JimTimber

Thanks! I'm pretty excited to get the speed reducer going in the next few days. The servo motor runs about a stitch a second at the slowest now, and should be dropped down to a stitch every 3 seconds like some of the other members have mentioned theirs do. Being able to crawl and then run (with the top speed on the servo bumped up) will really make this old Singer a joy to work with.

You'll get more height out of using the foot lift instead of the lever behind the needle. Like Floyd said, you should be able to feed that in without any adjustments at all.

Servo motor made all the difference! I've got another one that looks just like it too. As I progress, I'll take more pics. These are becoming a shotshell box holder (stick full boxes in the pouch).

Might just be the outer wraps got fused from exposure to something. Before you pitch it, I'd pull down some layers and see if the issue clears up.

Probably not going to be making wallets with a Class 4, right? The thing that struck me when I was looking at cobbler type machines and more traditional table type industrials was the minimum thread size on the larger rigs wasn't exactly "small." My Singer 211G ran fabric store (not industrial) "upholstery" thread like a champ in an old ratty wash cloth for my first stitches ever. I'm not sure that stuff is even size 45, but it might be. Took some dialing of the tension, but it made great looking seams despite the size 20 needle. Knowing I can go down to thin material is a big plus when dealing with the hiker/camper people who want to shave as much weight as possible. I also know that I can't do a leather stirrup if I wanted to. Maybe the little ones are like a 8N tractor? You can drive it to the store, but it's not going to pull the 4 bottom plough.

I'm glad the table will be that much lighter when it comes back out again (when we move). lol Servo is way lighter! Don't drop a clutch motor on your foot, that's for sure.

I'd also vote for complete disassembly of the table for ease of movement. The Mrs. and I got my table down the stairs with the clutch motor (probably 30# for the motor alone) installed, but it required her to take some breaks to adjust her hold and keep from dropping it on me despite me taking the heavy end and being below.

Added a servo to the Singer tonight and it's much better, but I'm going deeper and building a reduction drive for it. Just ordered up the parts from Surplus Center and look forward to those showing up sometime next week. This is the bearing I'll be using for my reduction jack shaft: I just need to make a mount for it that integrates the servo motor and attaches it to the servo motor's current mount and it'll be ready to go. Should be a piece of cake!

Actually, an AC motor that has no load on it uses very little electricity to remain spinning. That said; the buzzing noise, table vibrations, jackrabbit starts, massive power dump into the machine at the onset of a stitch - are more than reason enough to remove the bloody thing and put a servo on it. I was fighting my clutch motor again last night trying to resolve a tension spring issue (top tension bracket wasn't fitting quite right causing the thread to stick behind it) and was seriously questioning my Singer 211G purchase vs a 441 clone and wondering how I was going to come up with the money to upgrade if the servo didn't do the trick. Well, my servo's been on for a couple hours and I'm already completing work that looks better than the last guy I paid. Get the servo!

I go by Jim Timber because I love spending time in my woods. We were fortunate enough to be able to purchase the land across the street from my In-law's family cabin 6 years ago and it's our goal to build a new shop and home deep in the woods while keeping the cabin on the lake. So far I've been busy building a 1/4 mile long driveway, 1/8 acre pond (it'll get bigger someday), and trying to keep up with all the bills having two places incur. We're under contract for a timber harvest that I hope will happen next fall since this winter didn't cooperate on many fronts. Until then, I'll still be plugging away at making a hole for the new homestead. I'm a small business owner, inventor of sorts, and what most would categorize as a fabricator/machinist (I do have a degree in machining). I'm not afraid to get my hands dirty. I'm very new to heavy duty sewing, and have only worked with leather a few times over the years. Hopefully I can contribute in other ways to give back for your patience and knowledge as I absorb and learn from y'all.

I'm part of the class action suit against them for hijacking funds on falsely closed accounts, so I haven't used PP in roughly 7 years when they closed a different account and absconded with a payment for an ebay auction. I don't miss them, but I can see were online sellers like their integration options. I've been using Squareup.com for about a year now after Amazon decided I wasn't selling things they agreed with (major hurdle thrown into my life with that one after 2.5 years of building a brand presence and reputation). Square's storefront is surprisingly easy to use, and totally free outside their blanket 2.75% transaction fee. I get paid the next day via direct deposit and I can choose my "close of business" time to correspond with the latest a transaction needs to hit my Square account for it to be kicked over into my business checking account that night. Pretty slick!

This is just the 10# box part of my order.

I've been barefoot the whole time with mine and despite nearly 20 years of pedal control from TIG welding, I still don't like how binary the inputs are with the clutch motor. Fortunately, my servo shows up Thursday and I'm getting itchy.

$25 for 10# http://www.thethreadexchange.com/miva/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=TTE&Category_Code=polyester-thread-boxes I'll take a pic the next time I'm at my machine. @ $2 a spool, it was a great option for me. I can't find any normal colors in 69, 92, or 138 locally. Maybe I just totally lucked out?

I know this is an old thread, but I just bought a 10# nylon/polyester grab box and couldn't be happier with what came in it. Granted, I bought 4 other spools of heavier thread, so maybe they used that to cue off when filling my misc mix, but there's lots of good colors and only 2 spools of #46 and one of #277 (too big for my machine, but might still be handy for something). Everything else was a mix of 69 and 138 with a single spool of 207 (which I can use on the top stitch). Several appear to be first quality spools. No birds nests as advertised, everything was tied off nice and neat, with most being individually bagged. I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

Very nicely done. One of my projects on the to-do list is a 5 pack round holder similar to yours but not meant to be worn. When I hunt with my AR's for deer, I keep 5 in the rifle and another 5 in my pocket in the event of targets of opportunity (yotes, feral dogs, porkies, etc). Not having them jangle would be a big improvement. Extra mags are kinda bulky and not really needed.

Yeah, this one is a sweet sewer when you're not going too fast. I didn't even adjust the tension from the larger thread the previous owner had used and it was making nice stitches with my tiny thread. Just found out the Mrs.' new Brother will do lettering, so I need to figure that one out too.

Thanks! I tried putting a 2" pulley on it, but the keyway in the new pulley is too small and the belt ends up being much too long (no more adjustment on the rod either) - I was fine with a sacrificial pulley for the week, but I don't want to source a belt that'll get tossed too. Looks like I'm stuck trying to learn the foot throttle until Thursday.

That turned out great!

There's nothing there. If it was engraved, it's been filled. If it was on a plate, that wasn't riveted or the holes were filled. The base certainly does look like someone repainted it since the color tone doesn't match the top casting. There's a lot of splayed screw heads on it, which is what told me it's seen a lot of service. The colors being off, or gone, doesn't bother me. My metal lathe was made the year before I was born, and it's at least 10 years newer than my knee mill. I have a love for industrial machinery - it's made to be used and machines that look used work.

I can't see a serial number on the machine. Here's some other pics I just took. It looks just like any other 211 with reverse to me, but then I'm the last person you'd want to ask about sewing machines.

She purrs like kitten when running, just goes a bit too quick for my noobieness. Previous owner knocked it out of time and had Creative Sewing's tech (a local store) put it back and lube/service it in October. He was trying to sew 3 layers of heavy veg tan over a sandwich of canvas for Duluth style packs, and ended up riveting them anyway after breaking a 140/22 needle. I don't plan on doing anything of that nature, or heavy leather in general for that matter. Canvas, ballistic nylon, webbing, maybe a leather accent or base for durability - that's really where my focus is. I actually need a bunch of high quality tarps by summer time. I know it's not a saddle maker, and don't intend on beating it up with things like that. I'm also not getting into doing holsters for more than myself and maybe the Mrs. if she ever gets around to getting her permit. I brought a scrap of my heaviest veg tan to demo the machine and he just laughed when he saw it. Folded it in half and launched the piece through it full speed. Needless to say, I pulled out my money after that. I paid 400 for the whole thing, which I thought was a great deal even with having to swap motors. Icing on the cake was that it was only about 5 miles from my house and he helped load it into my truck. Never even ran it myself until I brought it home. I'll have to look for the serial number. I got a 3 ring binder with a printout of the .pdf manual(s) for a 155 and something else that he thought was close. I'm just not sure what's different, and if it matters? In watching the videos leading up to my decision to take the leap, I discovered the high desirability of the reverse. I wouldn't have bought a machine without it, even for nothing more than terminating stitches. Doing lap joints (not sure what you guys call the "X" stitching on webbing), being able to back up instead of having to turn the piece is a huge timesaver.

Here's the first holster I did. Vacuum forming with leaky plastic isn't a good idea. My second one worked out much better. Finished product: I still carry this holster almost every day.

Hi guys, I've become the new owner of a very well used Singer 211G256 and have some questions about it. First off, I want to thank everyone here for being so willing to share their knowledge and experience. I've learned a great deal from you before ever deciding to participate. This quest started about 3 weeks ago when I had to over-pay for some webbing stitches and finally decided it was time I seek my own means. I've made 2 leather holsters (wet formed, boned, and contract sewn) 6 years ago, and enjoyed the process but was always wanting to do the sewing myself. To make matters worse, my good contract seamster (the one who's seams didn't look drunk) retired and moved away. So I used all your posts when evaluating the various options and went from seriously considering a Chinese cobbler clone to buying the Singer when it popped up on CL last Sunday. Yesterday was the first time I've used a sewing machine in 27 years. :D The previous owner had printouts from other model manuals, but not the 256. Is this such an odd variant? It's not mentioned on the Singer collector's site master list. How is it different? While I know these are the machines that many other's have cloned, what feet and dawgs are interchangeable with my 211G? I've already got friends asking about zippers and I would like to be able to do piping when I get more proficient. The Mrs. won't let me touch her Bernina and she just got a Brother XR3240 that's never come out of the box for that matter. I got the Singer thinking it would be good for both of us, but for now she's happy I'm left to my own devices and not using hers - which is a win either way. So now I'm anxiously awaiting a couple things - my order of thread and smaller needles (I have 50 140/22's that came with it), and my Goldstar 600W servo motor. I thought about a smaller pulley to make the throttle more controllable, but the ability to cover ground at the current running speed will be useful when I'm doing nylon and canvas, which made the servo the obvious choice. I've got a 4' work light over the machine now, which makes it plenty bright to use. This pic was taken with just the ceiling light in my basement and that wasn't going to cut it.