dikman

I've been waiting too.........

That looks very nice Morgan. I like the "natural" colour and the decoration is simple, clean and under-stated.

If you've got a pin-point heat source you could try that to break it free.

Great job.

The last time I was silly enough to repaint a sewing machine I used a gel-type chemical paint stripper to remove the old paint. It took two or three applications in some areas but it worked great.

Clone of a Pfaff 335, if you look up its specs it should help.

If it's going to be your first machine I would advise against the Pfaff. As Wiz said many were sold as binders, which limits their usefulness. The Seiko would be my choice, assuming it's in good condition and sewing well. You really want a compound feed machine, which the Seiko is.

Whatever colour filament you happen to have.

I came across this on thingiverse, and thought it looked useful. They are stackable and he's designed a large, small and a round one. I tried his suggested print settings but the bottom layer wasn't fused properly and the edges were separating, so I smoothed some thin epoxy over it, which held it all together ok. I reverted to my standard settings for the other two, 0.2 mm layer, and that worked fine. https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3710646 Handy for sorting small parts and then tipping them into bags etc.

Yeah, that cast iron/cast steel dust gets everywhere (particularly when grinding it)!! Carbide lathe tips should work, just take small cuts, as you said.

I agree. If the adjustment parts aren't there then it's obviously a 2-motion feed only.

Other than reducing foot pressure I'm not sure if there's a lot you can do, these are big machines designed to sew thick stuff, which means heavy springs and heavy pressure. Just out of curiosity, are those edges burnished? They look a little "furry" to me.

You don't say what it is you intend to make, but in my opinion a cylinder arm is probably the most versatile overall if you're only going to have one machine. You can either make or buy a table attachment to emulate a flat bed machine. I made a table for my post bed, and made an edge guide, but I wouldn't consider it ideal as a first/only machine, that's how I started out but soon learned its limitations!

You think so?

I stuck it here because it goes with a sewing machine. The tape holder that I finally ended up with. The clamp is part of a precise terminating jig for electronic connectors, which is no longer of any use. The mounting piece had to be machined (fortunately it is brass), drilled and tapped for the threaded rod and clips on the clamp so I can easily remove it when covering up the machine. The wood piece houses a bearing, secured by the aluminium plate on the bottom. The top piece is Xenolite, left over from our bathroom reno. It is a type of perspex, with a coloured coating on one side and is pretty hard material. Based on RockAussie's reply to an earlier post I made it 200 mm diameter, but the tape I received is 230 mm (!) so I had to make an additional piece to fit on top of the disk, this is a bit of thin plastic stiffening recovered from something I scrapped. Looks like it should work ok.

That came out ok. Glad you didn't stitch across the carving, that would have looked bad!

Running a stitch line through a carving would look very amateurish. Not a good look and would spoil the effect of the carving (which you've put a bit of work into). In my opinion the only option is to shift the stitch line to match the carving and hope for the best.

In answer to your last question, in my case no. While I am an inveterate collector of things (tools?) I see no value to me in such a device for my small number of sewing machines. If I run into a tension problem and I think it's the bobbin then I will tweak it by hand, realistically the amount of tweaking will be quite small anyway. I can, of course, see the value of such a gauge in the case Chris mentioned, it would be much easier to keep multiple machines all set the same. Now, if said gauge could also be used to measure trigger pull on revolvers then that would be useful to me.

Silverd, you are right in that measuring the tension and making a list of figures to match particular materials should give repeatable results - theoretically. Problem is that with leather there is often inconsistency in manufacture which can give variations in density. Singer's method of setting bobbin tension is to adjust it so that when you hold the thread the bobbin won't fall under its own weight but if you jerk the thread the bobbin should start dropping and then slowly stop. Very scientific, I think you will agree. There is no reason, of course, that you couldn't use a tension gauge if you want but I doubt if too many here would bother, most have just learned by "feel" how to set bobbin tension. To coin a phrase, it's hardly rocket science.

135x16 are leatherpoint, look at the shape of the tip and it will be diamond or wedge shaped, designed to cut through leather, 135x17 are pointed (for material and webbing). You can use x17 in leather but the stitches may look a bit different and you may need a larger size needle than you would think. Also, you may have problems with thick/hard leather.

Very nice indeed! Looks too good to wear and get scuffed. Something I've wondered, I understand that the airbrush will give a nice uniform colour, but does it give the dye penetration into the leather that other applications do?

Personally, I think that you're asking the poor little machine to do more than it was designed for. Realistically, you're getting into the realms of industrial machines.

I'm with Constabulary. A bit of trial and error, along with experience that comes with actually sewing different materials is probably the most practical aid. Sometimes it may be necessary to tweak things beyond the "recommended" settings.

Don't be afraid to ask, you'll get the right advice here. Threading isn't difficult but some of the youtube videos aren't right so if you're not sure ask here.

That's why my domestic machine is an old Singer 201, all metal and almost bulletproof!