Uwe

The fix was super easy! Just point a camera at the machine and threaten it with public shaming in social media and it'll make perfect stitches in both directions at all stitch lengths!

So I was just trying this out on my Cowboy 4500, and, lo and behold, it does the exact same thing when I reverse at maximum stitch length! It sews just fine in both directions when I select a smaller stitch length, but at maximum stitch length in reverse, the thread loop snags momentarily between the shuttle and race, the take-up lever pulls more thread from the spool with a snapping sound in the upper thread path, and leaving a loop at the bottom. I'm not sure yet why the thread snags or how to fix this, actually. I guess it's my turn to take a video snippet of my machine misbehaving and report back.

I'd open the hook cover, turn a few stitches very slowly in reverse by hand and closely inspect what's happening as the thread gets wrapped around the hook. Your top thread may snag some place in reverse and pull more thread from the spool, which the take-up lever cannot pull tight anymore. A video snippet uploaded to Youtube is a great tool for remote debugging.

That Juki 1541S in the CL ad came from @Gregg From Keystone Sewing . The machine in the CL Ad looks to be in very nice condition. The price for that machine new from Keystone $1,510. Here's a snapshot of the CL ad for this juki DNU-1541S, just in case anybody's interested:

Also make sure you actually pull up the bobbin thread through the feed dog hole. You can't just leave the bobbin thread dangling underneath after changing the bobbin. Hold the top thread and hand-turn one cycle to pick up the bobbin thread and bring it to the top. The hold both threads for the first few stitches to avoid tangles underneath.

That Adler 30-5 sure looks like it's worth a loooong drive to pick up. If I was within driving distance, my inquiry to them would go like "I'll take it. When's a good time to pick it up?" https://wichita.craigslist.org/for/6131529553.html

When you get a chance, please let us know exactly what you ordered and how it worked out. Did the folks at Altanta Attachment offer any insights you care to share?

I'm afraid almost nothing form that Pfaff 335 binding kit will fit on a Consew 227. The cylinder arms are totally different. The off-the-shelf binder you're looking for will be similar to this KHF-48 style binder made by Kwok Hing for large diameter cylinder arm swing machines.(http://www.kwokhing.com/KHF/app/app_bi_cy.htm)

The Pfaff 138 gets my vote. There's a detailed topic on that machine:

Many stands in the technical part of the show did indeed have "no cameras" signs plastered all over. The entire Juki stand was off limits for photos and videos. I took only a handful of photos and one video during the show. I may post about a few items here and there as time and motivation allows, but I don't plan to write a detailed trip report.

I stopped by the stand again today to take a closer look. The designer/engineer was there and offered some additional insights. The stand is rather over-engineered in a good way. There is a fair amount of complexity because certain parts are customized to the sewing machine head installed on the stand. So you can't just order a dozen of these stands and sell them to a bunch of people with very different machine heads. Purely hypothetical, if you were a manufacturer of a certain size and affluence in, say, Southern California, you could just order sixty of these stands, have them loaded onto containers and shipped to the Durkopp Adler NA headquarters in Georgia to be fitted with shiny new identical Durkopp Adler 669 cylinder arm machines and then delivered to your factory. That's the way to do it, purely hypothetical. The cost of the stand is only about a quarter of what that Durkopp Adler 669 and Efka drive system runs - a bargain in my opinion, especially if you buy sixty of them.

Having built my share of flatbed table attachments and sewing machine stands, I was duly impressed by the convertible sewing machine stand the French company Echo Positif (http://www.echo-positif.fr) showed at the TexProcess trade fair in Frankfurt, Germany today. The lady was very kind to let me film a demo:

The various bits that connect to the guides are listed on the Kwok Hing website: http://www.kwokhing.com/adler/da_guide.htm The zipper guide is called KG-BZ

It sure looks heavy duty to me. That motor can probably operate an elevator. Love that monster hand wheel.

Thank you Eric!

Yes, That Pfaff 335 is for light to medium use. That Adler 105-64 is well suited for heavy materials and 1500 Euro is not really that expensive (it's the Pfaff that's bloody cheap.)

I'd recommend checking with Global Industrial Sewing Machines (http://globalsew.com) in Haarlem, Netherlands. They're just a two hour drive north of you. If you REALLY want to see everything make a day trip to Frankfurt and visit the TexProcess Trade Show that runs from May 9-12. I'll be there, like a kid in a candy store. That show only happens every two years in Europe. For flatbed wheel-driven machines, the Durkopp Adler 887 is one of the current reference machines:

The Consew 206RB-5 is a made-in-China copy of the original made-in-Japan Seiko STH-8BLD-3, which you can buy for around $1,500. Seiko made the older versions of the 206RB for Consew. So if you want a new Consew 206RB-5 with the same quality and reputation as the older ones, buy the Seiko STH-8BLD-3. Very nice machines. Made-in-China by itself is not bad thing per se. You just have to pick the right factory or suppliers. A few decades old is good when it comes to industrial sewing machines. Buy an Adler or Pfaff from the 70's or 80's when Engineers ruled and happy, well paid workers in Germany assembled the machines. TechSew has done their homework and picked good suppliers for their machines from what I can tell.

There actually is a list of numerically sorted part numbers in that particular PDF file. I've seen the numerically sorted pages removed from many PDF scans. I just ran OCR (Optical Character Recognition) text recognition on the PDF file which makes it searchable. You can type in a part number and it should show up three times (or more): once in the grouped parts list, once in the numerically sorted parts list, and once in the picture plate pages. It worked for two of the three part numbers I tried out. Here's the OCR version of the SInger 97-10 parts list that should be text searchable: 97-1_10 OCR.pdf Having searchable PDF files is a step in the right direction. I can search my own PDF archive on my computer for certain mystery part numbers. But my archive of PDF parts lists is incomplete and nobody else has access to it. It would be preferable to have a centralized, online parts look-up system. But that may not be practical (unless Google decides they LOVE vintage sewing machine parts lists.) 97-1_10 OCR.pdf

I acquired a fair amount of Singer 97-10 parts last year along with a larger inventory purchase. Some used, some reproductions, some new old stock. The problem is that the parts are not organized or cataloged yet, but rather in a four-level, 900 sqft chinese puzzle (I have to move at least ten pieces to get to the one I want, if I even know where to look.) I did come across a box marked "Singer 97-10 races - new" yesterday. I counted about fifty new reproduction races that somebody had commissioned some time ago. Time will tell what else pops up in the other boxes and drawers. I was going to have things organized and cataloged over the winter, but here I am at the end of April and I've barely made a dent. I sure hope to actually own a complete Singer 97-10 machine some day. I'm glad to hear of people who still have and use these fantastical beasts. I also wish there was a reverse parts look-up tool where you can enter a part number and it spits out all the machines (or at least one) where that part was used.

You may want to consider a Bottom+Needle feed machine. The full compound feed machines tend to be on the heavier side. For many industrial sewing machines, the manufacturers made various subclasses that handle different range of materials. Check the spec sheets to make sure your candidates support the needle system and sizes you want to use. The Durkopp Adler 272 is a modern incarnation of the Bottom+Needle feed design and supports the fine needle sizes you are looking for: The Singer 111W151 is the vintage version. Alexander Dyer made a nice video with this machine.

Nice designs and beautiful workmanship @Constabulary ! That 45K bobbin in the video is wound to absolute perfection - not a single winding is out of place.

The Singer 7-27 is a two-needle machine according to the description in the Singer 7-27 part list (7-27_28_38_39.pdf). That description sounds positively intimidating from a maintenance perspective: Are you using both needles and hooks? Are you using parts with matching gauges (distance between needles?) If you're only using one needle, which side? There are two different hooks, left and right version. Are you sure you have the correct hook on the correct side installed? They may fit on either side, but they will only work on their intended side. A few close-up pictures would be great. Not all two-needle machines are happy sewing with just one needle, and often you can't just install parts for a centered, single needle setup. Without knowing where exactly your machine is at, it's hard to give more specific advice. As for terminology, we usually say that the hook picks up the loop from the needle to wrap it around the bobbin.

You might be able to install the guide directly without an adapter bracket . Here's some pictures of an install on a Consew 225, which has a similar top head to your Consew 227: You can also use an adapter bracket like the KB09:

It's a mystery to me how you can break those threads in normal use with just your hands. It seems you have to hit that thumb knob hard with a hammer to obliterate the threads on the shaft (they seem hard and brittle to me.) Perhaps tilting an unmounted head back to rest on the hand wheel is a common source of injury if the thumb knob hits the surface with any force.