Uwe

Black Friday + Black Wednesday Special. Black Friday because of Thanksgiving week. Black Wednesday because my makerspace TechShop unexpectedly went bankrupt last Wednesday and I had to move all my stuff home on a day's notice, including a large CNC mill I was refurbishing there. I now really have no room to turn around in my garage and something's gotta give or go. So here goes ... Price dropped to $1,500. Now you can afford to fly in, rent a van and drive it back home.

Black Friday + Black Wednesday Special. Black Friday because of Thanksgiving week. Black Wednesday because my makerspace TechShop unexpectedly went bankrupt last Wednesday and I had to move all my stuff home on a day's notice, including a large CNC mill I was refurbishing there. I now really have no room to turn around in my garage and something's gotta give or go. So here goes ... This is a refurbished Singer 144W302 head available for $900. No shipping, sorry. Pick-up only in the Detroit area. It is exactly as I acquired it last year. It's sewn to piece of Vinyl. The check spring assembly bits are missing on the thread tension unit - I'm looking to see if I have a spare one. I have a box full of hand wheels - one of them may fit.

Black Friday + Black Wednesday Special. Black Friday because of Thanksgiving week. Black Wednesday because my makerspace TechShop unexpectedly went bankrupt last Wednesday and I had to move all my stuff home on a day's notice, including a large CNC mill I was refurbishing there. I now really have no room to turn around in my garage and something's gotta give or go. So here goes ... I have two new GF205-370 sewing machines. They are very nice quality clones of the Durkopp Adler 205-370 design. One is still in the box, the other is mounted on a refurbished stand made by Weaver, with 220V servo motor and custom speed reducer. Both machine heads are new and unused, but were stored in a warehouse for a few years before I acquired them last year. The machines are manufactured by Jason Sewing in Taiwan and are still in production. The machine in the box was sewn to a piece of leather at the factory, so I would expect it to take minimal setup effort to put into service. This one is $1,400. The machine on the stand is ready to sew and demo. This one is $1,900.

Thank you @mikesc for that warning. Those isocyanates in 2K paints are a show stopper for me, too.

I'd never even heard of 2K paint before today. Got an early start on meeting my daily learning quota today. Interesting paint - I'll have to give it a try sometime. Downsides are the paint is not cheap at around $20 for one aerosol can, and it's a one-shot deal - once you release the hardener, the clock starts ticking and any unused paint will harden inside the can. Your restoration of this Singer 111W155 deserves its own topic. Here's a screenshot from the Eastwood Website with a nice glossary that describes the various paint options:

My goodness, yes, please do keep that Singer 111W155! Put it in a hermetically sealed glass dome and upgrade your home insurance. I don't think I've ever seen one as pretty as yours. I was expecting the typical, tired old Singer 111W155. I'd be afraid to actually use your museum piece.

Personally I'd keep the Pfaff 1245 and sell all the others. I can't think of anything the Singers or Mitsubishi can do that the Pfaff can't. Cheap presser feet are overrated, in my opinion - it's a race to the bottom in terms of quality.

Items 4 and 5 in the adjustment diagram are at the other end of the hook driving shaft (see the second colored diagram.) You'll have to tilt the machine back to see it. In order to tilt the machine back, you have to remove the bottom (green) screw in the guide finger on the right side of the body where top and bottom separate. The plastic belt cover may hide that guide finger and screws. Item 3 and 5 in the adjustment diagram are the bearing bushings. The bushings can be shifted (after loosening the set screw) within their casting tunnels to make them touch the hook on the left and the cone gear on the right. By doing so you ensure that the hook driving shaft and hook can't move axially, because the bushings limit movement in both directions. But that also means that in order to move the hook (and shaft) axially for adjustments you need to loosen all the screws indicated in the adjustment diagram. A few things to watch out for: The bushings have holes in the top that allow oil to reach the shaft - don't rotate the bushings or shaft oiling may not work properly. Make sure the top set screw on the cone gear (4) stays on the flat spot of the shaft (loosen it just a little., and make sure you tighten this screw before the other one) The flat spot is wide enough to allow axial movement for adjustments. I color coded the diagram below. Perhaps it will make more sense that way.

According to the Pfaff 335 Service Manual (I only have the German language version for the modern casting Pfaff 335), you loosen two screws marked 1 and the screw marked 2 (on the back side). Then you can rotate and shift the hook to the correct position to line up with your needle in the hook timing position (1.8mm rise after bottom dead center). Make sure cone gear (4) meshes nicely, then tighten screws again.

I'd recommend a complete set of piping feet to match various piping tasks. The Juki DSC-245 shares feet with the very common Juki LU-563 (and Singer 111W155, etc.) A complete set of six different size piping feet is available for under $50 in the U.S. Our resident LW vendors may have some, too. Piping feet work best when they're the right size for the task at hand. For example, making just the piping from scratch with cord and material strips takes a smaller foot than when you assemble the piping project with several layers of material. When the piping foot is the right size, it works like magic. When you're trying to use one size piping foot for all piping tasks, you will be very frustrated. One of my clients was trying to make piping-edged boat seat covers with just the one piping foot that came with the machine. When I finally convinced her to buy a full set, it was like an angel choir was singing above her head when she was sewing.

Congratulations on a great find! Well worth the drive, I'd say. It's amazing how well the looks-like-rust oil residue cleans up with just a little TLC. For actual rusty bits (like on the bobbin winder), I've had very good results with Evapo-Rust. Just submerge the rusty parts for an hour or two and rinse/scrub with water, then dry off and buff a little. I have some presser feet for this machine. Kwok Hing makes very nice quality standard presser feet for the Pfaff 335/545/1245 series (Part No. KP1245W, $45) The super-slim left-toe version is also useful (part No. KP-1245-R071, $49)

Any machine with a bunch of pattern cam discs in the parts list image plates is probably safe to pass up for a general purpose leather sewing machine.

It does seem like a shame to sentence a once-fine machine like that to death by computer, but I'm not sure it serves any useful purpose without that ancient computer. Non-computerized pattern stitchers don't really fare that much better, though - I'll probably end up dragging my half dozen vintage box-x machines to the scrap yard, too.

It's easy but not necessarily obvious. The machine in the video snippet is an Adler 205, but almost all shuttle hooks work the same way in terms of how to release the latch to pop out the bobbin.

I'll have to set aside some time to do some pulley trials on the lathe. Thanks for the workholding tips!

According to the MJ Foley Catalog (requires Flash plug-in), the Singer 153W and Consew 227 generally accept the same parts. They have some special binding feed dogs and throat plates which may be of interest, and also a swivel arm for attaching tape folders. Which parts work with your existing customized parts is hard to tell. Most regular dealers can order these parts for you. Based on the Foley catalog info, my KHF48C 3/4" kit may actually fit your machine, too. It's unused and available for $70 (send me a PM if interested.) Here are some screen shots from the MJ Foley catalog:

It's probably not worth bothering with or even possible, as you say, to convert the two-needle machine into a proper single needle machine. You may be better off cleaning up the two needle machine, selling it and putting the proceeds towards the 1508n you really want. The Juki AMS-210C does seem more of a liability than an asset. Nobody wants to deal with decade(s) old computer technology unless they're well paid to do so.

Small and large are relative and depend on what you are actually referring to. On the KwokHing binder pages, they really mean large diameter vs. small diameter cylinder arms on machines. In that context, the Consew 227 and other vertical axis hook cylinder arm machines ( e.g. Singer 153W102, Juki 341, etc.) are considered large diameter, whereas most horizontal axis hook machines (e.g. Pfaff 335, Adler 69 etc.) are considered small diameter. I have a KHF48C 3/4" binder and the only machine it really fits is my Singer 153W102. I don't have a Consew 227 to test fit. The Consew 227 pictured earlier looks like it may only need a standard tape folder like the one shown below and a short inner binding foot to make it do binding work.

Welcome to LW. Juki has a dealer locator on their website https://www.juki.com/distributors-north-america.html . Any Juki dealer should be able to order parts for you. Some of the dealers are here on LW. Online support and ordering options vary.

The only Adler 104/105 manual I have is an all-in-one affair which covers the common elements up front and then has a bunch of subclass specific supplements. There may not be a standalone manual specifically for the Adler 104-64 subclass. Here's the PDF: Adler-104-105-Manuals.pdf

Wow, that is seriously impressive work! There isn't a millimeter to spare anywhere near that reducer pulley. Thank you so much for taking the time to disassemble the parts and document your setup. I had been contemplating mounting a "floating" reducer pulley on a swivel arm, but your solution is way simpler and more elegant than what was bouncing around in my head. I too have a bunch of skate bearings left over from previous projects - time to put them to work. Now I have to figure out workholding for turning my own reducer pulleys. The small pulley seems straightforward enough, but the big pulley stumps me. Is your lathe chuck simply big enough to hold the big pulley on the outside diameter to turn the center hole first? My experience on a lathe is limited and I know just enough to be dangerous and occasionally productive.

Folks, please include links to sources you use whenever possible. I know it's work and not everybody is up for it, but fact checked and/or referenced info is so much more valuable. According to the ISMACS serial number reference the F-8901955 machine was indeed produced in 1919. The ISMACS model reference list does not provide a production date range for the Singer 29K60. So either it's the a Singer 29K60 with the very rare time travel option, or they started making that particular model earlier than stated above (or the type plaque got swapped or misread.) Photos are super helpful. As for your Adler 67GK373, I'm not aware of any resource for dating Adler machines by serial number. You can narrow it down to within a decade or two by looking at dated documentation like parts lists etc. I'd place an Adler 67GK373 in the mid 70's to late 80's. The earliest mention of the Adler 67-GK373 I know of is January 1976 in a German language service manual (Adler-67-GK373-Justieranleitung.pdf - I don't have an English version and I don't do translations, sorry!) The parts list I have for the Adler 67-GK373 is dated 1982 (Adler 67-GK373 Parts List.pdf) . A photo of the machine and type plate may provide clues to narrow down the date range. It's nice to know when a machine was built, but not the end of the world if you don't.

If the metal sheet is thin and soft enough, I doubt the mechanics suffer. Thin copper sheets may work, too. Might be useful for attaching laser-marked or etched name plates or decorative elements. The needle may not be happy for long. Now, what I REALLY want to know is more details on your motor mount and speed reducer pulley. That is probably the cleanest and most compact installation I have ever seen. Can you please make a separate topic on that? I have a few machines with the same form factor I need to motorize.

I'm not really familiar with the Consew 220, but if it's a standard industrial garment machine, this may work: This foot looks like what you're describing, a open quilting foot on a regular industrial garment machine: This Youtube video has a bunch of comments, some with sourcing tips (watch it on youtube to see the comments). Perhaps it will be of help to you:

If you knew that why didn't you say that along with with the question? The machine is hard enough to figure out remotely without trick questions. I don't see why Pfaff would make the large lever purposely operate the way you describe. Maybe parts of the feed mechanism are wrong or totally out of adjustment. Maybe the lever cover plate is incorrect. There are dozens of feed mechanism variations and combinations in the Pfaff 145/545/1245 series alone and there's really no guessing exactly which bits they combined for your machine. My Pfaff 545 with extra long stitch length also does not have reverse, but it also has a special cover plate that restricts movement of the large lever to the top half of the normal range of motion (it also has full FWD at the top position instead of the normal bottom.) This machine is just fountain cool weirdness. Since there are apparently no manuals for this exact model and nobody else has direct experience or access to that model, it's all up to you now. Try out all lever combinations and report back. Find out part numbers of your feed mechanism and compare them to existing manuals. Don't rely on your initial assessment of it being a combination of a Pfaff 145 and a Pfaff 4143 being correct, either. It may look that way at first glance, but so far the functionality details and key part numbers (e.g. looper) don't really support either.