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Wholesale for the reducer is about $135.00; the servo is $109.00. Odd that the motor is less that a pulley setup, but there you go. All my tools that would allow me to build a pulley setup are in storage at the moment. I am thinking I need to find the money and get it over with. Buy what is needed and only cry once.

Thanks to all who contributed answers to my question. Taking in all your observations I think I will purchase the servo first (even if I need to assist it with the hand wheel) and then the speed reducer. Two dealers have told me it probably will not have enough torque without the speed reducer. But with my limited ability to stitch with the machine I suspect if I got the reducer first and used it for a while with the clutch motor I still would not be able to slow it down enough to do good work. As a novice, probably none of the options will work for me until I have both the servo and the reducer. Maybe I should sell my redundant Porter Cable router on craigslist instead of waiting, lol.

Wiz, thanks for sharing your experience and practical wisdom. Most helpful.

Wiz, thanks for the good information. As a total newbie this clutch motor has convinced me to pony up the money for a servo and speed reducer. With the good info I am receiving from men like you on this forum I might be able to tame this Beast enough to do some decent stitching -- hopefully, because I am sick of hand stitching, lol.

Thanks for the heads-up on the shop built reducers. I'll do a search and see if I can find the posts describing them.

One complicating factor with the clutch motor on my machine: when the motor is powered up and sits idle, if I turn off the power and then without any power to the machine depress the pedal to turn the flywheel by hand the machine runs away with four or five stitches even though it is not powered up. It seems to spool up tension while sitting idle with the motor running. If I hold the flywheel firmlyl and depress the pedal it tries to move, but the tension dissipates as I hold the flywheel and then I can turn the flywheel by hand to check stitch length, etc. The motor pulley is about 2 inches. But to the subject, the servo I am looking at is a 550 watt, adjustable from 0 to 3450 rpm, 110 volt rated at 3/4 hp. I think it is the same as the Family Sew 550s servo. Is that enough wattage to run the machine with out the reducer for a month or two, or is that underpowered? The speed reducer I am looking at has three pulleys -- I am not sure about the ratio.

My Adler 205-374 is almost repaired and ready for primetime, but as a novice to sewing machines I cannot control the clutch motor to obtain a slow rate of stitching. I am going to buy a servo and reducer pulley to slow this Beast down, but can only afford to get one at a time. So, new servo with no reducer pulley, or use the existing clutch motor with a reducer pulley? Eventually I will purchase both, but right now I can only spring for one or the other. What are your observations?

I appreciate all the feedback. Good stuff. For those who crease, do you heat the tool with an alcohol lamp, or simply apply elbow grease as needed? I just acquired two double shoulders of prefinished leather split to about 8 ounces with the back nicely slicked. I am going to make a few holsters out of this and crease the stitch line front and back. Up to this point I have always used double shoulder veg tan, grooved front and back. I am optimistic that the sewing machine will do a good job of hitting the groove or crease on the front and the back. Your observations have made me more hopeful that I can pull this off.

I have recently bought an Adler 205-374 that I am rebuilding for sewing gun belts and holsters. I have a question in that regard: when hand stitching I always use a stitching groove on the front and back. In the small amount of machine sewing I have done I have relied on the center presser foot to press the stitch below the surface and the back side is slightly proud. Do any of you cut a stitching groove and follow it with your sewing machine? How easy is it to follow a stitching groove with a sewing machine? Sorry, newbie question vis-a-vis hand stitching versus machine stitching.

Knut, a question. This is an older post, but did you use the shuttle for a clone and did it work in your Adler 205-374? I am rebuilding an Adler 205-374 and this would be useful information. Thanks.

I had a moment to work on the Beast again this morning. As Uwe suggested I added more presser foot pressure in the event the leather was slipping in conjunction with the thread tension. That helped. The stitches are more consistent, but not yet perfect. Perhaps more pressure is needed. The backstitching in reverse was the same result, skipping every other hole. And it did not automatically go into the same hole even using the roller guide -- it laid the stitch side-by-side. I talked to Allen at Weaver and he had me do a few tests with the stitch lever vis-a-vis the feed dog while on the phone. He suggested putting a shim behind the upper part of the black rubberized plate behind the stitch lever in the reverse area -- he suggested a shim of 1/16" to 1/8". I have not yet done that, but there is an adjustment plate in that location designed to hold the lever further out -- same as a shim. I adjusted that stop downward to hold the lever off the surface of the plate about 1/8". That helped. It put the stitch back into each hole. However, the stitch in reverse looks good on the top, but the bottom is not clean. It almost looks like a stitch that is out of tension, showing a pull-through. Puzzling. I will go with Allen's suggestion of a shim and see how that develops. Thanks for the help. It is appreciated.

I did indeed turn it by hand first to confirm the adjustments and settings. Then I powered it up. This is when I got the inconsistent stitch length and weird reverse stitching. Late afternoon I took Uwe's advice and increased the pressure on the presser foot. That helped clean the stitches up to a more consistent stitch length. It is not perfect yet, but better. I'll increase the pressure more tomorrow and see if it solves the problem. I think I may have inadvertently increased the stitch length at the start by pulling excessively on the tread from the bobbin and top as I began the stitching line. Also, it may be that I was pushing or pulling the material through the stitching process instead of allowing the machine to set the pace. I am definitely paying my stupid tax as a newbie to using sewing machines! I checked the needle and detected a burr on the spear point. I changed the needle and that seemed to help a little on the fracturing on the backside, but the new needle also developed a burr and the fracturing exposing tiny amounts of raw leather reappeared. Do needles need to be honed? Here is the second sample from late afternoon for the top side: a little better on consistent stitch length: Here is the back side, a little better but not great: This sample is prefinished leather and most of my work is in veg tan which fares a little better. The fracturing of the hole on the backside of the prefinished leather where the needle punches through leaves a lot to be desired. Normally my hand sewn stitches are laid into a grooved stitch line. These samples are not. Is it possible the stitches will improve in appearance when I manage to lay the stitch into a preformed groove?

Thanks Uwe. Today was the first day it was up and running after the repair. I wondered about the outer presser foot pressure -- in the first two photos you'll notice there are no marks from the outer presser foot, whereas most of the photo samples I have seen on leatherworker.net have at least mild impressions. The feet on this machine are harness-makers feet and I assumed I would have to buy smooth and bigger feet to minimize that issue. So I was happy today when it made no marks. I'll put more pressure on the outer presser foot tomorrow and see if it helps. Perhaps it is slipping in conjunction with the thread tension. I have had a hard time observing the actual mechanics while sewing samples as I still have a clutch motor that speeds up beyond my ability to sew (servo and speed reducer pulley will be my next purchase). But I will try to be more observant and report what I see. I did check the only screw on the stitch length lever I could see and it seems firm.

Ok, as a complete novice to leather sewing machines and stitching leather with them, I am learning far more about this Adler 205-374 than I ever wanted to know, lol. I installed the repaired parts (feed dog carrier and the unchanged cam) from Weaver and adjusted the end thrust of the cam to where the needle guard was in the right place in relationship to the needle and the needle to the shuttle hook. I managed to get it timed per service manual specs. Now I am facing an issue that was not there before: while sewing the stitch length changes. For about six to ten stitches it runs about four stitches per inch then changes to five stitches per inch, and occasionally six stitches per inch. to me as a novice it seems the tension is right as it buries the knot in the middle of the leather. Could the tension be too tight, even if "balanced"? The stitch looks good on the top except for the change in stitch length. The bottom stitch not so much. There is another new problem that was not there before the repair: when I reverse to backstitch the stitch length doubles. It hits the holes but goes to every other one. I am using 346 nylon on the top and 277 nylon in the bobbin. The thread is also from Weaver and is new. It seems to be much better thread than I was using before. No problems with fraying or coming apart. There is an adjustment for the 205 series wherein the middle foot is adjusted to the average thickness of material being sewn -- I have not attempted that one yet. The pressure on the double foot is adjusted to a modest pressure -- does it need more pressure? Is the leather slipping under the feet? If it is slipping, wouldn't there be greater inconsistency between the length of the stitches instead of five to six inches where the length is the same? Suggestions? Here is the top stitch about 4 per inch, also showing back stitching skipping every other hole This is the top stitch showing changed length. The groove was intentional and meant to be a stitching groove that I missed, lol. Here is the stitching on the back showing the start and the reverse backstitching: This is the back showing the change in stitch length: The back doesn't look as good as the top, and I am not sure why it is fracturing the leather where the needle punches through. It is older leather -- or does the needle need to be changed? I am grateful for the help I have received on this forum.

Here is a photo of the project. Shortening the screws as described above worked like a charm.

Here it is. In its previous life it was saddle tan with Edge Kote on the edges. Now it is a custom color (mix of saddle tan and light brown) and the edges were burnished with saddle soap and denim, and dyed black. That acrylic Edge Kote does not play nicely with belts.

I received a call from Allen at Weaver Leather this morning. He was able to repair the feed dog carrier and the cam is fine! The repair only cost 6% of what a new feed dog carrier costs! Hopefully in a few days I will be making good stitches with no damage to the back side of the leather from dragging against the throat plate on the back stroke.

Thanks, guys. I checked the hardware store. Everything with the right thread would have pulled through the hole for the concho or stood proud of the leather much like the chicago screw. I did jury-rig a fix, however. I discovered Tandy carries 3/8" concho screws. Too long for my purposes, but I went back to the hardware store and bought some hex nuts that fit the longer concho screw. I put two of them on the screw with just under 1/8" of the screw exposed and locked the nuts together with wrenches. I then ground off the amount I needed to eliminate. When I broke the bond on the two hex nuts and threaded them off, the hex nuts by default cleaned up the threads as they were coming off the screw. A little blue locktite and everything snugged together like a charm with a nice low profile on the back side -- nothing to rub on clothing. Thanks again for the suggestions. Very helpful.

Blasted auto-correct changed the heading on the first post to "ponchos". Grrrrrrrr. A client wishes to have Tandy Diablo oval conchos on his gun belt. Problem: the screw that comes with the Tandy concho is made for a single layer of leather and a gun belt is a double layer -- about 1/4". Tandy does not have longer screws. The screw that comes with the concho is too short. A 1/4" Chicago screw will work, but it is domed whereas the concho screw is much flatter and the Chicago screw might abrade clothing. Anyone have a source for concho screws with a flatter head that will work for 1/4" leather? Probably 7mm to 8mm.

The Fiebings's Deglazer was harsh stuff (I think it is primarily acetone with alcohol), but it certainly did the job. I had used deglazer in the past to refinish my wife's favorite shoes and it worked well for that purpose and made her shoes look new after refinishing. I was a little nervous using it on the gun belt -- but it worked. Larry

I thought I would post an update. I used Fiebings deglazer in two applications to strip the acrylic top coat using a rough terry cloth rag. I was a little worried it would affect the contact cement bond between the two layers of leather on this gun belt -- it did not. As noted by Richard, it also took off a little of the base color. It also took off the the Fiebings Edge Kote I had used on the edges -- a good thing. First time I had used Edge Kote on a belt and I was not happy with the lack of durability of that product. I applied more dye to the belt to match the holster; burnished the edges with glycerin saddle soap and denim; dyed the edges with black dye; burnished the edges again with paraffin and denim (never again will I use Edge Kote on a belt); applied new clear top coats to the entire belt. It is beautiful. Worked like a charm.

More challenges (also given in another post): the new throat plate and feed dog from Weaver were installed and the feed dog moved back in the sewing cycle below the throat plate instead of 1mm above it, marring the leather on the back side. Allen at Weaver Leather diagnosed the problem immediately. The feed dog carrier had almost a millimeter of wear on the surface that is lifted by the cam. This was the reason the feed dog could not be lifted the required 1mm above the throat plate when traveling back in preparation for the next stitch and was the source of the damage on the back side of the leather pictured above. The cam shaft and feed dog carrier are on their way to Allen at Weaver Leather where the feed dog carrier will be repaired and ground to match the cam. Hopefully, problem solved. Allen at Weaver Leather has amazing knowledge about the Adler 205 series and terrific repair resources.

I called Allen at Weaver Leather, described what I had discovered and he immediately had the answer. No, it is not adjustable for the 205 series, as stated in the service manual. He said that the feed dog carrier probably has a groove worn into it on the top edge where the cam rotates to lift the dog assembly -- and that sometimes the cam gets a groove worn into it. So, armed with this information I removed the cam -- no groove worn into it. Next, off came the feed dog carrier. Bingo! on the top arm of the carrier where the cam lug lifts the feed dog carrier was a distinctive groove worn from use. I put a small straight edge on it and from the bottom of the groove to the surface was my missing space for properly lifting the feed dog! More good news: Allen says they may be able to repair the feed dog carrier. So, parts into a box today and shipped to Allen at Weaver Leather. Allen Burkholder is an absolute encyclopedia of knowledge about the Adler 205 series of machines.

The new parts arrived today and I put the new feed dog and throat plate on the machine. The service manual for the 205-370 (mine is a 205-374) says the feed dog at its highest point should be 1mm above the throat plate. But, it is about 1/2mm below the plate which will certainly mar the leather. When I take the front ring and hook from the machine and examine the feed dog carrier I find when the feed dog is at its highest point I can lift the feed dog carrier with slight pressure from a screwdriver underneath the carrier -- but it is not enough movement to lift the feed dog 1mm above the throat plate, only about 1/4mm above, or just flush. The service manual says this is not adjustable in the 205-370 series, but the spindle holding the feed dog carrier has what seems to be an adjustment screw at the rear under the cylinder arm. A new feed dog carrier is expensive: a little over $400 wholesale, and I cannot see how different tolerances there could make any difference anyway. Ideas?

Christmas gift-buying cash flow now in the past, I finally decided and ordered a few parts from Allen at Weaver (new throat plate that is flatter than stock, smooth feed dog,timing device, oil tubing and wicks and more nylon thread). Still more to research and buy later: servo motor, speed reducing pulley, smooth large toe double presser foot, smooth center presser foot, no mar outside presser foot for stitching the edge of belts, etc. One step at a time a few parts at a time -- fixed income is a bear. The machine should be acceptably functional by next week. Thanks for all the help on this forum. I will post photos of the project and how it sews as it develops.