Diyer

I have just finished this lunge cavesson for a friend who has Sorraia's. This is a primitive breed here in Portugal, pony sized. She wanted one without the usual metal nosepiece, so I have made a more normal noseband, and covered it with a velcro'd on padding that is washable.The clips at the bottom are for attaching a bit if needed.

This machine is now sold.

I have not used the 105 for anything thinner than 3mm-as I have a Seiko STW8B for thin stuff. I bought the Adler many years after the Seiko.

In the days when I was helping run a motorcycle shop, I have memories of getting broken fins off cast iron barrels (BSA A10) brazed back on. I think it was heated first in a muffle.There was a local specialist, Smethwick welding, that did the work. Now long gone.

You can only get smaller sizes than 160 needles in non leather point. I have used a normal round point needle for years on my Seiko STW 8B, sewing mostly clothing leather, but occasionally 3mm bridle butts. I think your problem is going to be that the needles for the 105 in thin sizes are going to deflect more easily, and also break. My personal opinion is that a 130 is the smallest I would go to.As I have now dismounted my 105, as it is for sale, I cannot do any experimentation for you. I did buy some 130 needles, but as I now have a 205/370(new toy) I never got round to trying it out. lt is going to depend on how fast you are wanting to go. Industrials are designed to go flat out, so manufacturers´recommendations reflect that.

The Chinese appear to have a "range" of qualities.The dealer does a valuable job of "correcting" their supplier when bad quality shows up.I know there will be some machines out there which cannot be rectified easily by just putting in new parts, because the fault is in the machining of the casting. Bear in mind that I found a manufacturing fault on my new toy, Adler 205/373- some machining was incorrect, not allowing the lifter plate to be free in its housing. This was not rectified from new, because the Portuguese installer just upped the air pressure on the air operation.The lifter plate broke-so I put in a new one, and then spent a long time trying to find where the graunching noise was comning from.A piece of plastic 0.25mm thick as a spacer solved the problem.

As this is an old machine, presumably it was originally used with a treadle. If you are using a motor, if it was a servomotor, there would be much less vibration. Any of the machines I have bought have had some screws etc. put in with an impact driver, so as to resist the vibrations caused by a clutch motor. From what is visible, you could possibly find out what the thread size and pitch is by measuring.Line boring is going to be expensive.The ease or not of a welded or brazed repair will depend on whether the material is cast iron or cast steel. That is going to be either a lab test or there are some DIY methods.

I hope you can claim for the damage. I presume it was dropped? I do not know your machine, but if it has a cast iron body, you need a welding company that specializes in this sort of work. I would imagine the machine would have to be completely stripped.It might be possible to peg, and drill and tap the damaged piece back on.

It is possible to stamp patterns on predyed leather- I have done this on UK bridle and saddle butts. You do have to hit the stamp harder. Mauls and hammers- my preference is for ones with replaceable ends- so far not available here in Portugal.Also everything dries out, so I have to leave the head in a bucket of water from time to time. The rock sounds interesting, but it would need a flattish surface?

From the photos it looks like the leather is fairly thin,so I would say that both needle is too big, and thread is too thick,and the stitches are too long.

You have to buy something to cut the leather with. A stanley knife works well, but you need the sort that has a fixed blade. You can also get hooked blades, that mean you can go round corners.A steel ruler and square if you have them. Cardboard for making patterns. You do not say the thickness of leather you will be using. I can cut my bridle butts, that are 3.5mm thick with my dressmaking shears. For sewing, get an awl that will do SMALL holes- a lot of them are designed to make holes that are too big. Needles will be saddle makers ones with a round point. I also have a small curved awl, that is often used for cutting in to the leather at an angle.. Beeswax if you are using linen thread. Linen is much easier to "end off". You do not want your stitches to start undoing themselves. For carving, a swivel knife, preferably with a ceramic blade if you are US at sharpening like me. Some stamps that will look good as a border. A stitch groover with adjustable distance.This makes stitching to a line much easier, and looks good. A stitch wheel for marking your stitch holes, unless you have a sewing machine. A pair of pliers (small) for pulling the needle through the leather, when you are ending off or going back on your stitches An edge beveler to finish edges off-possibly a no.3.Also a slicker when you use edge stain and want a shiny finish.I still use my cheap plastic Tandy one. Edge stain and gum arabic for finishing the edges with, if your item is made of stiff leather.. Just in case you were wondering- I came into leatherwork from many years of sewing my own clothes, so a lot of the things I use are from that perspective.I also do a lot of woodwork and associated things, so I have quite a lot of tools, some of which get used for leatherwork. I hope that helps.

I had an old Western saddle that I reconditioned.The leather was cleaned with Oxalic acid.There was a small amount of tooling-nothing fancy. The leather came up a nice colour, which I did not want to darken. I used R.M.Williams saddle dressing, which is an Aussie product also available in the UK. There might have been a little darkening, but not much.

Years ago I used to make a saddle carrying bag for a high end bespoke English saddler. The bags were a heavy duty canvas, with leather piping, and leather handles. I used normal round point needles, and had to "help" my sewing machine do the 3mm thick leather on the handles.I cannot now remwmber the sewing machine- I know it was a Singer walking foot of a similar class to my current Seiko STW 8B.The work used to make the machine go out of sync. but it got done. I would not use any sort of cutting point on canvas. With the leather, if it is thick, you can make life easier by cutting a stitchline in first.This also helps with longevity, as the stitches are recessed.

Ok, thanks for that. I think it is going to be a "suck it and see", on the basis of use vs expenditure. I have yet to come across a sewing machine "breaker", like you do with motorcycles.No racing on roads and crashes, just speed crashes when racing to get a job finished asap I guess- but that does not result in write offs and insurance claims!!

As my new "monster" Adler 205/370, will be sewing thicker and larger items, I have bought an Adler 169/373 for thinner leather and material work. I spent most of the day trying to work out why the feed dog did not rise and fall as it should. Turns out that my machine was originally set up for binding, so the feed dog only moves back and forth.Thanks to a nice gentleman on the other end of the phone at Durkopp Adler for that info. To replace all the parts to make the feed dog rise and fall is going to cost several hundred pounds,(unless someone here has these items available used??) so my question is-what are people's opinions on what if any problems am I going to come across, or things that will be difficult to do, if I leave the feed dog as it is?