Art

I've never had a 111w that didn't perform as advertised. Good machine for chaps and vests and fabric and leather 3/8" or less. The motor on a used one will usually be high speed, get a servo or even a reduction servo. It takes feet that are cheap and readily available to sew darned near any configuration. I would forget getting the CraP 206 as it is not up to the job you want, it just isn't a leather machine and has a really weak motor for that function. Now an RB206 is a different story and is up to the level you need. Also while you are looking, the 153w101 is like a 111 with a cylinder arm, which for bags and the like can be quite handy. Art

Hi Bill, I'm in. Art

http://www.msokol.com/ http://www.warkov.com/leather/shoe_boot.htm Art

Jeff Mosby at Grey Ghost Graphics in Savannah. http://www.greyghostgraphics.com/stamps.html Art

Hi Sandy, If you match the power required to the capacitor then for small stuff it should be ok especially with relatively small start loads (clutch motor is good example). If you are to err, then size the cap for the higher load because mismatches in the high load side will generate a boatload of heat. If you are matched for high load then the low loads will do little more than waste a little electricity. The capacitor method is cheap enough and simple enough that you can try it and if you encounter resistance (pun intended) go to the VFD. Art

Hi Sandy, Remember with the Steinmetz, you implement the capacitance to provide symmetrical voltage at the rotor, but the load must be constant for the value of the capacitor or the voltage will become more and more asymmetrical as the load varies outside design characteristics. The further outside the design the load becomes the more inefficient the motor because of the imbalance in the phases, hence heat goes up too. This is a problem with most motors as they requite significantly more current to start than to run, so you implement two capacitors, one for starting and one for running which is ok if there are only two predictable loads, but that isn't the way it is for the typical motor, so good power distribution is a crapshoot, and the heat generated will cause it's own set of problems. I generally run three phase motors with a VFD (variable frequency drive) which also gives me the convenience of variable speed, soft start, and good load handling. They are more expensive than the Steinmetz but much more efficient. Art

Hi Kevin, It is probably pretty much a duplicate of the Champion 77, I think Landis and Champion were the same company sometime along the line. It a chain stitch machine. You could sew on an outsole having the stitches inside or outside the shoe. It makes a weaker stitch than a lockstitch machine which (the chainstitch) could conceivably unravel. I don't see why you couldn't sew gemming in with one and/or stitch the upper to the holdfast. Anything with a horn on it is usually designed to get into the shoe. Art

Hi Deb, Well, Kind of. If you can get your hands on a hook (needle) from a hook and awl machine like a Campbell, Landis, American, Randall, or Union Lock, you put it in an awl haft and should be ready to go. A 1.5 needle for a Campbell is available here. Art

Over the course of 20 or so years, I've chased the burnishing demon, with varying but usable results with the short amount of time available to produce them (I actually work for a living and the kids needed fed). So here is the progression: First I used the various hand burnishers including canvas. Then I watched the Bianchi Video and ginned up this rig That thing worked for a lot of years, then I thought (as all software engineers do) that there MUST be a better way. Cruising eBay one night, I came upon this This little puppy cost me $500 which may seem like a lot, but honestly one of my Burr-King belt grinders cost 4 or more times that. Well I had the room and the money so off I went. In the box of parts, I found the edge iron heater assembly and installed it, the previous owner had only done cold burnishing. The edge irons look like this and come in different widths and configurations. The way you use these is cold burnish damp leather after cutting or sanding, then apply burnishing ink (ink with wax in it), after the ink dries completely (up to 2 hours later) hot burnish with Yankee Wax or Carnauba wax. Selecting the proper cutter and iron is the hardest part of all of this. If you have larger areas to burnish, there are also leather burnishing wheels to do that job. For a final finish I like to use a loose muslin wheel on the Big Baldor buffer, this brute cruises along at 3600 rpm, but even at that speed it is surprisingly gentle, but you don't want to hang around in one spot too long. It and the brushes on the polisher are great for removing excess dyestuff after drying. Needless to say, I can never leave well enough alone, and the seller had the mate to the TR3 polisher, the T2-S-RB finisher. Cost here was the SAME as a new Burr-King, but I was there with a truck. The 1.5 and four inch belt grinders are handy and even better the thing's got a vacuum. It has a bayonet mount so I can hang whatever tool I want on it and a heel top lift cutter which also works great on belts and trimming anything really. I'm not as used to it as I'd like so a lot of stuff still gets sanded. There is also a sole cutter which is way tricky to use, even on soles for which it is designed, about 30 different cutters came with it and I am still working that out. Of course this is all in search of the perfect edge. Art

Hi Sandy, The only difference is 100 volts and 10 cycles. Alternating current is the same, phase is usually the same. Your 220v motors usually run ok on one leg of a 3 phase circuit (208v) over here. Our 120v single phase motors may not be built (dielectric strength) to run very well on your 220v. Art

Hi Missing, Years (and I mean years) ago, Verlane Desgrange taught me how to use my knuckle, a head knife, and the edge of a table to cut a pretty perfect English Point on the end of a strap. It is hard to explain, but you use your knuckle on the edge of the table as a cam to cut the strap end, one side at a time. She said that they didn't have all the strap end punches we do now and it was an old harnessmaker trick. It's a see one, do one, teach one kind of thing. A little bit of scrap and four or five times and you've got it. A 2.5" is kinda big, but take a scratch awl and use a template to scribe a line of the end and practice. Art P.S. I don't have any English point punches.

The Tippmann is just like what you were describing. If you can, pass on the lead on the 5 in 1, some of the shoe guys on this forum may need one. Art

Hi Brandon, If you are not going to be using over size 92 thread, Then the post is the way to go. There is little a post can't do in its size range, even sewing half way down a jacket arm (although there is a lot of grunting, groaning, hollering, and screaming involved with the occasional swear word). Flat beds are good for decorating, but you can get by with a little table you can make for the post, or after you have sewn for a while, just use the post. You can always buy a Singer 31-15 or 20 later or if you are keeping your eye out for it, whenever one comes available at a good price. You may have to sew side seams on boots and outsoles by hand until you luck into a big stitcher (side seams) and a curved needle machine like a Landis 12 for outsoles. Art

Box, The 5 in 1 is a shoe machine. It was designed to work with 12 or so iron or less shoe soling leather. It can Cut leather with the round cutters on the end of the horn, the long thing that sticks out on the other side from the crank. There is no fence involved here so you have to eyeball it. There should be a table there that gets broken off somewhere in the lifetime of the 5 in 1. Where you see the rollers, there are knives for skiving, heel trimming, edge beveling, and the lever on top works the welt roller that presses the glued welt down on the outsole before stitching. To get what you really want you need the Tippmann embosser/cutter/roller which will do exactly what you want. Art

Pat it dry and hold it against your cheek and see what you feel. Art

Beetle, The Tippmanns are ok, They have pros and cons. Pros: Cheap (relatively) Can be disassembled into relatively lightweight parts for moving Simple, parts except bladder can be found at hardware store (not castings though) Same voltage as your air compressor Because air is compressible, not much in the way of adjustments are required Cons: Fixed top and bottom platens, no swing arm Small Table Need Air (and a fairly good amount of it; they used to make a recovery valve for that) Noisy From a LW posting a few years ago: The Tippmann 700 is also a little small size wise for doing holsters, you can click a larger item in two or more repositionings, but eventually you screw up a die that way. Now years ago, Tippmann made the 2500 clicker which would click darned near anything, and like everything Tippmann, it was overbuilt and heavy as a CAT D4. If you owned one of those, you found it was easier to take it apart and move the pieces than move the whole thing. I have seen guys do the same with the 1500, it only takes about a half hour to take it apart into manageable pieces and put it back together. For my druthers (and what I purchased) was the 10 ton clicker from Cobra. It is completely adequate for clicking anything I have to do. It operates much much faster than a Tippmann, but costs a bit more and is way heavier. I left it on the custom steel pallet provided by Steve which makes it easily movable with a pallet jack. Don't need big air, it is hydraulic (oil is available at Tractor Supply for around $15 a gallon). It came with oil in it and ready to run and run it has. It made short work out of making 200 2.75" medallions for the Boy Scouts from our troop who went to the World Jamboree in Sweden. Can't say I ever would have cut them out or banged them out with a punch and my trusty Barry King 96 ouncer. I don't even know if I HAVE a 2.75" punch, which surely would have cost me more than the die. If I had bought 2 or 3 dies, it would have went faster still. The Cobra has a three phase motor with a VFD that allows you to use 220-240 single phase. It works great out of the box, put the plug of your choice on and you are good to go. The clicker allows you to take on jobs you never would and finish them in times you can't imagine. Caveat: Do not attempt to "gang click" anything with small clearance, that means doing two or more layers of leather at once into an area where you can't get at least a finger in there, the clicker will do fine, but if you are using a stiffer veg tan, you might not get the leather out of the die without destroying the leather. Ask me how I know this. Art

I Al, I couldn't find it, hence no page references. I have the Library of Congress at my disposal, I know it's there. I'm out of town for a couple of weeks or so, I'll do more research the next time I am there. Then again D.A. can probably quote you off the top of his head. For the pre-1600 stuff, could anyone but clergy and nobles ever read? I wouldn't think a shoemaker could read a book, although he might be able to cover it. Art

The 153w103 is a good machine if not ragged out, but that goes for any of them, a 153W101 might be better, but I don't see it listed. The 153K104 I don't know about, ask Bob. The 108w20 is also a good machine, I've only seen them set up with a binder on them. The post machine is a needle feed machine and might be OK for your needs, it takes a little getting used to and I have seen folks build tables to go around the post for flat work. All of these machines are candidates (except the 153w102). They love 69 thread and most will tolerate 138, but maybe with 92 or 69 in the bobbin. Not sure about the 108, again maybe Bob knows. The nice thing about a post (especially a single needle) is you can sew just about anywhere with them. If you could have seen me putting a pair of numbers on a letter jacket halfway down the arm (I didn't have a patcher) with a 491 you would have thought I was an Orangutan in a shooting gallery. Let Bob Kovar give us a little more on the subject. Art

Hi Wil, No, No No No, if you want used, get a Singer 153-101 or 103 or if you want a flatbed, a Singer 111w. They are the same machine but I have seen people pay more for a 111 than a 153, don't know why, the 111 is a flatbed and the 153 is a cylinder which is a better machine for assembly work. If you can pick up a 206 or an 8BL, as Al says, they are excellent machines also. Art

Bob posted a pic of one he has last October or November. He said they didn't make them after the factory was bombed. You may have very well found one that was IN the factory when it was bombed. Art

Also, give D.A. Saguto down in Colonial Williamsburg a call, he has forgotten more about shoemaking history than the rest of us know. He probably has all of the possible texts on the subject. Art

Give John D. Devlin 1839 & 40 a read on wax-making. There are also formulae in Standage, "The Leather Worker's Manual" 3rd Edition London: Scott, Greenwood & Son, 1920. (1st ed. 1899) but this is maybe too late for a CW reference? Art

The Chinese government also keeps the Renminbi (Chinese Dollar) closely linked to the US Dollar to give their country an unfair trade advantage. If you were really paying a market price, the cost of those machines would be half again higher. Oh they will release the Renminbi as soon as they totally destroy the US manufacturing capability and the once mighty US manufacturing engine is gone, as long as we hold on to what we have, we are still a threat and their currency will remained locked. Art

Hi Steve, That's either the first portable (the big bobbin version). Or how about a bag closer (lockstitch?). Maybe that's not a bobbin on the bottom, if it is, once you got the hook going it would take a half hour to stop. I like the trolley package, wished all my machines had them. Art

It ain't me. Maryland to Key West to the Mississippi, is a big box. Art