Uwe

Nice work on the copper table frame, Mr. Sergeant! I like the walnut pedal, too - it looks very classy.

Thanks guys! I am busy making enough parts to put about a dozen or so of these table attachments together. They'll be for sale starting in late August when I get back from Europe

Oops, bad link. This one works: http://www.ebay.com/sch/uwe/m.html

Due to the lack of nice table attachments for 335 class machines I've been working on my own design over the past few weeks. Rather than doing a one-off, I've decided to put a little more manufacturing thought into it so I can make more if I want. It's far enough along to share a few sneak peek pictures. This version attaches directly to the arm via three knobs. The board is made from bamboo, the white insert is powder coated aluminum, and the bobbin access plate is polished steel (held in place by three magnets). The knob on top of the arm uses a little cup to isolate the pivoting feed dog arm from the table to avoid binding.The whole affair installs in under a minute without tools and is surprisingly solid. I'm still fine tuning a few details and will probably make a few extras to sell after get back from vacation (watch out Trox, I'm heading to Oslo!) Here are a few pictures of the current state of development:

I got some nice Kwok Hing presser feet in this week and put my extras on Ebay ( http://www.ebay.com/sch/uwe/m.html ) Below are a few pictures of the feet. Prices are $65 for the spring edge guide and $89 for the Left/Right feet on Ebay. 10% less via direct PM if you prefer.

Thanks Anthony! I had posted links for the presser feet earlier in the thread. I drilled the holes by hand, setting the machine on its side and shimming to have level drilling surface and the using the built-in water level guide on the back of my drill to make sure I'm drilling perfectly vertical (and holding my breath while doing it, haha).

Perhaps you can put a little shim or washer under the roller guide to raise it up a little so it won't interfere with the feed dog. The swing down guides are height adjustable so they don't touch the surface unless you want them to.

No user manual, sorry, but I came across this thread that talks about the Efka motors on a Pfaff 1445: http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=43867 Efka manuals are available here: http://www.efka.net/pdf/index_en.php The Efka programming may be trickier than the threading.

That was a steal indeed for two working genuine Pfaffs with Efka motors - good for you! Post some pictures of your new arrivals when you get them set up so that we can admire them!

The Pfaff 335 was not designed to work with needles and thread as thick as you want to use. Even the heavier of the two Pfaff 335 versions only goes up to 120Nm needles, which is a size 19 needle and the most the machines will happily handle is perhaps 138 thread. I think neither you nor your machine will be happy with size 24 needles and 277 thread. That's 441 or 205 class territory. I have a Pfaff 335 and an Adler 205-370. The 205 picks up where the 335 leaves off, there's pretty much no overlap in their design specs. The 205 will not be happy doing fine threads, and the 335 will not be happy doing heavy threads. I'm attaching the relevant snippet from the 335 manual.

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.