Uwe

Look for trusted standards like Singer 111W155, Consew 225 or 226, or Juki LU-562 or 563. These machines come up for sale in on CraigsList every so often and some vendors (check the banner ads) may have them in stock, too. $400-600 is not much to work with in terms of a functional, well adjusted industrial sewing machine with a proper motor. If you're patient, you may get lucky, but if you need something soon, you may end paying more. For sewing fire helmet shields, there's no need for reverse or big bobbins, which run up the price quickly. Being able to sew slowly with good low speed control, however, is very important for your application, I think. So plan on getting a servo motor ($130) and potentially an optional speed reducer pulley ($150). A few folks here on LW are doing fire helmet shields. Check out what they have done by doing a google search like "site:leatherworker.net fire helmet" One lady who makes fire helmet shields ended up buying a Consew 225 from me and it suited her work well.

I'm picturing this (on my Cowboy 4500):

Groz Beckert (the green guys) published a brochure with a nice visual guide of industrial leather needles: http://thethreadexchange.com/downloads/gb014.pdf Our friendly banner advertisers are just a click or a phone call away. But it doesn't hurt to know what you're looking for before you call and have price reference in mind. When you type "794S" into the search box at Universal Sewing, they show Schmetz needles (the blue guys) available in sizes from 130Nm-250Nm The folks at Campell-Randall folks also list a range of sizes for Schmetz 794 S needles in size 160Nm-250Nm:

If I were living in Japan, I'd look for a nice Juki LS-341/1341 or any of the other highly regarded made-in-Japan brands. Just like there a plenty of used Pfaffs and Adlers around in Germany, it seems there should be a good number of used Juki machines available in Japan. Maybe Juki has a factory outlet?

One of the commonly used drop-down (or swing-down) guides is the KG-867. There's an extended version of that edge guide available called KG-967, which has about 20mm (3/4") more reach. The two guides overlap in the range of motion, and the overlap range places the roller guide right next to the needle on the 441 class machines. If you have a need to place the guide in front of the needle (e.g. for holding a tape folder or binder), you'd want to get the extended KG-967 version. The Cobra Class 4 (also TechSew 5100, I think) already have mounting holes drilled and tapped on the back of the machine, so that makes installation easier. If your machine does not have pre-drilled holes you'll have to drill and tap mounting holes. Either way, you'll need an adapter bracket like a KB-205 for a proper installation. The only real issue with using the swing-down edge guide on a 441 class machines is that the standard manual foot lift handle gets in the way. I made an extension handle to get around that. Just something to keep in mind. Here's a short video showing what the installation might look like on a Cowboy 4500:

I've only bought from their remnants section (https://www.filzfelt.com/index.php?/shop/categories/category/remnants) , where they have less-than-full-width pieces in limited colors for a reasonable price. The remnants are great for experimenting and smaller projects like iPad or phone sleeves and the like. Good point on that wax coating, Cory! I had to take a loser look at that aspect. I have two kinds of colors of felt that I got from FilzFelt. I did some testing and one of them readily absorbs oil, on the other the oil droplets just sit on top. I don't know how you can tell on their website which version has the coating and which doesn't. The one type of felt I have that absorbs oil readily and would make a good wick material is a 5mm thick "200 Natur". I'm guessing "200 Natur" color is untreated and all-natural, which is why it absorbs oil more readily. Here's a short video that shows how different the oil absorption of the two colors of felt is:

I guess Australia needs to save a few more sheep from becoming UGG boots to make a few yards of wool felt. The sheep would appreciate it, too, no doubt. Here in the U.S. I buy my wool felt at Filzfelt (https://www.filzfelt.com/index.php?/shop/categories/). It's a great material to combine with leather.

I probably should have included the rather long list of Juki TSC-441 clones that this plate will work on, just to get caught on a few keyword searches. Juki TSC-441 clones include HighTex/Cowboy CB3200/3500/4500/5500, Cobra Class 4, TechSew 5100/5100SE, Keestar 441, Thor GA-441, Dematron GA-441 , Typical TW3-441/TW3-441S, SewPro 441-PRO, Reliable MSK-441, Nick-O Sew NKS-441, TopEagle TCB-441, FoxSew FX-441, EconoSew 441S, SEWLINE SL-441, and perhaps a dozen or more lesser known brands.

We'll have to be a bit more precise with wording to make progress. It's not totally clear to me which exact parts you are referring to when you say "that gauge" and "that button". It's obvious to you because you're looking at the parts, but we have to interpret the words and try figure out the details. Pictures with a little arrow always help. Most smart phones allow to to annotate pictures with arrows and words that you can then upload here. I made a video describing the feed adjustment mechanism on my Singer 153W102, which should be identical to what you have on your Singer 111W103. Hopefully the video will help you understand how the feed (stitch length) adjustment functions and perhaps identify why yours does not work right.

I used thin strips of wool felt to replace my missing oil wicks and it worked fine from what I could tell. I've not replaced any wicks inside of plastic tubes, so I can't make any recommendations on that.

The foot lift mechanism on your Lucy is similar to my Rex 11-155R. I made a short video showing how I equalize foot lift on my machine. Hopefully yours works in a similar way.

Your edit time window may have expired on the original post, but you can always add information in a reply like you just did.

One of the few machines I'm aware of that is designed to cover the range of what you want to do, and does it well, is the new Juki LS-2347H ( Juki-LS-2342 flyer.pdf ) Official specs for the "H" version covers thread sizes 69-266. I got a demo of this machine at the trade show in Atlanta last May and it is a seriously impressive machine, with a price tag to match. At an estimated $7-8K it may seem expensive, but it's really cheaper than the original Juki TSC-441 was back in the '80s if you account for inflation. Size wise and application range wise this machine fits neatly between the Juki LS-1341 (Cobra Class 26) and the Juki TSC-441 (Cobra Class 4), with enough overlap on both ends to make it worthy of consideration. You can buy cheaper vintage or clone machines, but then you'll be paying for the difference in stress, aggravation, blood pressure medication, and eventually additional machines. Here's a demo video of the machine to give a sense of scale.

Congratulations on your new arrival! Looks like a very nice, capable machine in good condition and in a beautiful table top. Lots of Seiko goodness in that vintage period of Consew machines. It'll be worth every penny if it does what you need it to do.

You have to state a price per Marketplace rules.

1. If you still have the thread guide rod, use it. Otherwise it will feel neglected. 2. The Juki TSC-441 engineers manual (Juki 441 Engineers Manual.pdf) uses stitch length set to"0" when checking hook-to-needle timing, so that's the "official" way to do it.

Screw that stitch length adjustment knob in the center of the hand wheel in as far as it will go and see if it produces a noticeable feed dog movement. If not, you may be missing some parts. I just got done fixing the same stitch length mechanism on a different machine where a few parts were missing on the excenter disk. Let's hope your stitch length mechanism is complete because fixing mine was a real pain.

Taking the old timing belt off is easy, just cut it . Getting the new belt back on is not so easy and usually involves removing the hand wheel (easy) and the main shaft rear bushing and bearing (may be tricky, Parts 26 and 27): When putting things back together, you have to make sure the upper and lowed drive shaft are synchronized properly: Here's a video that shows the concept of timing belt replacement on a Singer 111 (a very different machine, but the concept is the same): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TIxQViDgL1c You probably should also start a new topic for things like this with a proper "How to replace a timing belt on a Juki 1508" title to keep topics focused and easier to find and navigate in the future.

The motor spinning the wrong way is the more likely cause of the reverse feeding problem. There's no point in investigating potential other issues unless we are certain the machine's mechanism is rotating in the correct direction. I'd recommend taking the drive belt off the hand wheel until you hand turn perfect stitches on the machines. It's no use running the machine under power if something is wrong. Tilt the machine head back a few inches to slacken the drive belt and take the belt off the hand wheel. Don't put the belt back on until you can hand-turn perfect stitches. Move the top of handwheel towards you - the hand wheel needs to spin counter-clockwise when you look at it from the right side (that's the only way that machine will ever make a stitch.) Try that and report back.

Some electric motors actually have a hard time to start spinning from a standstill. They need movement to work properly. Once the motor spins, everything is okay, but starting the motor is often a problem. Without getting too technical, these hard-to-start electric motors usually have some means of momentarily "faking" movement to trick them into spinning. These motors also happily spin in either direction. The startup helper device also helps the motor spin in the right direction (most of the time). Ancient clutch motors can be trouble and some are downright dangerous electrical or fire hazards. I've picked up old machines where the clutch motors had frayed wiring, or dried, brittle rubber coating and all manner of potential electrical hazards and problems. Unless you're super attached to that particular motor for sentimental reasons, it may be wise to replace it with a new clutch motor, or with a modern servo motor (the cost is about the same). If you've spent a lifetime working on domestic machines, it's unlikely that you will love the clutch motor experience, even if the motor spins in the right direction. Even a cheap servo motor ($135) will give you modern electrical safety and "domestic" speed control so you can safely enjoy your heirloom sewing machine.

This seems to be the week for bobbin case springs. I had to go hunt down one of those bobbin case springs for horizontal axis hooks. I found two samples with different style bobbin case springs in my parts stash, but neither of these are Singer 31-20 bobbin cases. Below's a picture of the two I found. The springs are designed to put some friction on the bobbin rotation so it doesn't spin too freely and unwind itself. These springs are rarely present in vintage machines in my experience. The style on the left falls right out, the one on the right has little tabs that hold it in place inside the bobbin case. Alas, the Singer 31-20 may not even use one of these bobbin case springs. At least they're not called out separately in the Singer 31-20 parts manual (31-15 and 31-20 Parts list.pdf )

Split needle bar issues aside, the Juki LH-527 was designed as a Bottom+Needle feed machine. You're not missing walking foot parts, they were never there to begin with. Here's a portion of the title page of the Juki LH-527 Engineer's manual that shows the variations in feed specs.

It turns out I had a Rex 11-155R in storage and I brought it home to make a short video showing on how the reverse lever and stitch length dial mechanism work together on this machine. Hopefully it'll illuminate the subject matter to figure out what might be causing your machine to misbehave.

That circled part connects the reverse lever shaft to the spring that gives the reverse the springy feel and keeps it pegged at the top unless you press down on the lever. Can you please post the PDF file (or a link if available online) of the parts manual where your parts diagram with the red circle came from? I still don't know which original your REX is based on.

Make sure you're winding the bobbin nice and evenly. It seems like a simple thing, but I've seen bobbins that were a total mess straight from the winder. Is the thread still under the bobbin tension spring after the problems start? It may pop out from under the spring for some reason. The thread itself also may affect things. Some thread is super stiff and acts like a spring itself - some may unwind from any spool or bobbin unless held in place by something. Also make sure you have the basics right for threading the bobbin in the bobbin case. There's a few variations of the manual floating around. I like this Singer 31-20 manual - it shows diagrams with HUGE bobbins: