JimRaynor

Thanks for the solid ideas Brian. I'll make sure the points you made is checked. One way or another, this problem will be sorted out this week!

I don't know what to say Wiz... When I was writing the initial post, I was hoping that you'd chime in... You did, and you made my day! I'm very sure that the answer lies above. I'll start with the ones that I find most likely to be applicable to my setup and let you guys know how it works out. Thanks a lot.

Thanks Floyd for taking the time and sharing your experiences. I really appreciate it. Today I've cleaned, oiled, re-threaded the machine and changed the needle... Still, no avail... I'm starting to think it's got something to the with the hook mechanism too...

In hopes to find out that there was a huge difference between the tensions on the checker springs of the two machines, got frustrated once again... They were very close if not identical... Thanks for trying CowboyBob.

Hmm, interesting point... I'll definitely check that when I get back to the workshop and let you know CowboyBob.

That's the exact same technique I was talking about when I was giving the example of top tension being so high that doing this feels like the thread is cutting my finger!

Thank you for chiming in CowboyBob. Actually yeah, I use some cheap bobbins off of ebay however I've tried pulling out the bobbin thread a few yards at a steady speed with my hand but did not feel any changes in friction/tension. Thinking I might not be sensitive enough, I've switched to the original 2 that came with the machine and the problem was still there... So I think it's safe to say in my case it's not the cheap bobbin.

Thanks for taking the time and replying brmax. I too found out that increasing the top tension somewhat reduces the problem but does not eliminate it. And when I say ''increasing the top tension' I mean increasing to a such point that the thread almost cuts my finger when I try to pull/loosen it a bit so that I can get the material out under the walking foot to cut the threads. That's of course very unnatural thus telling something else is wrong - not the relative tensions of the top thread and bobbin thread. It's a fact that the thread tension(s) (top, bottom or both) somehow varies during the run. I thought a piece of thread could be stuck somewhere around the bobbin and looked high and low hoping to find something but found nothing. That would have explained the problem. I don't know what else to think of... There are really very experienced people on this forum and I'm sure we will find out what the underlying cause is and the rest will be easy.

Hello friends, I've got a problem that's been plaguing me for the last few weeks, whatever I tried, did not work. Well, a picture is worth a thousand words.. The attached picture is the bottom of 2 layers of nubuck glued together. While the top stitching (not shown) is good, at the bottom (the picture); some steps are good, some are bad, some are almost perfect and some are completely unacceptable. The whole thing was done on a single run with no variation in speed. This is what a few months old Juki LU-1508N gives me... My other machine; LS-1341 sews the same material absolutely FLAWLESS - same needle, same thread, same operator, etc... I'm very frustrated. All help is appreciated and I thank you in advance.

I'm looking for a place to buy a large quantity of finished lather hides of various types - mainly for messenger bags, duffle bags. Where would you recommend I go in NJ? If they have inventory so I could browse/choose, that would be great.

Thanks johnv474, I always thought it'd be impossible to center align the res piece and there had to be a machine in the process because I couldn't come up with using masking tape! P.S.: If you're unhappy about formatting, try SHIFT+Return for new paragraphs, instead of just Return.

Here's a quick (and ugly) sketch of the cutaway, if it helps...

Hi everyone! Lately, I've been 'deconstructing' stuff that's damaged/no longer used/etc., trying to reverse engineer them, to figure out how they were made, what tools/machines were used... It's quite fun and educational but lately, I'm stuck with a certain item and I thought maybe one of you guys can figure it out. Attached, is a cutaway of a leather strap - about 25" long. The picture shows it but what I can add to the givens is, there's also a super-thin and super-even-spread of glue between the black and red parts P.S.: Notice how the binding (black leather) on both sides are not individual parts but actually a single piece (sheep skin I assume) running under the red leather. So, how do you think it was made - build order, tools, machines, attachments? Thanks in advance.

Hi RStevenson, She had it coming!

Greetings everyone! I've been lurking in this great community for some time now and I thought I'd finally say hi and introduce myself... I just moved to Lyndhurst, NJ and got a house in which I'm setting up a workshop in its basement for my hobby; leatherworking. Unfortunately, I'm nowhere near any good but I'm hopping to get to a point where I'll be able to craft some small stuff in the near future. I'v already learned a lot from this amazing forum and I hope I can start helping beginners like myself soon enough. Take care!