dikman

I forgot to mention that I bought one with the needle positioner attachment (cost more). I've fitted it to the 166, but I'm not really sure that it's necessary. If the machine is being used very slow, then it's no trouble to stop it where you need to. This positioner gives an extra stitch to the down position when you take your foot off the pedal, which means it's necessary to allow for this when stopping. There doesn't seem to be any adjustment that I can tweak, unfortunately. Other than that, all is good!

Hi Skylark, this is the place I bought mine from, mainly because they had a warehouse here in Australia - If you go to www.aliexpress.com and search on sewing machine motor you'll find lots and lots. Many are the same motor, just different stores, and the prices will vary of course. Spend some time getting familiar with what's available as they come in 110v and 220v and hp varies too. Mine are 550w, roughly 3/4 hp. Edit: blast, I had to delete part of the address 'cos it linked to my account!! The company I used is Lishiu Skyrit Import and Export.

Do you have a manual for it? That should tell you how to adjust things. If not, this one for a Juki should do - http://keysew.com/Webpages/DemoImages/Juki_LU-563_Instruction_Keyfooter.pdf. Of course, some of these machines, while great for medium to heavy stuff aren't really designed for thin material.

G'day Skylark (your name makes me think of the classic "Skylark" series of SF books by E.E.Smith). A servo motor is generally a smaller, lighter DC motor that is controlled electronically via a control box. They are generally programmable, to some extent, so that you can set the maximum speed you want and also the startup speed. They are also available in different sizes (horse power). They will give you much better slow speed control than a clutch motor and only run when you press the foot pedal, unlike a clutch motor which is running all the time. If you're happy with your machine as it is then that's good, but if it's too fast to control how you'd like to then it may be worth considering fitting one. The motor should be a straight swap, using the same mounting holes, and the control box/on-off switch screws to the bottom of the table. You might need a new v-belt (longer or shorter). In my case I've bought two via Aliexpress (Chinese ebay), as like most things in this country, they're expensive to buy here. I fitted small (1 3/4") pulleys to the motors to slow the output down as much as possible, and in the case of the Pfaff I fitted a very large (8") pulley to the machine. All this has given me crawling speed at the needle! I can't fit a larger pulley to the Singer, due to its design, so may fit a speed reduction pulley set to it as well as the servo. As you can see, and I've slowly found out, industrial sewing machines can be a lot more complex than you'd expect.

I've been messing around with speed reducers (pulley system) and they do help, but a servo is far better, in my opinion, when it comes to control. I've just fitted one to my Pfaff 335, after experimenting with various pulleys with the clutch motor. I used a small 1 3/4" pulley on the motor, fitted a large 8" pulley on the machine itself and once I tweaked the settings in the servo I got it to crawl along! Top speed is also quite slow, which is fine by me. Fitting a larger pulley on the machine helps immensely, as it slows things down while giving more torque. On some machines it's difficult (if not impossible) to fit a larger pulley - my Singer G166 is one that I can't fit one to - so a speed reducer may be a good idea. I intend to build one for the Singer eventually, to go with the servo on it.

Castineira, no, I don't have a 48 series machine. I have a 51W59, and that also proved difficult to find information about. The 47W manual Evo has listed above appears very similar to yours, and I'm wondering if the 48W6 is basically the left-hand version of the 47W?

Nice idea - unfortunately, some of my bobbins are aluminium (I'm still looking for an aluminium magnet, they're pretty elusive).

Stu, I share your sentiments and know where you're coming from. If you already have the materials then it's worth a try, and if it doesn't work all you have lost is a bit of time but gained more valuable experience in the process. Forge welding the sawz-all blade could be tricky, due to it being on the thin side. Do you have access to a MIG welder? I reckon that if you forge the blade to the required oval shape and then just tack weld the join that might be enough (the MIG will give better control than an arc welder). Then tack weld the blade to the pipe (shaped to match the oval) to act as a handle and if there's any distortion caused by the welding, which should be minimal, it should be an easy matter to put it back in the forge and re-shape it. Another possibility may be using an old kitchen knife (preferably non-stainless) - from a thrift shop, maybe - and reshaping the blade, then welding it to a suitable handle. Or the blade from an old pair of (small) garden shears. The beauty of a forge, as you know, is the ability to work with old/used/scrap steel and re-shape it to make something useful.

Nicely done, Uwe . I'll keep this in mind should I decide to build a table for mine. (The custom label/engraving is a nice touch).

Good point, Colt, and probably true. Time is generally important to businesses, they will want machines that can run fast so the oiler will work as it should. The hobbyist, or person wanting to set up a small business from home, and has specific needs would be of no concern to the manufacturer, as it's such a small, niche market. At least with older machines we know that they have to be oiled manually, so won't be lulled into a false sense of security by a machine that has an auto-oiler so you don't have to worry about manual oiling. (Theoretically.....).

Stu, a sawz-all blade could be worth a try. If you can make the "handle" from pipe to the right size/shape, then shape your cutting edge and tack weld it to the handle that might work.

You're right, I couldn't find anything more than you've mentioned (other than the W indicates it was made in Bridgeport, USA). It's a cute little machine, and the outside is certainly in pretty good condition. If there is a good coating of oil on the internal parts then at least it's been kept lubricated, so may not have much wear on the parts. It looks like the bobbin case is missing (or did you remove it?).

Sorry, it's not my intention to argue the point (If I wanted to do that I'd start a thread on what oil to use - I love oil threads!!!). Reading the manual, coupled with what wiz said, just got the "analytical juices" going (I was told, once, that I have a knack at analysing something and seeing the possible negatives). I've no doubt that it is a high speed oiler, and for many people that wouldn't be a problem, but if someone buys one and proceeds to use it almost exclusively for real low-speed (crawling) work, I can see the potential for problems, as they may just assume that because it's an auto-oiler they don't have to worry about it. In this case it shouldn't be an issue for you, as you understand what's happening. As for your question about if it will do what you want, as wiz said the specs are pretty much the same as the 206RB, so either one should be adequate. One thing, though, is to possibly allow for a servo motor if you can, as they really are much nicer to use for slow speed work than a clutch motor.

Good point about the error code for power! I suspect that the reality is the programmers didn't consider that a speed reducer might be used with a servo - after all, a servo should be able to give the control without the need for a reducer.

There's any number of steels available that can be hardened, but Stu is trying to do it as simply as possible. Using any of the tool steels to form into a large oblong shape would be a lot of work for most of us amateur blacksmiths, whereas the pipe basically just needs to be shaped and ground. What are you using to punch on, Stu? That will have a bearing on how long the cutting edge will last (I'm using a hardwood log, as I've found the mass of the thing makes a big difference when punching things).

Obviously, I can't argue with Bob's experience, but what do Consew consider "lower speeds"? Logic would indicate that if an oil pump is designed to pump an adequate amount of oil at high speed, then at very low speed it would be struggling to move much oil, if any. The only way that I can see that it could work is if the oil pump is driven by a system that automatically speeds up the pump as the motor revs slow down - unlikely to be fitted due to the added complexity. You could end up winding an awful lot of bobbins just to ensure it's oiled . Just idle speculation on my part.

Out of curiosity, I looked at the machine on the Consew website and then read the manual that they have made available. One discrepancy, the website lists the top speed as 3000 spm, the manual says 1800 spm - bit of a difference there. The manual also refers to a low speed of 1000-1500 spm, so I'm guessing that if you run it at the sort of speeds some leatherworkers like (real slow) and it seizes through lack of lubrication any warranty may be considered void! (I couldn't see any reference to a minimum speed). I think I'd be pushing the dealers a bit harder about what's needed to keep the oil flowing - if they know! Personally, based on what Wiz has mentioned, I wouldn't touch one of these for (slow speed) leatherwork, at least not until someone else has proven that they will be ok at ultra slow speeds.

It will be an interesting experiment. I remember reading (somewhere!) about Superquench. Apparently the old original formula worked very well, unfortunately it used some toxic materials (of course, that's why it worked so well) so in these OH&S days it's a no-no. No harm in trying the stuff that's now available, however.

Something that may be of interest, a 50/50 mixture of acetone and auto transmission fluid makes a pretty good penetrating oil for loosening rusted/stuck parts. Just keep it clear of painted surfaces!

I doubt you would be able to harden black pipe as it's unlikely to have enough carbon in it. You could case-harden the edge, but as it will require sharpening from time to time you'll end up removing the case-hardening at the edge, leaving you with a soft cutting edge. One way would be to cut the edge itself from a piece of flat tool steel bar (to give you the correct oval shape), forge your pipe to the correct size/shape, weld the tool steel cutting edge to the pipe then harden and sharpen it. A fair bit of work, though. Whatever you do, you'll either have to make the whole thing from high carbon steel, or use high carbon for the cutting edge and weld it to a soft steel body.

So Uwe was basically right. I would have thought that there would be a parameter within the control box settings that would allow for this situation - somewhere. Still, it's provided valuable info that speed reducers, combined with a servo motor, may create unintended problems.

Tell me about it! Since I was given that first machine, I now have 3 industrial-grade machines (and we all know how much room they take up), a Chinese shoe patcher, a Singer 201 (domestic) and a nice little Necchi that I was just given - and no-where to put them!! So my wife and I reached an agreement - I sold my glasshouse and will put a 5 metre x 3 metre shed there instead to house these things. As a bonus, it will also let me set up a decent reloading area too. Amazing how quickly things can get out of hand......

Jersey, you may have just saved yourself from a possibly expensive mistake. On our (local) selling site, there are many industrial machines for sale, some at a good price. Many say that they can sew leather, and they're probably right - to a point. It's only when you start reading, and asking people who have the experience, that you realise that the sort of leather they can sew is invariably not what most of us want to use i.e they are designed for thin garment leather. 99% of what I've looked at have been high speed straight stitchers, and until recently I wouldn't have known the difference! So give it plenty of thought and accept the fact that it will probably cost you more than you originally intended to spend - but it will be worth it.

As Uwe suggested, have you disabled the needle positioner to see what happens? It certainly sounds like the needle positioning circuitry is getting itself in a knot, and it's caused by the addition of the speed reducer. If the circuitry gets a signal feed from the motor and the needle positioner then perhaps it can't cope with the additional rotations of the handwheel relative to the motor when the power is cut?