Anne Bonnys Locker

Thanks Bob, Would you be prepared to sell me a copy of the manual? Is it still possible to get needles and awls?

The tension assembly is held in by a screw on the body of the machine and is intended to be adjusted. The quickest solution is to but something under the foot that is halfway between the thickness you want to sew and the normal height of the foot lift using the needle bar. Undo the grub screw that holds the tension and ease it out a bit. Push it back in until the release pin starts to engage and then do up the grub screw. Check that you have full tension with your normal work and that the tension is released when you lift the foot. If you are too close to the upper limit then take out the tension release pin and just pull some thread manually through the tension assembly when you want to remove your work. That is how things were done on many old machines.

I am now the lucky owner of a Puritan post bed but I am unable to determine the actual model or what it is capable of. Can anyone help?

There very few flat bed machines on the market today that can match these beasts! The ADLER 205 is the only one that comes to mind and it is very expensive. Luckily I just picked up a 42-4 which is the straight sewer version and I am going to modify the feed dog and fit it with a rubber coated roller foot. Unfortunately the machine has no needle plate but that gives me a reason to custom make a stack for resale.

I knew the 42-5 was a real workhorse but recently a customer was in desperate need of a flat bed to sew heavy thread through 8mm of harness leather and I had nothing else on hand. Unbelievably I was punching through this leather with a 24g standard point needle with 345 bonded polyester running as a treadle! This is not a machine to pass by if you see one!

The first tip I give a lot of people - and I am a dealer - is to come here and research their needs so you have started off doing the best thing possible!

Technically a 45k25 with a presser foot is a 45k21! I have not tried it but a rubber coated wheel off a cheap Chinese roller foot attachment might fit on the 45k roller foot.

I often send potential customers here to look at the posted topic from Wiz before I will sell them a machine. Too many people want to buy one machine that will do everything and I equate that to having a toolbox that contains one screwdriver and nothing else.

The Singer description: Alternating presser feet; drop feed. Speed 2500 spm For stitching leather gloves and other work in light and medium weight leather. Also for binding shoes, slippers, etc., and for stitching gloves with roll welt gauge.

A good chunk of my business is selling hand crank and treadle machines to the mainstream community.

That is the reason for the stay in the middle of the arm. It is amazing the coincidences that arise as I about to turn a Japanese 15 class machine into a puncher for a mate who does a lot of lacing. If it is successful then I will be creating a conversion kit!

When I have issues with a Pfaff I ask Trox!

Contact Ronnie at Techsew and I am sure he will help you! Ronnie will a;so advise how to clean the machine. If it is that dirty and abused then you should consider at least changing the needle plate and maybe the feed dogs.

Italian shuttles are ok but the Japanese ones are the best in the world. Some Chinese shuttles are very good but unless you know the factory it is impossible to tell so stick to Japanese.

I have to disagree on the Tippman Boss. There seem to be more questions here about Boss problems than any other modern machine. To be honest I would rather see you go for a GA5-1R style machine from one of the dealers here than a Boss. If the budget will stretch and you are looking at heavier work in the future then a 441 clone is probably best for you. The dealer you chose is more about location than anything else. Cobra, Toledo and Bob are all going to go out of their way with after sales service but if you have a major problem (unlikely) then you want the dealer closest to you.

As I read on another forum - the best thing about standards is that there are so many to choose from! The variety of threads in machines is confusing and they are often a mix of metric and the Singer modified UNC.

Pretty but the casting looks too light for anything serious.

Hi mate, It is a clutch motor - 1425RPM fitted with a 50mm drive pulley. The original balance wheel had a very small diameter pulley and I have replaced this with a larger diameter one. Upholstery leather is very soft so 5-6mm should not be an issue. I have been testing it with 4-5mm of harder leather. The machine is set up to use DPX16 needles and maximum size on top is a 22g with #138. People sometimes run #207 through these machines but I stick with the more conservative suggestion. Unfortunately the machine may be sold. The buyer has gone quiet but I will give him some more time to contact me. Darren Brosowski 0415 353 748

I have my doubts about it being a true Mitsubishi. It is probably a Chinese built clone of a Mitsubishi.

Terry, I know for a fact that Jim has been in and out of hospital over the last 12 months and a mutual friend has confirmed that his missus has also left him in this period. If you think that you could support hundreds of ######ing customers with all of this shit going on in your life then call me on 0415 353 748 and I will do what I can to supply what you need out of my own pocket. Darren Brosowski ABLE Sewing

If you can only afford one machine then buy the biggest cylinder arm you can afford. Making a flat bed for it is easy. You will need other machines but over time you will come across them for around $200 each. What tends to happen is that once people know you collect machines then they appear from all sorts of places.

The norm on this site is to tell everyone to buy a Juki 441 style machine but I disagree. At an absolute minimum a serious leather shop should have: A Juki 441 style machine for heavy work A Pfaff 335/ Seiko LSC machine for light/medium work Consew 206 flat bed for light work Singer 29 Patcher for shoe repair and all the "crap" jobs that come in A 45k25 or even 17-8 machine fitted with a roller foot is also a boon for decorative stitching work. If you want to do commercial work then you need to e prepared for everything that comes along. The above four machines give you a huge range of options.

Steve, you might be happy to know that in the last couple of weeks I have spoken to three people in the greyhound industry who want to sew conveyor belt material. The Puritan machines might be what they need.

Ronnie is a dealer and he has been very even handed by listing machines from different suppliers. Most dealers also offer options on finance. The Boss is an ok machine but it is also the one that people seem to raise the most questions about. As Ronnie has been open about your options why don't you give him a call? I have never done business with Techsew or Ronnie so I am only working on the advice and assistance he has given on this board. While I am a dealer in machines I doubt that I could be of any help as I am in Australia!

I know that our friend, the cowboy distributor, has a lot of feet and accessories. If you can borrow them from him and make plaster molds then you could get the feet investment cast.