DrmCa

I am surprised by how tiny the motor is, about 1/2 the size of Family. Can it really deliver the same HP?

dunno about 797, never came across those, but the rest is the same needle. This is the standard needle for Pfaff walking foot machines. Why? Hell knows!

This is a lock stitch machine. The feature prevents thread from being pulled through when turning the product around for back tacking. This is a lame attempt compared to adding a reverse lever IMO. But for $40 this is still an Okay machine.

Very cool! Is it water tight?

Same sentiment here. I regret not spending more or not buying machines, when I had a chance, but never regret buying one. It is almost always possible to use more of a machine for less of a project, than the other way around. Shop around for a good used motorized machine, and you'll find a deal.

Hopefully you do not need to disconnect the electronics, but pneumatic hoses only. Mark them beforehand with tape and take pictures of the current setup. I would approach this differently: rent a van and strap the whole machine to its side.

I have a few pictures and PDFs for this machine, but PDFs won't upload due to size. You can download them from my FTP EDIT: Files uploaded, see below pictures. DDL-5550DDL-553InstructionManual.pdf DDL-5530 Parts List.pdf

Clutch motors are dirt cheap these days, no one wants them. May be cheaper to replace than to repair in the end. Greg, Should not a servo with a small pulley work? I know they come with 3" pulleys, but if replaced with a 2" or smaller, they provide more oomph.

What do you intend to use the machine for? Leather weight? Thread size? Needle size?

+1 Could not agree more. Not Juki DDL-555, no! It sucks at stitching leather. I tried roller foot, teflon foot, everything, it would always skip stitches. Heavy denims and suiting, cordura, vinyl - fine. But not leather. You need needle feed walking foot for sure, they are not that expensive. If you take your time shopping and researching, it is possible to come across a decent machine at a decent price.

Get a smaller pulley for the motor. Your servo probably came with the 3" pulley.

335 is not only smoother, it's also a gear driven vs belt driven Adler. Less chance of downtime with gears I reckon.

Do they not have to be white?

Cork is fine. I did the same for my Juki 555 when I picked it up from the construction site dumpster - used a cork sticker with great success. The same cork sticker is used on the pedals I believe, correct me if I am wrong.

$100 is a helluva deal for a fur machine. Here they go for CDN $600+ and rarely below $750 for Type A. Most sellers are asking $900 for Type B machine. Digging through the drawer I found about 10 packs of Bonis 292 needles in sizes 12, 14 and 16 (the tiniest needles I ever came across) as well as some tools and a note in beautiful handwriting which to the best of my understanding says Tüt a génben ólitni o Elöresele Sürveb Hóitraßele Ritkáb No idea what the language is, but ß is only used in German and Swiss German, correct me if I am wrong. Also found a tool for splitting razor blades in half diagonally, a number of already split blades, and a cutting tool which uses so split blades. An ancient version of exacto knife I guess.

Short answer: https://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale?catId=0&initiative_id=SB_20180701112042&SearchText=snap+press+dies Long answer: I have several sets of dies together with a 1000 bag of of snaps in several sizes that I bought from a factory on the Old Continent through a friend. They do not sell to the public, but I bought their overstock when he was cleaning his working area for a new product. I could have bought them from Ali express as well, but I was already getting a shipment from that factory, so things were not adding any shipping cost. Also getting correct dies from China takes a lot of patient back and forth to make sure dimensions are correct, their communication skills are not top notch, even if their product may be.

This is what I meant by twisty type. I use this press for buttons and snaps and it does just that but excels at that. Keeping it on a piece of 2x4 allows to move it to a machine which is being used at the moment as well.

First project? Yeah!

Nice!

Bought the machine today. It came with a small pulley which helps control the RPMs and she can be feathered down to 1 SPS with no effort. Threading is hard due to tiny needles and having to thread from the bottom up, but otherwise a great stitcher for light leather and furs. So happy I found one after looking for only a couple months!

Do you have a picture of the roller and blade when in normal operation?

Does the blade touch the roller in operation? Otherwise +1 for the manufacturer's mistake in heat treatment, or cost cutting by going with cheaper outsourced parts.

2-3mm total or each layer and how many layers?

Just curious what kind of press do you have? I found that lever style presses are Okay when foot-operated but not so good for hand operation, and ended up buying a twist style press. They are much cheaper in the EU than in North America. Italy, Greece and Turkey make them. I envied the EU prices when I shopped for the press! And I bought my dies directly from a factory in Eastern Europe, they were a fraction of the cost over here. No wonder our economy is in decline while the rest of the world is booming.

Depends on the leather weight. Of course in general you use larger snaps on leather, than on textiles. and you want about 2-3 mm of the stud above the floor of the snap body when pressing to make a nice symmetrical round crimp. There are snaps with gigantic studs for golf bags and similar applications where multiple layers of leather and plastic have to be pierced. So it all depends on your application.