dikman

kgg beat me to it. Run some stitches by hand and watch the tension discs, make sure they are keeping the tension on the thread.

Whether using a motor or it's hand-cranked shouldn't make any difference to the stitching. If your bobbin thread is at minimum tension then you've definitely got varying top thread tension while stitching. As Rocky said check your tension discs for correct operation and make sure the disc tension release is working correctly (only operates with the hand lever/foot pedal/knee lifter). I once had a machine that was incorrectly adjusted and every time the foot came up in the stitching cycle it released the tension discs!!

Not bad. I forgot to mention that I was referring to using "ordinary" lockstitch machines, not one of them old-fangled needle and awl thingy's. Another thought re- my "idea" - use a pointed needle first to pre-punch the holes then use a leather needle to sew with, it should reduce the punch-through. Yes, I know, probably not very practical but just considering possibilities.

I've been pondering this, and the main issue is the "punch-through" that occurs on the backside of the leather. So, use the machine, with no thread, to pre-punch the stitch holes. Then flip the work piece and do the same thing from the backside, into the same holes. This should even out the "punch-through" and by then when it's run through the machine again, with thread, it should be better on the back (hopefully). Personally, if I want something to look hand stitched then I'll hand stitch it.

Unfortunately I can't argue with that, seems to happen all too often!

Looks like you got a good one there, stitches look good.

Koalas. Now that Zac's problem has been solved some koala information for those overseas. I consider the koala to be one of God's evolutionary dead ends. They have the brain power of a small ant and spend most of their time sleeping, waking long enough to find food. As they only eat a specific type of eucalyptus leaf (nothing else) they climb the tree to eat and so can sleep next to their food source. They are slow on the ground but good climbers (BIG claws). Their reasoning ability is one step above zero (first hand experience here). They also make horrendous noises, the male sounds like a mad pig grunting and the females shriek if a male bothers it. Scary noises at night until you know what's making them. Early explorers found they weren't any good to eat due to their diet of eucalyptus leaves. They look cute and cuddly but can be vicious things if you're not careful picking them up, and if you see two fighting don't interfere! Mother and baby in a tree in our front yard, male in same tree. We had to cut down the tree eventually because their constant feeding was slowly killing it!

I agree. Some people have strange ideas about painting things.

You've come to THE place for advice/help on industrial sewing machines, once you adjust those feet you should be right.

No worries mate, I'm a Pom by birth () but been a croweater for a long time. Where are you located, Zac?

Josh is right in that the only way to get better looking stitching on the back is to hand stitch. It's the nature of machine sewing and leather, the back will never look as good as the front.

South of the Murray? That's a big help, it's a bloody long river, Bert.

At least as regards the knee lifter. I'm surprised you could get any lift at all, the mechanics and leverage were all wrong. I agree with kgg about just using 1 strand of the wire (or you could replace it with a chain). The hole it goes through in the table looks like it's already been elongated a bit? Don't be scared to tinker with the various adjustments on the knee mechanism to make it more comfortable to use.

Under normal use both feet should lift to the same height so that is where your problem is. Do you have the manual for it? It's a good idea to become familiar with the adjustments because you will end up having to adjust things at some point - like now.

Looks to me like the timing off the feet is off. Needle appears to be all the way in, inner foot down and outer foot also down. The outer foot should be lifted by now.

That is very clever! Some people are certainly creative.

Can't help wondering about the competency of the dealer who set that up..........

From time to time newbies have the same problem with photos, plenty of free programmes available to re-size photos. Most of the forums I'm on require photos to be re-sized before posting. You've done a good job with that machine.

The label on the machine says LS-1341. The geometry on that knee lifter looks wrong, normally you push sideways with your knee to operate it but yours looks like you have to push up with the knee?

Or connect the chain to the wire loop that hooks onto the knee lift (although hooking onto the hole at the end of the lifting bar will give greater leverage for lifting).

Thanks Mike, now I can see them - just! I find the whole thing a bit weird. They're obviously not completely hollow rivets. I doubt if I could replicate that if I tried (not that I want to).

Well, I have the book and those rivet heads are doing a good job of hiding from me.

From the crimp side they look like eyelets. Just to confuse things I don't see any rivet heads between the loops.

You don't have to have the wicks, many upholstery class machines don't have them. Just get into the habit of regularly oiling the moving parts.

I need to make myself new holsters (for Single Action shooting) and it occurred to me that a slight forward cant (a la John Wayne's holster) might be interesting. Can anyone think of any reasons why this isn't a practical idea? Or would it be better to make them "normal" upright type? I'm hoping people with experience will chime in. I have a set with a rearward cant, patterned from Steve McQueen's in The Magnificent Seven, but as I draw and use a two-handed grip to fire it seems to me that a forward cant should make for smoother drawing.