mk1mad

Make sure that the rod going from your clutch motor to your pedal is in the furthest hole from the pivot point , most have 3 or 4 holes and this makes a difference if it close to the pivot . I've had no end of trouble with clutch motors and always struggled to get to grip with controlling them , that was until I used a machine with an old singer motor that had 3 pulleys stacked on the end for different ratios , this motor was really smooth and totally controllable , In my opinion it's the cheap nasty Chinese motors that have very little control and basically the clutch is on or off so to speak , I also have an old seiko one that's also really controllable that I'm going to try get used to rather than my servo motor !

Picked up my new to me seiko sewing machine today , it's an awesome machine compared to the other 3 machines I have , however I have read that you can lengthen the forward stitch and sacrifice a little of the reverse stitch length , anyone know how to do it on this machine ? Regards Craig

You could get a larger pulley for the end of the motor ,it's only 10 mins to swap it but you'll probably need a longer belt too , if it has a servo motor you can vary the speed with a knob usually on the motor or control box , Craig

It looks like the same workings as the later Japanese built singer 211 machines ! They see great when you get them sorted , I had a none walking foot 211 some years ago that sewed through 6 layers of leather without batting an eyelid , the stitches were just a little small for my liking but that's the only bad thing I could say about them !!

Hi again , I've looked at the cogs and upon closer inspection they're no longer the problem , the play was on the top cogs under the inspection plate so I adjusted one over slightly to take out the excess lash , the machine is sewing really nice on standard auto upholstery thread now after I tweeked the timing a little , not tried it on the thickest thread but I've already made up my mind to sell it so I'm not over fussed now , just spent 2 hours on the singer too and altered the walk on the feet as it was over adjusted and binding up inside ,I've also altered the timing on this too , it now sews smoothly and effortlessly through pretty much anything I throw at it , And doesn't need the tension altering when swapping from thin materials to a couple of layers of carpet etc , thanks again , regards Craig

Yeah that'd be great I'll see if I can get any part numbers off them on Monday and get back to you , obviously there's no point progressing with setting up the machine till the timing is consistent and not coming in and out as it likes !! Regards Craig

Thanks for that :-) In all honesty I think the pfaff needs new gears for the hook , when you turn over the machine by hand and rock it back and forth there is a delay between the needle bar movement and the hook starting to move , I've adjusted the gears underneath so they mesh tighter but it's still there to a lesser degree , it's a 145h2 and parts are looking a little scarce and from what I hear the re manufactured parts are equally as bad ! I may try filing the shank on the gears so they can actually mesh a little tighter , I've nothing to lose ! I also think the thread gets caught over the top of the bobbin case locating tooth and the underside of the presser foot plate , especially when there's plenty of thickness of material under the foot , it's as though it's bending the plate , it does seem feeble to be honest and In my opinion these are not in the same league as the singer 211 machines . I thought walking foot was a walking foot but there are so many variations it's a bit confusing at first , I've recently bought a Chinese made juki type replica called a pf5318 and it sews really nicely however it only has limited presser foot lift and I struggle with carpet binding etc and it has a rear walking foot and no needle feed so tight corners while piping or welding as the USA call it's a pain and the machine is inclined to walk off the job if you're not vigilant and ruin your work , the pfaff is front walking and needle feed but has no rising feed dog and the stitch length is limited to 4 mm , which leads me to the opinion that my singer 211 with front walking foot , needle feed and rising feed dog is by far a superior machine for car trimming , sadly it has no lockstitch which is why I bought the pfaff ! I've been doing car trimming on and off for years but never really got involved with the machines but I personally feel that the quality of engineers these days in the uk is pretty poor without spending a kings ransome , so I've been trying to learn a little as I go along but these no substitute for hands on experience ! I think that engineers want to get your machine sort of seeing with the minimum effort and run with your money rather than do a proper job and sort it out fully so you'll have to call them again in 4 months time ! The singer does have a leather point needle in and I always use them in that machine , I'll try another style needle and see what it does , I appreciate if I used smaller stitches the problem wouldn't be as evident but I like the look of a larger stitch if it's visible on car seats etc , I'll drop it to 6mm and see what happens also , Once again thanks for the help I'll let you know how it goes 👍 Regards Craig

I have read the various posts on singer 211s but can't find one that describes the problem I have , the machine stitches ok through all kinds of material even up to around 6 layers of upholstery leather but the stitches are slanted , so on an 8 mm stitch the front of the stitch is about 1mm to the right of the back of the stitch and this continues as it sews, it's very difficult to sew a straight line ! I've checked with a carpenters square off the front of the machine and the feet look to be in line as you'd expect them to be , I'm a bit baffled but the machine is difficult to use when trying to produce nice looking work ! Any help would be greatly appreciated , I have had it serviced recently and when I mentioned it to the engineer he pretty much ignored it because I'm not sure he knew what the problem was and he just attended to a couple of timing issues it had ! I also have a pfaff 145 which I bought rather cheaply but it had various problems and most of which I've sorted myself except the loose stitches , when I use what we class as a 40's thread in the uk the machine sews fine through most materials , although through much more than 5 layers of vinyl the back of the stitches is a little looser than I'd like so I wind up the tension a little , is this normal ? However when I use 20's thread the machine is a nightmare and chews up the thread around the bobbin case and you get a birds nest of thread under the material , I don't get this problem with the singer when I use thick thread ! Is it just that the pfaff isn't really man enough for the job or is it timing and tension issues ? Regards Craig