MADMAX22

I wouldnt waste the money on that consew, consew have some nice machines but that portable from what I have read isnt great. Forgot about the national 300, juki 562/563s also. Not knowing much about sewing machines (I am still learning myself) it is hard to get anything off craigslist, take some of the leather and thread with you if you do find something so you can have them demonstrate it being able to stitch what you want. I know others will recommend various sellers on this site but the cheapest will run you about $500 more then you want to spend although it will be ready to go and have a servo installed already. Toledo industrial sewing is in Ohio so could save on shipping but you will pay tax. You could always PM Bob and see what he has used. One thing I do is if I am not sure of the model is type in for instance "juki 563 leather" and there will be several results from this forum with invaluable information on the model. This would be nice if you could get it for 600 but I doubt they will come down that far (could always try) https://cleveland.craigslist.org/tls/5829772125.html I would ask for some pics of this and submodel and offer according to how it performs https://cleveland.craigslist.org/hsh/5796769319.html I dont know this brand, could ask Wiz or Bob about it https://cleveland.craigslist.org/for/5784241453.html Just gotta scour CL or save up some money and get into a 1206 or similar. Ebay is usually way over priced IMHO.

How far is too far to drive? Up in Cleveland area CL there are several cool machines, saw a 211, a 111w (unknown designator) and what looks like a a industrial of some kind with servo motor ($600), oh and a nice looking 45K which would be really nice but is an old machine.

Pretty much any of the decent walking foot upholstery type machines will handle that thickness and 138 thread. 111W, 211G, 206RB, pfaff 145/1245, any consew copy of these will work, 153W, just to name a few. Most will require a servo motor for those turns. There are a bunch more that will work, those are the most well known usually. I saw a 211g155 in your area craigslist but they want $800 which is about 400-550 to much IMHO. Wanted to add there are others, for what you wanna do even a 31K20 or 15 would work (with 92 thread), saw a 78-3 in rough shape for a couple hundred (would offer less) up in columbus, it could handle the stuff your doing if you can do some work on the machine.

I guess I should post up some of my work instead of pictures of old sewing machines I keep acquiring. Ofcourse pics of plain lined latigo rifle slings or some such really arent that interesting to display, now if I had time to do some big tooled album cover or hand stitch a really nice belt I would probably post it. Just lucky right now to get some slings and plain belts ran thru the ol random pull up stitch 4500.

Wanted to add that I use bleach deluted in water in a spray bottle to kill mold, its pretty much the active ingredient in most mold control stuff you buy at lowes and home depot. It will not soak into wood very well and mold can live deep down in all types of material. Its a constant battle up here in NW WA where it rains for about 6-9 months out of the year.

Can also buy shaft stock (keyed also), couple of pillow block bearings, a pulley, and the adaptors to go on the end of the shaft stock, a motor, and a belt of your choice. Depending on where you source things you can make a nice double ended set up relatively cheap and it will be built for the job. Grizzly, enco, places like that have all the things if you wanted to go that route. The motor is the priciest part but you can get a used motor if you do the above method as long as you can adapt a pulley to it or it already has one.

Supertracker how much stuff you planning to make? Check the price for those straps for the thickness of belt you wanna make. If you select 1.5" (standard/average belt width) the price jumps considerably. Right nowMaverickleather has WC bridle sides with a few colors on sale for $175 ($7sqft) which is about as cheap as you can find them, even from the tannery they are slightly more for the special grade. Thats about $10 a belt strip at 1.5" if you cut the entire length. If you section off the shoulder then you can make some other stuff as well. Thats figuring 18 belt strips cut from the side. Ofcourse this may vary.

Ya may wanna get a speed reducer to up the torque if you wanna sew slow. Mine will sew just fine with 138 (have done 207 but that is what my 4500 is for) however on the thicker vegtan stuff it will want to take off because of the required speed to get the required torque to get punching.

I would start with some good air flow first. As JS said how sealed up your shop is will play into it as well. Good air flow will not get below ambient humidity but will help move air to maintain that level of humidity and its a cheap step.

Good work, saw blades can be hit and miss but if your lucky its something like 80crv2 I think it is which is a good steel. The only reason I like the opposite side is when its either a different shape one side for tight corners and one for long straight cuts or to have two sides to use before sharpening. The angle on your one side looks pretty useful for doing several types of cuts depending on how much you tip it up.

Gotta make one of these for the wife's shield. Nice work. If they come out with a 45 version Ill be getting one for myself.

The thread guide on top is fine to run it thru, I do on my 211 and 111 without issue. The bobbin being installed with the thread going the wrong way will cause this issue. Had this same issue when I got my 211 years ago and tried to follow the singer explanation on how to install it. Needless to say I didnt get it quit right lol. Did you happen to take the same leather with you when you test sewed on the machine?

You can get it from the tannery house or whatever Horweens retail is called. Its not cheap but its not seconds either. I think minimum is 20ft

Dont bother with the 4 set, its not really a stitching awl set. If your gonna get your stuff at SF then try one of these http://springfieldleather.com/Awl-Stitching Or get about a 2" awl blade they have and a haft to put it in. You ofcourse may like a shorter or longer blade as it has alot of personal preference. Regardless gotta get it sharp. Lots of threads on that. There are better choices of thread but they dont carry much. Personally I use linen that I hand wax myself. Most on here seem to prefer the tiger thread or maine thread. You will have to shape and sharpen your awl to match the thread you intend to stitch with to get nice looking stitches.

Wow you lucky person you. Now ofcourse you may spend a grand in parts but then again maybe not. I cant help with the pics, yours looks pretty nice though. I am sure there will be a few guys along to help out. To aid them I would take some good photos of the machine as I am sure you will be asked to. Also cambell bosworth are gonna be your friends I imagine. They are pretty helpful even with answering questions. Pretty sure they are the only ones that "may" make a few parts for that machine. Not 100% on that though.

Curious what you guys think of using these new braided poly cord that everyone seems to be using now a days when it comes to longevity. I know the linen thread has been used for a long time and there is proof as posted at the top of this page with it enduring for a very long time. What life expectancy do you all think the poly cord will have? I have always used a linen thread that I wax myself and it does very good although it will have occasional small inconsistencies with thickness where the poly cord is exact thru out its length. Personally I like the linen but picked up some cord to try out since others seem to really like it. Just curious if a belt or other project is still going to be going strong after 20 years with the cord.

If your looking at belt sanders dont forget craigslist. Its actually a good source for those things. People are always getting a bunch of wood working stuff then for one reason or another dont use it or stop using it and unload everything.

Thanks Conrad appreciate the input. Your mention of the boots is originally why I was a little intrigued by the leather I picked up since I figured if they use it on boots and it seems to hold up well then I figured it would do the same for other applications. The seconds are seconds for a reason and if I wanna use CMX for anything Ill go thru the tannery next time. It is a nice leather albeit different and the belt I made was a nice dressier belt with the only issue being the wear qualities of the finish.

What is the reason your wanting to change leathers? You could try Wickett and Craig to see if you like there leather any better. They are both about equal in leather quality IMHO just slightly different.

No takers?

For waxing thread I do the mix of beeswax and rosin and if I remember right a touch of oil. Works very well and it also gives your fingers a nice sticky grip which helps tons when hand stitching. Poor the melted mix into cool water and kneed it into golf ball sizes. For edging I do the parafin/bees wax mix with a touch of neatsfoot, this makes a relatively normal wax feel but when burnished soaks into the ends nicely and polishes right up. For a top coat I cant remember the formula exactly but it was almost a even mix of neatsfoot oil and paraffin and bees wax. Has almost a soft butter consistency (kind of like snoseal). When it dries out after a few days (quicker if you use some heat) it can be buffed to a nice sheen and offers pretty good protection for a while. I really need to remember my mixtures as I am running out of the stuff I made years ago.

Tses I made a double layer belt out of CH lined with HO some 5 or so years ago and still wear it today. Maybe the HO lining saved me from color bleed but it has held up well.

Tony that picture shows it was a very bad heat treat. A properly heat treated steel when snapped will have a smooth fine powdery look even on the little raised hills from the break. When a heat treated steel looks like cast iron when ya snap it points to poor heat treat. that and/or very poor quality steel.

Glad you picked up a nice knife. Those ones have had great reviews on the site here and one of these days Im gonna try one out.

If its anything like my 211g155 which they look to be it will be pretty fast. With a cheapo servo motor I was able to easily control it for making my motorcycle seats. That being said its torque is not great when slowed way down for stitching vegtan or thicker leather. It did fine for the upholstery leather I used on the seats so no speed reducer needed. The machine pulley as you can see in the pics is pretty small. The 211 is a good machine once it is running good. If these are in good shape which they look to be they should serve you well as long as you can work around no reverse and not having a cylinder arm machine.