Darren Brosowski

A lot comes down to practice and experience as there are members here who have done it but others struggle

It was a hire car - next best thing to a Formula One racer

I cut the slot with an angle grinder fitted with a 1mm stainless steel cutting disc. I cut the slot with an angle grinder fitted with a 1mm stainless steel cutting disc.

Hi Marianne! Did you join from the bagmaking page?

When welding cast iron it is best to preheat the part and then weld with a high nickel content rod. To avoid warping and localised fracturing you cool it slowly in sand and for large items you actually slow the cooling down with a blow torch

Last time I drove through SA was a back road to Ceduna and sat in the middle of the road at night doing about 180. The guy I was taking down there was shitting himself as he thought we would get booked by the coppers. "No wukkas mate, the road is dead flat and no trees so we can see about 5km ahead of us. Mind you if a Roo or Wombat walks out we are ed"

I see these questions a lot and there are a few issues. 1/ when setting the bottom tension it is pretty much a case of you just want to feel some resistance as you pull it through the feed dog. It is hard to quantify but you don't want it to come straight through and you don't want to put your foot against the machine to pull it out so about half way between those extremes. 2/ When setting the top tension the most important issue is that the thread goes around the main tension 1 1/2 times and the tension roller spins as you pull the thread through. Sometimes this means that there will be very little tension on the main spring. The tension at the top/back is the one that puts the pressure on the thread to spin the main tension. There are many ways to balance the tensions and no two people will agree as with three springs there are a thousand ways to do it. Nobody is right or wrong and you need to find a way to balance everything that works for you

Wanty, wanty want, want. If that lot were within 200km of me I would be there!! Three 133 darners are interesting, a 29k machine is always good - even if just for parts, but the one at the far end looks seriously interesting. Also look for Sowing and Sawing machines

What Steve said!!!

Simple oiling instructions for every machine; wherever there is a hole or you see metal rubbing on metal then oil it

If red is the top thread then you are going the wrong way as there is no top tension

As a dealer in Australia my decision, based on your requirements, is pretty simple - "the door is over there" If you ask my opinion and I make a suggestion I am legally liable if it does not do the job and you are asking for something that does not exist. Get off your high horse and define what you really want from a machine then come back and ask.

I have a foot lift lever and possibly a take up lever assembly.

Beautiful machine.

It is a good-ish price but does not include table, motor or extra feet.

Poor tolerances? The ABLE290 is made with the finest of precision engineering - well, as good as you can get using a hammer and chisel

At long last these are on the way from Taiwan. Unfortunately they are a custom order so I have to wait until there is some downtime on the machine before they make them for me. When they arrive they will be listed on eBay at $AU7 each and the current exchange rate is $0.7 so approx $US5. For forum members I will sell them in lots of 10 for $US40 + $8 Postage One forum member mentioned that one seller was asking $US10 each for these so I hope you think that my price is reasonable. email me on darren@ablesewing.com.au

Probably refurbished in the 1960's with that logo

Are the "clones" as good as the German machine? The answer is probably a qualified "no". In outright quality terms the Chinese are not quite there yet but there are many qualifications to the answer. We all see thousands of second hand machines up to 100 years old make their way onto the craft market. Most have done a million miles of sewing in a factory them been passed along to multiple users because many factories upgrade their machines rather than spend money on maintenance. This is a lot of the reason why so many people have problems with second hand machines and have to spend money to get them "right" We will see a lot of the current crop of Chinese machines make this journey as the basic engineering is pretty sound. When buying a new machine for craft work things are different as you will not be running the machine flat stick every day with no oiling or cleaning (I hope). At low speeds and low use it is hard to wear a machine out so it comes down to having the machine set up properly by the dealer before you get it. There are lots of dealers. Visit some and ask them to show you how they set up a machine

I love the White Rotary! There are many treadle machines out there that are way better than anything from Singer.

A 1960's Japanese domestic straight sewer for $20 will sew the same thing and probably last another 30 years

Same machines really. Two dealers with a great reputation on this forum It comes down to delivered price and personal preference.

If it is the Singer "Heavy Duty" that usually comes up then ANY industrial machine will be a ray of sunshine for CloudyCreek! I have been working a lot recently with people making bags and most agree that they want, or should have bought, a cylinder bed machine. The CB227R/ Techsew 2700 or the CB341/Techsew 2750 are the machine of choice for these users

A CB3200?

This is easy to fix. Take out the shuttle and shuttle driver turn the hand wheel until the needle is at the bottom and keep going until it just starts to move up. The shuttle driver goes back in with the raised section up against the needle. Roughly two thirds in front and one third behind. That should fix it