Iron Pounder

Yep if you can get it locally it's great. I have to order it here. It does have a pine smell that some don't care for. Sno seal tends to darken the leather just a bit and MPB doesn't. MPB doesn't do much to harden the leather though.

Sno seal tends to stiffen the leather up a bit. Have you tried that on anything. I like it, it is easy to get and is cheap.

We bought the batteries from a place that just sells batteries and they are blems (which mean a sticker or something that is no big deal is gone or torn). I think it was just over 100 for the pair out the door. I think that might have been a 20% discount over walk in without an account though. They work good for us and are multi function ( camping). I see a ton of the little Honda gen and some type of knock off which seems to be as quite and I would guess a bunch less money. Without a generator we get to set up in areas they wouldn't allow us to set up if we used one so might look into that.

Well I think there is alot of money in pink. My daughter (9 years old) walked me over to a small tool set at sears that was all pink tool box, pink hammer and the whole deal. They even had bigger roll around boxes in pink as well. They sell them as fast as they get them our friend that works there says.

I bought it from a man that runs ads here all the time. I haven't mentioned his name as he did refund my money but he wasn't interested in fixing the one he sent me. I don't want this to be about him or the servo, that is over. My hope is the info here can help others.

Aulus, how long have you had yours? What has been the hardest thing to get worked out?

Ha the Boss sounds like me a bit, I need a some warm up to get going as well. Compared to hand stitching the Boss should seem like a rocket. What is issue with the thread tension? I have heard it mentioned a few times but don't know what the fix is as others don't seem to have that problem so I didn't know if they did something to prevent that issue or just for whatever reason just get lucky. Didn't know if a certain brand of thread may have a tighter wind or possibly just a more consistant wind that allows for less adjustment. I'm sure like any machine it has a learning curve to it. It took me a while to produce any hand stitching that looked like I could send it out the door. It wasn't until I polished the awl that I started to get somewhere. Having it sharp wasn't enough for me it worked fine for thin leathers but didn't work well for me on thicker (9/10) stuff until I got it to glide on the sides and not drag. The drag always made me push too hard and not come straight out the other side. Husker, I forgot to mention I really like your logo (avatar)

Husker, Ha that seems to be a common thing with them I think. Hope I get along with it. It seems they hold so much value that if I end up going a different direction I won't get hurt. One of the forum member here sold his for around 1200 a few weeks back I think. Do you have a guide they sell or what do you use? Wizcrafts, Ya I just tossed that out there but not interested in letting them do it. If I did let them convert it they would upgrade a few things along the way but I would bet anything when they got done it would be very reliable. My truck that was designed to go 55 down the road turned 10.76 at 126.31 MPH which is a tick faster than when it came out in 1971 . I know your just joking and just poking ya back. I do want to thank you for freely giving up your experience and knowledge on the machines you are no doubt very knowledgeable.

I have really good luck with Sno Seal. http://www.atsko.com/products/waterproofing/sno-seal.html I don't think that will show as a clickable link but could just copy and paste if not. You have to heat up the leather and it kind of just melts in.

Bought a Boss to add the ability to do heavier weight leather stitching without doing it by hand. Won't take up much space and like the idea of it being portable. Haven't had a chance to even take it out of the box yet but maybe late tonight. Do most guys make a material guide or buy the one they sell for it? Maybe most just sew in a groove and don't feel it is needed to do what they do. I will be using it to sew solo chopper seats, sheaths, holsters, a few gun belts ( not many) and a few smaller bags for the motorcycle crowd. I have kicked around buying one for a while but got a decent order for tool bags that I just didn't want to even try to do by hand. This is our first "real made to sew leather" machine and another step towards where we want to land. Has anyone powered one of these little machines? One of the engineers at work and also my uncle who was an engineer for Ford thought it would be fairly easy to do. Being small and portable are two of the things i really like about it so not in my plans to turn it over to them... It would be cool to see a picture or video of one converted though. I like going to old steam engine shows and farm shows to see things other guys have thought up and built. Any tips right out of the gate or tweaks that are helpful to sewing with the Boss?

Jimbob Do they make an aftermarket wheel for this machine. does it have a larger pulley on it or just a bigger hand wheel? I can see where that would help operate by hand but wouldn't procide any advantage under power. Where would I look for one to fit mine?

Busted, When I talked about a possible mod to the machine I was meaning putting a bigger pulley on the machine itself as some others have done here in the forum and not done the 2 pulley set up at all. Some have just put a 10-12" pulley on the machine and a 2" or less on the motor to do the same thing. It looks like I would have to put a very small idler pulley on the bobbin wind set up to keep it with a large pulley on the machine as the stock one wouldn't fit, at least not in the stock location. Ferg, If you read my other post about finding a good servo motor, and I think I mention it here on this post you will find I did try to go the servo motor route at first and that was a complete waste of time and money. I haven't said where I got this servo motor that came broke in three places right out of the box, that was in perfect condition as I see no good will come from it. I will just say this the money it cost means nothing. It was the time wasted and the very rude customer service that forced going down this road. It sounds like I just had bad luck but the turn off was how things got handled from there. Just glad it was a few bucks and not a machine purchase.

Gavin, I'm using the machine for 7 oz total max with 138 thread max so it should live a long time based on what others have been able to get away with on it. Gald you got your machine lined out to a speed to work for you. I as well tried to purchase a servo motor to save the time but ended up having nothing but grief, and I bought a popular model discussed here on the forum. It has forced me to come up with something better anyway so I guess other than getting behind and time lost it will have an end result of a better operating machine overall. Busted, Yes my motor is 1750 RPM. Do have some kind of bushings or bearings that the pulley assembly you made rides on the bolt with or just spins on the cast hub they came with? Why did you go back to the bigger pulley on the motor first? Trying to see how that would have helped. Maybe you just tried to hit a desired stitch speed you wanted? From everything I have found our machines did stitch 3500 per min which is roughly 58 per second . If you have it at 800 per min now that is roughly 75% reduction in speed . James, I like the idea of a bolt on wheel for the machine. I'm tryint to decide if I want to modify the machine side of things or just put a speed reducer on and leave the machine as is. I wonder if my machine has an aftermarket handle I can purchase? I think all this information is great guys and will help others slow machines they have/buy down the road.

I thought I would start a new topic about working with the clutch motor. I think I may forget all about the servo motors and go with some stuff I can set up myself. Here is where I am so far... I now have a pulley that has an inside diameter of 1.175", which has made a big big difference in not only less top speed but I also gained alot of torque even though the stock motor didn't seem to need a boost. After the drive pulley change I moved the linkage over to the left side of my foot control and lengthened the lever on the motor to match with some aluminum angle I had. The linkage was a mess that came with the same so I made new linkage out of some 1/4" 1018 steel I had. Lengthening the arm helped less than the pulley but it did increase the input I have to give the pedal to make a speed change so it just helps control, although a person could easily put a stop on the linkage or pedal to limit the travel. Having linkage that is nice and straight is helping as well. It seemed to have a catch to it which made me just slightly harder to overcome then it would free up and then my foot would be giving the machine too much pedal input. I thought about making a roller bearing set up but trying to keep it simple and really what I made was free and works fine. So far I have made a big improvment overall and not had to go buy a thing as I had a complete clutch motor with that small pulley already on it. I really need to get a new belt but didn't want to until I decided on keeping the machine pulley or not. I'm wondering how much more it will slow by adding a bigger pulley on top. Some simple math will tell me the reduction at full speed I guess but this is more about the feel of the machine and useable speed for me not just reducing top speed. Any and all thoughts, ideas or otherwise are welcome.

Kayak45 I'm going to take a better look at my options on the pulley set up. I have another table in storage that I think has a motor on it but have no idea of the pulley on it. I will check that out then off to the farm supply store. I found a post showing a guy drilling a tapping into the stock machine wheel to bolt a large pulley onto it and that is an option as well. I don't remember him saying how he lined up the pullies but I would guess that stock part comes off easy and just using an alignment dowel that has a taper to it should center them good enough to get it clamped up good. Anyway one way or another I'm going to give it a go today. If I can't get it to where it works for me then I guess I will take another look at servo motors. How soon do I want the clutch to come in? Thinking a faster engagement might help a bit as well. I have to give it almost full pedal to get it to go, then of course the thing takes off like a dragster. My Grandma doesn't seem to have much trouble with it though,ha. I guess at 96 years young she has a few years on me .

Yanni, That rig sounds like it is worth a look. The specs do list my local voltage as an option so that is a good start. I really like the idea of it being completely user adjustable with your computer. Another guy here on the forum is having trouble with his servo motor and this type of system would rid him of that problem. I just found Keystone and they list the servo motor but it is 800 and really thinking my budget should stay around 600 or so. Having said that I'm sick of having problems so I might bend a bit. I'm thinking of just adjusting pulley size on this machine and seeing where I'm at after that. I have so much wasted time into this project but as they say in for a penney in for a pound I guess.

We use two seperate power inverters ran off deep cycle batteries. Make no noise, smell or take any fuel. I went this way as some of the camp sites we go to don't allow generators of any kind and we use this set up to camp as well. Our set up now is two 105 Amp hour batteries with a I think 1500 cont. watt unit running off it and we have a smaller one in the van that charges laptop, cell phones, runs a small cooler and anything small, normally one of two things at a time on as needed. Anyway maybe something like this would work for you but i will warn you the batties are very heavy.

Wizcrafts I don't know what to say other than that is unfortunate.

Yep sound good guys, I'm going to put an order in first part of the week I would guess. I need to go through and decide everything I want.

I found this thread trying to find a solution for my machine set up. I sure don't want to get into a disrespectful back and forth so I will say this up front. I know NOTHING about sewing machines other than just what my Grandmother has showed me and what a guy just learns as he goes I guess. having said that I think I may be able to add some possible help due to knowledge I have about dc motors themselves. I have a part time day job where I work on scooter (mobility untis). The scooters we have use brushed dc motors for the most part and some brushless. We use a simple handhelp programmer to change several things that affect the proformance of the scooter. I had a scooter have this problem this morning... Here is what it was doing. The customer would barely push the lever to move the unit and it would take off at full speed (at least as fast as the max limiter was set to. It had no ramp it was simply on or off. Of course the factory told them just turn down the limiter until you "get used to it", ha. They knew it shouldn't act that way so kept after them until they sent me out. I plugged the programer in and found the base program ramp was set @ 2 instead of a full range of 10 (10 being a full swing of the thro to reach full max speed and 1 being full at on). Our programmer can do way more such as modulation adjustments which take some bite out even further for someone looking for very smooth kind of alomost flat responce. My QUESTION is doesn't this sound like the very same problem? Without a schematic I have no way of knowing if this can be adjusted without a new chip being burnt or not. With no disrespect to Steve and his machine it sound like the motor could be an economical unit and they are typically built with non programable chips. Just so folks don't think I'm working over Steve here I will say this he is on very short list to buy a machine from, and I have never even spoke once to him. Having said that it seems this matter needs further attention.

Art Have you tried or know anyone that has had good luck with the sailrite rig? I have considered playing with the pullies as well and just using the clutch motor. My clutch doesn't take hold til I have the pedal all the way down. I noticed a bolt with a jam nut that I assume is an adjustment for clutch. I think I might try adjusting that abit to see if I can bring the clutch in with less pedal. I think that would go a good ways right there in control at least. I will look in the morning but I don't think the machine pulley comes off. A two belt reduction set up could get around that easy enough if the pulley won't just unbolt. I don't know if I would want to do anything perm to the machine itself.

Ken Great videos!! You are an excellent teacher. The Black River Laser products look like a great time saver. Thank you Sylvia for posting up about them.

The sewpro I was sent didn't end up working out for me. That is why I asked for a bit better quality. I think I could live with spending 500-600 on a good servo. Maybe the problem is you can't buy one for that? Hate to put much more than that into this old Singer I think. I want to keep this set up for 69 or max 138 thread and just leave it then we are going to add a new machine around Christmas time I would guess.

We will be right behind you here in the US with more gun control I bet. As others have said I would see what LEO's in your area carry and build to that. Here they carry full size Glocks chambered in 40 and a back gun used to almost always be the Glock 27 but not as much anymore.

Sno seal works good for us. We use Montana Pitch Blend on most things but anything for animals we use Sno Seal as there is a bit of pine smell that comes from the pitch blend.