dikman

There have been a few posts about people making their own.

More likely the thread end was held by a pair of pliers while someone overtightened what's left of the wingnut?

That makes more sense, there is a shoulder in there that the washer under the wingnut should tighten against. It should be possible to fix that thread with either a fine hacksaw blade or a suitable file (at least enough to get the nut off) and heat should be enough to break the roller free of the gunk inside. Mine, btw, has a nylon roller.

That looks a bit odd, it appears that the wing nut tightens up hard against the roller?

The stitching looks good, just curious why you didn't burnish the edges? Nice pussy cat, looks like a long-haired bitsa.

I was thinking the same thing.

Very clever!

WD40 has it's uses but I would only use it for "emergency" oiling on the machine. As Wiz said it's time to pull the cover off and have a look at how it works.

That's a nice little rig. Wouldn't be hard to make if you've got a lathe.

You're right, I got the number wrong (I wrote it from memory, not a good idea for me these days ). kgg, are you sure about that? The thread I've bought here has always been labelled M***

Mine came with an extra spring for the pressure foot, I think it's a lighter spring. Did you get one (long coil spring)? If you remove the pressure adjusting screw you can fish the spring out, it's not held in by anything.

Squid, I've got all sorts of sharpening gear, collected over many years () and I find the paper wheel to be excellent for a final honing BUT you are quite right in that heavy pressure would still likely cause damage to a very thin blade/edge. The other wheel, which is paper embedded with grit, definitely would if used carelessly. I still keep a leather strop next to my leatherwork tools.

They use metric sizes (seeing we're in Oz) which can be confusing when this site, being in the US, generally uses #. If you haven't discovered it already there are several sizing "systems" out there, unfortunately. Basically M40 = #69, M20 = #138, M8 = #277. Finding anything heavier isn't easy in Oz.

Joachim, I've dismantled it because I fitted the wheels to a larger grinder, I found the wheels were too close together on the small grinder and sharpening a longer blade was awkward. I now just use it freehand, works fine. I was overthinking it before! Squid, it's not a problem because you don't apply heavy pressure for extended periods (unlike using grinding wheels or belt grinders). It isn't meant for hogging out steel, only for fine honing, sort of like a mechanical strop.

https://www.vardhman.com.au Have a look at them, they're located in Victoria.

I found that using my right foot for both operations was a bit of a nuisance as I kept looking down to see where my foot was! I was too worried about accidentally pressing down on the Go pedal and putting a stitch hole where I didn't want it! Using my left foot for the lifter feels far more intuitive.

I don't think I got an open toe inner foot with mine (boo hoo ). Best thing is to try the different feet to see the effect they have, you have the double-toe foot fitted in the picture which stops the guide getting too close. As for the drop-down guide, yes, it gets in the way of the manual lifting lever so I made an extension to move the lever to the right. As mine is mounted on a conventional table, however, I made an extension underneath the table and fitted another pedal so I can lift the feet using my left foot. I find it works well and is more convenient than using the hand lifter.

Usually it's Aus Post that does that. I've had several items that said "In Transit" (as in NOT at my local depot) only to have them delivered that day. Still, at least you've got it. Now the fun begins.

Yep, could work as the design looks rigid so should concentrate the downward force. Pretty expensive, though.

Poncho, that is an impressive bit of cutting into the pin! An excellent example of why NOT to do it.

Is a grommet press going to have enough leverage to cut through the leather?

Noel, welcome to THE forum for leatherwork (and information about industrial leather sewing machines ). Note the word "industrial", in the review Mary linked to they are all domestic machines, with the exception of the Juki 8700, and that is a fabric machine. I doubt if anyone here would consider them as suitable for serious leatherwork. The first question, as has been asked already, is what do you want to sew? That will determine what will be suggested as a suitable machine.

Interestingly, the paintwork on the main body looks very good, with very few blemishes, but the base shows signs of a lot of use.

I bought one of those generic models off ebay (they all seem to be much of a muchness) and it's working fine. Pretty simple but it wasn't worth the trouble of making one at what they sell for.

A light automotive grease, or lithium grease, or moly-disulphide grease - it's not going to be too critical, especially if you're going to run it fairly slow with a servo motor. For $100 I would have taken both!!