Darren Brosowski

Schmetz are the best needles bar none. Second tier needles that are still very good are; Organ - made in Vietnam in a Japanese owned and run factory TNC - Taiwan Needle Company. Set up by the Germans. DOTEC - Another Taiwanese company set up by the Germans. Groz Beckert - German company who do not manufacture their own needles. I am not sure but I suspect they are made in Taiwan Third tier - Not too far behind Toyo Needles - not well known but the best quality made by Henry Needles in China Orange - Korean company but quality is variable. Everything else is "good luck". Some needles are ok for certain applications but not worth the risk on leather. This is my experience only and I won't be upset if those with more experience have other views.

$300 is way too much. they are rare but $100 delivered would probably leave some room for profit On the 45k I often find that missed stitches or thread breakage is due to wear or rust in the tension assemblies. Check that there is not a groove worn in the top tension rod. If there is the fix is to screw it out then screw it back in with a small washer behind it as it will present a fresh surface for the thread to run across. Dismantle the main tension and clean up all surfaces with 000 steal wool to remove any rust. If the felt spacers are stuffed then they are available at reasonable cost. Pull out the shuttle and remove the spring so you can see what is under it. If there are rough edges you can possibly polish them out but a new one is inexpensive and should work first up. One often ignored problem is rough edges in the needle plate. You can buy a new one or just drill the hole slightly larger then use a bigger drill bit to chamfer the rough edges. Look at those issues before going to a mechanic.

There are thousands of hooks that look very similar. Just to make life difficult some the cross references - even from good suppliers - sometimes have the wrong information. For a common machine like the 206 it is more likely the supplier just made a mistake or the wrong part was in the wrong bin. It happens, we all get it wrong sometimes.

Ouch, an odd one. Do you have a Singer/Seiko/Consew type you can test as the 69 is similar in many ways and can trace its roots back to the Singer 153/155 - Ithink

LOL, I should mention that shipping from Australia can be inexpensive too and the exchange rates are pretty good. Yes, I am talking about my own eBay store. Much of what I sell is not available elsewhere.

There should be instructions to "reset factory settings" which may help. Personally I think something has "let the smoke out" but that is a worst case.

Sorry but the question is pretty much a reflex reaction. I deal with a lot of 45k's and other older machines. Due to the distances involved between mechanics I usually walk people through what to do with them. Learning to sort out the minor issues over the phone or by email can teach you exactly how that beast works. The 45k is very simple as you can only adjust the timing by adjusting the needle bar. Sorting the tension starts by pulling it apart and cleaning everything. Cleaning is most of the work! I doubt that there is anyone here - including dealers - who has not come close to having a sewing machine shaped hole though the nearest window at some stage.

y work car for many years was a Mitsubishi Magna wagon - not sure if there is an equivalent US model as it was designed here. 420,000km (260,000 Miles) and hardly ever spent any money on the thing. 3.5l V6 front wheel drive that spent most of those miles carting a trailer. Between car and trailer it usually had a ton (literally) of machines, parts, gazebo and all the gear needed to set up and live in site for two to three days at various events. It broke down once on the road when the belt that drives the alternator let go. Paid for the tow and repair with an ABLE290. The poor thing died a valiant death when a rear wheel bearing collapsed while going uphill at 40km/h on a wet windy road.With some incredibly skilled driving - in reality more luck than anyone deserves - I avoided the 30 foot drop off the left hand side of the road, turned 180 degrees, took out 5 or 6 trees and finished up upside down. Getting out was not easy as I had to kick out the passenger side window but my friend and I got out and walked away. To me vehicles are just another tool but the Magna kept me alive in an accident that I should not have walked away from. For that alone she was the best possible vehicle I could ever have.

When it comes down to it delivery always creates issues for both the dealer and customer. This is not a 40kg washing machine - it is a piece of industrial equipment. Machines can be delivered fully assembled on the table - not my preferred method as there is a lot of scope for damage - or repacked into boxes after testing and set up. Usually freight companies ship goods to depots that then do the local delivery in a smaller truck with a tailgate loader so the simplest thing to do is find out who is actually going to deliver the machine, contact them and see what options are available. Let them know you are a veteran with dodgy knees and that there is a slab of beer for the driver to share with the depot. Knowing freight companies through long experience a slab (Aussie term for a 24 pack) will get you assistance above and beyond what is legally required. Methinks you are panicking over an issue that has not happened yet. As a business the big freight company does not care about any individual shipment but the local depot is just a bunch of average guys and girls. The driver has plenty of experience moving goods and has a pallet jack to move goods inside the truck so unless he is a brain-dead heartless bastard he is going to help you as the faster he gets it off the truck and onto your premises the faster he gets to the next delivery.

The debate in Australia is pretty much the same but it is (General Motors) Holden v Ford. Both build great cars - The Holden Commodore and Ford Falcon - but being minor outposts of Global empires they are about to shut up shop. You guys saw the Commodore as the Pontiac G6 & G8 then it was rebranded as the Chevy SS. The Comaro was designed in Australia and is just a two door body on the Commodore platform. Aussies like cars that go fast and can also stop and go around corners.

Different threads have different properties. Some bonded polyester feels as if it is lubricated.

Wiz is correct in terms of breaking strain but that is rarely what breaks the thread. A big factor is the wear resistance of the specific thread and some threads with a lower breaking strain can last longer under stress if their wear resistance is higher. More to the point with the work you want to do is that people love to see a big heavy thread on things like a dog collar. While it is at the bottom range of its working end I would suggest a GA5/Cowboy CB105

Kat, we Aussies are generally a relaxed lot and as a seller I respect that. If a customer is happy with their 45k or whatever with no reverse then I am not going to try and sell them a different machine or dump poo on the one that they have. My only question; Why would you pay someone to service a 45k?

Two very different machines that do very similar jobs. The 45k93 is not a very common machine as Singer did not build many machines with reverse. The 133k8 is essentially a 132k6 cylinder bed and not really a leather machine. For leather work I would take a roller foot over the Singer "alternating pressers" any day of the week but that is a personal preference only

Generally you do not touch the shuttle tension but there are exceptions. As it oscillates there is a fair bit of vibration so over time things loosen up and may need adjustment. When the main top tension is set right the best way to make minor adjustments is to play with the pre (top) tension.

The standard bobbin case is based on a design that was never really intended to take anything heavier than #69 but in general they can handle #138. When using a very high quality thread that has good lubrication qualities #207 is OK but even then it will wear the the bobbin case. Normally I only suggest heavier thread when the machine has a replaceable bobbin case as the machines with a combined shuttle/bobbin case are more expensive to fix.

Agreed Wiz. The more complicated they get the shorter the life span. I do not sew much as my main aim is just to set machines up but I have no problem controlling machines with a 1425RPM motor and small pulley. My suggestion to customers is to buy some sheets from the local op shop and spend several days sewing through them with no thread to learn to control the motor.

It is amazing how much the thread can influence a machine.

The 17 class machines were built for the shoe industry mostly. Seiko kept building them as the TE when Singer went down the tubes. The patcher has similar thread capacity

What is the shuttle? Looks like a 16-88 or 16-188. If it has the long beak shuttle then it might be the a 42-5

Just to be really confusing there is a mixture of screws used on Chinese built machines but the mix is for a variety of reasons. All of it really starts with Singer and ADLER........ Some machines buillt in China are copies of Japanese machines but the Japanese started building machines for Singer as they closed their factories. Other machines are copies of ADLER machines. Some of those started out as outright copies of Singer machines - possibly, such as the No4, a license built version of the 45k25 - but over the years "Germanised". There is a mixture of parts and screws in the Chinese machines that will fit older machines. What we dealers charge the big dollars for is learning which bit fits what.

<pissing myself laughing> Never lost one myself Gregg <pissing myself laughing>

Until they started to play up........ A good one - and I have had a couple - is very smoothe and I have set a couple up with 180W domestic motors. When they start to grab and play up they are scrap.

LOL While I am a dealer I often think the best advice I can give any customer is to keep the machines you have if they do a particular job and not trade them for an upgraded machine. For heavy work a CB4500/441 type is the way to go but there is no reason not to have 4 or 5 other machines in your shop. If the shop isn't big enough then get the hammer and nails out.....

Hey, We are all a bit mad here. Must be something that they add to sewng machine oil