Colt W Knight

I bought my Consew 206RB1 for 400$, and its nearly 40 years old and was used in a commercial holster business. Still sewing strong. I think you got a great deal. I bought a servo motor from Cowboy Bob Kovar to put on mine, makes it a lot more controllable.

I just checked my 206rb1 When the dots align, the feed dog reaches its highest and furthest back point. Removing the bobbin is easy in this position.

My 206 has a pretty short center foot. I would take Steve up on his shorter foot, so you will have both short and long if need arises.

Computer board etchant solution found at Radio Shack will antique nickel plating. Be sure to rinse under water after you dip it to neutralize the reaction.

Nylon has higher tensile strength, but it is not as UV resistant as polyester. Things like awning and boat upholstery use polyester thread. Most indoor furniture uses nylon because of its strength. Most saddlers I know use Nylon.

bwahahaha

That tooling is as nice as I have ever seen.

I would show that off as well.

I have a consew 206, and it easily sews 1/4" of leather, and mine will sew just shy of 3/8"

I own this machine, and it works great for garment leather and medium weight veg tan leather. It will easily sew up to 3/8" of leather using up#138 thread. Used machines can be found within your budge, and new for around 1300$. But there are dozens if not hundreds of machines that would work in this application. I think the real trick is finding one that fits your needs, gives you some room to grow, and is easily maintained with parts readily available. I don't know much about garment making, but if you would like to make things like Purses ,you will want a cylinder arm machine. I spent a lot of time searching for used industrial foot walking machines that sew leather well, and there is generally not a lot available on the used market. If you are wanting to buy one quickly, you will want to watch the classifieds daily, as they often sell extremely quickly, especially when they sell for a good price. Most likely, you will need to buy new if you are in a time crunch if nothing pops up locally used. New machines are going to be more than your 1000$ budget.

I have several holsters I need to draw out and make once I finish my comprehensive exams.

I watched the used market for a year to find a suitable sewing machine in Tucson. I gave 400$ for a used consew 206rb-1 ( one helluva deal), but I still had to invest in new needles, new thread, a servo motor, and some hardware to get everything up and running again. My 400$ machine ended up being 650$ machine. I still consider that a good deal.

Id like to make something similar for my LCP. Looks good.

I don't think a Consew 230 would be much use as a holster machine. I don't even think it has a walking foot.

+1 The 3rd one is painted, then rubbed to give it that antique feel.

On my machine, my stitch length gets shorter if I move from thinner to thicker leather.

I watched a documentary on sewing machines, and they said that early Singers were so well made they had to start a "trade in" policy so they could gather up old machines and destroy them because here was no need to buy a new machine when once decades old still worked like new.

My machine worked fine within its limits, which just wasn't enough for the leather work I wanted to do. My 66 would only do about 7 spi. New leather machines are expensive, and used ones aren't always available. After a year of searching, I found used machine locally - Consew 206-rb1

Bob is great to deal with. He got me up and running when I bought my first used industrial walking foot machine.

Wish I could use an airbrush. Excellent work.

You can order just about any shape/size belt you want from McMaster-Carr http://www.mcmaster.com/#v-belts/=w0xi4i Input your dimensions on the screen to the left, and it will tell you what type of belts are available. If you are not sure which type to choose, you can read the descriptions to see which brand/type fit your needs. Looks about like an 8$ belt for your needs.

The term servomotor encompasses a lot of different motor designs and can be brushless or brushed.brushless motors are more expensive. The feedback device and electrical controlare really what make it a servo motor.

I got my Servo from Bob. It ended up being a great purchase, and made sewing so much easier.

I bet that will be one helluva machine

I had a Singer 16-88, and did all the upgrades possible to try to make it a leather sewing machine. In short - Will it sew leather? Yes, it will, but not very thick, and not very consistently. The real cons - Stitches are too close together, thread is small, mine wouldnt sew 2 pieces of vegtan leather consistently, because it doens't have a real walking foot it is hard to get thread spacing consistant, and it runs about 100 mph. _ I mostly used mine to sew felt onto the back of a single piece of veg tan leather. It would be fine for sewing garment leather together or heavy cloth. Here is one I tried to fix up for leather - http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=54394