dikman

If the router motor is a universal-type motor (not induction) then you should be able to fit a basic speed control to it and slow it down.

What sort of items are you making? This will be a big deciding factor in the type of machine you need. As pointed out the 441 class are for heavy duty sewing of thick materials with thick thread (holsters, gunbelts, horse tack etc). Whilst they can be "dumbed down" - Wiz has written an article on how to do it - it is not an ideal machine for lighter material. As for not wanting to spend a lot, you're probably no different in that from most of us. Unfortunately it rarely works that way when it comes to industrial sewing machines.

I'm not sure that I would have thought of starting it with the foot pedal down, I haven't seen that mentioned anywhere else. At least you got it working.

I wonder what the torque would be like at that speed? I've found speed reducers are the best way to get very slow speed with a servo as this also gives increased torque.

I would say it has to be a burnisher, with those four different sized grooves on it. The grooves are all very highly polished and the edges of the slots are rounded over slightly. I would assume the motor is adjusted so the groove you want to use is level with the flat top of the table, so good for burnishing belts. Just a guess on my part, of course. An interesting design, it would never have occurred to me to put slits in a burnisher.

Ain't that the truth! $2!! That goes beyond being a bargain!!

Smokin'!! (I just watched The Mask again ). Should be good for a few more years.

To add something else to the mix I have a pair of paper sharpening wheels mounted on a grinder. One is embedded with fine grit, which does a good job of putting an edge on a blade and the other has fine rouge on it and hones to a very sharp edge. Some use wheels made from MDF to do the same thing. I have accumulated all sorts of sharpening gear over the years - grinders, belt grinders/sanders, a wet-wheel grinder, Arkansas stones, oil-stones - and have found the paper wheel system excellent for getting a fine edge quickly. The only thing I haven't tried is Japanese water stones, they apparently work well but seem to wear quickly.

You're right, that price is extremely low. One thing I don't like about it is it's an all-in-one unit, which means if you want to change any settings you have to get down on your knees under the table to access it. Still, at that price it's probably worth a try.

If you're only using it on a post bed (and you have a speed reducer fitted) I can't see where a 750w motor would be any better than a 550w. The deciding factor is the thickness of the material to be sewn and a post bed is not going to handle material thick enough to stop a 550w from driving the needle through it.

What a beautiful little machine!

I only have one Seiko, excellent machine, I wouldn't have any qualms about buying a Seiko.

I'd be surprised if there's an actual larger handwheel available but one option is to replace the handwheel with a pulley this will also give you slower speeds and more torque.

Another vote for the Chikon, if the price is right it should be a nice machine.

A quick google search came up with this - http://www.chikon.com.tw/ck-8bl.htm, Mason not much but it did show a Sunstar KM-340BL which is a straight stitch machine.

One thing I have found is when I dye something the leather becomes very malleable and can be wet-formed at that stage. When it dries it becomes quite hard and stiff, with no need to form any further. As long as you let it dry (maybe force dry in a slightly warm oven) I don't see why there should be any problems.

This looks like the same thing on thingiverse - https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2415648 There are other variations on the idea on there.

Most of my woodworking is done outside for that reason! The lathe in particular makes a monumental mess, so when I want to use it I bolt/clamp it to an outside bench. Seagiant, there's some nice-looking wood in yours.

Nice! And it should build up your leg muscles too.

Those pics from rocksnake have some well thought out anti-snag features. Munday, using it like that should avoid the problem of snagging thread.

I did one once and just removed all the external bits. I've decided a machine would have to be a lot worse than yours before I'll do it again!

You folks are making me think I should re-do mine and make it prettier.

Yep, another piece of scrap, the pivot is a piece of steel rod with a hole drilled and tapped and the hole in the toggle is offset so it acts as a cam. It can be adjusted for the leather thickness by rotating around the screw thread. And yes, it does catch the thread!! The whole thing was made in a hurry. I'd like to build a much nicer looking one but since I bought a 441 machine it doesn't get used much.

Mine is not as classy, being made from whatever wood was handy, but it works for me. It' swivels on the base so it can be angled and I can put my feet on the base when seated to hold it steady.

That looks very nice, Munday. You definitely want to line the jaws with leather, the size of the jaws is a personal thing, mine are about 4". As mentioned a spring fitted on the bolt between the legs is a good idea and replacing the handscrew with a cam-operated toggle will make life easier when repositioning things in the jaws. As for the magnets I wouldn't bother, wherever you put them will probably work out wrong! If you really want somewhere to put your needles stick some cork on there so you can stick the pointy end in.