dikman

Could be a good deal for someone (I'd grab it if it was in my country),

Sounds like a great relationship. I just bought another airbrush, they're so cheap out of China/Hong Kong that I couldn't help myself (about AU$16, including shipping, for a .2mm gravity feed double action!). The quality of these brushes is actually very good, and while an Iwata might be nice it's not worth spending another $150-plus in my opinion.

Yep, learned both of those things the hard way, Tom. Now when I do corners I take it very slow (stop if necessary), make sure the needle is down as far as it can go, lift the foot just enough to turn the leather and make sure there's no side tension on the needle. Plus the odd prayer doesn't go astray sometimes.

Don't panic, the brass model badge is covered with masking tape (I forgot to take the tape off), the brass Singer badge is missing (when I cleaned the paint in that area it actually has a large number 10 (?) stamped into the metal where the badge would be) and the serial number has been painted over so it won't rust (but can still be seen, of course). Thanks suzelle, I'm healing well, the surgeon is happy with the results although, depending on the biopsy report I may have to go back, but that's no big deal. As a result of renovating this machine I've re-discovered my interest in airbrushes (I'd forgotten all about them) and bought myself another one (I have four now, along with a small gravity feed gun) and one of those small compressors for airbrushes, as it will give me some portability that I don't have with my bigger compressors. I want to have a go at airbrushing dye on leather.

Just for anyone who may be interested - The original paint had a greenish tinge to it, which doesn't really show up in the photo - Down to bare metal - Sprayed with automotive acrylic primer. I actually liked this colour and considered just overcoating with a clear sealer but I'd already sprayed some of the other parts black - Black at last. Because I sprayed outside it's not perfect and picked up some dust particles, but I'll leave it for a few days and I might give it a polish once the paint is fully cured.

I tend to agree with Matt regarding thread size, I doubt if it's designed for anything more than #69/M40. The bobbin is also pretty small to get much thread in if it's bigger. Needles are questionable in this machine, mine came fitted with a standard domestic needle.

You piqued my curiosity, so I downloaded the manual - lots and lots of options in this one! I was intrigued by the automatic pulley ratio calculation.

Kudos to you for your perseverance! While it would be great to be able to re-create the original appearance, using the genuine coating, I think I'll agree with Constabulary and stick to black paint. Particularly as we're heading towards Winter and I'd never be able to get the stuff to airdry!! But you're doing a great job and yep, I look forward to the end results.

Thanks mate, I'll keep that in mind for next time (although the last one I broke recently, when repairing my treadle, was well and truly stuck!).

The foot on my Pfaff 335 doesn't quite line up with the 111/211 feet, the screw hole is not in the same place. Just so you know.

Mike, thanks for a most interesting discourse. While I'm in no way in your league (some would say I'm one level above bodgery!) I do know that old cast iron is a bugger to work with. It's hard to drill, I've broken the odd tap or two when attempting to work with it and as Eric said they usually then become part of the metal!! I once repaired a piece with an ordinary arc welder (it was all I had handy) and more by luck than anything else it worked. LumpenDoodle, you've got the term "mere wimmin" wrong (besides your shocking spelling ). The correct usage is "mere male", I've never heard it applied to the female persuasion. After all, we all know women can multi-task whereas men often struggle if attempting more than one thing at a time.

I use irfanview for resizing pics, it's free. You want around the 100k size for posting.

I decided to have a go at removing the paint otherwise it could be a while before I get to it (I have to go into hospital tomorrow and the surgeon told me that I won't be doing anything except resting for the next two weeks! Bit of a bummer). This thing had up to four coats of paint in places! The baseplate had the original black, then a pink primer, in some places a white paint and then the grey. The head varied from black with grey on top to the four coats. It took three coats of stripper to clean the baseplate and I ended up using a wood chisel to scrape off as much paint as I could first, followed by paint stripper and then a wire brush. Even if I never use it I felt I owed it to the machine to try and make it look nice again .

Sounds like a plan (I think), LD. Post some photos if it works. And yes, cutting and welding the bars to narrow the table seemed like too much trouble. One problem I've found with having "normal" size tables is that I keep piling stuff on them when I'm not using them!!!!!!!!!

Considering it went from Berlin to Scotland, in a cardboard box (!), I'd say you're lucky that's all that broke!!! I'm sure you could find someone who can braze it, might not look too pretty and the heat will affect the paint finish a bit but at least the repair will be out of sight.

Once I got the idea into my head, I chopped the table! Took just under 2 hrs, so a fairly easy job. Only downside is I lost my parts drawer, but I can live with that. I could put in a cutout, like in Chuck's photo above, and perhaps cut off a couple of inches or so from the back so it's not quite so deep, but at this stage I'm happy with just the smaller size. If I decide to keep it as is I might fit some beading around the edges, just to make it look neater (the front laminate was missing when I bought it).

This is what I currently have, and seems like a lot of wasted space (at least for what I do). I guess the simplest option would be to cut the table back to the actual leg width. This will reduce the width by 14" to 32". Next option is cut and weld the two horizontal metal bars to reduce the width even further. Either way is going to be a lot less work than building a new table.

See what you mean, not a lot of info turns up, but it looks like a nice little walking foot. They say light/medium/medium heavy glove leather so I would think it should handle the seat leather?

Madmax, I too thought that the single central support could be a little wobbly, unless it was made particularly thick! I have a spare set of legs from a table and was toying with the idea of using them to make a narrow version of a "standard" table. It wouldn't be quite as compact as the Cowboy table but should be more stable. Failing that, making one with four vertical posts, one in each corner, might be another option, although making something like that with adjustable height might be a bit of a problem.

Sorry mate, should have posted a picture. The only one I could find in a hurry is on this page - http://www.tolindsewmach.com/cowboy.html

The biggest problem with this machine (besides the horrible paintwork!) was the lack of a thread tension release. Going through the old parts lists I found what it was supposed to look like but didn't like my chances of being able to buy one - so I figured I'd make one. While obviously not as neat as the "bought" one, it works, which is the main thing. The shape is also slightly different as I'm assuming the genuine part is probably hardened, being so thin, but all I had to work with was plain steel so I put a twist in it to give it more strength where it pushes on the release pin. It took a lot of trial-and-error fitting and grinding to get it so it would just squeeze in without removing too much metal. I was going to paint it but then realised with all the oil in there it would probably dissolve the paint, so I just gave it a good coat of thick wax. It's not pretty, but I can't see it when it's inside!! It was a bit of a pain working in that area! Now for the paint........

I have a Pfaff 335 which is mounted on a conventional table, which makes it look like there's a lot of wasted space. I've been looking at some of the minimalist-type tables that the Cowboy-type cylinder arms etc use and wondered what are the pros and cons of using this type of table? It would certainly have a smaller footprint and would be practical to fit wheels to and make it somewhat moveable. Could be an interesting project. Do you folks who use these tables find they have any serious disadvantages?

You're doing well, Chayse. Now you've got to admit, isn't it a lot of fun fixing these things up?

Yep, I'm already noticing that . The straight stitchers aren't too bad, but those walking foot machines are getting heavier and heavier and heavier.....