Undeadzombiehunter

Here are a couple of additional examples of these rivets. Tony

Try this link, it might provide what you are after. http://www.campbell-bosworth.com/articles/Point-Part1.pdf http://www.campbell-bosworth.com/articles/Point-Part2.pdf Tony

This one went for $1100 AUD so about $750 euro. I am very pleased. I had an Adler 105-25 as a second option for about the same money. The machine is in a rural location and freight companies could gouge you. what might be $180 worth of freight from a city could be double in a small rural location. Besides it is a beautiful part of the country, I haven't been there for a couple of years, and is will be 110 kph all the way on a nice country B road and I have a fleet car, I need to get the kms up on it. Tony

I use these rivets almost exclusively. I get mine at a local saddlers, but have also bought online. They are about $35-$45 per lb. they are in various guages, from super heavy say 5mm diamter shaft to 2mm. They look beautiful when set. Tony

The Chinese are great copiers and little regard for intellectual property, btu saying that they are an ancient race with skills and capabilities when they want to apply it. After all they are starting with good Australian iron ore. Some of there stuff is junk and some of it surprisingly good. I bought some hole punches for next to nothing, and not withstanding the shipping delays, they were ok. Ok, not great. I tested them when they arrived with a file and found them a little soft. But being a sometimes knife maker, a soak in the forge and oil quench resolved that. I did not bother tempering them, but after the hardening they were much harder and they work well. If I were a professional and used them every day, i would have a press and use premium equipment. But even my Chinese lathe has remained accurate once I spent some time accurising it. If you take a chance and end up disappointed, big deal. You pays your money and and takes your chances and sometimes get lucky. It reminds me,of the adage, if you lend someone $50 and end up never seeing them again....it was worth it. Tony

The search might be over but I have a 6.5 hours drive to pick up my, new to me, Singer 45K25. New motor and table, and comes with the accessory flat bad attachment. Very happy, happier when I get it home and a little practice in on it. Wish me luck, Canberra to Gipsland and back should be about 15 hours if disassembly and packing into the Landrover does not take too long. Tony

Thanks Wiz, I understand and agree. As I do use my ne and only stitch marking wheel, I plan to calabrate my machine to match and document it for various material types and thicknesses, testing of course. Fortunately my projects are not commercial, so I can be unproductive. As far as machines go, I have bid on. 45k25, if that falls through, exceeds my budget, I have an option on an Adler 105-25. So by next week I will be tryingto set one,or the other up. Fingers crossed. You are very generous with your time and knowledge, I want you to know how much it is valued, even from peopl you might ot hear from. Tony

It looks like it was used to close bags, but man it is huge, considering bag closures can be hand held. This thing has a lot strength behind it. Tony

Hello all, it is so rare to find a union machine in AU, that when I stumbled across this it caught my attention. My guess is thatnit might be a bag closure, as it looks to be in a rural setting. The owner is getting back to me with the model numbers, the plate can't be read in the photo he supplied. Regards, Tony

Schpacko, your stitching is beautifully done. You should be very proud. I have learned so much from this site and find myself in the same situation. Tossing up between over-priced vintage machines, many of which can likely give many years service, particularly if liek me, you are not running the machine all day every day the way they were designed. Then there are the mid-priced clones of questionable suitability and quality, followed by the fairly priced value added cloned specially tuned and setup, many of which are actively supporting us all on this site, followed by the holly grails, to me such as the union lockstitchers. I am currently looking at a Singer 132k6 $1900, a 45k $1200, an Adler 105-25 $1200, aTypical 441 clone $3600, a 97-10 $4500 or a seiko clone for $3000. So I feel your pain. I do have a question for the experts though. It is inevitable that some projects, well some of mine, will require some hand stitching and any tips on matching the machine stitch to ones hand stitch will be helpful. Good luck with your hunt, let us know what you end up with. Tony

Thank you all so very much, your advice has always been practical and valued. Bob, thank you for the link, greatly appreciated. And Steve, your AU reseller made immediate contact with me, very helpful, you have a good local rep with him, and if the bug bites hard enough to warrant something more capable, I would be definitely be buying from Greg. I will get m money back on the 132k6 any day, so with 4 years to retirement who knows how full my workshop might get Cheers, Tony

As a new member and long time hand stitcher, my poor arthritis riddled finger joint have slowed me down, until I have not decided to buy some mechanical advantage. I don't make a lot, being a hobbyist, so justifying the expense of many machines or high end machines means that compromise is the only answer. I have decided to buy a singer 132k6 mounted on a descent table with a new motor etc. Lightly used and fully serviced with 12 months warranty. As I only stitch some sheaths, satchels, pouches and other light stuff I am sure the 132k6 will serve if......I could find a manual or some instructions for it. Yes I have the parts manual, but no users manual and will have to fork out $20 for one on ebay. I have found the in this thread invaluable, thank you. Tony

Thank you very much. I think I will let it pass. Regards, Tony

G'day, I have an option on a used but serviced and new power plant seiko stw-8B which I understand is the same as a Consew 226R. While The consew manual refers to max thread size of 5, with the various thread systems I am sure it does not mean a metric 5. Based on experience can I use this machine to sew 207? If so is that the limit? I only want to sew max of 3x2mm veg tan leather and mostly only 2 x 2mm. Regards, Tony

Can you advise what the shipping to AU was? Being down here and looking enviously at the deals on this forum and at the partner businesses makes me think that if I can get a break on shipping, the place to buy is here. Regards, Tony And I think I know where that machine ended up, and would love to be able to afford it.