dikman

Ah, of course, CB=CowBoy, me dumb! No wonder I couldn't find it. Thanks Wiz, I'll search a bit more.

Matt, I realise it would actually be made in China and my wording is poor. CB3200 doesn't come up on either alibaba or Aliexpress. I was hoping to avoid having to go through every listed manufacturers' website trying to match specifications.

Thanks Constabulary. Neither of them show up on Alibaba, Chikon is in Taiwan which probably explains why they're not there, Hiled is Chinese but doesn't show up.

Does anyone know if there is a Chinese equivalent to the CB3200? I've been searching alibaba but so far had no luck.

I've been looking at 441's on ali-baba and there's certainly a multitude of manufacturers on there (their manufacturing plants are in different provinces). The difficulty is knowing who to deal with. With smaller items it's not so much of an issue but with something like this it's a problem. The length of time they've been trading on ali-baba might be an indicator, but it's quite possible that a relative newcomer could be trying to establish their reputation so have a quality product. The question is - how do you know?

Short answer, for what you want to do - yes.

When I started out it was commonly said that a heated bed wasn't necessary for PLA so I didn't bother with it, just glass and a glue stick. Worked fine most of the time but depending on the shape I would occasionally get curling or the item coming loose part way through (that was annoying). I finally decided to use the heated bed (60*C) and no more problems. I still use a glue stick on small items, just in case. I too am curious to see what you come up with for your edge guide.

Can you post a photo of the control box front and back?

Clever idea. I haven't got any paracord but do have some venetian blind cord that I'll try.

That actually looks pretty good now. Definitely black on the top plate as it's next to the black handwheel (and probably the front plate too). I hope it works after all this effort.

Brian, I'm gobsmacked! You never cease to amaze me.

As you add other bits (with different colours) it's starting to tone down the gold colour. Not quite as much in-your-face effect. Looking better.

You need to be more specific as Singer made a huge number of different machines, both domestic and industrial. Some will do what you want, many probably won't.

I'm not sure if I like the colour or not, but you did a great job on the painting.

That top Mexican Loop is pretty high, I'm impressed that you managed to poke that pouch down through it!

Looks good for the money. Having made a rawhide maul (I won't be making another) I can tell you that they are a lot of work, take a long time and are a pain in the butt to make!!

It's called experience, and we all learn from it. The idea was good, just didn't work so well in reality (unfortunately). I made a copy of the holster used by Steve McQueen in The Magnificent Seven, which has a similar style of loop but I used Chicago screws to secure the flap. Glad I didn't try snaps or I would probably have had the same issue!

These are in my leatherwork/reloading shed. My other sheds also have assorted hammers in them plus blacksmithing hammers in my forge. I've never thought about it before but I have a lot of hammers!

Nice. The one on the right looks like a sea-shell pattern, very fitting.

It looks to me like it's an early idea for a more efficient motor to replace a clutch motor, not necessarily designed to suit leatherworkers.

You're quite right of course, Matt. If you sew things for a living (or even partial income) then time can be important and speed reducers can be an issue. For anyone who sews at speed then an NPS is definitely an asset. For me, as a rank amateur and hobbyist, slow speed is far more preferable for the control I get as it reduces the chance of making a mistake!! I also don't do long seam runs so slow speed isn't an issue there. One of mine does one stitch every 2 1/2 secs. at its slowest. A bit extreme, but impressive, I thought!

The limited view of the control panel looks like it only has on/off buttons, so unless there is another panel somewhere to change settings I'd say that the motor speed range is as listed on the motor - min 500 rpm, max 3000 and is non-adjustable. Regardless of what you do to the machine the max. thread size this model will handle is #138. edit:I did some searching on the 'net and this is a "basic" servo with no separate electronic control panel, it's all built into the motor housing. 500 rpm is its slowest speed. If you want your machine to go slower then you'll need to fit a speed reducer.

DanishMan, there is another recent post about the issues with NPS and pulley size/ratios. Changing the pulley on the motor shouldn't have any effect on the NPS but a much larger head pulley might (depending on the motor software). I have Lishui Skyrit motors and none of them would work properly once I changed the pulley ratio (about 3:1), they all threw error codes with the NPS connected. When I added the extra magnet, as per the posting, it stopped the error code but still couldn't be set reliably to either needle up or needle down. Some brands seem to work ok, others don't. What is the pulley ratio on the one that works? As I also mentioned there, however, in my opinion once you slow a machine down that much an NPS is a bit redundant.

I agree with Matt. Mine have a noticeable "roughness" at very low speed but fitting speed reducers or using a larger pulley on the head unit tends to smooth things out. The downside to this is that needle positioners may not work when gearing down, but then if you're slowing the stitching speed right down you don't really need a needle positioner.

1/4" leather is not considered heavy leather and any upholstery-class machine should handle it, but yes, more info needed - what do you want to sew, thread size, budget etc.