Singermania

I expect an engineer will give you some serious technical advice on this, however in our business we find that its rule of thumb.... ie if its too loose it slips and or flaps, if its too tight you and the machine will find the handwheel hard to turn (assuming the clutch is disengaged on a clutch motor) and you will stress the motor and burn out its bearings.

Darren is correct those grease covers on the corner gears can be hard to put back on...

HI all, I agree, there is no point trying to sew this stuff without a feed dog. If you want to get closer to the edge then use a dogleg left or right foot, however the stitches in your foto don't look all that close to the edge to me. Don't even think about disassembling machines and adding washers etc, this is poor advise and can seriously invalidate your warranty. Giving this kind of technical advise to the layman is bit risky in my view, leave that to the professionals.........have tried to attach a video of the dogleg foot in action, not the best sewing technique but hopefully will illustrate the point.. .

HI All, Been a while since we've been on leatherworker, Cowboy Leather Machines in Australia has consolidated its lead over the opposition, probably selling about as much as the other players combined. As well as the heavy leather side to the business we are now spending some more time expanding the upholstery and canvas machine base established last year. In this area we have a range of about 6 machines held in stock with another dozen or so available by special order. We are presently running a special price of $2950 Australian dollars on the Cowboy 7132UL-16 and the Cowboy CB7273ECO heavy walking foot flatbed machines with reverse. They are ideal for upholstery and in the case of the 7273ECO ideal for heavy canvas work such as awnings and truck tarps. Hope you are all having a great year.

Hi Uwe, thanks for your help, the local Schmetz dealer here in Australia says the 2016 list only shows the 280 needle, I would really like to source the 250 needle in leather point that you mentioned.... how confident are you that Schmetz does the 250? If you are pretty sure I'll go back to them and ask them to look a bit deeper.

Again, thanks very much to everyone, really needed some help on this one. We have some large flatbed Cowboy machines that take the 1000 needle and would like a leather point to add to their versatility and also we want them for all the Singer 97-10 users out there. The 97 can easily be converted to use the ubiquitous 794 system, however I think you lose its 1" thickness sewing ability. thanks very much Steve ps Wrote to Campbell Randall and Weavers yesterday, am awaiting the Weavers reply.

thanks everyone for your help, I'll chase up Weavers again and see what they can do. regards Steve

I'm interested in the needles this machine might use, I'm wondering now the machine is out and about does it use the 1000 needle and can they be had in leather point, and if so from whom??

Surely there is a supplier out there for the 1000 needle in leather point????? Does Adler sell them for their new machines???

Hi, yes its a Koch / Drossner / Atlas... they did a fair bit of name playing back then too. I have one similar to this and they would have to be one of the first cylinder arm saddlery machines available. The originally came on a cast iron table with a heavy wooden top and massive treadle and flywheel. It does quite a good stitch and is a transverse shuttle like the Pearson and Landis 1. Sorry don't have a manual.

Art if you have a problem with me then you should be man enough to say what it is, if not then I suggest you watch your language in future or remove yourself as moderator... you were the one that jumped in on my reply to someone else. You clearly have no idea of how a 441 works, you should keep to what you know and have some respect for heavy leather sewing machine professionals that give their time and experience free of charge.

I understand the theory, I also did engineering, however if nothing pushed against a spring then not a lot of anything is going to happen. This is not a motor vehicle where the vehicle depresses the spring at all times, in this case cutting a coil off is effective or if you want to go with your logic then a lighter spring would also be good. Art I wouldn't suggest this if I didn't know it worked, your theory is nice but flawed as we are talking about putting less pressure on the spring, not decreasing the resistance of the spring. What you are imagining is that the spring has no load at the top position of the knob, however if you unwind the knob completely it will fly off, by shortening the spring it does not fly off......therefor lessening the downward pressure. If you could increase the length of the bar, ie have the knob wound up higher you would achieve the same result.... but that would be more difficult. Whilst you are correct about altering the rate of the spring, it is so long that one coil wont make much difference to its sensitivity. I can only make suggestions from years in this business, things that I know work, if you want to dispute it then I suggest you try it first.

Art if you cut a coil off you decrease the compression on the spring....simply because the spring does not reach as far and therefore the knob does not begin to bind down upon it so early, it doesn't matter what hemisphere you live in, we're not flushing toilets.... Depending on how much you cut off, the knob may not even come in contact with the spring until wound further down and therefore be no pressure on the foot at all. As most of the feed is accomplished by the needle this is not a problem. regards Steve

You've probably sorted this by now, however I agree that you are being screwed over, the machine is not worth the duty, its a fake duty anyway. I deal with Indonesia and the same problems arise, crazy bills, bribery and stolen goods are the order of the day. If you are going to move to a country like this you are going to have to get savvy pretty quickly. Otherwise to continue, find a friendly sewing machine dealer to write you a letter of valuation on the machine, stat dec or whatever else looks impressive. Find, generate, invent a receipt for the machine. BE AWARE that no matter what you do, what fees you pay that the machine may never become available.

I imagine it depends on what side of the needle you are working on.... I used to sew on the right hand side of piping with a zipper foot, so got used to that.

the only smaller foot for the 441 style machines that I am aware of is the welting/piping foot, as you will see in the chart that Wiz mentioned, otherwise we find people here in Australia buy a second blanket foot set and grind it down.

HI, yes winding the pressure knob all the way up is the first step, I presume by banana slide you mean the adjustment on the back??? Nothing wrong with taking a coil off the tension spring, you wont do it with wire cutters, but an angle grinder will work. We at Cowboy in Australia would be ok with it, but you'd want to check with your supplier to see if it upsets the warranty.

Here's a handy needle and thread chart for anyone interested.

Hi, I hear the new big Adler uses 1000 needles, I'm interested in these needles in leather point, does anyone know where to purchase them....other than Adler...? I have a few machines that could take this needle including the Singer 97 and some heavy old flat bed machines....

There is a biggish BUSMC catalogue available online, would anyone have any others???? anything they could share to help with the models....

thanks Sandy, hope you're doing well there..

Here is a war time no 6 with no writing or raised lettering to keep in from prying eyes... and for a change of pace here are a pair of nice BUSMC Pilots....

Here is a similar machine but slightly smaller to the no 6, sometimes I call this a no 5, other times I think of it as a pre no 6, there are quite a few of them about. this is the first no 6... the Peason & Bennion, this machine differs slightly to the BUSMC no 6, it has smaller bearing..

HI All, I'm hoping all those BUSMC / Pearson collectors or users might be able to assist me. I'm a collector of not only the Pearsons but all heavy leather sewing machines with probably the biggest collection in the world that will one day be going to a museum, to that end I would like to get going a few of my more rare machines. In particular I have a Pearson & Bennion (1890 ish) No 4, this is the only one I've ever seen and took years to source. Its the only needle and awl machine made by these makers and will sew 1' thick leather and was approx. twice the price of a no 6. In the BUSMC catalogue they list one with a 14 or 15" arm, however mine has an 8" arm, just another example of how many machines are out there that are not listed.... or not listed in anything I can find. Anyway the machine was converted to hold a leather embossing/punching tool and would have punched a pattern onto belts. I need to find a shuttle block (maybe my spare no 6 will fit??) shuttle drive and shaft and some other bits, does anyone out there have a good photo of one of these machines beyond what is in the catalogue on the net??? My machine is shown below. Here is a no 2

I have a collection of old manuals including the 132K6, 45K flat and cylinder arms models and the Singer 133K series, if you need one foc I can email to you, write to me at stevebonnett@dodo.com.au Sorry for not replying earlier as my internet has not been working. regards Steve