jasonsargo

Wow, great info and resources, guys. Thanks! Yeah, my stitch selection is done by pushing the left button in the bed and turning the handwheel like the 155, but the illustrations are just slightly off in both manuals. You guys have really pointed me in the right direction, though. Now...off to decipher what the heck a 47:45XA needle is, and if I really need them, and where the heck to find them versus the 135x17 that looks pretty standard and seems to work fine so far... XA

Thanks, dikman! That really did clear up why I can't find much info on this machine. I did go back to Ralph's today to get set up with some 138 thread, and they gave me a 111W155 manual. I looked through both manuals, and my machine really looks like it shares features with both the 111W100 that you thought, and the 111W155. In fact, they said their selection of 111W155 feet will work just fine. And you are right, the alternating dogs and the needle all feed the material. I agree, and really started to just play around with the machine to see what it could do this afternoon. 3 layers of tooling leather (I can't remember the oz/thickness) and 138 thread seemed to work just fine, but I will just have to watch for marks from the feet for now. I'll just take it slow and avoid broken needles as much as possible, and enjoy not having to hand stitch near as much! I'll try to take some clearance measurements and pictures of my new baby soon.

Hello, all. I've spent more than a few hours in the last few months lurking and dreaming, and finally lucked into two free blind stitch hemmers on Craigslist that I turned into a trade-in for a beautiful Singer 111WSV65 with new table and clutch motor. $100 on top of the trade and I was out the door from the fantastic Ralph's PowerSew in Denver...I think I scored, to say the least. My first industrial! I have a few month's experience with a crazy left-handed cylinder bed machine with no reverse making medical leather ankle-foot orthotics a few years ago, so I know I have a steep learning curve ahead of me, but I'm going to have fun with this one. For some reason, making a beautiful tooled leather clutch purse for my daughter to treasure and use as she gets older is my first dream project, but maybe a little upholstery repair is on the horizon, too. Staying handy for my employer with some canvas medical instrument covers in the next few weeks might be one of my first projects to rebuild my skills. I doubt I'll ever step up to holster thicknesses, but want to be ready for projects a little thicker than garment leather. Like I said, I've lurked, and now searched, but would love help with specific info and resources to get me up to speed on this machine, whether in this forum or elsewhere on the net: - history (I'm guessing this is a "special variance" machine from about WWII, but what does that really mean?) - capabilities (what thicknesses and thread, etc., can this machine handle?) - manual - service manual - parts / clone-parts - accessories - tips and tricks - modifications to consider Thanks for your help!