/mechanic? If not you'll have to gamble that there is nothing particularly wrong with the machine, which the seller may not know or care about. -
Various sized rivets, different base-same head?
Matt S replied to Mocivnik's topic in How Do I Do That?
Not quite the same look, but a burr rivet (available in copper, brass and aluminium) can be trimmed to whatever length you want. Also you can get chicago screws in a range of lengths if you search eBay for "binding screws". Secure them with a drop of loctite. I usually buy them from Hebar/Green Grizzly. -
I use a 50p pencil, or a £2 scratch awl.
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Joe, I believe that I have a locally badged version of the same machine. Works great for a lot of different jobs that you might put through any typical upholstery-weight machine. Needles, bobbins and presser feet are very widely and cheaply available. I've sewn bags, wallets, purses, dog collars and leads, belts, lighter-weight 'adult' stuff and some light duty knife sheaths with it. It may not be the prettiest girl in the shop but it is a real workhorse.
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Machine sewing with waxed thread
Matt S replied to T Moore Medicine Hat Saddlery's topic in Leather Sewing Machines
Linen is preferable to nylon in applications that might be exposed to lots of UV (sunlight), however so is polyester. Other than tradition, I'm not sure there is an advantage to machine sewing with linen over poly. However in the larger sizes I can only get poly in black or white, whereas linen can often be found in a few different colours even in 18/5 or 18/6. When running polyester I put sewing oil in the wax pot on my No6 machine instead of liquid wax. As to prewaxed linen in the No6 machine I have nothing much to add beyond what the manual says since I've not had call to try it. There may be specific advantages to using linen over synthetics in saddlery or harness applications but you'd be better speaking with someone like @Les No6 about this. -
Machine sewing with waxed thread
Matt S replied to T Moore Medicine Hat Saddlery's topic in Leather Sewing Machines
I use linen as well as nylon and poly in my Pearson 6, but put liquid wax in the pot on the top. The manual suggests that prewaxed thread can be used but heating might be necessary to soften the wax during stitching. Heating used to be achieved using paraffin/kerosene lamps, electric blocks, or gas jets, all of which were optional extras and few survive. -
Yeah I can see why you're having trouble with that. Beautiful bags but those end seams look tricky. Pretty, but tricky. A transverse feed machine would be ideal but they are rare. Looks like you could turn the bag inside out, not fully but just enough so you could do those end seams with a post bed machine. As I alluded earlier, @wiz has described a way of using a normal cylinder bed as a transverse feed (feed on/off the arm) but it's a bit slow and awkward. Essentially you prick the bag as if you were hand sewing. Then set the machine stitch at zero. Put the needle into the first stitch mark and make a single stitch. Turn the wheel to top dead centre (when the take up arm is at its zenith). Lift the foot and, without drawing any more thread than strictly necessary, position the needle Into the next stitch hole. Drop the foot, make a single stitch, and repeat. It goes a little faster if you have a needle synchronizer and a pedal/knee lifter on that machine. Gets the job done without a new machine and avoids some of the issues with patchers.
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Ah an improvised transverse feed machine. @Silverd could you show us a picture of the seam you want to sew? Maybe we could come up with a better way of construction between us. Using a patcher in this manner would work but wouldn't be great. @wiz described a way to use a regular cylinder bed machine as a transverse feed, which works, if a little slow.
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Those utility knives are okay for straight cuts, but I find them very difficult for curves. The least expensive round head knife I have found is this one, a Barnsley sold by Abbey England, for £16+VAT: http://abbeyengland.com/Store/txtSearch/knife/ProductID/76762 I use one of these daily and, once sharpened, mine is excellent. I have Chinese quarter-round punches up to 50mm radius. Any larger and I'd think you'd have to look at clicker dies.
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One of my dealers has some really beautiful hair-on pony that I've been tempted by, but I fear the same reaction. Spose I could describe it as nag hide...
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What sort of knife are you using? I find that a Stanley knife is not much good for curves, but a properly sharp head knife works great. You don't need an expensive one, £15-20 gets you a basic one that works fine after sharpening. Alternatively for inside curves you can use hole punches. You can also get half-round or quarter-round punches in different radii for inside or outside curves.
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Patchers really aren't suited to production work. As you mention the top-feeding foot can (but doesn't always) mark the piece. However I think you'll have bigger problems with the lack of edge guides or suitable places to mount one, with the very small bobbins, with the limited maximum thickness, and with the thread size limitations. There's also a major issue in making handbags as patchers don't have unified feed, so you will encounter uneven stitch length and layer slippage compared with using a unified/compound-feed machine, such as a walking-foot Cowboy. Is there a particular reason why you're looking at patchers specifically?
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@BaileyLanier, Just in case you're not familiar with industrial machines like these, the belt is removable since machine heads, motors, table tops and table stands are interchangeable. It also allows you to replace the belt if it wears. In order to put the belt back in place you will need to rock the machine head back a few inches on its hinges, which will bring the machine pulley a little closer to the motor pulley. You can then put the belt back onto the two pulleys and when you allow the machine head to come forward again it should tension properly. A word of warning: that machine head is heavy. Probably around 50lb. That weight will be borne on the two hinges behind the head so it's not like you'll have to deadlift it but it takes a bit of welly to get moving, and once it's moving it will want to keep moving. These days machines have a 'jackleg' behind the head where you can rest it but it looks like yours doesn't so you'll have to support it somehow as you fiddle with the belt. If you get it at the sweet spot you'll not have to use much strength to keep it balanced in place. Remember too to lower it back down gently once you're done. I would echo @Wizcrafts advice and look at replacing that old motor with a modern servo motor. They're not very expensive and will really help you with controlling the machine. If you do so the new motor should mount on the bolts from the old one so it's quite a simple procedure. The hardest part is probably removing the old clutch motor. (I once had the fun of catching one of those 30lb lumps on its way towards a lady's nice tile floor -- I'd not bothered to strap it up before removing the last nut, having overestimated how stuck in place those 40-year-old coach bolts were. Would've been a bit less exciting if I weren't on my back, head-first under the table, blinking dust out of my eyes and concentrating on not hitting the wall with the socket handle.) As to threading, I would think it threads like any other 111 or similar style machine so any manual or video you find will be adequate. Does your machine have a thread-stand behind and to the right of the machine-head? If not you'll want one. They're inexpensive and fairly universal.
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Tandy sells a RFID shield lining that works quite well Item #3499-00. This is supplied in small sheets about the size of printer paper. It's a flexible polymer. Not the world's cheapest stuff at £12 for a pack of 3 (£6 Elite) but one pack is enough for several wallets depending on how you cut it. Sadly I've not found any other source for it or a similar product.