Uwe

That is a pretty strong wedge shape, looks like a door stop! A couple things come to mind: You may have to adjust foot pressure spring as you change to the thicker part. As the material gets thicker, the spring probably gets compressed more and puts more force on the leather surface. Those marks look like high heel marks on a wood floor, change the footwear and make sure it sits flat. Try using a presser foot with a larger bottom surface to distribute the pressure and make sure it sits flat on the top surface of the leather. It may heel or toe into the leather because you're walking a relatively steep grade downhill or uphill. The top surface of the leather is never quite parallel to the needle plate or the bottom of the presser feet with a wedge like that. Build a "ramp" attachment to compensate for the wedge shape of your work piece and make the top surface level. Is that a test piece or an actual part you need to produce? If it's just a test piece, the problem may disappear if you sew a actual work piece with constant thickness (or just the occasional step up or down) and parallel surfaces rather than a continuous wedge shape.

Hmm, good one. I'd remove the cover on the position sensor next and observe the two spinning disks that block or open the light path for the two optical sensors. The manual says to move the disks by hand to set proper needle down and up positions. Perhaps the disk came loose and only gets dragged along at a certain minimum speed. Make sure the light source LED of the sensor is actually on when the reducer is installed - perhaps it has a flaky electrical connection that fails with just a little more or less pull.

So how can the motor stop and the machine keeps going as you say, like a bike that keeps rolling once you stop pedaling? That sounds like there's a one-way clutch or a loose set screws in the system somewhere. Is the handwheel/belt not directly/tightly coupled to the machine? Does the machine keep going but the belt does not move? I'm confused! If the belts are tight and nothing is slipping, the motor will keep driving the machine even after you let go of the pedal, until it receives a sensor signal or gives up. Unplugging the sensor cable from the back of the control box should make the motor work "normal", stopping everything the instant you let go of the pedal, with or without speed reducer installed. We're gonna need a couple photos or a video pretty soon . . .

If your "new" machine is a clone of an old design, the spare parts problem is exactly the same. The modern day clone makers don't generally make or stock parts, but expect you to rely on the OEM parts supply channels. A few aftermarket makers (e.g Kwok Hing) produce a limited selection of parts like needle bars, etc. Some models are well supplied with aftermarket parts. Check resellers with a good online presence like College Sewing in the UK see if parts exist for the machine you're considering. If they don't carry it, you're likely out of luck elsewhere as well. The local LW vendor may carry or be able to source parts, but some of their websites haven't quite made the transition into this century yet. As far as "expensive" parts go, an expensive but available part is infinitely more useful than any unavailable part no matter what the price would be. Durkopp Adler appears to have a very robust spare parts organisation in place for their vintage machines. They also did not go through bankruptcy recently like Pfaff did. Nothing like a good bankruptcy and new owner to change your priorities as to what vintage models you're still interested in supporting. Most industrial sewing machines were designed to work hard in a factory setting without breaking constantly. If you don't abuse your machine by trying to make it do things it wasn't designed to do, it will work for long time with routine maintenance. Like a previous poster said, you'll likely end up with one (or more!) dedicated binder machines before too long, especially if you do this for a living or on a regular basis. My advice would be to get a name brand machine (Singer/Pfaff/Juki/Durkopp Adler, etc.) or a well supported/respected clone in good condition, no more than two decades old, with design specs covering the needle and thread sizes and material thickness you plan to use. Whenever you use a machine outside its design specs, trouble is likely imminent. Quite often the design specs, especially for certain cylinder arm machines, are very narrow (e.g. Needle size 110Nm-140Nm, not much wiggle room there) For binding operations you described with compound feed and synchronized, vibrating binders, the Pfaff 335 and Adler 69 class of machines are well supported, proven key players in that field, at least from what I can tell.

I think the needle positioner motors are designed to keep running after you let go of the pedal until it receives a signal from the position sensor that it has reached the desired needle position. The motor control boards probably have some safety feature to give up after some time if it fails to receive that position signal. Usually the needle position sensor itself has a little LED that lights up in that "correct" signaling position. If the LED lights up and the motor keep spinning then the signal doesn't make it to the motor control board somehow. Or perhaps the sensor itself is slipping on the hand wheel, never signaling the correct position. The motor will eventually give up spinning if it never gets that correct needle position signal, which may look like it's spinning until it runs out of juice somehow. Trouble shooting steps I would take are: 1. Make sure the sensor is firmly mounted to the handwheel 2. Make sure the position sensor LED lights up in correct position as you turn the handwheel manually 3. Make sure that LED blinks as you sew, every time it reaches the needle down position If the motor spins past the LED lighting up, then the sensor wire connector may not be seated properly. There's also a chance that the motor control board simply gives up before it ever receives the next target needle position signal due to a large speed reducing ratio ( i.e. the control board logic may think "I'm gonna make at most ten more turns and then give up unless I get a position signal"). That might explain why it works properly without a speed reducer (e.g. position signal every five motor turns), but fails if a speed reducer is installed (e.g. position signal every 15 motor turns). This may be a safety feature to make sure the motor fails safely if the needle position fails to report, so as not to keep the motor spinning indefinitely with no pedal input. I'd love to take a look at it in person, but I'm in Texas this week.

Page 164 of the US Army sewing machine repair guide describes how to remove the arm shaft and timing belt on a Singer 111W155. It sounds somewhat painful. The Consew 226 is perhaps similar enough to follow those directions. In any case, the procedure is probably not something you want to first-ever attempt on a super important/precious machine.

The manual page 11-11 in this Pfaff 1245 instruction manual talks about adjusting the outer presser foot lift. Perhaps the old Pfaff 1245 version has similar adjustments. The concept of these linkages shouldn't have changed dramatically. On some of my machines the amount of outer presser foot lift depends on how much material I have under the feet. Without any material under the feet, the outer presser foot doesn't lift much, if at all (this is probably not right). With some leather under the feet, the outer foot lifts and "walks" as it should. I need to look into that. I'm pretty sure the outer presser foot list is linked to the inner foot, to make sure the outer foot lifts a certain height above whatever the inner foot rests on, no matter how much material is under the feet. I did stumble across a sewing machine repair book series form the '50s recently (also available in PDF format here: http://www.occaphot-ch.com/bernina-startseite/industrie-masch/ ) . Alas, the problem is (although not for me) that they're apparently only available in German. The book series goes into great detail on how different sewing machine technologies and concepts work and how to repair machines.

You need to include an actual asking price with these for-sale posts, per LW marketplace rules. Pictures would be really useful, too. Just post them here rather than emailing them about on request.

Also check out the Kwok Hing page for the Pfaff 335 for a nice overview of what's available for the Pfaff 335. The regular needle plate and feed dog set come in three sizes - regular, medium and small. The maximum stitch length you can use decreases as the opening in the needle plate gets smaller. Almost any of the presser feet on that page should work for you. The "normal" non-binder setup would include the 91-158 206-034 needle plate and 91-059 229-04 feed dog set: and the KP335W presser feet: For the arm cover plate, you may be able to just remove the guide fingers and threaded bits that are attached now to make it flat with nothing sticking up. The Kwok Hing parts are available from various resellers, or directly from the manufacturer if you get their attention.

So is it true that this 335 version does not have needle feed? That would seem very odd indeed. I thought these Pfaff 335 machines all have compound feed, except on most of them the feed dog does not go down while moving forward (it just moves back and forth at the same height unless it's a specific sub-class with that drop feed dog feature)

Here are some detail photos of the remote foot pedal. The control box originally had some metal mounting arm sticking out at the top, which I sawed/filed off level with the top of the box. I made the connection wire longer by soldering an extension piece in the middle. The little skateboard roller bearing at the end of the control arm fits nicely on a 5/16" bolt and makes for very smooth pedal movements.

A standard belt-driven bobbin winder does not fit on this compact installation. This is where a stand-alone motorized bobbin winder comes in super handy. There's no leg or foot actuated presser foot lift either, just the manual lever. The final, permanent installation will have a proper foot lift pedal.

I decided to actually measure my machine's power usage while sewing leather with a Consew CSM 1000 (550W) servo motor. It used between 24-60 watts sewing about 10oz. of soft leather. Here's the quick-and-shaky handheld video:

While I'm deciding on a permanent installation for my new Adler 69, I decided to make a portable table-top setup so that I can use the machine while I figure out some other details. I used my Consew CMS 1000 motor where I had previously mounted the pedal mechanism on a separate board. I mounted motor and controller to the Adler 69 using existing bolts and holes. No holes were drilled and no paint was scratched on this pristine machine. A modified door hinge holds the motor and allows easy belt installation and tension adjustments. The mounts still allow tilting the machine back to get access to the internal bits. It wasn't intended to be pretty but it's functional and compact. This approach may work for folks who don't have space for permanent table setups for each machine or need to travel with their machine for some reason. The whole setup is not exactly light-weight, but it weighs no more than my previous Pfaff 335 head by itself. I took the pictures with the machine sitting on my kitchen counter ready to sew, just for fun. I don't plan on actually sewing in my kitchen, but now I could if I wanted to . Here are the pics of the project:

Oh dear, I didn't even realize I needed a pedal-driven Landis 1 or 3. This seems like a great option for a machine if you're gonna sew very thick leather without electricity, and they're reasonably priced to boot: This fellow has (or had) a Landis 1 for sale in Oregon ($900) I need a bigger basement.

That's the kind of pedaling setup I was thinking of, very cool!

D'oh! Now I notice this darn thread is nearly two years old - how did this pop back onto my front page for this forum, making me think it's all new?

If you want to get a new pre-tension unit (presumably with bigger tension disks), it's available from AAAsew in Canada (USD $96, search for part number 0221-110154-DAD. Slightly sketchy ordering system, but I've successfully ordered twice from them), or from College Sewing in the UK for 50 pounds (USD $75, world class ordering system)

Sometimes it pays to look in the most obvious place: I found an operating instructions document hiding in plain sight at the Durkopp Adler documentation page for the 269 Here's the relevant diagram on how to properly thread the pre-tension unit for the bobbin winder:

The detail highlighted in your photo looks like it's only used for winding the bobbin and is not in the thread path for normal sewing. I think the description right above from chikitti is the closest to what Adler intended, based on this diagram I found in a 267-373 manual using the same tension device in a different location (and turned around). The tension device in this diagram IS used for sewing. Yours looks very much like the exact same device, just in a different spot and turnaround. Perhaps this diagram helps: I hesitate to even mention this video below about 267 bobbin winding because it kinda shows how NOT to do it, even though he manages to wind a bobbin. The fellow runs that poor machine at full speed with the presser feet just slamming metal to metal - that has got be wrong! At least lift the presser feet up so they don't make contact. He also does not use the threading path intended for the device - but it works for him perhaps because of the larger disks.

I can imagine a pedal driven setup similar to a kids pedal car or a regular bicycle that powers a regular sewing machine via belt pulleys. With the right size belt pulley or gear ratios you can sew nice and slow with plenty of torque and punching power. Most treadle machines will not have the right pulley gearing ratio to provide enough torque for sewing holsters. Of course pedaling while sewing may take a little practice. With the right (i.e. 1:1) gearing it may actually offer a nice synchronicity and needle positioning - pedal down = needle down, or something like that. Servo motors only use noticeable electricity when you press the pedal. Even a 200W weakling of a motor can drive a sewing machine with a speed reducer. Post some pictures of your solution before you totally disconnect from the grid! BTW, I have a 7KW solar system with 55 megawatt-hours produced to date. I feel reasonably guilt-free driving my electric car around town. We're almost net zero, but not quite. Another 10 solar panels should do it, although I'm not planning to live off the grid.

Joe (Hockeymender) kindly lent me his copied vintage Pfaff 335 Instruction Book and a set of mechanic's service training instructions pages. I've scanned them into PDFs in the best quality the originals would allow, which is overall quite nice. I also ran text recognition (OCR) on the files, so the PDFs should be text searchable. You can download the Pfaff 335 Instruction Book here: Pfaff 335 Instruction Book (old casting, until the late '90s) The service instructions cover various older Pfaff models: Pfaff Service Instructions (various older models) I'll also try to upload the instruction book to manualslib.com to make it accessible to a larger audience.

Here's some sourcing info: I bought the video's background music loop at http://melodyloops.com. This particular piece is called Red Book of Nature by Alex Grey. Youtube keeps flagging me for copyright violations if I use "real" music that is copyrighted (e.g. that "Time" piece by Hans Zimmer.) If you like this kind of piano and strings music, check out Ludovico Einaudi, which is the style of music I was looking for. The main parts for this project were sourced on Ebay/Amazon: Buehler 315 RPM Heavy Duty 25 V DC Right Angle Gearhead Motor - 5500 g-cm Torque ($39) FWD/REV momentary switch ($5) Aluminum enclosure box ($13) (a little too small, actually) 24V Power supply ($12) Speed Control unit ($9) Spool stand (handrail mount) ($12) Various bits and pieces came from my local hardware, electronics, and hobby stores. The two-part bobbin holder itself is a combination of a long M4 screw, fender washers, garden hose rubber gaskets, and two pieces of nesting brass tubing (model airplane supply). The tubes slide over the M4 screw and perfectly fill the space between the M4 screw and the inner diameter of the bobbin spool. The drive shaft of the geared motor already has an M4 female thread. So all together about $100 of materials and countless hours of parts research and tinkering. Not exactly cheap but functional and priceless to me. I can't buy an industrial strength motorized large bobbin winder like this anywhere at any price, as far as I know.

I do have the original Adler bobbin winder that came with the machine that runs off the machine's belt. It does an okay job but not great, despite the fancy cam driven thread guide mechanism. With the large bobbins and 415 thread its hard to get a perfectly wound bobbin on the standard winder and with the thick thread, every winding layer counts. People use stand-alone bobbin winders for various reasons. The build-in ones that wind as you sew never quite appealed to me. I'd rather have a little stash of wound bobbins sitting ready when I start a sewing project. With the thick 415 thread, you end up changing bobbins fairly often. I also have OCD and a perfectly wound bobbin gives me pleasure, lol! I had used a hand drill and made little bobbin hooks to wind bobbins. That worked quite nicely to make perfectly wound bobbins, but it was a pain to hold the drill steady and reverse it if the thread reversed direction before it reached the edge of the bobbin. I had seen commercial motorized bobbin winders for the small bobbins and thin thread, but never one for the big shuttle hook style bobbin. So I decided to make one just because, well, SEWING! Here are some pictures of my little bobbin hook that I used with my hand drill for a while:

I've been working on this stand-alone motorized bobbin winder for shuttle hook style bobbins for a little while. The project is far enough advanced to do a little show-and-tell. Control box and geared motor runs on harmless 24V DC, has a speed control knob and a forward/reverse switch. For the thread spool stand, I used the approach that Adler uses for the newer models, running the thread through the center and out the bottom - it works quite nicely. The bobbin holder has rubber rings (from my garden hose, haha!) to hold the bobbin and the thread while it's winding. Here's the little video that shows how it works.