dikman

I have a pair of battery operated scissors (actually, 3 pairs!) and I find them great for cutting material for patches and cleaning swabs for my muzzleloaders. I haven't tried them on leather, but I have grave doubts about them cutting thick veg tan!! While I like this unit that's mentioned, my battery scissors only cost me $5, so unless these are the same price I see no point in buying any more. Edit: I just looked them up on ebay - $260 Australian!!!!!!! I definitely won't be buying any.

When I say "here", I'm referring to my state, South Australia. There are certainly various suitable units for sale second-hand, but they're all interstate (East coast, where the population density is significantly higher). I had a Singer 144W103 lined up locally, but unbeknown to me the seller sold it to someone else and didn't have the decency to let me know, even though I was the first to express interest. Their loss, I would have paid more than their asking price. I'll keep looking, there's no real hurry as I have my 51W59 (which may handle 138 thread, now that I've slowed it right down) and for the heavy stuff I'll continue to hand stitch.

Thanks cobber, guess I'll keep looking.

I've been looking at used machines (suitable used industrial types are not common here) and came across these - Consew 210B Singer 331K116 Singer 302W201 None are walking foot, unfortunately, and I suspect the Consew isn't suitable for anything but lightweight leather. The Singer 302 is a dual needle chainstitch, which the seller says can be used as a single stitch, with the advantage that it doesn't use a bobbin (continuous lower thread feed, which certainly sounds attractive). So I guess my question is - are either of the Singers suitable for reasonably heavy leather (as in holsters)? I suspect the answer is no?

Yes, I read that in the sticky at the top of this heading. I'll definitely have to get some green stuff, but in the meantime whatever the white is it definitely does something to the edge. (I "inherited" the compounds with a heap of stuff I got from a deceased estate, so I have no idea what they are, but I do know they are very old. It worked on a scalpel blade, and they are generally made from high quality steel.

While reading a book from the library on basic leatherwork, the author talked about strops, and explained how to make one. Hmm, thinks I, maybe I should make one. So I did - a conveniently sized piece of melamine particleboard that was lying around and a piece of leather that I'd recovered from a handbag many years ago glued to it (not sure what type it is, I'm guessing possibly chrome-tanned, but doesn't matter). Now for the honing grit - he suggested carborundum grit/tallow, but the grit proved difficult to find. Then I remembered the stuff I had for my buffing wheels. The brown and red proved difficult to apply, so I ended up with a white one that seemed to rub on reasonably well (nothing like the scientific approach!). I then used a hot air gun to warm up the leather a bit and rubbed on some tallow/beeswax mix that I had (patch lube for my muzzleloaders), rubbed on a bit more white stuff and then a bit more heat. Yes, I know, I've probably done this backwards, but this was more in the way of an experiment anyway. I made myself a short-bladed knife, for leatherwork, from a power hacksaw blade the other day, and finished the sharpening on a hard black Arkansas stone (supposed to give a very smooth sharp edge). I wasn't overly happy with the way it cut leather, so I ran it over the strop a few times. What a difference! It sliced into some hard leather much more easily. I'd also just bought myself a (really) cheap set of "craft" knives - three handles and an assortment of blades. I'd really bought it to get a handle that I could clamp scalpel blades in, and I intend turning down a wooden handle and glueing the thin handle into it. Well, these blades, as they came, didn't like slicing into the hard leather, and took a lot of force to cut. So I ran a couple of the blades over the strop a few times and now they slice nicely through the leather. It's convinced me of the necessity for a strop!

The wet and dry paper (NOT sandpaper) works better, in my experience, when used wet (as in water, not oil). The water floats off the gunk, and using it wet also tends to polish the metal. Use it on a sheet of glass, if you can, as this will give a nice flat working surface.

The final piece of the puzzle - Wiz mentioned a tension release, and I said it didn't have one, which is quite true seeing that I don't have the original tensioner. Anyhow, it got me thinking that it would have had one (once), being an industrial machine. But I couldn't figure out how it would work (certainly not the same as the domestic tensioner that I fitted). The parts listing didn't show anything that was obvious, so I pulled the needle end of the machine apart to try and figure it out - like most things, it was pretty obvious once I worked it out!!! I bought a Singer 478 for $10 (!) so that I could get another tensioner assembly and should be able to modify it to work like the original. Only problem is that they started using plastic gears in these machines and that included the part in the tensioner that is used to adjust the thread controller spring - and, of course, it's split. I should be able to fabricate one from aluminium, as there's no real stress on this part, and with a bit of luck should be able to get the tension release working. I haven't done any stitching yet, but used it on the holsters I'm making to pre-punch the stitch holes. I was quite impressed, as I could get it to chug along quite slowly and get a nice even set of holes. It was rather nice watching it go down, up, feed, down, up, feed....all at a very civilised pace!

Aha! No, I'm not. (I've sewn a fair bit of cloth/calico with an ordinary machine, with no issues, but haven't tried really thick stuff before). So, with leather I should run the first couple of start stitches backwards, and then revert to the forward direction? I should add that I'll still be handstitching my belts/holsters, mainly because I can use thicker thread than the machine can handle - I'll use the machine threadless to run the stitch holes first, which will give me nice even stitch lines and make it easier to push the awl through. I would still like to know that I can use it to sew leather, however.

I've got my machine to a useable stage, and have been trying a few stitches on denim and scrap leather. I'm using some thread that came with it (cone of M40, which = T80) and the needles are labelled 134 PCL 100 (I'm guessing that 100 is the size). This is the setup that the previous owner used to make shoes with. When stitching, the first two or three stitches appear loose, and pulling either the top or bottom thread can pull up the other one. So, 1) is this normal? 2) if so, how do you stop it unravelling? 3) if it's not normal, why is it happening? I've experimented with the tensions but it doesn't make any difference. It seems to me that it's because the needle is making a bigger hole than the thread, so there's no friction against the thread, but not having machine-sewn leather before it's all guesswork on my part.

Pondering this, I decided that steel is really the best way to go, so to keep it simple I basically clamped each bearing between plates. Lots of hole drilling, but it's worked out very well. The machine is now very slow (compared to what it was) although it still has a slight problem if the leather is dense/hard/too thick - but I'm working on it. I figure an even larger pulley on the handwheel will not only slow it down to a crawl, but give me even more torque. The belts are round cross-section neoprene rubber. This stuff is oil-resistant, has some stretch but best of all to make a belt it's just a matter of cutting to length and super-gluing the ends together. A couple of photos for those who are interested, showing pretty much the finished product, there's not much left to do now but work out what size needles and thread it can handle. (It came with a cone of thread with a faint 40 on it, which appears to be Metric 40/T70/#69). All been good fun.....

With the larger pulley on the handwheel, it works great for sewing denim, giving pretty good slow speed control. Still not so good for leather, however, due to the increased resistance to the needle going in. So, I made up a step-down pulley from my collection of "stuff". The wooden mounting is rudimentary, just to see if it would work - which it does. Went through 1/4" of leather ok, but when I tried slightly thicker the needle snapped in three (probably need a thicker needle for this)! I'm not too worried about that, as I'm probably starting to push it beyond its limits. The shaft is from the 201K that I gutted, turned down a smidgin to fit a couple of bearings from my spares box. One of the pulleys didn't have a centre boss, so I turned one up for it. Now I just have to figure out a decent mounting for the pulley arrangement. Steel would be nice, but will be a lot of work making the clamps/mounting for the bearings, so I'm thinking making a better one from wood might be adequate (after all, there's no real stresses on the thing).

I made card templates for mine, but it's still not as easy as it looks to get the stitching spacing nice and uniform. Like I said, nice job.

Nice work, I particularly like the gunbelt, simple and understated. (That "infiniti" stitching is a pain in the butt, trying to get the pattern even).

That is a very impressive rig. Ugly as hell, imo, but very impressive! (Guaranteed to get attention).

I found another cone-shaped spring that fits inside the original (!) so I've added that to give more tension. Seems to work at the moment, but when I ran some stitches on a single layer of 4 oz leather I noticed that if I pulled the bobbin thread (after I'd cut the thread off the machine) that it pulled through the top thread of the last couple of stitches. I'm wondering if the needle is making too big a hole. Except for that it looked good. I've also fitted a larger pulley to the handwheel. The original was 2 1/4" (inside groove measurement) and the new one is 5", so that has slowed it down quite a bit. It was still hard to start slowly, however, and would take off fairly suddenly. I then realised that with the motor off it was very hard to turn the handwheel, so I started looking at the clutch arrangement. Once I'd figured out how it was supposed to work, I got stuck into it. The friction material (asbestos?) is in good condition, but there was a high spot that was dragging when turning the pulley. The yoke it's mounted on looked like it was supposed to slide slightly, but was extremely tight. I stripped it down, lubed the slide and re-adjusted the support screws on the yoke. That made a huge difference, as it is now much smoother when it engages. If I can fit a slightly smaller pulley on the clutch shaft that should also help. A handbook on the motor would have been nice, but I can't find one. Yes, I know, a servo motor would be nice but they are rather expensive here, unfortunately. Next step is to locate some needles. It appears to use an obsolete class of needle, according to the people I spoke to, but they said to take in the existing needles and they should be able to sort out what I need.

Thanks Darren, I've seen your posts/photos on the Able 290 and wondered what you used. My winder has worked out pretty well and is mounted in the same position (the only practical place to put one). I turned down the bobbin winder shaft on the lathe and then found it only fitted one bobbin! Mine came with four bobbins, and they all had a different size centre hole, so I had to drill them out slightly!! I've also made an adjustable guide to keep a consistent spacing if sewing along an edge. I really need to experiment with making a decent presser foot next.

G'day Subelec, l too have all sorts of arcane hobbies, and have found that many things I get interested in have an initial steep learning curve. All part of the fun..... Yes, I too noticed that after applying the dye (Feibings spirit dye) the leather tends to go stiff as a board (although when making holsters this isn't a bad thing, as it helps keep the shape). I now apply a couple of coats of hot neatsfooot oil (make sure it's pure, and not "compounded" stuff), leave it for a day or so and then apply the wax finish. Lots of good info on this site - it's just a matter of finding it!

No worries, 25b (I didn't, for one moment, think you were trying to be a jerk).

In that case I'm happy to cede to your greater knowledge/experience. All this is still new to me and as I said I've been doing lots of reading, trying to learn something. It's most likely, then, that I've mis-interpreted what I read. I definitely recall reading about a type of thread that was more UV resistant, and the way it was written I thought that the V referred to that aspect. See, I've already learned something today .

What you're saying makes sense, electrathon. When I started (not very long ago) the guy at the leather place where I bought the leather said that's how to do it. Lots of videos and articles say the same thing, but I did wonder about the fact that I was cutting into the leather itself to do it. It does seem that, like many things, it's not set in stone, so I think I'll try using a creaser to give me my stitching lines. One of the issues that I've had using a groover is that if there's the slightest variation while dragging it along it makes it difficult to correct the "glitches", 'cos it's actually cut into the leather. Red Cent, I've already made my own roller (cost = $0) from a piece of aluminium stock that was the right diameter and already had a hole through the middle, bent up a frame and turned a handle down. Works fine for flattening stitches etc.

As I understand it, electrathon, the main idea behind grooving is to recess the stitches to reduce possible wear. When I first read that, it sounded fairly logical. But is it really necessary? Does it really do any good? I'm asking 'cos I don't know much about anything and am wondering if I'm wasting my time doing it.

That's one of the things I like about it - the (very) basic, agricultural simplicity. I've modified mine a bit, put an adjustment on the springs that pull down the presser foot, smoothed off the teeth a bit on the foot, replaced the spring on the thread adjustment screw with a locking nut ('cos it tended to shift), made a table to give me a flat surface next to the feed area and I'm modifying a bobbin winder from a Singer 201K (the supplied one is a joke). A very useful little machine.

Thanks Wiz, I was wondering whether that could be the case with the coil spring. Looks like I'm not finished with it yet. Oh, and there's no thread release on this machine.

25B, can't remember exactly where, as I've been searching far and wide trying to learn about sewing thread, but I seem to recall that it was to do with a sailmaking site. Gore Tenara is definitely something that I came across (odd name).