Darren Brosowski

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

My initial knowledge of sewing came from an ex girlfriend who has been sewing from the age of 15. She started out on a factory floor churning out garments but taught herself patternmaking and eventually developed her own clothing range. Somewhere in that mix she spend time doing custom work for one of the biggest bondage wear suppliers in Australia. While it is not the most pleasant industry she did learn a lot about sewing odd materials and many is the time she has provided the right answer to difficult questions. It is good to have a partner who can sew and knows about odd materials

Sorry, but on the scale of sewing machine problems it is a non-event. Pull the assembly apart, clean everything. make sure that there is a pin to release the tension - not hard to follow the mechanics - then reassemble and ensure that the tension assembly is properly seated.

Personally I love it when people pull something to bits, reassemble it then get it going again. For me it is the point where you really start to understand your machine.

Lots of guys here give free advice. I have been known to throw my 2c worth in even though I am half way across the world and there is no commercial interest in doing so. There are two ways to look at it 1/ There is an international upswing incustom leaterwork and promoting it helps my business 2/ I just love bloody big machines of all sorts. Take your pick LOL