Singermania

HI, no didn't seem to cause any marks, I pushed pretty hard at times especially at the toe and book came out unscathed.

HI, some time ago I put on a post about sewing shoe soles on the Cowboy CB4500 with the narrow foot set, many people asked to see it in action and I really dropped the ball and didn't do much about it because of other commitments and just plain laziness. We just happen to be Australia's Cowboy dealers however this can be done equally as well on a Cobra or Highlead and so on. There are a couple of narrow feet sets available for these machines, but this set seems to give the best access along with a modified narrow slotted plate.....I had over 50 years of sewing but very little to do with shoes, really only repaired a few pairs of sandals, so to do this job meant standing at the end of the machine and pushing the boot against the modified plate, very much against my usual method of just holding the leather straight and not exerting any pressure!! With this foot set the inner foot sits in front of the outer foot and the needle, the other foot set (last foto) the inner foot is as per norm and has a hole for the needle.

Doug I don't think of them as junk, for the money they are exceptional. I was pointing out that patchers (in general) are designed for repair work, not quality sewing, if you produce a good quality stitch then that's great.....I am not embarrassed to own one. We don't sell a patcher as the patchers from our own supplier didn't pass our scrutiny... so there is no clash with out own product.

Thanks Mikesc, yes I still have the machines. I might have sounded harsh re the patchers, it wasn't my intention. They do in fact punch above their weight. Of the three I have, one is set up on a block of heavy timber and I do use it from time to time, its fine. The machines are relatively trouble free from my experience. When we sell machines some people have machines already and can sew, some others are newbies and often they will buy the simplest machine they can, so often that is a handcrank of some kind. The reality is that handcranks are not really easier as you are cranking, feeding the material and your eye can move a bit too. So a greater proportion of people buying the little patchers are going to be first time machine owners and there is going to be a greater learning curve...… ie its expected then that these people will experience more problems. To put it another way, I get a lot more phone calls for assistance from people that have not sewn before than those that have on any machine I sell.

Are you talking to me? I don't recall saying the machines were junk. They are cheap but do in fact sew quite well. We run Australia's biggest and most successful heavy leather machine company so we did not shoot ourselves or anyone else in the foot. Sometimes when you buy some Kellogs Corn Flakes you get a cheap plastic animal, does that make the corn flakes rubbish?

Darren and I are friends, though he is not answering communication at present. He admitted himself that he messed up pretty badly and we and others have been trying to help those that did not receive machines, did not get machines that worked, did not get machines back that were in for service, did not get their full orders and so on. I'm guessing you will not see him here or anywhere else until the creditors disappear. It is an awkward situation, a lot of accusations and threats have been made. As a veteran of many years in business and a couple of recessions I know it can happen to anyone. With regards the Chinese Patcher, I did not mean to make anyone feel insecure about owning one (I have 3), I was intending only to point out they are designed for repair work, not quality leather work. They do punch above their weight, a reasonable stitch can be had, though the needle will only take quite thin thread. Darren emailed me a manual a while back as we were giving the patchers away with more expensive machines and I wanted to compare his manual with what I had written for ours, however I have searched and so far cant find it.

As I said above, I have three of them and yes have sewn on them, we used to give them away with our more expensive machines. Also as I have said in the past, they surprisingly do sew quite well, though not thru very thick leather which is in excess of half an inch. ,

A point on these machines, remember they are called 'shoe patchers', not 'quality leather goods sewers'....so they are designed to repair footwear either by entering the shoe and resewing broken stitches or by sewing on new elastic sides to boots. To spend hours researching these machines is really not going to be productive. If you want to make nice leather goods then you will either be disappointed with this machine or you are a very patient and talented sewer. Darren sold them at horse events for people wanting to repair summer rugs, he screwed them to a lump of wood and cleaned them up a bit..... it didn't end all that well.

Most of the machines from that era were similar, ie the Claes, Bradbury, Elastic etc etc.....I have Claes, Durkoepp, Adler, Singer, Elastic, Bradbury and yes even three of these little Chinese guys in my collection. None of the new Chinese machines required any rotation, if you were to be fussy a bit of sandpaper over the rough edges might be in order. What do you mean by 'three methods to install the carrier and shuttle'? This machine has a little bobbin that sits inside a bobbin case, the thread gets tensioned by the case and comes out to get picked up by the point of the hook. If you are not picking up the thread then the needle is at the incorrect height or the timing has been knocked out by a tooth.

Darren is presently and for the foreseeable future 'gone to ground'. I thought I had a manual for the machine you mention, however cannot find it. The unit though is so incredibly simple that I wonder what a manual might help with. As with all machines you need to match the needle size to the thread size and adjust the tensions. Remember patchers only have drive from the foot, the foot is toothed and pulls the material thru, there is no feed dog, so feed is basic and easily upset if you push or pull or allow the material to hang over the arm and add weight. If you really need help any old patcher manual will help you, for example the Able 290 is similar to the old Claes Elastik type patchers.