Uwe

Sounds to me like the bobbin you have is too big and binding when you latch down the bobbin cover. Many bobbins are similar in size and often that "close-enough" bobbin that ends up in a machine is not the right one to work properly. Bobbins are cheap, get some that are new and the right size, before spend hours trying to make this one work. The Singer parts list for the 136W110 lists a Bobbin part number as 203470 ($5.95 for a pack of ten)

My local hardware store has a drawer full of gun related screws in weird x/64-40 sizes if I recall correctly, some quite long. Canadian hardware stores may not have drawers like that since you have way more sewing machines than guns up there.

I'm on my third glass of wine, does that count? Sorry to hear about your lost screw. I've contemplated swapping my dark grey berber carpet in my workshop area for light colored wood flooring just because of the amount of time I've spent looking foot tiny screws on that carpet. The way that Juki 441 outer foot mount works with the all-the-way-through screw and nut, can you not limp along for a while using a slightly smaller, available screw and matching nut? It seems the bulk of the holding is done by the channel and nested square bar design.

I'm not sure which online version you're looking at to see how bad it is, but the two online versions I've seen are quite nice and readable, actually. Singer's website has a PDF version of the Singer 211G155/156 Service Manual for download and it's probably as nice as these things get unless you have a pristine hardcopy version to scan. The images could use a bit more grayscale definition, but it takes somebody who's really into scanning to make that happen. I have the gear and know-how to do it, so I'll volunteer my time if somebody has a good hardcopy version I can borrow. The Singer 211 Illustrated Parts List has nice line drawings.

Who knows what's going on behind the scenes regarding chinese factories and brand labels - I certainly don't. Vendors are loathe to discuss sourcing details for various reasons. Insiders who talk, disappear (kidding, I hope!) Buying a motor on Ebay will carry more risk than from a vendor who participates here. They don't want a bunch of their motors coming back from disappointed customers, because we'd surely gripe about it here. Get the motor from LW banner vendor that answers your call and offers a good warranty. If it survives the first few months, it'll probably last a lifetime. Having said all that, I freely admit I've bought all my motors either on Ebay or from Universalsewing.com One of my Enduro motors died suddenly with a rather loud bang and a puff of smoke. Enduro promptly sent me new control board without hassle after a call to UniversalSewing.

Don't give up. Listen To Eric before anybody else, including me, haha! Eric makes a living repairing and adjusting sewing machines, I just spend money. It is, however, very rewarding figuring out how your machine works. That manual is actually super nice compared to others I've seen. It's hard to wrestle with multiple problems at once. After you get over this bump and your machine is sewing again nicely, I'd recommend going through the manual section by section and just comparing the machine with what the manual describes. Make one adjustment at a time once you're comfortable and soon it all will start to make sense. Figuring out how things work before they break is worth a lot, especially if you can avoid a trip to the repair shop. The clutch mechanism is described on the last page of the manual I referenced earlier. You should be able to look at that cylinder and see the little ball that pops into the hole to engage the clutch. I'm showing how to set a very similar safety clutch in my Adler 67 hook timing video (the hook is very different, but the safety clutch is very similar). We've had a couple instances on this forum lately with old machines where the safety clutch was frozen in place due to corrosion or hardened oil varnish, and did not function at all (include my own Consew 225 machine). Even if yours is properly engaged right now, it's good to check and make sure it actually lets go when it's supposed to. If it doesn't let go when it's supposed to, you may get a piece of thread lodged so hard inside the hook track that you have to dismantle it to get it out again.

The cheapest and most likely perfectly adequate setup would be a FESM550 style 550Watt motor with a 3:1 speed reducer. The FESM style motors are old-school in the sense of using brushes and a simple dial knob to adjust speed (as opposed to brushless motors with digital display controllers), but they actually work surprisingly well. The 441 class of machines is WAY more popular and has nearly equal specs to the Adler 205. Many vendors (check the banner ads) sell 441 style machines with servo motors and speed reducers. Look what motor+reducer combos these vendors use (e.g. Cowboy 4500, TechSew 5100, Cobra 4, etc.) and you're probably looking at a good system. Top speed of the motor is irrelevant because you will never use it at top speed sewing leather. Power and torque are related, but any difference in motor torque will be far outweighed by installing a 3:1 speed reducer. The weakest servo motors WITH a speed reducer will provide more torque than the more powerful motors WITHOUT a speed reducer. Out of all the servo motors I've tried, the FESM550 actually had the best low speed control out of the box. The others had an optical sensor that needed tweaking to work right (Enduro style motors), or a magnetic sensor that couldn't be tweaked (Consew CMS 1000). I currently have an Enduro motor (220V , 1000 Watt) with a tweaked optical speed sensor and a homemade 3:1 speed reducer on my 205, but I don't feel like I'm getting a huge benefit over the other systems. My belt tip demo video shows how slow this setup can sew. If you want a needle positioning system, you'll have to go with the newer style digital controllers (beware, the NPS on the 110V Enduro systems does NOT work properly due to design flaws). Alas, I actually disconnected my needle positioning system on my 205 because I didn't like using it. The "best" system in terms of low-end torque and control is probably a 220V 3-Phase vector motor with variable frequency controller and fancy speed control pedal. These systems have full torque at 0 RPM, super precise and smooth pedal input, and don't need a speed reducer, but they're expensive ($600+), heavy (60lbs+), and simply not available as a plug-it-in-and-go system you can just buy. I'm working on just such a setup, but it's not done yet (still saving up for that $400 motor)

It looks like, the tension adjustment has no effect, really. Perhaps something totally different is goin on. Are you positive it's threaded correctly? Is the tension release activated/stuck somehow? Is the timing itself reasonable when you look at the needle and hook movement? Is the safety clutch engaged (if you have one?) Sometimes a sticky safety clutch disengages but hangs on tight enough make it appear engaged. The fist step in timing adjustment is to make sure the safety clutch (if present) is properly engaged, Perhaps timing slipped a little during your fix and needs to be put back to normal. It almost looks like the thread take-up lever is not pulling far enough to pull the stitch tight. I'd manually turn the hand wheel and observe the whole movement of parts (hook,needle,take-up lever,etc.) to make sure it looks reasonable. If the thread take-up lever starts to descend again before it ever has a chance to pull the stitch tight, something is definitely out of synch. I once adjusted timing on a machine using a manual with incorrect needle rise info. It made the thread super tight as it wrapped around the bobbin. I can imagine an opposite scenario where the thread is way too loose because of timing being off in the other direction. Just because the hook manages to pick up the thread, does not mean that timing is spot-on. Find the timing specs and verify them on your machine. It's usually boils down to something simple like "The needle rises X mm from the bottom when the hook meets the needle in the middle of the scarf, as close a possible without touching the needle." Verifying the timing should be fairly easy. Adjusting the timing may be a little trickier, depending on the machine's design. The Consew 206RB-5 manual (http://www.rubyrube.com/Consew/downloads/206RB-5.pdf) has timing instructions and safety clutch reset info. You can use the manual to verify that the various adjustment requirements are correct on your machine.

Does it have the needle position adjuster feature and it's just missing the knob/lever? If it doesn't have the mechanics behind the knob, ordering a knob won't do you much good.

Not 100% sure about this particular machine and tension unit, but there's usually a relatively big pin that pushes from the back of the machine, through the machine and onto a plate on the back of the tension unit. That plate in turn pushes on a teeny-tiny pin that finally pushes one of the tension discs away from the other. It's a surprisingly complex mechanism. I had one machine where the teeny-tiny pin was missing. That pin is so tiny most people wouldn't even notice it falling out if they disassembled the tension unit. I made a replacement pin by cutting a very thin nail to the right length and smoothing the ends on sandpaper. You can buy a complete tension unit for under $20 on ebay. Keep that in mind as you run up hours trying to fix yours.

$900 will be a good price if it's complete and works well. Plan to invest in a servo motor. I've never met a clutch motor I liked. These machines are still made today in Germany today by a company called - are you ready? - "SL-Spezialnaehmaschinenbau Limbach GmbH & Co. KG" Their website has some Adler 30-10 detailed specs, parts drawings etc. Prepare to get a second mortgage on your house if you need to order anything from them. People have lamented in the past that Adler patcher parts are almost ten times the price of their Singer equivalents. A nice Adler 30-10 manual is available on manualslib.com I'm not really an expert in these machines but I came close to driving halfway across the continent once to pick one up.

I've used a hairdryer on several occasions to warm things up enough to get stuck parts going, either due to expanding metal creating a tiny bit of wiggle room, or softening matter that was causing the friction/sticking. It may help a little in your case if the oil alone isn't doing the trick. Tim Allen's character from Home Improvement would take a blow torch to the hook and melt that nylon thread right out of it - and then buy a new hook or machine.

I made a table attachment for the normal/short version of the Durkopp Adler 205-370. I'd like to make longer variants to fit the long-arm versions of that class of machines. I hoping I can crowd-source some measurements. If you are lucky enough to have one of these (and have a few moments to spare) could you please take a measurement for me? Measurements from clones are welcome, too (Cowboy, HIGHLEAD, etc. ) I need to know the distance between the mounting hole in the arm near the body and the two mounting holes on top of the mounting platform near the needle. I took two pictures that hopefully explain what I'm looking for. I put an M5 screw in the threaded hole on top of the arm close to the body and made it stick up 20mm, roughly level with the mounting platform: ... and measured from the center of that bolt to the line I drew centered between the two mounting holes. In my case that measurement is 253mm (25.3cm): If you're able and motivated to take the same measurement on a long-arm version of the 205 and post the results here (or PM me), I'd greatly appreciate it.

Hmmm, the German and English versions of the Adler 169 service manuals don't match. I always look at the German version by default, and it is the correct one in this case. The English version is really for the Singer 169, which has a different hook design (more like the Adler 69). On the plus side, the Adler 169 German/English USER manual, my timing video (just the hook area), and the parts list diagram, and your machine all match up nicely. Ignore the Adler 169 English Service manual - it's just the wrong one. If your timing slips easily, it may be because the cone gear that sits on the horizontal hook driving shaft is not tight enough (the one I loosen/tighten in the video). Or it is because something binds strongly or hitting something, causing things to shift. Simply tightening down that gear may not solve the root cause. Something slipping is a better failure mode than something breaking. Raise the pressure foot with manual flip lever, remove thread&material and remove driving belt. Your machine should now turn over very smoothly and quite easily by hand. If there are any hard spots or resistance during the turn, something is binding/rubbing/hitting and you have to find out where.

Post some pictures of your machine, including close-ups of the hook area and the nameplate. We need to know what you actually have to figure out what might be wrong. Use the "More Reply Options" button in the lower right to see file upload options.

Wiz, you're right, trying to sew thin leather with a 441 machine is just going to be frustrating. ELeBlanc, you should probably try and trade this machine in for a nice small cylinder arm machine which will be much better suited to what you're trying to do. I have a pristine Adler 69 that I'm not using much - just sayin'!

Just try it out if you have the machine. Use the smallest needle the machine takes without major reconfiguration and the leather you're trying to sew. Not a whole lot can go terribly wrong at the low end of the spectrum. If you're sewing two layers of thin-ish 3oz leathers together, you're already looking at 6oz total weight/thickness. If you're just trying to put a stitch line on a single layer of 3oz leather, you can use your LU-563 or any domestic sewing machine instead. For long term use on leathers around 6oz or less, you'll be happier with an Adler 69/169/269 or Pfaff 335 class machine.

MJ Foley has this tap kit with 20 popular sewing machine tap sizes in their catalog: They also sell all of the above and theses additional tap sizes individually: No dies, sorry. They also have a box of "popular" Union Special screws, but I don't know what thread sizes those part numbers correspond to:

Being in denial about the impending sewing machine addiction is very common among members who are new to this forum.

I'd make a day trip to pick up this Phoenix area Craigslist gem: http://phoenix.craigslist.org/nph/for/5322409183.html For $75 bucks you seriously can't go wrong. The table alone is worth that. And the machine may just do all the sewing you need even though it is not a walking foot.

Not sure where you're located - it makes a difference. Having something local to look at and touch is worth something. Not having seen pictures of the machine it's hard to judge, but the prices seem on the high end. For around $900 that Singer 211 had better be sparkling clean and sewing flawlessly! You can buy a brand new Consew 206RB5 head for $1035. Speed reducer pulleys are VERY nice to have with any motor if your goal is to sew slow. Expect to pay just as much for a speed reducer as a servo motor (not exactly sure why that is, actually.)

Now I had to look up what a GB2972 is. I'll add it on my list of machines to avoid. Personally I find it really useful when people provide some basic context by filling out their profile or have a signature that gives some indication about location and business affiliations. Everything is "local" on the internet, but the physical world doesn't work that way. Many answers and questions depend on where somebody is located on planet earth. Some (not all) misunderstandings and ungrateful reactions due to unmet expectations can be avoided with basic context. There's also a thin line between helping and enabling, at times. Some threads apparently start with a thought process like "Golly, it'll take me five minutes to look this up myself. Let me just post a quick question on the forum instead and have ten people spend half an hour each researching and composing elaborate responses." It takes considerable effort to suppress a snarky "Let me google that for you" or "Let me look that up for you in the manual I gave you yesterday". Sewing machines also should come with warning labels like "Do not loosen that screw unless you know what it does" and "Do not take it apart unless you know how to put it back together" Ahhh, all better now. A little rant once in a while feels good.

The feed dog can be adjusted sideways to center it with the opening in the (fixed-in-place) throat plate. If the feed dog is not centered it may hit the edge of the throat plate opening and push up on the throat plate. You can also adjust how high the feed dog moves during the stitch cycle. If it is set too high, it will touch the underside of the throat plate and bind (the AZ adjustment screw in Figure 22)

For sale is a Chandler branded Adler 67-GK373. This machine was made in Germany by Kochs Adler and imported to the US by Chandler. Everything is made by Adler except the Chandler stickers. I made a few YouTube videos with this machine. One of the videos is a hook timing video which shows the condition of the machine well: This is an unrestored original in excellent condition. I installed a new throat plate and feed dog. The presser feet and accessories shown in this picture are included as well: I drove all the way from Detroit to Cincinnati to pick this baby up and it pains me a little to put her up for sale. Alas, I have too many machines with nearly identical capabilities and I need to let a few go. The price is $850 for the head. I can box her up for shipping if you like, but you'll have to pay for shipping. I'd package her really well with foam pads and a box-within-a-box. The shipping weight is just under 70 lbs and the box has outer dimensions of about 13"x20"x24". If you're within 100 miles of Detroit, we can arrange pickup or delivery, or meet somewhere in the middle. If you're near the Detroit area, you have the option of buying this machine in a complete, ready-to-sew setup with a very nice table and servo motor for $975.

I've accumulated too many sewing machines with nearly identical capabilities and it's time to thin the herd. This machine sews like a champ and she has starred in several YouTube videos I've made over time. The hook timing video is perhaps the best one to watch to get an idea of the the condition she's in: This video shows how thick stack of veg tan leather she can sew: I've installed a new Hirose hook as well as a new feed dog, throat plate, and presser feet. I've gone through the adjustments as shown in the video. She received a careful repaint job a few months ago, so she looks all pretty in hammered silver. I tapped holes on the back to install a swing-down guide and I'll include a new KG-867 guide. The price is $550 for the head. I can box her up for shipping if you like, but you'll have to pay for shipping. I'd package her really well with foam pads and a box-within-a-box. The shipping weight is just under 70 lbs and the box has outer dimensions of about 13"x20"x24". If you're within 100 miles of Detroit, we can arrange pickup or delivery, or meet somewhere in the middle.