GPaudler

The Brother TZ1-B652 was the basis for the original Sailright. It's a drop-feed machine that sews straight and zig-zag up to 10mm. Their specifications state a 12mm zig-zag width but my machines sew closer to 10mm. They do a pretty nice, long straight stitch. I have two of them, one of them I've modified slightly to sew splices in rope up to 12mm in diameter. I set the length of the zig-zag stitch to about 0.5mm and sew four passes with #92 thread - two narrower passes and two full-width. Tested to failure, the rope breaks where the splice isn't, at over 8,000 lbs. They have an interesting mechanism that changes the timing according to the stitch width, which makes a lot of sense. The Sailright version comes in a wooden case with an attached, domestic-style motor and a hand crank. I added a 2amp motor to the other one and just set it on a bench when I need to sew a splice. The 2amp motor is adequate. I filed-out the slot on the presser foot to gain clearance and I added a shaft collar to the needle bar so that the hammering through thick rope doesn't drive the bar upward.

Nice job Constabulary, it looks like new!

I've had good luck using silicon bronze and TIG brazing cast iron but you might consider drilling, tapping and epoxying a steel doubler on the underside, if there's room. It would save disassembly and repainting after burning-off the paint.

It's not unusual to encounter odd-shaped pulleys on old machines. Give it a try, there's a pretty good chance that there's enough contact on the larger pulley even without full engagement. In my experience when belts slip, it's usually on the smaller pulley.

Thanks Vinculus. I'm not likely to ever make a shoe, but I find this fascinating and look forward to more photos and descriptions of the process! Gary

Clever switch set-up!

Beautiful stitching! Even without electricity, suicide knowing has got to be way faster than hand stitching!

Nicely done everybody and thanks a whole hell of a lot. Now I must urgently make something I didn't know I needed. Gary

Beautiful boots! I loved the idea of taking the machine upstairs into your apartment. 3 - 100kilo guys hugging would simulate that load and nobody would expect them to fail the floor. A VFD (Variable Frequency Drive or inverter) is a good way to convert voltage and single to 3-phase electricity. They can be found on eBay and one advantage for a one-person shop is that one VFD can be used for multiple machines, saving you the need to replace lots of motors as you add equipment.

Beautiful job Constabulary! I think you restored the machine to just the right degree. I especially like the bobbin boat and winder, not to mention that crazy hook mechanism. If that's the one that you're letting-go, you must have some very special machines. If I was a few thousand kilometers closer, I would definitely buy it. Gary

Hi Jeannie, I'd also consider yours to be a large-cylinder machine. Keep in mind the thickness of the tape or ribbon or leather that you'll be using, the binder in Jimi's photo is what I'm used to using with thin, nylon ribbon and it wouldn't accept anything much thicker. The outer foot should be one-sided (only the left side) and the walking foot with the hole for the needle to pass through should be as short as possible. On my Pfaff 335 I've cut that foot off just behind the needle hole. You want to get the binder as close as possible to the needle without anything hitting. Feet as I've described will make it much easier for you to follow tight curves. Have fun, Gary

Oops, again. Here's the photo of the 105:

Thanks Uwe. I'll often drill and tap a hole in the center of a band-sawn blank and screw a bolt into it, then hold the bolt head in the three-jaw chuck. Be sure to not turn it backwards. In this case, I made the small pulley first and pressed it into a hole I bored in the big blank so I could hold the small pulley in the chuck. You could also hole-saw three holes, arrayed evenly around the center, each big enough to insert one chuck jaw. Or, if your chuck has removable jaws, remove them and bolt the pulley blank to the threaded holes that the jaws were screwed-to. On the Adler 105, I started with an off-the-shelf die-cast pulley that had a small, cylindrical hub that was easy to hold. How embarrassing! I just noticed that I wrote "to" where it should have been "too".

Here are the photos that fell off:

Hi Sewers, thanks for your interest - this is how I slowed-down and torqued-up my 120-2 with a cameo by my 105-27. I turned the huge hand wheel around to get it's v-belt groove closer to the machine so that the motor wouldn't have to be cantilevered too far. The first photo also shows the new bobbin-winder drive wheel which was in my pile for 20 years. I have no idea why I have it or what it's from. There's no reason to think it's for a sewing machine but it has just the right offset and is much nicer than the original plastic-hubbed Adler part. The second photo shows how tight the fit is. The swing arm is 1/4"x 1-1/2" stainless steel. I like to mount the intermediate pulleys on a swing arm so that the belts' lengths are not critical. The third photo shows the pulleys I turned out of aluminum, the smaller one is press-fit into the larger and has two bearings pressed-in; one each side. I try to use skate bearings whenever possible because they are common and inexpensive. If they can handle a 200lb knucklehead hucking massive air, they are up to this job. That's engineering. As I mentioned, it's my policy to not make any irreversible changes to a machine, so the positions of existing holes somewhat dictate the design. The big pulley has a hole in it for the hex key to tighten the swing arm pivot bolt. On the 105, I pressed-in a sintered bronze bushing for the pivot shoulder bolt but that was unnecessary for a pivot that's rated for 0 RPE (Revolutions Per Ever) The 120 has its big plinth with holes in opportune positions for the aluminum angle bracket on which I mounted the motor, controller and box of electronics. I milled vertical slots in the bracket to allow tensioning of the v-belts but one weakness of this design is that I have to remove the electronics box to loosen/tighten the motor bracket bolts. The controller is mounted diagonally so that the arm doesn't stick to far out the back and it doesn't intrude on the clearance between the spine of the machine and the needle. They are much more expensive than a regular rubber belt, but the twist-lock style belts allow me to vary the design as I go without a hundred trips to buy wrong-length belts. I like the twist-lock belts but they aren't too happy with small pulleys because they offer less contact area than solid rubber belts. I wipe contact cement or gasket dressing onto the contact surfaces, letting it dry before installing the belt, to make them a little stickier. But that's just me, Gary

I've been lucky to find a few Adlers (30-7, 120-2, 105-27) and a Pfaff 335-something, at prices I could afford and they are nicely made with good metallurgy, but I think that China and Taiwan are able to make excellent machines as well. There just has to be a customer who isn't always saying "cheaper, cheaper!" To Wiz's point regarding Adler parts cost: I wanted a presser foot for my 105 and was quoted over $300. I made my own. If I needed a more complex part requiring tighter tolerances and precision grinding, I'd be in for a big expense.

Hi Uwe, Thanks, the motor and reduction are packed-in pretty tight, I was inspired by the new 120 in this photo, though I used an inexpensive Consew servo motor without a needle positioner. It's my philosophy to not modify a machine in any way that won't allow the machine to be returned to its original condition, so the design was driven, to some extent, by existing holes to use for mounting the motor/controller bracket and reduction pulley swing arm. I'm mostly happy with the result but it's a little hard to adjust the belt tension. I'll disassemble it enough to take some clear pictures to post tomorrow. Gary

I know this really belongs over at aluminumworker.net, but here it is anyway. This is .015" (about 0.3mm) aluminum sewn with 346 thread to 1/2" thick (about 12mm) polyester felt with the Adler 120-2. Why? Who knows? I got the machine with sculpture in mind and was curious about sewing unusual materials. If I sew aluminum without something soft but stiff behind it, the burrs on the backsides of the needle holes shred the thread.

Great find! I've never seen one in person but have always been fascinated with their appearance.

It seems completely reasonable to me to consider the feet that came with an unfamiliar machine, along with all the other parts, to be correct and to make replacement feet match. I think that's what I would do and I'd be very pleased to not have to adjust the presser bar every time I changed feet. I have made feet for my Adler 105 and it never occurred to me to not make them match the essential dimensions of the single foot that came with the machine.

Thanks Uwe. I could have a fleet of those nice tables if I'd billed by the hour instead of making my own - but I do enjoy the process of designing and building them. Gary

The first place I always look for belts, pulleys, bushings and almost anything else is McMaster-Carr: https://www.mcmaster.com

How big?

I really like that Merrow table, which I haven't seen before, and you did a great job on the conversion. Thanks, Gary

A couple of years ago I became obsessed with sewing eye splices in rope, which is common in the safety and rescue industry and also for arborist's rigging as an alternative to traditional hand-splicing. I happened upon a Brother TZ1-B652, which is rated for 12mm wide zigzag stitches but in my experience is closer to 10-11mm. With minor and easily reversible modifications, it will now sew splices in 12mm rope that are stronger than the rated strength of the rope, about 8000lbs tensile strength. And not wanting to devote a lot of space to a machine to be used infrequently, I just mounted an old, 1amp domestic-style motor onto the machine. I sew two narrow, very close zigzag passes down in the groove formed by the two legs of rope and two full-width passes over that, about 3" long. The original Sailright Sailmaker was the Brother TZ1-B652 with a larger hand wheel, hand-crank and machine-mounted motor in a custom wooden carrying case. I came-upon and bought one of those but the reality is that I don't need two (or even one) and would be pleased to sell it. I also have a Pfaff 118, that will sew 10mm-wide zigzags, that I'd like to sell. It's missing the front cover and original hand wheel/belt pulley; the former owner removed them for some unknown reason, but it works fine. I'd sell the Brother for $700 and the Pfaff, without table or motor, for $300. Gary