TinkerTailor

Don't tell me you have never smacked one upside the head while cursing....Its standard operating procedure in computers........

www.Cansew.com I am always on the lookout for other colors of thread, and new, better and alternate suppliers. I Found Cansew online, So I did a web inquiry on their website, because they said to inquire for color charts on size 207 and above bonded nylon. I reluctantly put in my address, which i never do on an online form, and forgot about it. On Monday i received an email, stating my sample would be sent out on Wednesday. It included the contact info as well as the cell number of the west coast rep. Nice. I get home from work on Wednesday to find a fedex door tag. I track it and it is my thread sample and it is listed as a 2lb box....... At my door Wednesday morn....Wow that was fast. I had to tell Fedex to wait until this morning (Friday) to try again. When it got here this morning this is what was in the big box: It is 3 (2oz or so?)small spools of 69, 138 and 207, a glossy catalog of all their sewing supplies, and a heavy card stock thread sample chart, made with the actual thread. THIS IS HOW IT IS DONE. They won my dollars. Next thread and supplies purchase goes their way. The other guys (who have got a chunk of my money already): And just for fun, a heart shaped brand on a piece of burgundy chromexcel:

Btw, the last pick is the only true tuck and roll. The first three could be accomplished with thicker leather, just skiving the edges to roll them as the parallel lines are just a topstitch. As far as leather type, Take a piece of white paper and buff the leather to see if it rubs off, the lesser the betterer. Careful with oily type leathers. I have some chrome tanned hot stuffed leather that is full of waxes, and does not rub off. I also have some HB-foot redwing oiltan boot leather that rubs real bad. Horween has some nice stuff that would work for you. Horween has a great chart that lists all the details of their leathers. There are a couple waterproof ones that fit the bill, I would use buccaneer(waterproof chromexcel) or kudu waxy myself..http://www.thetanneryrow.com/products/kudu-waxy http://horween.com/leathers/full-tannage-list/ Plus Horween, and especially chromexcel are big enough brand names (especially with hipsters) that it is easier to up the product price to cover the leather cost.

Who built what and when is a good story but would be an incomplete story without info on who patented what, and who stole/borrowed/bought/rented such patents, as well as the stories of who forgot to patent things they should have. Everybody was paying everyone to use patents. Others modified the item just enough to get out of the patent scope.

I probably would do the same you guys have. If the metric ones work best, use them. If originally they used an obscure thread pitch like 26tpi, they did it expressly to prevent the user from repairing it and/or using not original replacement parts. I get 3/8 24tpi and 3/8 26tpi bicycle axle nuts in the store. They mark them with a 24 and 26 on the flange on the new ones. I think it was schwinn who used the odd tpi to force you to buy schwinn parts. There is another reason this is done. Axle nuts are always softer than the axle so they fail first when cross threaded, or over tightened as they are much cheaper and easier to replace than axles. If you put a grade 8 nut on a bike axle, it may strip the axle, The bike designers specd a special thread to prevent you from using over hard nuts from the auto parts store. There are lots of parts on a brand new metric bike, that measure out at 25.4mm, That is exactly 1 inch... They also use 28.6 and 31.8, which are 1-1/8" and 1-1/4" respectively. And they call it metric....... In the 70's-90's everybody but the french used a 22.2mm diameter for fork steer tubes and the threads of a headset bearing. The french in their infinite wisdom decided to make it true metric and used 22mm...guess what happens if you use an japanese headset, 22.2mm (by far the most common)of a french bike 22mm? The headset will thread together and adjust up when the parts are brand new, BUT, the reduced thread engagement means the headset lock and bearing race pop up a thread or two on that first big bump.....making the steering really loose all of a sudden. This can cause dental work and wheelchair payments.

If you can figure out how the foot releases tension on the thread when it lifts, and modify it or disable it you may be able to make it work. It might make it a pain to pull out the work after sewing, and it is still pulling a horse trailer with a Ferrari.....It might work, but not for long.

Just rip it all out and re stitch, this time in black...... Is it therapeutic....or therapathetic?

Welcome neighbour....I might be able to point you to some beginner seminars happening in van in the coming months..Where ya at? I lie in my profile and say I am from Vancouver, because Americans would never know where New West is.

I am in doubt that the metric taps are correct, considering the supplier. I would bet they are just using an obscure inch size, or an obsolete thread, like singer did all the time, and Juki did on my 441 clone.... So I did some lookin at charts and things, and came up with this: m8x1.0 tap hole size 0.2756" m7x1.0 tap hole size = 0.2362" mstric thread pitch1.0mm is 25.4tpi. 24tpi= 1.058mm 26tpi = 0.977mm According to the charts, an m8x1.0 tap has the same hole size within the tolerance range, and might actually be 5/16 24tpi. Also according to the charts, the closest to an m7X1.0 in drill sizes is 1/4 28tpi, The m7x1.0 one is quite a bit off in thread pitch from 28tpi and the hole size doesnt match anything i have found around 24tpi I would not be surprised to see 5/16 26tpi or 1/4 26 tpi. 26 tpi makes its way into the bike world here and there where 24 would be normal. I know they do this in guns and sewing machines as well. Any chance one of you guys has a micrometer to measure the outside of the threads on the insert, and perhaps a thread pitch gauge....?

Nice one Uwe. 15mins flat to the answer.....

That is a good one. I have done a ton of research into old leatherworking techniques etc, and have never seen any african references, besides mentions of tanning in morocco and the middle east. Apparently alum tanning is prevalent in desert regions. That is all i know... However i would like to hear anything you do find.

Considering the sharpening lengths people go through to get a steel knife sharp enough to cut quality leather, i think you will be fine with credit cards. The crappy leather most consumer grade items are made out of is a different story. Stitching, Now that can be cut by card, and ripped by over-filling the wallet. Design and stitching is the key to durability in a wallet. It is also the biggest part of the cost. The leather cost is small compared to labour and material cost to construct a wallet, especially if hand stitching. I have seen tenfold more leather goods fail at the stitches than i have seen the leather fail.

Edit: This is my techsew5100 441 clone I am referring to: I am not sure what may be causing this, but the last little while, the first three stitches when I start stitching look as if there is no top tension at all, I get 3 big huge loops on the bottom, and then everything starts working great, i could stitch beautifully for miles. Start at a new place and same thing. I am holding both threads when I start as I always have. I can only get it to start nice by pulling on the top thread fairly hard to take up the tension, and not even hold the bottom thread. I can actually feel the top thread getting looser and looser in my hand as i hold both threads and start a stitch. I have tried with the top and bottom tension both high and low, together and opposite of each other. I thought I may have a to high bobbin tension issue, so i backed it off 3 full turns, and it had no effect, the rest of the stitching got crappy, but the first 3 stitches did the same thing. I balanced the top to the new bottom tension, and get beautiful stitching after stitch 4... I had a tag of thread hanging out the hole of the bobbin, that wasn't it either. Tried a different bobbin,nope. I have tried hard and soft leathers. I have tried with the take up spring adjusted way long, and also with no travel at all, and this did not effect the first three stitches. The only thing i have changed is i am using a schmetz S-point 24 in place of the round point no name 24 the machine came with. All in all, these needles are stitching miles better than the junk i had, and can not see better needles causing this issue Btw, I am using 207 bonded nylon into 2 layers of 4-5 oz. I have tried raw veg and chromexcel. Cleaned the non-existant dirt and lack of debris from the shuttle area. Could this be a timing issue?

Never seen yours, It is now the bookmarked one. It seems to be the only one with fractional/decimal and irons. Nice work.

8oz is 1/8 inch. Look up leather thickness chart, there are several options that give measurement conversions on the web.

I think you may not be able to get the machine to do what you need it to do. It obviously both has not enough foot pressure and is at the max height possible. and still skips. Real leather machine is the only answer.

Some fabric machines have only 5/16 of foot lift. How torquey the machine goes will not change the fact that 2-3 layers of leather is too high to be accomodated. Your machine is built for high speed sewing of lightweight fabrics, not leather. I think you have found the upper limit of thickness that machine is capable of. It may have the torque to push the needle through steel, but only if it is not too thick. Try to re-stitch a seam it skipped on while pressing the foot down as hard as you can with a screwdriver and see if it still skips.

Greatly appreciated offer, and I am a huge fan of barter and trade, it keeps the cash in the hands of the makers. For me however shipping of anything from flawrida to canuckistan is stupid, and gives money to the wrong people....

I think he wants it split, not skived.

I used to run into this problem with thick materials in an old machine, It may be that the material fits, but is just at the point that the presser foot releases tension. It does this at a certain height to enable you to take the work out. If it happens while stitching, or because the foot gets pulled up by sticky material, skipped stitches will occur. If there is not enough top foot pressure, the material can lift a little, I have flirted with letting the blood out, and held the presser foot down with my finger to do those crucial stitches to get by.

Depends on the leather. The two things you will need to deal with are the actual marks, the other is the pressure indentations marking the leather makes. Chrome tanned leather does not show pressure marks as much. Raw veg tan, your only way is to hide the marks in the design. It will mark and stain from pretty much anything. Again, there is so much variance in types of leather their is no right answer, aside from the one you discover works for you and the leather you work with. Play around on scraps. Marking the backside is a common workaround.

Before you mess with the bobbin, make sure the top is threaded correctly. Its easy to do it wrong, or wrap something the wrong way. Don't feel bad, i pulled on the thread too hard for the first stitch on my 5100, I did not have the thread under the foot. I pulled the needle sideways and back with the thread. First needle break, jammed that bugger right into the top of the foot.........Btw, are you holding the threads when you start out? If not, you should. Firmly but not pulling......

Inlays.