amuckart

You can probably get a better leather machine for the money. 7-31s are better for heavy fabric sewing than leather and the flat bed will limit you. Set your budget then contact the vendors who advertise on here and tell them what you've got to spend and what you want to make and you'll come out with something better.

#6 Pittman rods are easy, they're just straight. It's the shaped A1 pittmans I need pictures of.

Hi all, I'm looking for good pictures of a pitman rod for a Pearson & Bennion/BUSM A1 treadle machine. I need to make a pair and I'd like to get the shape right. Cheers.

This probably isn't useful, but I'm really glad I'm not the only person who's encountered this with this class of machine. My 441 clone does it too and it's driving me nuts because it's the last adjustment/tuneup I can't get my head around having taken the gamble of buying a factory-direct clone (it's a Cowboy, but without Bill's magic touch). As far as I can tell the thread is catching on the shuttle somewhere, there's a distinct noise it makes when this happens. It's not a timing thing though, the timing is perfect on my machine in forward and reverse. I am starting to suspect it's a defect in the actual shuttle itself, but I'll be really interested in other responses to the problem.

Do you have pictures of what's going on, and of the plate on your machine? Too much top tension, or a threading problem. Unthread the whole machine, and re-thread it following Steve's video on youtube. If that doesn't help, back the top tension right off until the bobbin threads are pulled up to the top, then tighten the top tension up until they dissappear but don't reappear on the bottom. This happens when you've missed threading the thread through the guide right on the needle bar so the thread's coming in at an angle from the last guide on the head of the machine. This is what pulls the needle and bends it. There's a little guide on the needle bar above the needle that the thread goes through to stop this. Been there, done that. Have a look at Steve's threading video on youtube and you'll see the bit I mean, it's the very last step before you thread the actual needle. Don't give up, nobody was born knowing how these things work.

I've used aerosol brake cleaner on many machines without a problem. The only way I can see it would promote corrosion is because it totally strips all surface oils off, so it pays to wipe exposed metal down with a non-drying light oil afterwards (or just spray the whole thing with syntex and deal with the drips). I would run far, far, away from any water-based cleaner. You'll never get the damn thing dry before it starts rusting, and you'll need to soak the whole thing in WD-40 to displace any moisture you can't get at. Kerosine is the other traditional sewing machine cleaner, but several cans of brake cleaner are probably a lot cheaper than enough kero to completely submerge the machine for a week.

Sorry man, I didn't mean to put you down. Nobody was born knowing this stuff!

Save your money, and read Wiz' thread on the type of sewing machine you need to sew leather. The Singer 15 class are great machines - for fabric. They were never designed to sew leather. Singer did make machines specifically to sew leather, and they look nothing like a 15 class.

Looks to me like you missed out the take up lever. Pictures of how you threaded the machine would be more useful than the results.

There's a book on the topic entitled, descriptively enough, Moving Heavy Things

As soon as you start "helping" the work feed you're likely to deflect the needle and make it strike the needle plate and break.Where did you get the new needle? What system and size is it? By this do you mean the adjuster for foot lift height that is on the presser foot spring on the back of the machine? There isn't any adjustment on the needle bar of these machines that I've ever seen. Do you have pictures of the old and new shuttles? It's likely that the old one was too short, and the only reason it sewed at all was a compatible lot of wear. That sounds pretty symptomatic of a worn out machine. If you hold the wheel still, how much vertical play in the needle bar is there? There should be very very little or none. If there is the roller bearing at the back of the rocker arm is probably worn, or the groove it runs in in the cam track in the drive wheel is worn. Likewise if you hold the wheel still, is there slop in the shuttle carrier? If there is the rack and pinion under the machine are probably worn out. I'm not sure what you mean by needle bar bushings, but I think it's more likely that the mechanisms that drive the needle height and the shuttle position are worn and there's enough slop in them that the additional resistance posed to the needle by thicker or harder material is throwing the timing out. Can you post a picture of this? I can't comprehend how that's possible unless the whole head of the machine is loose on the end of the arm or it's completely missing something. Or do you mean mm instead of cm? Even a mm seems like an absurd amount of slop to have in the needle bar. What bit are you holding on to when you wiggle the needle bar from side to side? Cheers.

I'd write a longer answer but Wiz and Art have pretty much said it all. I'd get hold of Bob at Toledo Industrial and buy a new stitch length adjustment assembly, new foot, new feed motion bell and feed motion bell crank lever. Those are the parts most often worn beyond recovery on 29k machines. If you can pop the needle bar out (requires a pin punch, a block, and a bit of fiddling, but you'll need to do it to replace the aforementioned parts anyway) look and see if the check spring inside it isn't broken. It has been on all my 29s. Buy the #6 if you can afford it, they're amazing. Beware, they'll spoil you for anything else and parts and needles for them are pricey, but they're entirely worth it IMO.

What they said. I got a Hightex/Cowboy 7441 a while ago. One of the primary aims I have for the machine is bag work and there's no way I'd go without the triple feed. There's too much flexibility in what you can do with it with minor reconfiguration that you just can't do with only walking feet and no needle feed. I got all the optional plates and feet with mine, and the really useful ones for bag work require the needle feed to work because you're not using the lower feed dog, just a needle guide like Art says.

Is the Weaver clicker a copy of the Lucris MA Series III manual clicker that's made in Australia, or is it a fundamentally different unit?

Thanks Kel, I've got a good manual for my machine (thanks Smithsonian!) but it doesn't have the exploded parts diagram. I've never seen an exploded parts diagram specific to the '58, nor a list of parts that differ from the '58 to the '71, which as far as I can tell is functionally the latest model Singer made. I've found a good one for the 29k71,72,73 though and by the looks of things you *could* change a small bobbin to a large bobbin machine by changing out the needle bar, rocker arm, piston joint, entire rack assembly and all sub-parts, the main drive shaft and the main cam track wheel at the back. Possible, but not easy, cheap or worthwhile! That said, large bobbin patchers are like hen's teeth in this part of the world and even second-hand ones in sewing condition go for four figure sums, so it mightn't be so stupid after all if'n I ever get my hands on a second post '56 machine. I'd still like to know for sure if '71 parts will fit a '58. I need to replace the rack and pinion in mine along with the Feed Motion Ring Slide Bar and and Foot Bar, and those parts aren't so cheap I'm willing to buy them on the off chance they'll fit.

I have a Singer 29k58 that I am finally getting going. I'm wondering if anyone can tell me whether parts made for a 29k72 head will fit a slightly earlier model? I need a handful of parts for inside the 'head', new foot lift parts etc. I'd also like to replace a couple of the internal driving gears because there's a bit of slop in this one. Not enough to cause real problems but I may as well do them while I've got it apart. Another thing I'm wondering is whether it would be possible to replace the entire rack assembly of a small bobbin model like the '58 with the rack assembly of a large bobbin model like the 72, thereby converting it to a large-bobbin model? (Assuming I can ever get the taper pin out to get the rack assembly off!) Thanks.

The 545-H4-6/01-CPLMN is the model. The basic model is a 545. If you google Pfaff 545 you'll find information on the basic type. If you google "Pfaff 545-H4-6" you'll find a heap of info.

A quick google image search turned up this picture, which shows that the flap is lap-skived and stitched on.

Medium-low temperature, and keep an eye on it. If it starts to smoke, take it off the heat right away and let it cool then try again at about half heat. The other way to do it is in a pot in the oven at about 90 degrees (Centigrade) but make sure you're not using one with a plastic handle!

Get a cheap saucepan from a charity shop and use that. I pour waxes into a small muffin pan to cool. The sides are tapered so it's easy to get out. Tinfoil cupcake holders also work well.

Start with 18th century stuff, which is oddly better documented, and work from there. Get yourself a copy of Al Saguto's translation of M. de Garsault's L'art de Cordonnier which is currently the best book on pre-industrial modern shoemaking out there - probably the best resource ever written on the topic in English. If you buy it from Williamsburg, rather than from Amazon you directly support the people who made its publication possible. There aren't any useful published resources I'm aware of on 19th century shoemaking, but if you subscribe to the Crispin Colloquy and introduce yourself there, you'll find people who are most likely to be able to help you, including Jesse Lee Cantrell, who is part of an unbroken line of shoemakers and apprentices stretching back through the ACW period.

Awls aren't terribly difficult to make so long as you're willing to go through a few practice pieces. Start with some high carbon steel stock that's close to the size you want. For really small stuff 'music wire' from a model supplies shop is good. For bigger stuff I've used various things from spring steel offcuts and old allen keys to concrete nails from the hardware store. Grind off all the bits that don't look like the awl you want. Stare at the result, repeat until you've got something that works for you. The tip is the important bit, I've found that for really small stuff an oval blade works better than a diamond one, and is easier to make.

Aaaand that @#!@#$!@#! link has broken again. The file is there, honest, my website software is just being a pain. I'll try and fix it.

It's probably due to wear in the parts that move the foot. The various parts that move the foot to feed get worn and slop. They also feed a lot shorter the thicker the material you're sewing. The best explanation I've seen for how the feed works, is this one, by Ken Jerrems: http://alasdair.muckart.net/files/KenJerrems29k13/KenJerremsSinger29K13.pdf He shimmed his one up with brass, but brass wears real fast against steel, so if you want to do actual work with it, talk to Bob at Toledo Industrial, and get the relevant parts from him.

A wheel feed machine has a roller instead of a pressor foot. Modern ones have the wheel driven in time with the lower feed. Some also combine needle feed. The roller makes turning corners much easier, and because it is off to one side of the needle it's much easier to see what you're doing with decorative stitching. All the cowboy boot makers I've seen use roller foot machines for decorative work.