Uwe

I’ve used a water jet to cut leather before. It worked okay, cutting four or so layers at a time sandwiched between foam board, but still was messy. That was when I had access to a water jet at my local maker space.It’s a monstrous machine and a maintenance nightmare. This will never exist in my garage. If I were to start cutting custom shapes out of leather, I’d invest in a oscillating knife CNC cutting machine. I’ve seen these at trade shows and was utterly impressed. They can be large enough for an entire hide, or much smaller. They’re definitely easier to maintain and less messy than a water jet. I can see a 2’x4’ version this living in my garage, for around $15K on Alibaba.com

You can raise or lower the needle bar so that the EYE of the 794 needle (or system 7x1, 7x3, etc.) is at the exact same height as it was with the Singer 26gy needle. You can loosen the two screws the red arrows point at in the picture below and then slide the needle bar to the correct height. One way to accomplish this: 1. Turn hand wheel to bring needle bar to highest position. 2. Measure distance from throat plate to top of EYE of the needle 3. Insert 794 needle 4. Loosen needle bar clamping screws 5. Adjust needle bar height so that EYE of the 794 needle is same distance above throat plate. 6; .Tighten clamp screws again. I sold a Singer 7-31 a few years ago. My for-sale post still has some useful info regarding parts manual and difference between the 7-31 and 7-33 models.

That 76mm long needle might be a System 1000H needle, which is 73mm long butt to eye. Either that, or some ancient needle system that’s long out of production. The 794 Needle system is very common, readily available, and has many more variations available, especially for leather.

Here’s a topic that goes into detail about needles for the Singer 7-33:

You really do have to step up your communication skills if you expect meaningful help here. You’re the one looking at the machine and observing HOW it’s not sewing (needle breaks, birds nest, skipped stitches, loops, a dozen other ways to “not sew”.) If you can’t bring yourself to give us more details then there’s not a whole lot we can do to help.

The easy thing to try is to put a small shim/washer/wedge under the cover plate 24; either at the top or bottom, depending which direction you need to shorten to match the other. That cover plate 24, along with part 10 determine where the lever that regulates stitch length stops. Putting it at a slight angle will shift the stitch length balance one way or the other. On the Adler 205-370 that cover plate is not flat but has steps and different thickness, which fine-tunes stitch length balance. You can also use sliding hard stops under the cover plate to dial in perfectly matching forward/reverse for one particular stitch length and material combo. Here’s what the cover plate on my Adler 205-370 clone looks like, showing the steps. Looks like a good candidate for custom 3D printed part, too. This picture shows the sliding hard stops you can use to dial in one particular forward and reverse stitch length independently and with high precision.

It sounds to me like your machine’s hook timing is considerably off. I recommend re-timing the machine as described on page 23 of the Adler 69-373 Service Manual (assuming that is indeed your machine’s subclass.) The tip of the hook does not merely need to meet the needle scarf at some point, it has to meet the scarf at precisely the right moment during the stitch cycle. On most machines that right moment is defined by the needle rising a specified distance from bottom dead center (2mm in your case.) After hook timing is positively correct, look at the check spring again. On most machines the check spring (you call it take-up spring) has two functions: 1. Keep the thread taught while the needle is descending, to prevent the needle piercing the thread on the way down. Once the needle is in the material the check spring should rest on the adjustable ledge and no longer apply tension, until ... 2. It puts tension on the thread again as it wraps around the far side of bobbin case. This makes the thread slip through the passageway under the throat plate quickly to avoid snags. Make sure the adjustable ledge under the check spring is in the correct position to apply and remove thread tension as described above. The only time the thread should overpower the check spring is when the take-up lever is near the very top of its movement as it pulls the knot into the material and more thread from the spool. I don’t recommend accepting paid work until you really have your machine figured out.

If I recall correctly, the little oil regulator knob has a little shaft underneath with a seal at the tip to open or close a drain hole that allows oil go where it needs to go while you sew. Take the top off and inspect that little seal. It may be worn or missing. Also inspect the lifting mechanism for that knob to make sure it actually is in the closed position when you think it’s closed. As for the lifting height of your feet, the max foot clearance height may not be the same as real-life max sewing thickness, especially if you have max alternating walking height dialed in. If you actually need to sew a 9/16”(14mm) tall stack of hard leather with max walking height, the Consew 255RB is perhaps not the right machine. Don’t be afraid to start separate topics for very different questions. It keeps the discussion more focused.

@HENDREFORGAN I didn’t forget, that’s exactly what I thought I was explaining, perhaps before I was properly caffeinated. We still have not seen any pictures of @Schlaumeier‘s actual machine, so we’re all just guessing as to how it is actually set up.

The feed dog (and thus needle) movement should be centered in the throat plate opening. If it’s offset towards front or back, it’ll be hard to get hook timing just right in both sewing directions. The Seiko LSW manual (Consew 255 is a clone or re-badge of the Seiko) has adjustment instructions starting on page 7.

That’s very likely a hook timing issue. Hook timing is more forgiving when sewing in the forward direction because hook and needle move towards each other. In reverse, they move in the same direction at different speeds, which trickier to get right. I usually tweak timing a bit (advance or retard the hook) to make sure the machine sews well in reverse at max stitch length; that all but guarantees that it’ll also sew great in the forward direction.

If you stop the motion by pressing on the foot pedal as it comes up, it’ll reverse direction next time you press down on it. Make a habit of stopping the motion by holding the hand wheel after the pedal starts to move downward again, so when you start again it’ll continue in the same direction. Or use the hand wheel to get the motion started in the right direction and then continue with the foot pedal.

Yes, 29K8 is the model number. Here’s a previous topic that has some more details and links to a relevant manual: If everything moves at it should and no parts are missing, you should be able to make it sew without disassembling anything. You can oil and clean many areas without removing parts from the machine. Much depends on the condition of the machine. Post some pictures of your machine, it may help us see if anything’s missing or wrong. The early models like yours had hooks without the hole. Insert bobbin inside the hook and pull the thread into the slot on the hook. Then drop the hook into the arm and leave thread hanging over the arm’s edge. Close the cover plate. If hook timing is good, you should be able to pull up the thread through the cover plate hole by turning the handwheel. If that doesn’t work, upload a short, non-public video snippet to YouTube and post the link to it here. We’ll have to see what’s going on in order to offer remote service advice.

Pfaff built many subclasses of the 545. Some of them do not have vertical feed dog movement, usually on machines intended for binding operations. While it’s technically possible to replace parts to add that function, the chances of you finding the necessary parts are slim to none. Just enjoy the machine as it is for now. You may never notice the subtle difference in real life sewing.

@ZigZag I ask for a Paypal invoice when I place an order. After placing an order, they email an invoice with shipping cost and a Paypal link to send payment. Shipping usually takes less than a week. Works for me. I’ve been buying parts from Kwok Hing for years and my experience with them has been very good, no complaints. @Anubis78 I don’t have a motor hooked up on my Cowboy 3200 at the moment. It’ll be a little while before I get to do actual sewing on that machine. I’ll post a video and photos when I do get to it. @Gregg From Keystone Sewing I’m lucky that both my workshop (sunroom) and my dining room are essentially natural light boxes, flooded with light from multiple sides, especially on a bright day. My iPhone 12 Pro has a wicked good camera that seemingly does the rest. That’s a cute animated GIF!

My invoice pic above shows a KHF2 tape folder that may not work well with this combo. I recommend using the KHF441 tape folder, which was designed to be part of this set.. I had to make three small modifications: filing about 1mm off the tip of the arm to clear the ridge on the 3200 (should not be required on other 441 machines; the ridge is unique to the 3200 design). The thick shim piece under the tape folder also needed one edge filed down a bit to line up properly with the mounting slots on the tape folder. The feed dog also was a fraction of a millimeter too wide to fit the mounting slot on my 3200 - this may also be a 3200-only issue. I filed it down a bit and all was well. I ended up using two 20mm long M4 screws to attach the tape folder to the arm. The included screws weren’t quite long enough.

For the Cowboy CB-3200 this is the most promising binding setup I have found. I just now installed it on my CB-3200 for the first time - I haven’t sewn with it yet. It’s made and sold by Kwok Hing. It’s the only synchronized binder setup I know of for the CB-3200. It should fit any Juki TSC-441 class machine and, surprisingly, also the Durkopp Adler 205.

I missed the speed reducer detail. It’s more of a function of the controller software. It will do only a certain number of motor revolutions trying to reach the target position before it gives up. It’s a safety feature, really. Each controller model is different, there’s no standard. If you let up the pedal just before it reaches the target position, it may work just fine. If you let up just after it passed the target position, you may get some fixed distance from wherever you let up.

Make sure the position sensor is firmly attached to the hand wheel and that the position sensor itself (the plastic housing) does not rotate. If the wheel mounting adapter is loose, or the sensor collar that attaches to the adapter is loose, you’ll get random stopping points. Just check to make sure you can’t rotate the sensor collar against the hand wheel. Hold one try to rotate the other. If it rotates, things are loose.

Neither the Pfaff 335 nor the Adler 69 are well suited for what you’re trying to do, especially the handles. If I were you, I’d look for a used Durkopp Adler 269 or, better yet, save up for a new Durkopp Adler 869. The links point to SIECK in Germany; they likely deliver to Ireland.

@sandmanred I got mine from https://www.t-molding.com They also sell the slotting router bits and other edge banding supplies. Here’s the parts I had ordered for my table top. You only need about 12’ of edge banding for one 2’x4’ table top.

@sandmanred Love those welded aluminum legs and that huge pedal on your table! @Parfektionisto There’s different approaches. If the wood itself looks nice and isn’t bowed, you can just sand it down and give a few coats of clear varnish. If you don’t like the wood look you can glue on a new layer of laminate like @Doxnet did. I’d use a hand-held trim router and a laminate trim bit to follow the contours of the inner cutout and the outside edge. To finish the edge itself, you can get some T-molding. Buy the T-molding a bit wider than the actual table edge. Use a T-molding router bit, you can cut a slot along the outer edge, install the the T-molding and the cut off the overhang with a sharp knife. Here’s an example of a table I made this way. Mine used new plywood, but there’s no reason you can’t use this approach with an existing plywood table top.

@327fedThe needle in the video was a size 22 regular point - all the details are in the video subtitles. @Pintodeluxe No modifications, just everything adjusted to spec.

My Consew 225 managed size 207 thread reasonably well, even with a less than ideal needle. You may have to tweak some adjustments a little, but the hardware itself can handle it. I made this video a few years ago: