dikman

Good grief! A bit over-the-top for me, but that's a remarkable piece of workmanship. Must say I find the knife far more interesting, though. Nice simple olde-style look about it and the handle looks great.

Bob, thanks for that link to the newsletter, I bookmarked it so that I can start working through back issues. Looks good!

ThelTMan, see if you can figure out what's causing your allergic reaction - Triethanolamine, TEA Stearate, Sodium Tallowate, Glycerin, Water, Sodium Cocoate, Sodium Ricinoleate, Sodium Oleate, Cocamide MEA, Sodium Stearate, BHT, Tocopheryl Acetate, Tetrasodium Etidronate, Trisodium HEDTA, Disodium Cocoamphodiacetate, Fragrance (Scented option only) (I can't even pronounce some of these!!!).

If you hadn't said that you had to shrink the inlay window I'd never have known! It looks like it was designed that way, looks great.

Yep, the Neutrogena soap is glycerine-based (it's in a wrapper with a black strip on it here). I had to look up the MSDS because I'm experimenting with it as a boolit lube and I didn't want "conventional" soap in the mix.

That pretty well sums it up. Sometimes things can be done using a machine that, in theory, shouldn't work. For a hobbyist it may be all that's needed, BUT for leatherwork (particularly heavier stuff) you can't beat a compound feed walking foot. Bottom line is that if what you've got works for you that's all that matters.

Your post made me laugh - particularly the last sentence!

Yeah, that is very impressive work. (Too much bling for my liking, I'd feel embarrassed wearing a rig like that ).

I agree with plinker, the holster looks fine to me and as it's essentially a concealed carry what would it matter anyway?

I have a 51W59 with a roller wheel and it appears to come as a complete assembly as it doesn't simply fit in place of the normal pressor foot (the vertical bar it's attached to has to be replaced as well).

I'd be ashamed if I did stitching like that! I note that he said it's a rush job and not to be over-critical!!

Thanks mate, that site looks good unfortunately according to their home-page they only sell to the trade. Fortunately I only bought a small spool of Serafil to try (won't buy any more). I tried another run with the M20/#138 Coats on the Pfaff and found that if I feed slowly it's fine, but if I try to speed things up I run the risk of the thread snagging - I'm pretty sure it's the hook catching the thread rather than the loop. No big deal as I go slow anyway. Back to Uwe's reason for starting this thread, I also found that thicker leather can be problematic when stopping and turning the material. If the needle is only just in the material the thicker stuff can push the needle out of alignment if care isn't taken, so having the needle at the bottom of its travel is probably safer. (I found this out the hard way and put a very nice double offset bend in a needle, beats me why it didn't break!).

G'day Rocky, sorry I didn't get back earlier been a bit busy. I used a Schmetz needle, size 21 and is a leatherpoint (marked R TW and LR, not sure what they mean). Thread is Serafil, M20 (#138) and I think it's a poly/cotton (twisted). I finally got it stitching ok, but when I waxed/polished the item the thread started going a bit fuzzy from the polishing cloth! I've got some Coats poly thread which I think might be better (so far I can only find one place here in Adelaide that sells thread and their range is limited). I've been trying to get the Pfaff working, as it started occasionally snagging the top thread underneath somewhere. I finally stripped it to check the needle settings and after fiddling around a bit ended up re-setting the needlebar height/hook alignment, hook spacing and setting the needle a bit lower to ensure the loop was forming early enough. I also touched up the hook and polished the end. Now I can run a stitch line of #138 top and bottom, which I couldn't do before! I think I'm slowly starting to understand the relationship between all these bits and pieces, but boy they can be finicky!!

Thanks mike, I don't know how that happened (oops).

I'm assuming this is the manual that you have - http://www.keysew.com/Webpages/DemoImages/206RB-5 SEIKO.pdf. I'd suggest that you work through the adjustments to make sure that everything is set correctly. I did this with every machine I bought to try and understand how they work and to have some idea what to do when things go wrong!!

Rocky's right, if the needle (which is very hard steel) has been hitting the bobbin case then that's why you've got burrs. Sounds like the timing needs resetting. You should be able to find a manual to download on the 'net if yours doesn't explain how to do it.

I was already thinking of getting out the Dremel, as you suggested. If I can see where the needle is going (as in hitting my guide line) then it will be easier to adjust the spacing at the belt tip. The last belt I used my Pfaff cylinder arm, but I'm having problems with it using #138 thread - it doesn't seem to like it - whereas the Singer is quite happy with it. I'm thinking though that perhaps I should have used #69 thread and closer stitching as it may have looked neater. A bit of experimenting is called for. Wouldn't mind visiting Rocky, but timing would be critical as my wife and I dislike hot weather and humidity (has to do with getting old, I suspect ). My daughter worked as a Pharmacist up there quite a few years ago, thought it was pretty nice.

Yup, that was me, lots of naughty words (luckily my shed is far from the house). I think the "thread bunching" underneath was due to me lifting the pressor foot too much while trying to see where the needle was going while trying to adjust the stitch spacing. It just shows how easy it is to stuff up the stitching if the tension is let off at the wrong point. The inner foot only has a hole in it for the needle, I think I need to cut a slot at the front so that I can actually see the needle point as it enters the leather (the foot on my Pfaff is like that).

I did some experimenting, using the Singer 166 with #69 and #138 thread, and stopping at the bottom of the stroke, part-way down and with the needle just through the leather. All worked fine with no dropped stitches. So, feeling confidant, I stitched a dress belt that I promised a club member (I'd been putting it off due to dropped stitches on the last one I did for him). Got a dropped stitch at the turning point on the belt tongue () and some thread got caught up at another turning point on the pattern (). AAAAARRRRGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!

Dave, it's a great idea but I wonder if you realise just how big a job compiling this list this would be? Singer alone has a huge number of models, not all of which have information available (you mentioned an SV model, they made an awful lot of SV models but no-one appears to know exactly what the SV models are). For your idea to work it really needs to be a searchable database, and that is starting to get complex.

Groan......

I agree with Hockeymender. They're a very basic (some might call them agricultural) machine, but pretty solid. I stripped mine and spent some time smoothing various parts, while it may not be necessary it's the sort of thing I do. The bobbin winder is pretty useless so I made a replacement from bits and pieces of some domestic machines I'd gutted for parts. Possibly the biggest issue might be the foot, the teeth are pretty vicious on it, but nothing that can't be overcome. There's a couple of usefull vids on youtube about them, search on boot patcher.

Danny, you won't find a pulley that is much smaller than the 2". As Floyd said above the best way is a servo or a speed reducer (not that hard to make). I've fitted a servo + reducer to two of my machines and a servo + larger head pulley to the Pfaff. (Even with a speed reducer I still couldn't control the clutch motor enough for my needs).

You still have hair? So it sounds like the optimum time to turn material is just before the needle exits on the upstroke? (But while the needle is still below the needle plate so that the needle is still supported and won't bend/break). That will ensure that the loop has formed, I guess. Looks like I'll have to experiment with my machine to see what it's happiest with. Thanks for starting this, Uwe, lots of good info has come out of it.