Uwe

I would hope the castings are the same but I don't know for sure, sorry. Of the 31 class I've only seen a 31-15 in real life so far. Singer does not include the body of the machine in their 31 class parts diagrams. But even if it's the same basic 31 class body casting, the different subclasses may vary subtly in how they are machined and/or have holes drilled in different sizes and locations.

The "it seems" part makes it less of an absolute statement. Perhaps I should have used "intended" instead of "designed." What I meant was that in the SInger 31 class of machines, the 31-15 subclass was not originally configured with roller feet and no roller foot options were listed in the parts book. The 31-17 subclass on the other hand is configured with roller feet and drop feed and the 31-18 subclass has roller feet and roller feed. I suspect there's more to the 31-17 subclass than just the different roller foot. Yes, you can swap feet/parts and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't. In this case it kind of didn't at first. If Singer had a specific roller foot in mind to be used with the 31-15, they probably would have included it in the list of optional parts. Instead they seemed (<- see what I did there?) to say that if you want a roller foot machine, you should use the 31-17 or 31-18 subclass instead, which were designed/intended for roller feet.

Well, I have no idea what it is, but I do hope we collectively figure it out, because I happen to have one almost exactly like it. Yours is in nicer condition, it appears. On mine, the picture of the factory on the handwheel is from a different angle, too.

I'm not sure a double needle machine is a good starter machine. Most beginners have a hard enough time keeping a single hook system adjusted and working properly. With a double needle & hook machine roughly twice as many things can and will go wrong. Also, for three-dimensional bags (as opposed to flat pieces like wallets and belts, etc. ) most folks end up wanting a cylinder arm or post bed machine. In the $700 range, I'd recommend looking for a Juki LU-562 or similar single needle flatbed machine instead of your double needle candidate. Also, instead of a double needle machine, consider doubling your budget and looking for a used Juki LS-341 or similar cylinder arm machine. The pain and suffering caused by an ill-suited first machine has its price, too. I always recommend a modern servo motor to beginners. Personally I find them much less intimidating and MUCH easier to control at slow speeds. For about the price of a speed reducer pulley ($150), you can also buy a decent servo motor that often doesn't need a speed reducer pulley at all. Sewing leather, especially bags, really benefits from being able to sew very slowly and very precisely, at least initially until you get the hang of it.

Does the manual not describe how to perform initial setup of the machine and how to adjust the table height? The machine must come with some kind of documentation. Bob at Toledo Industrial Sewing Machines is your contact, since you likely bought the machine from him. Give him a chance to earn his customer service brownie points. If you want people other than Bob to chime in, we'll need some pictures at the very least. We really have no way of knowing what your table looks like or if it is similar to others we've seen. Some table stands have internal gas cylinders designed to balance the weight of the machine. If the cylinder is compressed with no machine on top and you loosen the knob, it may pop up and put hole in your ceiling or forehead. All I can recommend is be absolutely certain that you can securely and safely install the machine head on the table before you ever pick it up - have a plan and a plan B. It may take half your foot off and likely self-destruct in the process if it falls off.

I find it hard to justify spending much effort to track down a single screw or two when you can buy a complete new 6028 hook for about $20 on Ebay. Even if you want to continue using your original singer hook to keep things original, the screws and other bits from the aftermarket hook should fit.

Very cool photo ,Thomas! That is the first time I've seen that outer feed drive wheel of the Singer 18-3, which is a very interesting and different feed transport solution. I always wonder if they made those left-handed machines for actual left-handed operators or if there is some other reason for the left-handed design. I happen to have some (maybe a lot - not really sure yet) Singer 45K parts, mostly used, some new. Nearly all of them are still hiding in dozens of unorganized parts cabinets/drawers I acquired recently. I put some Singer 45K open frame shuttle hooks (91774 or DD1OP) and Singer 45K Feed Dog Carrier frame (91160) on Ebay. You may not need those, but I thought I'd mention it. Good luck with your restoration! You appear to be doing a very nice and thorough job. I'm looking forward to seeing some before/after pictures and perhaps some video snippets of the machines in action.

Please forgive us if we come across harsh, but we don't answer questions that sound a lot like "How do I get this stuck knife drawer open?" with a simple "Press down on the safety latch and pull on the handle."

I'll rephrase that: Don't trust the person who installed the belt to do things properly. Read the manual and do it yourself.

So how did the belt get on the machine if you didn't install it and Bob shipped the machine with the hand wheel removed?

I wouldn't recommend starting with a Singer 29K unless you've used them before and know they will work for you. Save up (or borrow) enough money to buy the machine you really need. Otherwise you'll spend a great deal of effort, time, and money buying shipping and figuring out machines that will not work for you in the long run. Sieck also has some cheaper post bed machines like this Pfaff 193 post bed on their shoe making machine page. It's seem like a MUCH better starting point than a Singer 29K for shoe production.

I'd try calling the Coats folks directly to find out where you can buy their products: http://www.coats.com/index.asp?pageid=37&country=usa

A few things: You gotta tell us what you have. Pictures always help. My crystal ball showing me your motor installation is all foggy today. If you can't figure out the belt tension mechanism on your setup by looking at it, perhaps it's not such a great idea to start taking things apart. Whoever sold this thing to you probably has a phone and an interest in keeping you happy. If you don't trust that person to assemble things properly, perhaps not such a good source for purchases. I'd advise against taking things apart just to check whether they were properly installed in the first place. Quite often you introduce new problems unless you really know what you're doing. I'm not sure why you feel this is an important first thing to do before commissioning the machine. There are perhaps a dozen of grooved rods and bars with set screws. Do you plan to check all of them?

Servo motor mounts usually have a pivot point and some way to adjust how taught/loose the belt is. You can loosen the belt via the motor mount and then you can remove the belt. If you have a speed reducer pulley, that may need to be loosened as well.

I'm not positive but I believe that adjustment screw/mechanism allows matching the amplitude of the needle bar rocker frame movement to the feed dog movement. It makes sure the needle's position remains fixed inside the feed dog hole as they both move front to back. If the amplitudes don't match, there will be relative movement of the needle inside feed dog hole as they move.

Since your machine doesn't really behave at all the way it should in reverse, you're either using it wrong or something may be way out of adjustment, loose or broken. The Seiko STH-8BLD-3 manual will get you going on the right path. I highly recommend reading it carefully - it's one of the better manuals out there. First thing to make sure is that you don't turn the hand wheel backwards to make the reverse stitches - that's just not how it works but you would be in plentyful company if you tried that. Second thing to make sure is that the reverse lever has normal range of motion (isn't catching on anything) and that you depress the reverse lever all the way down and hold it there while sewing in reverse. Third thing to make sure is that you don't make any changes or loosen screws unless you really understand what they do. That screw in your picture is NOT where you adjust the reverse stitch length balance. Chapter 8-13 on page 23 of the manual shows how to adjust stitch length balance.

By coincidence, I came across a Pfaff 3334 subclass booklet in my stash of manuals yesterday. It won't help with fixing the the thread cutting knifes, but it relates to the machine in question. I scanned it in and made a text searchable PDF. It's surprisingly hard to turn scanned booklet spreads into a normal sequence of PDF pages! http://docs.uwe.net/Pfaff 3334 Subclass Patterns Reading.pdf (for reading online) http://docs.uwe.net/Pfaff 3334 Subclass Patterns booklet printing.pdf (For printing the booklet: print duplex on letter size paper, fold in half and staple)

Not complaining, just documenting facts. The seller may need the money to pay off the medical bills for back injuries sustained while trying to move the monster.

The Singer 97-10 with a winning auction bid of $367.09 is now available on Ebay for $3,589.49

You're gonna tell us what was wrong and how you fixed it, right?

The presser bar of the 45K5 does look like it would also accept regular presser feet with the flat mount point at the bottom of the presser bar. The roller foot appears to just clamp to the round portion of the presser bar above the flat mount point - at least that's what the pictures seem to indicate. Sometimes the different subclasses have only very minor differences with only very few parts swapped out.

Page 20 of the Pfaff 1245 manual has a dimensioned CAD drawing for the table cutouts, which is a reasonable starting point as well (alas, they tell you every dimension EXCEPT the actual main cutout size!) ba_1245_05-12_e.pdf

The Singer 45K came in both flatbed and cylinder arm versions. Lots of subclasses were made over time (Description of Singer 45K sublasses). Make sure the ones you're considering will fit your needs. Reading the Singer 45K manual (Flatbed) or Singer 45K manual (Cylinder Arm) ahead of time will help understand what you're getting yourself into.

Looks like the 45K5 was designed for roller feet which may be pricey (there's one on Ebay right now for $117 : http://r.ebay.com/AMAUJB ) I've not tried to install other feet on a 45K so I can't comment on that. I do know that 45K hooks are readily available from various sources, including me http://r.ebay.com/WCsheT

What you end up getting for the machine depends on a lot of factors (condition, accessories, location, shipping cost, market - is there a buyer ready, able, and willing at all?) Sometimes a perfectly good machine will not sell because everybody who wants one already has one. People who buy machines intended for resale generally pay much less than what you could potentially get from an end user. Another LW member managed to sell a pristine, like-new Durkopp Adler 204-64 a few years back for just over $2K, it appears. If you want more than $700 for yours, you'll have to step up your photography game. Blurry pictures do not help your case for getting top dollar for your machine.