amuckart

I can't help with hints on where to get it serviced, but these are good machines. Yours is certainly in excellent cosmetic condition by the looks of things. Did it come with a manual and parts list? If not, get a manual for it and try to find a parts list. It really does help to be familiar with what goes where. At the very least, you will need to understand how to oil the machine and how to clean it. The first thing you should do is go and read Wiz' thread on the type of machine you need to sew leather then read up on the technical specifications of this particular machine to get a feel for what it will and won't do. Every machine has it's upper and lower limits of what it will sew, and every feed mechanism has its advantages and disadvantages, none absolutely better than any other, but all designed for different applications. In case you haven't got that information already, these use a system 135x17 needle for textiles or 135x16 for leather. Have a read of this PDF from Groz-Beckert describing the different point types for sewing leather Schmetz have recently redone their website and have a lot of useful information there too. Look at http://schmetz.com/en/products/industrial-sewing/leather/special-features/ for info about point types for leather and textile, and at http://schmetz.com/en/products/industrial-sewing/leather/product-range/for the available system/point-type/size combinations available. It's very useful to understand the point types and codes, which are different between manufacturers but Groz-Beckert and Schmetz are the two major manufacturers of high-quality needles. Absolutely get a knee or foot lift, they are invaluable. I've got long legs that don't fit too well under a K-frame stand, so I prefer a foot pedal lift that pulls a chain that is attached to the end of the lifter bar on the back of the machine, but if you don't have long legs knee lifts are good too. A 206 like yours will sew leather, but it almost certainly isn't set up for it 'out of the box' these are really upholstery machines, designed to sew at quite high speed - 1500-3000 stitches/min, which is quite literally 10 times faster than the absolute max speed you want to run this thing at for short runs of anything more than 3-4 layers of upholstery leather under the foot. You can often get a good idea of the speed a machine is designed to run at by looking at the size of the wheel on the end of the head. Smaller = higher speed, bigger = lower speed. Really heavy stitchers have gigantic wheels on them. So, you've got a decent brand and model of machine, but to sew leather there are a couple of things you'll probably want to do. At the very least, get a servo motor and speed reducer to slow the machine down, then find somewhere to get smooth feet for sewing leather and a smooth needle plate (the half-round plate under the foot). One way to run these machines is by taking the feed dog out and replacing the needle plate with one that just has a narrow slot in it, but you can also try and find a smooth feed dog. You may need to adapt existing parts, or have a machinist make up a needle plate for you. Toothed feed dogs and feet will mark up the leather you're sewing. You will also eventually find things that can't be sewn on a flat-bed machine, which is when you'll start looking at post bed or cylinder arm machines, or both. Then you will start trying to figure out ways to either stack them, or build a tardis to keep them in

I really hope that's not still the case! There are some parts I desperately need to get my #6 going and I'm about to put a reasonably significant parts order in with them. I did email John Leighton who said they only manufacture parts for #6s they are rebuilding in-shop, not for resale, and Henry Veenhoven who I believe supplied some parts to Aaron Martin but I haven't heard back from Henry. I'm not aware of any other sources for replacement parts for the #6. At least you can still get Union Lock parts from Campbell-Randall.

Wiz, www.mcmaster.com is a complete pain to link to directly but put "Drive Belt" into the search box then follow the links for "Round Belts" > "Solid Core" > "Belting" (Under Form) You can get various sizes of V-belt from there too, as well as adjustable length belting that comes in links. I hope that helps.

Wiz, you might have better luck with the small-diameter hollow urethane tubing from McMaster Carr. I use it on my treadle machines. It's more flexible than leather and has a bit of tack to it that helps it grip the pulleys.

When I saw this I thought about how I'd do it, and figured as I'd pull the patcher off the stand, install a plate between the patcher and the stand sticking out the back and bolt the motor to that. From there you could rig an extension from the pittman of the stand's existing pedal to the motor control, and it's all totally reversible if you ever want to take the motor off again. You'd need to be a bit careful about the size of motor you chose though, a full-size industrial job might be too heavy, but from the looks of the ones Wiz posted pics of you don't need a big motor to drive a patcher.

I use a glass shelf from the bathroom section of the hardware store.

Can someone explain to the Americanly-challenged what a "BBQ Rig" is? I'm assuming it's another term for an off-duty rig?

If you remove the two screws from the needle clamp completely, the front plate comes off. My plan was to make a part that replaced that front plate and was held on by the original screws so it didn't require any permanent modification of the machine at all.

I toyed with the idea of having a new needle bar made to fit 794 system needles, but it's not a cheap bit of machining for me to get done and there are issues with the stroke length that mean you wouldn't be able to sew really thick stuff. I plan on making a small adapter that bolts on where the needle clamp is and has a small projecting tube to take 794 needles, just to see how it works.

http://www.stapleheadquarters.com/neva-clog-staples.html Might help

Thank you for the pictures of the back. Is the waxing apparatus electrically heated? Interesting modification to the needle, what did you do to it?

It does, thank you.

Purely out of curiosity - since I don't and probably never will carry a sidearm - can you tell me what the rationale was for placing the "X" up at the base of the neck rather than down between the shoulder blades? Thanks.

If there are two brushes, and you swap the brush casings (and therefore the wiring, and polarity relative to the field coils) then the motor will run backwards.

What thickness of leather are you using? If you've got reasonably stiff thick leather for the base just cut circles out and sew them in flesh-edge through the base

That really is an incredibly good find for EU100, especially with that waxing apparatus! Do you have any photos of the back side of the machine?

Inkscape is the Right Tool for design work like this. It's free, multi-platform, saves its output in an open standard format (that you'll still be able to open in 10 years), and works. It has a bit of a learning curve, but the help is pretty good and there are books on it. For symmetrical stuff, explore the clone tool.

For wallets and shoes, I'd get a roller-foot post-bed machine. You can't do shoes on a cylinder bed machine.

I've never used one, but it looks to be similar to the STH-8, which I have but is a vertical-axis hook machine that takes a smaller bobbin. I take it you're looking at the one on TradeMe? I got my STH-8BL for NZ$350 in pretty good mechanical nick, but set up for upholstery. I got it to do tent repairs, for leather it'll need a servo motor and a different needle plate. Wiz has a similar machine set up with no feed dog and a slotted needle plate for leather. There's a $1 reserve Pfaff on there at the moment, currently at $30 that'll probably end up going cheap but it needs some work by the looks of things. I plan on getting a set of feet and a roller guide for it and getting a slotted needle plate laser cut. The thing that might get you about the STW-8 is that it's max stitch length is 5.5mm and it takes small bobbins. For leather, I'd hold out for the STH-8 or a Consew 206. There seems to have been a fairly steady flow of this class of machine on TM for the last little while. I see one guy with a couple of new in-the-box STH-8BLD3 machines for NZ$1400.

That looks knife cut to me. If you look really closely at the left side of the slot it looks like the cut goes a little too far. The key I've found cutting slots like that is to always cut away from the body of the leather, so for a given rectangle there will be eight cuts. I do it with a very sharp and sharply pointed Olfa AK-1 craft knife using a KB4-S/B blade going in almost vertically at the corners. I use the Olfa knife because the blades are a good contour and much higher quality than most x-acto / craft knife blades, and I got given them

Hi Charlie, If your trumpet is worth that much, I think you'd be getting the bad end of the deal trading it for a 31-15. They can be had for far far less than that.

Rees also has things to say on the topic: http://www.personal.utulsa.edu/~marc-carlson/histshoe/Rees/rees3.htm

Hi Art, Thanks for the later references, I tend to focus so much on pre-1600 stuff that's what I default to when I hear "historical reenactment". NZ doesn't have a big CW reenactment scene Do you have a copy, and if so can you quote it here? Thanks.

I second that recommendation. That's where I got started. I've been reading and participating in it for a few years now and it's still the best compendium of information out there. Do you have references for white code, or ingredients pre-18th Century? I've looked into this quite a bit, as have people like Marc Carlson, and to my knowledge there is just no surviving evidence for the content of medieval shoemaking waxes. If you know of some I'd be really interested in seeing it, especially if you can document the use of asphaltum in them! I'm familiar with the CW-era and 18th century recipes, including the ones for masheen/white wax, but extrapolating backwards to medieval/renaissance techniques from the 18th century doesn't work. I don't get the link between Sellari's wax and the content of medieval code, am I missing something? The trick with adding things like tallow is to add them in tiny quantities. I take single shavings off of a cake of tallow and add one, pour, pull, set and test then re-melt if required. With reference to the recipes of Al's you quote, be aware that Rausch Naval Yards burned down and you can't get pitch from there any more. Colonial Williamsburg ended up importing some from China at vast cost since you apparently can't even get it from Sweden any more, which is a pretty sad state of affairs.

The first thing that popped into my mind was 'what's the trumpet worth if you sold it'? If you're willing to part with it to get a sewing machine then that pretty much sets your budget. It's easy to underestimate how much machine consumables can cost too, so keep that in mind.