johnl1

A boss is a good machine, new or used, but they can at time be tempermental on the adjustments. Keep at it and once its right, it will sew well

Sounds like you probably have twisted everything by now to the point where it might be all out. Lets start again. Take a new needle, hold it in your hand and thread it. Now see if the needle will slide up and down the thread with just its weight. If so then lets install the new needle. The grove on the needle will face left, away from the machine. Now with no thread in the needle, put a piece of leather under the walking foot. Adjust the foot so that the leather will be just held down, and will move when you cycle the handle without slipping. Now, rewind a bobbin. Run the thread between two fingers and hold light tension on it as you rewind. Install the bobbin with the thread coming from the left side, in other words, to continue to wind the bobbin, you would be wrapping the thread counter clockwise. Check tension on the bobbin. Start by backing off the tension until there is almost none, then put just enough tension on it that you feel about as much resistance on the thread as you pull it as you would think a fork would weigh. (Its just a start). Now completely unthread the machine and start over. Look at the diagram carefully and thread exactly. Undo the tension, then tighten until you have pressure or weight on the thread equal to say a pound. Sometimes its easy to mess up. Now try it. Its very important how you stroke the machine. Pull the lever down firmly and all the way. On the upstroke, do it quickly and sharply. If you don't the thread will drag and mess up. Do a few stiches and check the stitch. Adjust the upper and lower tensions until the thread does what you want it to do. sometimes you have to take an extra loop around the thread tensioner on top to make it work correctly, depending on how the bobbin is wound. Remember to operate the lever quickly.

One more thing. On the upstroke of the machine, don't slowly ease the needle up, briskly operate the handle.

I took the 2 week course with Frank English. True, 2 weeks will get you familiar with the procedure for boot making, but you have a long way to go before you can make them for others. Frank offers a very good and intense class. He is tough and demands that you produce as close to perfect as you can get. You will however, appreciate the effort that he puts into has bootmaking and classes. He cuts no corners. If possible, I am going back. John L

I have done business on and off with Edwin Hale for a number of years. I have had to sometimes wait for tools to be shipped from England when he was out of stock, but I have always received them. One time, my shipment arrived with a damaged box- some tools had fallen out and been lost in shipment. Edwin wasted no time in putting in insurance claims, and shipping me replacements. Yes his tools are higher than Tandy Leather, but good tools in any profession have always cost. If I need something, I will call Edwin. I would recommend him for tools if you want above average and hard to find stuff.