dikman

I can't find any further information on it - manual, specs, reviews etc - which is a bit surprising. There is a model with a binder attached, which makes me wonder if this is simply another 335-type clone, plus 8mm foot lift is the same as a 335. They refer to needle-feed, not compound feed, and my guess is the feed dog is back and forth only. Sorry, toxo, but I agree with RockyAussie, it appears to be the same as the others and if so not really suited to what you want.

Man, that's a lot of work!! That carving is really nice, as is the colour finish on top.

It also depends whether you want to cut a groove or just indent one into the leather? The one the op linked to only indents.

Need more rum/brandy/scotch etc........

I agree, the needle that you're using is more suited to #69/M40 thread.

At a cursory glance those two machines look identical, specs appear to be the same. Sometimes, when a dealer is selling two brands that appear identical and recommends one over another it may simply be because they have a higher profit margin on that item. I guess the best thing is to go and look and try them both. I'll bet they perform the same.

Tugadude, I like that, it's a clever design.

My first thought was that it's head unit only, as there's no mention in his description about motor, table or speeds etc. From my previous research, when looking for a 441, Typical appear to be a pretty good brand.

I was thinking the same thing.

Funny how that happens. When I thought I could import a 441 clone for a very good price I got all excited! I soon realised that it wasn't going to happen and the price kept going up. By that stage I had determined that I was going to get one anyhow and spent significantly more than I ever intended. I still haven't used it for much! Mike, I was given a bottle of Laphroig 1/4 Cask, I'd say it belongs over on the right of that chart. It took a bit of getting used to but now I treasure what's left (I'm not sure I can afford another bottle of it!!)

Veronica, can you post some photos of it? It will help people to try and work out what other machines are similar and hopefully locate a suitable manual. A quick search turned up this - https://www.allbrands.com/products/14450-yamata-fy5618-compound-walking-foot-and-needle-fee Uses standard 135/17 needles and is a Mitsubishi according to the ad.

It's a Pfaff 335 clone, so the points made by RockyAussie re- the Pfaff 335 will apply to this one.

Which is probably why no-one has done it before. Beats me how you're finding the time to do this, Brian.

Yep, rubber and skin, super glue works exceptionally well on them.

Fair enough, I wasn't thinking about having to navigate London traffic! Keep looking......

$280 delivered - and it comes from the US! Not bad, I guess, but I'm happy with my $99 one, does the job and I'm $180 richer.

Mike, while I have no doubt you know what you're talking about re-paypal, to say that they always favour the buyer isn't quite correct. My experience, with a $500+ item, was not good, it took me three months and I only got a refund when I finally involved the Australian financial authorities (and even then they still insisted that they were in the right to refuse me!). I know of others with similar experiences. Back on topic, toxo, if you're at all mechanically inclined then do the servicing yourself. Manuals are generally available for most machines, plus you have this forum as a resource, and in general these machines are not that complicated once you get into them. Save yourself some money. Servomotors - you don't have to buy the most expensive one, many of the "cheaper" ones are quite satisfactory. If it has a binder then there's not much you can do about the cost of standard feet etc, other than search ebay/aliexpress. Collecting, just be grateful you're in England, where everyone lives close by (relatively speaking), here in Oz long distances are par for the course.

That's a bummer, made worse because it's essentially a one-off hand-made item. I've never had anything go missing - yet - but it's always a concern when I post anything, hoping it gets there.

I've heard lots of reasons why, Bert, but all I know for sure is that it's always been this way here. The advent of the internet (and ebay etc) has been a boon to we folks here in the Antipodes, at least we can now buy parts and accessories at reasonable prices. How often have you looked something up on ebay from China and then further down seen exactly the same item for sale here at double (or more) the price? Happens to me a lot. Considering we are much closer to China than the US you would expect shipping costs to be less, which should make items cheaper but I don't think it does. Of course, our lousy $ doesn't help either!

" except for your location" Pretty well sums up the problem here in Oz.

What he said, probably the simplest and easiest way to achieve what you want. The other way would be to make a foot pedal and fit the actual actuator housing to it, but this would likely mean extending the electrical cables between it and the control box/motor. I seem to recall Uwe made a remote foot pedal for a servo?

The 5100 is a Juki 441 clone, same as a Cobra 4 and Cowboy 4500. If you search youtube for those machines you should find quite a few videos which will be relevant to your machine.

There is a wealth of information about sewing machines on here and youtube is a good source of videos.

Not a handwheel, just a larger pulley. I've fitted one to a Pfaff and one to a Seiko, they are just pulleys that I had in my pulley/bearings spares box! I've found that this approach is simpler than fitting a speed reducer and works the same. This is the $99 servo.

I've finally finished messing around with this (I think). I replaced the round anvil thingy with a thick steel plate and cut an old chopping board to fit. A piece of angle iron will serve as a fence, with a couple of quick and nasty screw clamps welded from scrap offcuts, and I made five inserts to handle different thickness tools. The biggest problem I could see was the handle needing re-positioning with different length tools. One common solution is to grind off the lower two teeth on the ram, and when it is raised the handle can keep turning when it hits where the teeth were. Nice, but I didn't want to remove the teeth. After coming up with all sorts of ideas for a removable (tool-less) locking design for the shaft the obvious finally dawned on me - I replaced the collar locking screw with a bolt, ground down the head and loc-tited a wingnut to it. Now I can remove the collar, slide out the handle and rotate it to a new position then re-tighten the collar, without tools. Simples. Oh, and I finally drilled a hole in the other end of the ram (only 'cos I could) with a locking screw. At the right of the photo is a block of steel with a pin, if I need to use the ram for anything heavy I'll invert the ram and this block will fit on to save the end of the ram from any wear.