Cumberland Highpower

I think the original needles are going to be hard to find. I believe they're out of production by everyone and the lack of needles is what has pushed many away from the old 97's. I passed on one for that reason. What type of work do you plan to sew? I don't think I really ever stitched anything in leather over 11/16" Can always be a need for capacity though. Oil? Use straight 30W oil. Allot of the more modern, heavy machines use a 30W with a tackifier added (Basically 30w bar and chain oil). Old machines have allot of wear anyway and that helps a bit. Most of the little machines like a 31 you cite use a lighter weight oil, basically a spindle oil. Any oil is better than no oil, but that's too light for a 97 or any cast iron monster for that matter.

I have only a little experience with the 97. I think they were primarily used to sew heavy rigging back in the day, that was something hook and awl machines couldn't do. Should be able to simply adjust the needle bar up or down to compensate for the long needles? Those singer needles are longer because there's more stuff it has to clear. Guide/foot wise. You could probably use a shorter needle with good results if you ran it without the needle guide. That would depend on what you're planning to sew most likely. Seems like the old 97's have gone down the obsolescence path much like old Landis 1 and Champion Stitchers?

It might not be as hard as it sounds? 25 years ago when I was first getting into leatherwork I set up for snaps/etc. I bought some surplus arbor presses (US made) and bought snap setting tools from DOT. I bought a variety of the tools, some for the hand squeezy deal, some for other machines. It wasn't hard to work out how to use them on arbor presses. Most US tooling of this type has a shank that is on some kind of standard. 5/16 7/16,3/8 1/2" I don't know what the shank diameter of your riveter is, but it's probably one of those. You might just get lucky and buy setters that bolt right up. I feel like DOT brand setters for snaps are 3/8" as I sit here, I'll have to check later if I remember. Weaver tends to just copy what's industry standard, or whatever was most popular/common.. For example I have a big foot powered Judson Thompson loop stapler that's 100 years old and I Bought a Weaver anvil for one of their machines and it dropped right in and fit perfectly. If not, how hard can it be? You can work out sleeve bushings from the hardware store if your new tooling is for example 3/8" and your tool takes 1/2" shanks. I kinda don't see a need to hire a machinist to make adapters. --I just watched a min of a video on YouTube showcasing a Stimson 405 out of curiosity, looks like the lower tool is a 1/2" shank, the top looks pretty slender, maybe 5/16"? You could probably just bore the ram out to the standard of whatever tooling you wanted to switch to, if you actually wanted to do that. It also appears that 405 tooling is readily available, snaps, eyelets, gromets, etc. Seems like you likely have a non-problem? Grommet Setting Tools Grommet Installation Machinery |Stimpson Web Store

I've got a Campbell Randall VSB Burnisher. Honestly It's not as good as you're hoping it is. Mine collects dust.... They're built out of a common brushed sewing servo and fitted with an adapter that allows you to use Galli Burnishing wheels. The Galli wheels are a great item, lots of different wheels, grinding, diamond, leather, wood, phenolic, etc available. The bad part is that they have poor speed control ("0" to 3000K RPM) and almost no torque. A burnisher needs a little bit of low rpm torque. The Galli burnishing wheels have a bit of diameter to them so a low torque, hard to control cheap brushed servo isn't really what you want. The dust collector shield on the Randall VSB is actually a plastic dust collector hood from the Bosch Router. I ended up building 2 of my own burnishers, one out of a LOBO profile sander and the other out of a washing machine motor. Sometimes i use the DC burnisher on the front of my Galli FCE, but it's only setup for horizontal burnishing. I also have 2 other heavy factory made motor driven burnishers. One is a Randall in a hammered green paint. It has lots of torque, but setup with steel burnishing heads and kinda not that great. The other is an ancient machine that's almost identical to the Randall (Looks like Randall Copied it) that has a large multi groove cocobolo (or somthing similar) head about 6" in diameter. That one sees a fair amount of flat use. I guess my suggestion is to build your own and don't buy one. It looks like you don't need that advice though! You need decent lower speed torque and ability to vary the speed. 1/2hp 3ph motor is probably a good choice. I've run `1/3hp motors on burnishers and found them overheating from the load if I use them for a period of time. a 3ph motor is less prone to getting hot as well. If you're doing heavy burnishing I'd probably go so far as to recommend a 3/4hp motor.

In reality, other than testing a damaged pulley, that trick wouldn't do enough most likely to show what's bad. Bearings are precision units (even cheap bearings) and you could have enough bearing damage or runout in the shaft to cause issues and not be able to tell with a screwdriver. A possible "possibility" is that maybe the shaft was "driven" backwards a little, enough to cause something to rub inside? If that was the case would be an easy fix I'd think? If it is a bad bearing, I'd almost gamble its the rear bearing rather than the front.

Just a thought, but if your pulley doesn't wobble and the shaft appears to have no runout, is your belt having a bad section? Just thinking of all options.

Sounds like a bent shaft, but could be a bent pulley as well? I doubt it a bad bearing though. A damaged bearing would make a rumble or a bit of vibration from the brinelling caused by the impact but that's about it.

Got the job done. If Eli's 82 everyone better take note and get those parts you always wanted... I've got a 16 and hardly ever use it, but I just bought it because I liked how it looked. Still find it unique. Sort of like that Farmall Super C all restored up in front of your local produce/greenhouse/farmers market type store.

Something else to consider is to not put so many "tacks" in that backtack. All you really need is one back stitch. One is enough, but 2 can be a plus. 2 as in 2 complete stitches back, not 2-3 piled up on top of each other. All that thread in one place just makes a globby mess and doesn't look so neat. If you're backtacking with heavy thread like yours, you shouldn't have more than 2 threads visible in each completed backtack stitch.

Why not just start your work one hole from the end? Make one stich (or 2) and turn the work around 180 degrees and chug away? I've almost never used a reverse on a machine. Some machines just aren't timed right. is your forward and reverse identical in stitch length? There can also be times when a switch to reverse and then forward again wont pull the lock up right. (geometry). Just things to consider.

The domes are nice and pretty, I used to use a rivet set, then a custom driver in a riveter. I use allot of #12x3/8" copper belting rivets, but set them flush across the surface in a steel piece in a 5 ton press. 5 tons is enough to swage the rivet tip into a hole .110" in one whack. Looks pretty sharp in it's own way and bites allot better than you'd think. I don't think it would work with a copper burr though, just too thin and soft.

Unfortunately running a UL is a bit of a trade in itself. Unless a guy was sewing 200 units a day that would definitely be the wrong machine and attachment to recommend. If he had 200 to sew, daily I'd say that's right up his alley! I used to have an Adler 205-25 that was built for moccasins. What was the advantage? Hard to say really, because I never saw the good in it. At least on that machine you could set the upper foot to feed more or less relative to the feed dog with easy adjustments. Apparently quite allot of moccasin makers used the 205-25, I've seen a fair number out there.

Post a couple photos

I'd normally agree with that Dwight. But in this case he's got an alibi. Shooting coats are designed to be restrictive. Usually having straps and hooks that can be cinched down tightly to more or less hold you stiff. I've personally broken a few straps on my jackets and haven't put any weight on...lately! I'd maybe use a 5-6oz piece as a backing plate and keep it all on the backside. Looks like a smallbore jacket? Smallbore shooters tend to be a more refined lot....But Service/HP shooters are a bit more grizzled. As long as the jacket is sound that's all that matters.

I clicked the College Sewing link out of curiosity. Yeah that's about $455! That's close to approaching half of what i sold the 205-64 for...! I've bought some goodies from College Sewing and had pretty good luck so far with "other" prices at least being somewhat affordable. Brexit? Is England the source of Singers in your part of the world? Singers seem to be good machines, but nearly every clone of a Singer I've found made in more modern times was a little better in build quality. Seiko/Pfaff/Adler etc.

It's easy to mistype these days, especially with all the autocorrects, I do it all the time! A person could have an oversaturated motor w/stators made from Chinese bean can steel that draws 600W and a quality built Efka or Misubishi that draws 575W and actually have "more" output shaft power put out by the later. When it's a $200 servo vs one a few times more expensive, nobody really seems to care though. I bet all the ROC made clutch motors I have aren't as efficient as my old Belgian and USA made versions, but I don't seem to care either. I'm just rambling on GerryR.

Actually there are a few other bits at play, such as the elemental composition of the iron used in the stators. Chinese motors often use some really low quality sheet steel for that. You'll get oversaturation and more heat as a result. I'd gamble an Efka motor generates a good bit less heat to dissipate based on the Watt rating than any of these bargain Amazon servos. Seems like I remember a guy on ebay selling some 4:1 speed reduction bolt on (planetary?) gearboxes for servos. I don't remember too many details other than they were somewhere around $100. Anyone here have one or try one out?

My dad was a bricklayer and one summer when i was 12 we were putting up a pretty tall chimney at a neighbor's lodge. I fell 3 stories off the scaffolding when I slipped on a bit of grit. After laying in the dirt and eating a little somehow I pulled myself together and got up. We took the rest of the day off work.

That was my post you quoted I think. I recently sold my 205-64 so that's not a problem for me any longer! LOL "Big" money is subject to interpretation I guess...With German goods it's always to be expected. The irony is that any roller feet Adler would have in stock were either made back in the days of "West" Germany with a production cost of 10% of today or made in the Adler parts plant in Romania where they pay $800 a month tops in wages. I'm still a little sour about the $126 I was charged for an Adler thread guide pin for one of my 205-370s....And the $26 charged for a plastic lift lever ball.... But if you need it, you need it, Right?

Somewhat unrelated to the question at hand, but I'm curious what shows/types of show you attend?

Most of those are pretty valid and on the money points. I got into leatherworking mainly as you said I felt like it was an easy money maker and I wanted a few things. There was a learning curve, but a holster isn't the RD-180. I'd say the learning curve for myself was about a week of full time experimenting and some fine tune skill honing over a year or so. I think the big mistake that newcomers make is that they want to make "Custom" holsters, one customer at a time. There's no money in that. Maybe pocket money, but it's allot of frustration and annoyance and it's almost impossible to read someone else's mind 100%. The customer ends up never being fully happy. There are some pretty successful custom makers out there, but they're a rarity and a good few of them live on some kind of backup income like SS, Army Pension/VA Disability, Oil Royalties, etc. My approach was to make a few lines of holsters that were inspired by big name makers or of my own design and look for retailers who would sell them under their name. If they sold they sold, if not, not. Cheap models always sold the best, about 10x better.

Are you certain you're using the right needles? A needle too short or too long can give you the illusion of being out of time. Might sound like a silly suggestion but sometimes could be the case? Just look over the mechanisms, you should be able to "see" what the problem is with a little careful analysis.

Sewing machines are simple machines and anything can be fixed. It's probably just a timing or adjustment problem rather than a parts one. I don't think that machine can handle much sole work, if any? I think most buy them for things like sewing patches on jackets and shoe upper repair work in 4/5oz or less shoe leather. Positioner on a shoe patcher might be not worth the effort, you'd be better off just to set it up to run slow. Positioners are more for speedy production machines and a patcher isn't really one. Slow sewing design w/small bobbin.

I'd have to agree with that! 25 years ago I didn't have a choice, and didn't see it that way. I made a living making holsters for over a decade, and looking back, was pretty good money. I started with $200 and a 90 day loan against my 10 year old VW Golf (bought a stitcher). I made ALLOT of holsters of all types, mainly on contract. I rarely make holsters now and keep looking for something that just requires pushing a big red button. CNC, etc! LOL.

I like that answer. Sometimes my die maker is amazed by all the residual pencil marks, arcs, curves, lines and intersects he finds all over the cardstock. I tried to learn Fusion 360 and partly have, but I'd just as soon use an old way of doing something than to sit for hour/s doing that.