480volt

If you buy this Chinese death trap, at least plug it into a gfci, and never, ever leave it plugged in when you are not monitoring it. Can you rent laser time somewhere, just to see if it does what you want?

Your right, a groove is a groove and how it got there is irrelevant to the finished piece of work. However, speaking for myself, I love beautiful, well made tools and I really prefer to buy them from makers and companies who I hope manage to stay in business. Since what I do is a hobby, and my purchases aren't driven by bottom line, I will spend more on a tool that I just like the esthetics of and that I know will be correctly profiled and sharpened right out of the flat-rate box. That said, the awl I use most is a Tandy that sharpened up ok, and fits my hand well.

Why not ask Nigel Armitage?

I don't put tandy and custom makers like Bob Douglas in the same class at all. If you gotta cut a groove, use a good tool. If you're grooving for stitching, I generally don't do that at all, unless there is a mechanical reason the stitches should be recessed. I prefer a slanted stitch and maybe tap it down if it feels a little too proud from the surface. If you're going to stitch in a groove, the stitches will be straight, but maybe that's the look you want.

I see 31-15 and 31-20 machines get posted locally on CL (sf Bay Area) for 150 to 200. One for sale now, posting has been up for about a month, price has dropped from 200 to 175.

Call or email Bruce, just because he doesn't have one listed doesn't necessarily mean he doesn't have one.

Bruce Johnson or Bob Douglas are a good place to start

"Solid drilled brass rivet" sounds like a term the vendor made up, never heard of any such thing.

I spent a lot of time practicing hand stitching on veg tan scrap, using different stitches-per-inch and different threads, till I felt I had some control over it. You're going to want to make/buy/improvise some kind of stitching pony or clam. Since it's trunks you want to do, Brettun's Village has a site devoted to trunk restoration, and a separate site for leather supplies and tools.

Don't know about android, but photos taken on my iPhone I just email to myself, sized "medium", and then save that version. This reduces it enough to post

Most industrial sewing machines have capacitor start single-phase motors that cannot operate at variable speeds. Three-phase motors, on the other hand can be controlled with off-the-shelf VFDs fed with single-phase current. One downside of doing this is that unless the motor is listed as inverter duty, it only cools properly at its rated speed, so running it very slow may burn it up. You would still probably want to use a mechanical speed reducer with this combination. Cheaper to just buy a Chinese servo motor. I realize this does not address the original topic, which is providing alternative ways to engage the motor. Alexander's cable idea looks great as it should be adaptable to any conceivable layout.

Hi Desertwastes, Just lay a ruler on the work and measure the the stitches per inch. If you are doing multilayer construction and you can glue it first, that makes things much easier. I never sharpen my irons, as all they need to do is leave a mark on the surface to locate where to put the awl. It sounds like you are driving pricking irons all the way through the work. If you want to do it that way, a stitching chisel will serve you better. Otherwise, use the irons just for layout and make the hole with a diamond-shaped awl. There are excellent YouTube tutorials on this, Nigel Armitages' are particularly well done. Good luck, others may be able to elaborate on your thread question.

I started waxing my thread with shoemaker's wax, and I find it makes a huge difference in gripping the needles.

TreeReaper, if you've never looked at his site, Robert VanNatta, retired logger and attorney, has great information on current, retired and antique equipment his family has used on their property in Oregon. Very articulate writer, not sure if he is still active as the site has not been updated in a long time. I particularly liked his discussion of their M123A1C tractor, logging is probably one of the few useful things you can do with a tractor with a gcvw in excess of 100,000 lbs. http://www.vannattabros.com/index.html

What I use (probably what you use, too)

Spectra webbing and thread are used in some high strength factory -made climbing slings and runners. It is stronger than nylon, however has very little stretch, which is a big disadvantage in a dynamically loaded situation, such as taking a fall on a piece of pro attached with spectra webbing. Also, the slings I have used were put together with multiple bar-tacks, but this may possibly be a manufacturing expedient. I believe you can find a lot of technical discussion about webbing construction over on the parachute forums, those guys have very specific specification about what they build. It's possible that you might get Russ Walling over at Fish Products to talk to you about what he uses to make his climbing gear (best on the planet) but he might just see the big red "liability" light go on.

Thank you, Docado and Matt S for your feedback. Matt, since you have a Pearson, which pretty much defined this genre of leather stitchers, what would be the advantage of a Luberto #9? I doubt I'll ever be in the position to make a comparison.

I just picked this machine up off Craigslist, it was listed as a Classic but it appears to be be a #9, made by ASE but perhaps sold by Tony Luberto. The PO had aquired it used but never actually used it much, if at all. Any documentation, spare parts, accessories, drive belt, needles and bobbins have been lost, though there is currently a needle and bobbin in the machine. The machine is not currently threaded, the stitching sample in the photo is from the PO's ad. In the attached photos, you can see the front tension assembly, which I think was bent while the machine was being stored. Most online photos of these machines are of classics, which have a different tension assembly. Anybody have a photo of how that tension should look and how the machine should be threaded? I'm also looking for a copy of the owners manual, and any other relevant information on the machine. Thanks in advance, Ken

What appears to be a Seiko CH 8B has popped up on cl local to me. Per the seller's description, the machine has a binding attachment on it, but can be converted back to regular stitching. The head is clearly not attached to it's table, so a dry run is not likely. I think the seller is asking too much (2900.00 US) and I don't know what must be replaced to restore it as a conventional stitcher suitable for leather. Any thoughts on fair price?

Glad to be of help.

Needs parallel white stripes running over the top. And lighting by Lucas.

I can only speak to I-phones, but I send my photos to myself in medium size, and then save them back to the photo library. This seems to reduce the file size enough to post them.

Hi, you recently had two Landis #3s for sale, aren't that class of stitchers the go-to for uber-heavy work?

Commercial industrial electrician, member of Local 332. San Jose, CA.