gottaknow

We're currently producing goods from waxed canvas in the factory. You will not be able to baste it for sewing with an adhesive. I have personally used a regular stapler and removed them later. The holes from the staples can be "healed" with the wax itself if its in an area that shows. Regards, Eric

One of my biggest frustrations as a head mechanic in a factory is buying replacement parts. When I started in 1980, you could call Singer direct and get original parts. They always were made to spec of the same material. You could swap a part, adjust, and be on to the next one. I don't just order 1 of anything. I will normally order 3x the quantity I need in order to get one I can use. I return things that aren't to spec. My vendors take care of me because of the volume we buy, but it's just made extra work. I still use a lot of 50's and 60's era Singers because there's a lot of jobs that don't require all the options of the newer machines. I have Singer 211's that have the original hooks in them and can still perform 40 hours a week at high speed. Last year, I purchased a new Chinese Juki double needle lockstitch. I estimate it's useful life at 5-6 years before the inferior materials in the bushings and bearing carriers are wasted. All that to say I feel your pain CD. I don't think I'll ever get used to the poor quality. Fortunate for the leatherworkers, the machines run at a much slower speed and should last a lot longer. Regards, Eric

The Mitsubishi LS2's are pretty much limited to garment weight leather. They have a reciprocating horizontal hook orientation using the common DBX1 needle class. I've got several of them at the factory and they are decent high speed machines. Just not what you'd need for knife sheaths. Regards, Eric

Seems to me in that thread CD I mentioned the adjustment of the tension release and a picture, perhaps not. I'll be interested to see your progress. And yes, it does matter which screws sit where when you time your top and bottom shafts. That info I believe is in another rather lengthy thread about a 111. Enjoy! Regards, Eric

Good deal! You'll want to get a good quality screwdriver for those little screws as it will likely happen again at some point. It's rather common on verticle hook machines. I get all my screwdrivers from SnapOn. You really need screw drivers with hardened tips for sewing machines. If you've got screws on your machine that are all beat up, it's likely a cheap screwdriver that did it. Glad you go going. Regards, Eric

See my post above about how to get it out. Regards, Eric

I'm glad it was helpful. It sounds like you're getting what the machine's capable of. A speed reducer and servo is a great addition. As for sharing information, it's something I enjoy doing and helping folks out. I'm still perfecting my craft. I'm starting an apprentice soon at the factory, it's about a five year process before they are "factory" ready. The apparel business is making a comeback in the US. We've been hiring steadily. I answered 37 calls for service today. Regards, Eric

It appears your basket is locked up in your hook. Either there's no oil, or there's some thread stuck underneath. You really should run the machine with power with out your throat plate on. It holds the basket in place. Now if you took it off to see why it's stuck, that's fine. You'll need to remove/loosen the tiny screws on that flat piece on your hook and get it turning. I'd oil it at the same time. If you have your needle threaded and no bobbin in, you'll often wrap the thread around the basket tighter than tight. When you put the plate back on, make sure the little tab on the basket is in the notch of your throat plate. Regards, Eric

Nothing wrong with that Tony. I use sharp point needles in garment leather all the time. I even use a ball point needle sewing deer suede to Lycra equestrian pants. Barrack machines prefer a sharp point as well, which I'm using to tack 2 layers of 4oz. suede. I tend to stray from what many view as hard and fast rules. It's served me well in the last 33 years in apparel manufacturing. Regards, Eric.

A Juki 980 or a 984 with a common 42 stitch cam should work fine if you're talking about a 16mm long tack by 2-3mm wide. The clamp for that is pretty standard as well. That's the standard tack size for back pockets on jeans. Regards, Eric

Parts are readily available for the 269's and the older Juki's. I still change cams when I have to. The Juki's don't take that long. Regards, Eric

Even the bulletproof Amco motors eventually have this issue. Which is what I suspected was the problem. For future reference I also use the same white lithium and work a thin cost onto the cork face of the clutch disc. Make the clutch work smoother and last longer. Regards, Eric

It's possible to change the cams on both machines. Depending on what you want to do, you may need to change the clamp and plate as well. The cam on the Singer is on the bottom and is on a verticle shaft. The cam on the Juki is on the right side of the machine head and is on a horizontal shaft. Changing the cam on either of these machines is not for a beginer or even someone who's accomplished with more mainstream industrials. They are in a class by themselves as far as adjusting and maintaining. There is a company called Camtron that makes replacement cams for both machines. Not to be confused with Camatron which is a company that makes bartack clones. I haven't ordered any cams for several years, but last I did Camtron was in the Dallas, TX area. Keep in mind the cam on the machine not only controls the pattern, but also all the other parts of the bartack cycle, include clamp behavior and the knife system. It's possible to do permanant damage if you attempt to change the cam on either machine unless you know exactly what you're doing. I earn my keep so to speak keeping all of our bartacks running. Depending on what it is you're trying to do, you may want to check out a programmable bartack. I love the Brother unit I have. I'm currently using it to attach elastic to suede on the welding jackets we're making using a box-x pattern.. Juki also makes a bartack, the LK1900 which is older than the brother but has a nice variety of patterns. I would contact a dealer for either the Brother or Juki. I have both machines and prefer the Brother. I also have Juki 980's, 982's, 1852's as well as the 1900. I have probably 12 Singer 269's that we still use to do various things. What pattern or type of tack do you need to have? Regards, Eric

You could probably use some lube where the clutch shaft slides through the motor housing. It's common for that to get dry and sticky. Some of those motors have oil cups (like the older singers) and some don't. When I service clutches, I usually give that area a good coat of white lithium grease. I would also disconnect the pittman rod from the pedal to make sure the pedal itself isn't sticking. Regards, Eric

No worries. Not sure how I missed your post. We've gotten quite busy at the factory and I have less time online but I usually check in once a day. The 212 is a workhorse, I have several of them that we still use. Regards, Eric

Good thing. My degree is in geology. Regards, Eric

The 112's require changing the needle holders (screws into the same needle bar) feed dogs, throat plate and presser foot. If you're going from the common 1/4" gauge to the 3/16" gauge, you have to move both hook saddle blocks in closer 1/16" of an inch. This doesn't require re-timing the hooks. If you go down frome say 3/8' or 1/2" or bigger, you'll have to re-time the hooks. After you've done it a few times, it's pretty quick. I usually double check the latch opener adjustment as well. Regards, Eric

Message sent, but no, that amount of play is pretty common. If you need to replace the hook because the hook itself is bad, then fine. Otherwise I spend the money elsewhere. Regards, Eric

We use a few different ones which are referred to as "feed off the arm" machines. Two of them are chainstitch machines, one the Singer 261, the other a Union Special 35800. Both are widely used on jeans providing a two or sometimes 3 needle chainstitch configuration for closing the inseam on jeans as well as closing the sleeves on heavy denim jackets. Seam contruction is flat-felling where there is no raw edge. I'm currently using a Singer 261 to close the sleeves on a leather welding jacket we're making for the Navy. Since it's a chainstitch machine, there's no bobbin which is good for production. Not really suited for sewing leather on a small scale as their use is quite specialized. As with any chainstitch, the end must be secured with a bartack to keep the chain from coming out. On the welding jackets, we're bartacking across the seam as well as a rivet. The attached pic is the Singer 261 table mount feed off the arm machine. Regards, Eric

On machines that are used to using heavier material and needles, the feed dog hole is usually the first thing I look at. If you take a size 22 needle and place it in the hole and there's still a fair amount of room, that's likely your problem. True, some leather likes to move up and down with the needle, but if your feed dog hole is too big with thin leather, you're going to get skips. I would order a set of dogs with a small hole for sewing lighter leather. They are fairly easy to switch on your machine. The reason I do this first is because if your decending needle pushes your leather a bit down the hole you're really cutting down the size of your thread loop for the hook to pick up. If you can't stop it with the foot you need to use and you're going to lose some of your loop there, you can all but eliminate it on the down stroke with a small feed dog hole. Other than that, you can try rotating your needle just a bit towards the hook to give it a better angle at what loop you are forming, but in my experience, you'll still get skips. Regards, Eric

First off, if you have a clutch motor, when the machine is at rest (with your foot off the pedal), there's actually a brake that the clutch sits against in the motor. If you depress the pedal as you turn the handwheel towards you, it will move the cork clutch away from the brake. Push too far, and the machine will start sewing. If you press just enough to release the brake, you'll be able to turn the hand wheel easily. If it still turns hard, there could be a bind somewhere else. Sometimes with leather there's a lot of foot pressure which can also make the machine turn hard. If you're not used to a clutch, practice with the power off. As for your tension, your top thread isn't being pulled up tight consistantly. To tell if it's just lack of needle tension, place a length of scrap under the foot, get it started sewing, then pinch the needle thread with your thumb and forefinger before the tension disc somewhere. If your tension looks good, then you lack pressure. You can take a double wrap around the tension post and then loosen off the tension a bit until you get a good stitch. Those things are easy to try, as well as a larger needle. Not so easy are other issues depending on how your machine's adjusted. There's the latch opener adjustment which pulls the bobbin basket tab away from the throat plate to let the thread pass and pull up tight. (I'm attatching a pic so you can see this). Lubing the thread can help even though silicone makes the thread slicker, it also places more tension on the thread as it goes through the discs. Using heavier thread usually requires some fiddling as 138 is about tops for your machine. You may want to try smaller thread in your bobbin as well. Oh, and don't forget to place a drop of oil around your hook. That's one area on these that will get tight and tend to bind up the machine. Have fun! Regards, Eric

If it's adjusted correctly, you can hit reverse at high speed. Not really practical on leather, but on fabric we do it all the time. Doesn't matter where the needle bar is since the feed dogs are timed so they move in unison, forward and reverse. Regards, Eric

A smaller pulley will slow it down. You'd do we'll to get a servo motor. I can't recommend one, the ones I use at work start at about $1000. Regards, Eric

If the hook was replaced, I would suspect your hook timing is off. Vertical hook machines are the easiest to time, but unless the relationship between the needle guard and the needle is understood, they are prone to thread breakage. The fact that you changed to a smaller needle tell me that the hook is not set tight enough to the needle and the needle guard isn't set correctly. You should be able to change needle sizes by a few sizes each way without issue. Take it back as was suggested until they get it right. If you paid for a new hook and it's set wrong, it won't stay new for long. Regards, Eric

What model of machine is this? Regards, Eric