dikman

You will be struggling to find any information on the WSV13. The SV indicates it is a "special version"/"special variation" (no-one's sure exactly what it stands for) of a standard model. Singer made a lot of these SV versions of different models but what they were for is anyone's guess. The W indicates it was made at the Bridgeport USA plant but that burnt down with the subsequent loss of most of their records. Having both would be nice (if the price is right) as a cylinder arm can be useful, but if I could only have one it would be the 155, it is quite highly regarded, is a reasonably heavy duty machine and feet, bobbins etc are readily available. You also don't mention what you want to make (If you say holsters then neither would be suitable!!).

That is very impressive!!

One can never have too many speed reducers!

If the layers aren't glued then what Dwight said should work (I've seen this method mentioned elsewhere) BUT whether it will be as strong as backstitching.......

I wonder if they'd ship to Australia?

REAL basket weave! Well done.

You must like making wallets..........

That's a very clever design. A neat way of converting the hand lever to foot operated.

Wiz mentioned RockyAussie and Patrick1 in his post above for the modified foot plates. There have been a few posts about them in this section of the forum. A 4500 should handle straps etc fine.

What he said. Or a lightweight oil. Or light hydraulic fluid.

If a Cowboy 4500 is working ok when you get it then the chances of something going wrong or breaking is minimal - unless the operator (you) does something stupid. These machines are built pretty tough! As for wearing out it's going to be a long time before that is likely to be an issue, you're worrying unnecessarily. Get the modified foot plate and feed dog, a necessity in my opinion, then you can comfortably sew with #346 down to #138 thread.

Good one, Bruce, for anyone doing quantity stuff that is a brilliant idea!

That fly reel cover is very neat!

Some of the leather is interesting, has a built-in scuffed/well-used/beatup look about them.

Replacing the Singer motor with a servo/speed reducer setup would give you all the control you'll need, and I suspect you could sell the working Efka unit to help offset the cost (maybe you can beat them down a bit due to it being 3-phase and requiring additional cost to get it running ). When you try the Singer run it fast and slow and as long as it doesn't make any funny knocking/clanking noises you should be ok.

Can't go wrong with a nice big pulley! While you might lose top speed to me it's worth it for the slow speed control when sewing leather. Good job.

As long as it sews/runs ok the Singer would probably be your best bet, in my opinion. They are well built and parts (feet etc) should be cheap. The motor setup on it looks like it may be variable speed rather than a clutch motor, if so you could use a VFD, as Gerry suggests, to run on single phase. Just set the VFD to a fixed speed and use the variable speed in the motor control unit - I think it should work. Otherwise just buy a servo.

Very neat solution to avoid drilling the stock. Very neat job overall.

Yep, cut and burn.

Excellent job, should be good for another 100 years! I wondered what you meant by "tapered screw", we call those countersunk heads.

Once you apply wax to something not much will stick to it - except more wax!

12.5mm shaft, so it's actually a 1/2" imperial shaft.

That's what I used for my mallet head, finding rawhide here isn't easy so I just bought some rawhide dog bones. Took a bit of soaking to unwrap them but it worked great (and cheap).

Looks good, the rivets look ok to me.

Groan..................