dikman

Somewhere underneath all that 3D printed stuff lurks a sewing machine! Good job, kgg.

It's good that you got it working, but there is a lesson here too. You omitted to mention, at the start, that you had a custom (lighter) pressure spring fitted and had bent the hook spring too. This made it "non-standard" but anyone offering advice wasn't aware of this, which doesn't help when trying to solve problems. If something goes wrong the first thing to do is put everything back to standard and eliminate any possibility that any changes made are causing the problem.

Now that's different! Very neat.

Just send him a PM, he's shipped a few across the pond to the US so it shouldn't be a problem. I fitted the plate to mine and the only time I'll take it off is if, for some reason, I'll need the holster or stirrup plate, other than that it will be the default plate. My little shed was originally built for my sewing machines but it didn't take long to move my reloading/casting gear in too. I doubt you will regret getting the bigger machine.

I got a bit sea-sick at times with the camera movement! Seriously though a very informative video, stitching those handles was interesting. I notice you don't need to hold the thread when starting the stitches? I'm waiting for someone to ask if it will sew holsters.

Congratulations! Now order the modified needle plate/feed dog from RockyAussie, it's a must have for these machines, you won't regret it.

tt, that is a brilliant idea! Wish I'd thought of it when moving my 4500 (I just managed to lift the head!!!). Flatcapper, scary stuff, glad the damage isn't worse and consider yourself fortunate you weren't badly injured.

I agree, if you can afford it then buy the bigger one, you may not need it now but you never know what's ahead. At least you'll have it just in case. As for the shed, I don't see why it shouldn't work, just keep the machines covered when not in use. Mine are in a much smaller shed and I keep them covered to keep the inevitable dust off. Handstitched, it's amazing how much one can cram into a shed, isn't it? Stuff will always expand to fill any empty space in a shed!

This issue has been raised before and there's at least one other thread on it. Generally servos appear to have some tolerance regarding the pulley/handwheel ratios, for example I changed the motor pulley to the smallest I could find and replaced the handwheel with a larger pulley and the needle positioner still worked, but as soon as I added a speed reducer it stopped working. Some have had success with using speed reducers and needle positioners but it all comes down to the brand of the servo.

The needle positioner on some (many?) servos won't work if a speed reducer is fitted due to the change in the ratio between the machine head and the servo pulley. I have three like that.

But...but....but....I thought everyone in Wyoming wore a cowboy hat, Chuck!!

That sheath must rate as a "classic"!

AdamDavis, please don't give up on it, you have a very nice machine there. Although I'm mechanically inclined and like to think I can fix almost anything, for most of my life sewing machines were a mystery to me and to be honest I was slightly intimidated by them, so much so that I if I wanted something sewn I had to get my wife to do it! When I got into leatherwork a few years back it was all hand stitching until a friend gave me his old Singer post bed that he didn't want. Believe me, it was a long slow process trying to figure out how to use it (coming with a clutch motor didn't help!!). So don't give up, you have an advantage over me in that your first machine is new (nothing missing or worn out to cause problems) and is capable of doing what you want, none of mine were (I make holsters) but I didn't understand why for quite a while. Unless you've been fiddling with some of the screws, nuts and bolts and re-adjusted things willy-nilly it should sew leather, you've got the right needles and it's stitching, the main issue is likely to be getting the thread tension correct - and that is going to be trial and error.

You may have noticed that I didn't show the back. I had a lot of trouble stitching the belt loop, because I'd formed the leather into a curve when gluing the liner (as recommended) so I couldn't flatten it and trying to work it under the feet of the machine was a problem (this is when I broke the needle!). I had a couple of holes go skewed, so I ended up hand stitching it. While gluing the liner while curved definitely worked well, it's not so good for sewing the belt loop.

Confusing, isn't it? I shoot single action and my persona is Cactus Jack Slade, hence the cactus when I was tossing around ideas for a maker's mark. IF I ever make things for sale it should confuse people slightly. Particularly if I put "Made in Australia" underneath.

Alpha2, I have that modified needle plate (bought one as soon as I found out about it, and it's great) the problem I had was forcing the maximum thickness I could under the feet! If I had taken off the edge corners first it may not have got caught in the plate slot. Oh well, we live and learn.

Thanks mate, yeah, the stitching was a bit nerve-wracking, particularly as I got nearer to the thicker part of the welt! I was impressed with the 4500, it went through the 7/8" effortlessly. But never again!!!

For $500 it looks like a pretty good deal to me, particularly if it's sewing ok. Not too much paint worn off the base (I've bought worse!), nice strong table legs, good servo with speed adjustment dial, decent speed reducer - if it was me I'd grab it, but then, I'm not you. As Doc said replacing a bearing in the speed reducer shouldn't be hard and by measuring the old bearing you should be able to order a replacement fairly easily - if you actually need one. As for the table you could either glue some trim around the edge or just plane the edge back a bit and paint it. If later on you feel you need something to handle slightly heavier stuff then I would think you would be able to get your $500 back on this one?

Thanks for the kind words. It was partly in way of an experiment as it doesn't matter how much practice I do I have to make the real thing to find out what I'm doing wrong (the pear shading, for instance, is a bit heavy in places). As for the contrast stitching, I've always used dark stitching on the other holsters I've made and I needed to try this. I'm not sure how much I like it and may revert to darker stitching on the belt at least. Thread in #277 isn't that common here in Oz and I only have black, slightly off-white and a medium-darkish brown. If it hadn't been such a bugger to sew I'd be tempted to remove the stitching and sew it in brown, but that would be asking for trouble!!!!!!

It won't win any beauty prize, given the problems I had with it, but I learned a lot (like don't make the welt so bloody thick!!). I made it so the trigger guard would sit inside, resting on a "ledge" so there is zero resistance to pulling out the revolver, which made it 7/8" thick. This is the absolute max that my 4500 will sew, but I forgot that as the machine crawls up the thicker stuff the stitch length will shorten. It also went off-line right at the top, as I turned the corner the bottom edge of the holster caught in the slot of the needle bar, which I didn't realise until it was too late. This was because it was such a tight fit under the feet. I also broke one #26 needle and bent another! The colour came out close to what I wanted, although a little more red would have been nice. I have one more (similar) holster to make and a matching belt. Rather than use the same carving pattern I'll make it slightly different, with less background space and bigger leaves.

I've made a few gunbelts, both ranger and tapered, with stitching all around the edges and I've always used one piece. Guess I must be a bit thick?

PM RockyAussie, he'll be able to get one to you.

Bert, Sth. Oz, colloquial slang for South Australia.

Modifying an existing "something" is often problematic. It looks better without that strap around it, much cleaner.

Spent all day carving this thing! I can see lots of areas that need improvement. The leaves are too small and there is too much open area, at least using the backgrounder (talk about tedious!) let me tidy up the scrolls a bit. From a distance it doesn't look too bad but it doesn't stand up to close scrutiny. Next thing is to dye it and antique it, will be interesting to see if that disguises some of the flaws.