Uwe

Installing a swing-down guide will involve some drilling and tapping for threads. As it happens, I did just that since my last post, haha. I just had to find out if I can install a swing-down guide (KG-867 in this case) on my Consew 225. I also wanted to get over my fear of drilling into a perfectly good machine. It survived very well, as did I. The back of my Consew 225 is pretty much identical to your Singer. The installation worked quite nicely and took me perhaps 45 minutes. I used a regular hand drill to drill the holes. I placed a vacuum hose nozzle near the drill hole to suck up the metal shavings after the first hole. The original thumb screw used to adjust how far down the guide drops was a little too big to fit the space, so I substituted a regular M6 hex head screw. I have some of these guides for sale on Ebay, check my Ebay link in my signature below if you are interested in a swing down guide. Here are some pictures that hopefully illustrate my installation steps:

Mine is a generic presser foot I got on Ebay, not exactly sure from which seller, actually. There are similar presser feet available on Ebay right now (example 1, example 2). The thread used in the video is size 138 bonded polyester top and bottom. If you watch the video on a PC it should show superimposed captions that provide some additional details.

As to which edge guide works best for you is a bit personal preference. Some like the swing down guides, others prefer the presser feet with the built-in spring loaded edge guide or the arm/bed mounted guides. The presser feet are easy to install and relatively cheap. I've used one on my Consew 225. You can see how it works in a little video I made some time ago: https://youtu.be/Dg12IXhcqkU?t=30s The swing down guides require threaded mounting holes in a suitable location on the back of the machine. The swing down guides are easy and quick to use and offer the most flexibility with different guide attachments like rollers, straight edge, zipper guides, etc. If you post a close-up picture of the back of the machine near the foot lift lever it will be easier to tell if your machine is suitable for a swing-down guide.

My feeling is that it may be less important exactly what type of thread they're using - it's often hard to tell even if you have the piece in your hands and nearly impossible to tell from a photo. What's important to me and what fascinates me about the italian bag is the detail of how the stitch lines are laid out with almost no evidence of where the stitch segments start or end, especially in the handle attachment area. That takes some serious planning and skill to pull off - and some manual finishing of stitch lines; they don't come out of the machine like that. It's a matter of style and taste, but personally I don't find the thread thickness to be out of proportion with the needle holes - it may have to do with how elastic the leather is to close up the holes again after the stitch is made. It reminds me of my veg tan Bree bag I got when I was in high school some forty years ago. I still have the bag and I'm still in awe of the stitching. The thread on my Bree didn't hold up in some high-wear areas and needs to be fixed, but the stitch holes are perfectly planned out, aligned, and spaced. Thinking about fixing the stitching on my Bree bag is what got me started on leatherworking some two years ago. I still haven't touched the bag for fear of screwing it up, haha. My skills aren't worthy yet.

Running an oil pump machine at rated speeds in regular intervals may work to compensate for slow sewing but may get tiresome after a while. Read the "Adler 467 for Venator" saga pinned at the top of this forum for a case study of a pump lubrication system gone bad.

If you're looking to upgrade from your Consew 225, you should seriously consider the Adler 267 that member Jimbob has for sale in the used for sale section. He lives reasonably close to you and the Adler 267 is the last x67 series machines before they got into pump driven oiling systems. That's the machine I eventually want to end up owning.

Now that I have my newly acquired Adler 67 all set up, I decided to sell my Consew 225 setup to make room. I've refurbished the machine, cleaned and oiled everything thoroughly, and adjusted the timing. It's ready to sew and looks pretty. The custom table and brand new Consew servo motor put a modern twist on this great starter machine for leatherworkers. Slowest sewing speed with this setup is about two stitched per second with nice gradual control as you ramp up the speed. It handles 138 thread with ease. My full ad is on Craigslist. $690 on CL, $650 to fellow Leatherworker.net members. I'm not gonna ship this setup, sorry. Local pickup or free delivery in the Detroit area only.

It seems the Pfaff 1445 are less common that the Pfaff 1245 series. A Pfaff 1445 Service Manual will be essential if you own his machine and to compare specs to other machines. The feet are not interchangeable between Consew 225 and Pfaff machines. Even the 1245 uses different feet than the 1445. On the plus side, Pfaff 1445 parts are still being made by aftermarket manufacturers like Kwok Hing. Original Pfaff parts will be very expensive compared to what you can get Consew 225 parts for. Pricing/value-wise, it seems the 1445 should not be far off from a Pfaff 1245 in similar condition - the 1245 is easier to price because there's more of them for sale for comparison. I'm roughly guessing $300-600 for a beater, $600-$900 for good used machine, $900+ for a well tuned cream puff of a machine with table/motor. The Pfaff 1445 looks to have some elaborate pump-drive lubrication scheme, which can be a red flag for the hobbyist sewing only occasionally and slowly. Poor lubrication due to not operating the machine at rated speeds will cause problems. Many leatherworkers (including me) prefer a manual lubrication system. Personally, I'd go with a "popular" machine where you can find parts, accessories and used machines all over the place. The Pfaff 1445 seems "rare" to me, which can be trouble down road when things start to go wrong. On the other hand, if you get your hands on a really nice one and you take of it and don't abuse it, the machine will probably last you a lifetime.

Looks very nice and functional, great job!

Hi Rick, Chances are good that the guide will fit a generation or two back from the current Pfaff 335. I don't have access to older Pfaff 335's to verify but images I found online indicate that the older machines have needle guard mounting holes in the same location as the current models. If you watch the installation video and compare the back of your machine to the one in the video, you should be able to tell if you have the same mounting holes. You probably won't have to deal with the back cover plate issue, since the older machines are more "open" in the back. In any case, if you buy one and it doesn't fit your machine, you can return it.

Just testing to see if I can embed a video directly into a post. Did not work on Chrome, testing firefox now. https://youtu.be/dfHOL9ZeDWI <iframe width="854" height="510" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dfHOL9ZeDWI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> Testing reply mode <iframe width="854" height="510" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dfHOL9ZeDWI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> https://youtu.be/dfHOL9ZeDWI <iframe width="854" height="510" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dfHOL9ZeDWI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe> I was told it's a simple copy/paste, but it surely isn't working for me.

I got an email from Yosemite this morning with a link to a video about their stable and saddlery shop. (youtube video ID: dfHOL9ZeDWI ) The red leather stitcher he uses looks and operates quite unusual - does anybody know what kind of machine that is? At the 1:00 minute mark you can also see his other machine needs some adjustment - it skipped quite a few stitches!

I tried it out and the bobbin case indeed popped out easily when aligned as shown in the picture. (The bobbin case needs a thorough cleaning!) I'm guessing the other two notches serve some other purpose for a different task. Thanks for everyone's input on this!

I finally found a reference to these bobbin case notches in a Singer 9W manual. Apparently they are used as a reference to line up the bobbin case in a certain position for removal. Here's a screen capture of the relevant portion:

I appreciate old sewing machines designed and made by people who care about quality. Sewing machines are perhaps an exception in the industrial world because they are still usable and desirable after 50+ years. There is little else that endures like that in both usability and desirability. For daily use I want modern cars, airplanes, computers, phones, coffee machines, etc. Chinese manufacturing is quite capable of producing stupendous quality like no one else can right now, but only if the right people are in charge of design and run the manufacturing and quality control operation (my iPhone comes to mind - try making that in North America right now - it would cost over $5,000 and be ready in about five years.) If the wrong people run the operation you end up with a warehouse full of cracked-and-painted-over sewing machine castings, truckloads of 40-year-old occasionally frozen meat, dog food that kills dogs, and the like. I'm willing to spend more on a quality product, but then I'm one of those weird Europeans. Most U.S. americans want "a washing machine" or "a dishwasher" and they generally don't care how it works or how it's made as long as it's cheap and works for a while. You get what you ask for, and what you pay for. I'm glad Durkopp Adler created the 969 and I hope they sell a bunch of them. I also hope they work with manufacturers who deliver a quality product, regardless of where they are located. I want one just because it's so outrageous and shouldn't even exist. Alas, that USB port on the 969 will be pretty meaningless 50 years from now.

Thanks again for everybody's input on this! I fixed the stripped thread and I'm quite happy with how it turned out. The original screw was actually a 11/64" screw - a common sewing machine screw size but impossible to find at your local hardware store. I originally thought it was an M5, but I was mistaken. Since 11/64" is about 0.434mm, I decided to re-tap the hole with a 5mm M5-0.8 tap, and then remove the new threads in the top part of the clamp piece by re-drilling with a 7/32" drill bit. I did the tapping in two steps as suggested in a previous reply to get he full M5 thread as deep as possible into the blind pocket hole. The first tap is done with the regular tap bit, but the tip hits the bottom of the hole and it doesn't get to create a full-width thread on the entire length. The second tap pass using the bit with the broken-off tip uses the previous tapped threads to guide cleanly into the hole and then create a full threads to the bottom. I bought two identical M5-0.8 tap bits and purposely broke off the tip on one of them by clamping the tip in a vice and snapping it off. The tap bit tip (lol) broke quite cleanly. Luckily, I was able to do all this without having to take anything apart. The new screw has a solid feel and does its job of helping clamp down on the rod. I feel better now that two screws are doing that job instead of just one. I'm attaching a few annotated pictures that hopefully illustrate what I'm talking about.

Sorry Wiz, I don't know if needle plates and feed dogs are interchangeable between 205 and 441 machines and I don't have access to a 441 to verify.

Some of the sewing machines Typical sells are copies/clones of other famous brands like Pfaff and Juki. The TW3-P335 is a Pfaff 335 copy/variation, the TW3-441 is a copy/variation on the Juki TSC-441. I can't place the GC2263. Out of the cylinder arm machines Typical sells, they neatly fit in the spectrum from light to very heavy duty with almost no overlap, at least as far as supported needle sizes go. The 335 class of machines is the lightest duty version of the trio, the 441 the heaviest duty version. Both 335 and 441 type machines are "popular" in the sense that many aftermarket manufacturers produce parts for them. Typical is basically a chinese manufacturer who produces a bunch of machines and does their own distribution/marketing/support. It seems to enjoy a good reputation, mostly in Europe. Typical has a fairly strong presence in Europe, and apparently has a sales office in North Africa, too. One specialty leather bag manufacturer/repair shop in my home town in Germany uses machines made by Typical, although I don't recall the exact models. None of the cylinder arm machines have really good commercially available flatbed table attachments available from what I can tell, at least not in the U.S.A. Some vendors sell attachment for the 441 type machines but they are are just poorly designed in my opinion and pain to attach/detach. Same for the Adler 205 class of machines. Some European suppliers/distributors are putting a little more effort into choosing/designing the tables and table attachments. Three nice examples I had bookmarked are an attachment for a 335 machine made by NTK, a table attachment for the Adler 205 class machine and a nice setup using an Adler 69-373 machine, both sold by Sieck. I made my own table attachment for my Adler 205 and It turned out quite nice. A good cylinder arm machine with a GOOD flatbed attachment will be your most versatile setup and I can't think of anything it won't be able to do that a plain flatbed machine with similar specifications can. Sometimes manufacturers make the same machine in flatbed and cylinder arm versions (e.g Pfaff 1245/335 and Durkopp Adler 204/205). Usually the flatbed version is slightly more heavy duty, since it's easier to package heavier duty hook components under the flatbed. The arm portion is usually identical. Your main problem may be to find a single machine that does both heavy leather exteriors and fine silky purse linings equally well, because many machines have a fairly narrow range of materials they can handle well. The three Typical cylinder arm machines have no overlap at all in their needle size specs (and thus thread size). You'd need all three to handle the full spectrum from very fine to heavy duty materials.

I made a how-to video on replacing the needle plate and feed dog on a Durkopp Adler 205-370. I made the video for a part I'm selling on eBay, but I figured the video might be useful for others who wonder how to take out the shuttle/hook assembly on that machine. You can watch the video on Youtube (If the link doesn't work, you can search Youtube for video ID: 5bayX4Ruw3A ). One of these days I will figure out how to embed a video in a forum post . . . In any case, enjoy the video if you like that sort of thing.

Thanks for the input folks! Re-tapping seems like the "proper" way to do it if I can access the hole without disassembling everything. The hacker in me is intrigued by the external clamping suggestion - definitely worth investigating. I'll do some tinkering and report back.

I noticed these notches on the bobbin basket on my new-to-me Adler 67. My Consew 225 has similar notches on bobbin basket. I previously assumed these were defects or damages of some sort. Now I'm wondering if the notches serve a purpose, but I can't think of one. Does anybody know if these notches are supposed to be there or if I should go shopping for a new bobbin basket?

I picked up this nice Adler 67-GK373 yesterday and as I was going through it I notice a missing screw on a clamp piece. Turns out the screw is missing because the thread inside the hole is stripped. It's supposed to be an M5x12mm but with a finer pitch than the normal M5 (0.8) (Adler part number is 993 91 101 7, I believe). There's a second, identical screw that holds things together adequately for now and the machine actually works just fine, but I'd like to fix the thread and put that second screw back in place to keep it working fine. I'm sure I'm not the first one to encounter a stripped thread on a sewing machine. Replacing the actual clamp part is an option I suppose, but it seems to involve taking apart a good portion of interconnected parts in the machine, which I'm trying to avoid. I'm considering tapping the hole for a slightly bigger size screw or using one of the thread fix approaches (e.g. Loctite thread repair kit) If anybody has done this type of repair before, I'd love to hear what works best, as I'm trying not to screw this up (pun alert!) on a nice machine. Here's an annotated picture of the part that's in trouble:

I had my first two sightings of a Durkopp Adler 969-ECO for sale in the wild this week, both run $12,650 - ouch! One is on Ebay and the other on the Weaver leather website.

I ordered one of these for my machine from Kwok Hing a while back and got a few extras. This kit consists of the Kwok Hing KG1245 suspending edge guide with the matching KB09 adapter bracket for installing it on Pfaff 335, 1245, 1246, 1525, 1526, 335, 591, 2545, and a various other Pfaff machines. These edge guides are very nicely done and work well. I put my extras on Ebay and made a how-to video for installing this guide on a Pfaff 335. You can watch the video on Youtube. On modern (white) Pfaff 335's the back cover gets in the way and a small portion needs to be cut off. Not ideal, but not hard to do, either. Price for the kit is $75 for fellow LeatherWorkers ($85 in my Ebay store if you prefer) and includes free shipping within the U.S. I'm set up to take credit cards through my photography business. Send me a PM if you're interested or have questions.

It might make a difference depending on whether you go backwards first and then forward (e.g. at the beginning of the seam), or forward and then back (at the end of the seam). Reversing a machine is not exactly the same as turning the piece around stitching into the same holes, because when reversing you're only changing the direction of material feed, but you're not changing in which direction the knot is tied (which gives you the slightly diagonal thread orientation). The pictures don't look all that bad for the most part, really. I'm guessing some folks wished their machine backstitching looked that good. I often leave a longer thread dangling so that I can manually pull the last stitch tight or pull the knot into the hole. Also, the second time the needle goes through a hole is different because there's two threads in a knot already in that hole - it gets tight especially with thick thread and hard leather. The needle has to somehow go around (or through) that knot, and exactly how it does that is not so predictable or repeatable, even if your machine reverses perfectly into the same holes without thread. Getting a good looking backstitch by machine may be matter of luck to some degree even if it's perfectly adjusted. It also looks like you might be pulling the piece out before the last stitch was pulled tight. It's probably good practice to allow the thread take-up lever to go all the way past the top after a stitch (so it can tighten the knot) before you stop to pull out the piece. In my experience reversing with the machine is rarely "pretty." I tend to finish my seam ends by hand if I care what they look like (especially on the back side). Lastly, I found the sharp knife-edged leather point needles tend to partially cut the thread when stitching into holes again that already have thread in them - the sharp tip edges cut thread just as well as they cut leather.