Northmount

Your choice, no one is trying to put you down or force you to do anything. What's 20 years against 40 years? I manage fine with all the IT work I have done for years, starting with magnetic core memory, probably before you were born.

Please upload your photos here. 3rd party links often result in no picture when user or host change permissions, move, or delete the photos. Then the thread is useless. Check out this post for suggestions and helps. Many posts following it with more helps. Then come back and upload your photos here.

@JHLeatherwood moved to Fabrication - Leather Sewing Machines

Mine is a 20-33 from about 1975. Used to be on a rusty beat up K-leg table. My wife wouldn't let it in the house. So I built a cabinet that can double as furniture. Take the head off and put it inside the cabinet, drop in a filler piece and throw a runner over it! So it doesn't look much like an industrial dress/drapery making machine any more.

Probably several models of 20U. Mine is a 20U33 from about 1975.

You could also post in the Leather Sewing Machines forum.

I checked your file sizes and don't see any problem, even with the first ones you uploaded. Maybe something on your end with your browser or your ISP? Sorry I can't test as there is no limit on the size of moderators' uploads. If you have more to post and can't get through, message me and I'll give you an address to email them to, and I will post them for you with your comments.

@Pharvey Moved your post to Leather Sewing Machines.

Interesting that your profile says you are from Chicago, but your IP address is from Ahmedabad, Gujarat, 380001, India. Are you a serious leather worker, or are you trolling?

@Zack00 Moved to 3D Printers and Lasers.

Just to clarify, the twin needles on top with a spool for each, both threads passed through the tension disks, single bobbin thread on the bottom. The top shows double row of stitches, the bottom thread shows as a single zigzag stitch since it has to hit both top threads.

The manual says 135x9 needle system. That's not particularly an industrial needle! Standard domestic system, even though it is in an industrial tailoring machine. So the standard dressmaking twin needles fit.

That's all my wife uses is the regular needle clamp on her cheap domestic. The 20U series is beefier than her little machine. The needle clamp on my 20U is certainly stronger her domestic and stronger than the double needles. The double needles will fail long before the clamp.

@Atilla1 moved to leather sewing machines

@Tilda moved to leather machinery

@CitroenLVR Moved your post to Leather Sewing Machines

@Techsew Ron Your support is needed.

LOL

@IronCross Moved your post to Leather Sewing Machines.

Please post a photo or two and give a few specs for what it is capable of. Thanks.

Yes, the discontinuities in the crystal structure pretty much says bad casting and mill work.

When you look closely at the fracture you see what appears to be crystals. From my limited knowledge of metallurgy, this is brittle fracture. Here is some authoritative information if you want to study it a bit more. https://www.corrosionpedia.com/definition/280/cleavage-fracture Quoted from above article: Cleavage fracture surfaces appear in steels due to: Sudden or impact loading Low temperature High levels of constraint Ambient temperature Heavily cold-worked parts I think the last item in the list is probably the root cause. If it was the first item in the list, I would expect to see a lot more damage, likely in the drive train. That is my guess, and am willing to stand corrected if there is a knowledgeable metallurgist here in the forum.

@Carverdw Moved your post to Leather Sewing Machines

@Silerleatherworks Moved your post to Leather Sewing Machines.

Consider Chicago Screws. Available in several lengths.