SheltathaLore

The guy I learned to make shoes from (Jason Horvatter, from Laughing Crowe) is doing a kickstarter for an instructional video for non-lasted internal stitchdown boots, and I wanted to spread the word. I have his turnshoe video, and it's really great, so I'd expect this one to also be pretty high quality. I don't necessarily need it myself, but I'm definitely backing it, because it's a thing that ought to exist! So I'm trying to spread the word. For $20, you can download/stream the video, which is probably the most economical reward tier EDIT: this tier seems to be sold out (?), but for $30 you can stream/download both boot and turnshoe (although both I and Jason would be psyched if you wanted to back at a higher tier, of course). https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/villagevideo/make-your-own-foot-shaped-work-boots-instructional Mods, if this is too advertise-y, feel free to take it down; I'm just really excited about this kickstarter and trying to spread the word so that it has a better chance of meeting its goals.

The most useful thing I learned from my EE class was that red is usually power and black is usually ground. That's pretty much all you need to know in order to hack up power supplies for projects! I betcha a lot of us have old (domestic) sewing machine motors around that would work great for this kind of thing too.

On the upside, nothing that could possibly go wrong with this machine in the future will ever scare you. You're an expert now!

All I have to say is that "Junker" is a really unfortunate brand name. >_>

Welp, I ended up springing for a Consew 227 from Gregg at Keystone, who has been awesome. I am pretty psyched and I can't wait until it gets here! :D Thank you guys for all your tips! And for pointing me at the dealers who know how to set up leather machines; I'm confident that mine will be good to go as soon as I get it unloaded. Time to make more shoes! My next ones are gonna be *so fabulous*. (It's kind of hilarious how my social life has taken off since I took the shoemaking class. Everyone I know wants to make shoes with me now.)

1/2" seems a bit narrow for a big dog leash - although I understand wanting to play it safe on behalf of the customer, in case they buy the wrong one.

Darn. It seemed like such a good idea, too!

I'm still doing research on possible machines that might work for me, and it seems like the affordable options are almost always clones. It would satisfy my curiosity - and probably preempt a lot of questions along the lines of "has anyone heard of X machine" or "I can't find a manual for my clone" - if anyone with better knowledge could give a quick outline of the capabilities of the original models that most of the clones are based on, and maybe a list of known clones (although, of course, rebranding means that you can't catch them all). Anyone up for the challenge?

Yeah, I also really hate it when there isn't enough information out there to do any research before I contact people. How can I ask the right questions if there isn't even enough information for me to figure out what the right questions *are*? That said, this forum is pretty good at giving me all the info on pretty much any machine I might consider using (and, more importantly, what machines are clones of other machines with known specs).

McMaster is amazing. They sell EVERYTHING. incidentally, they sell wool felt cord in various sizes, which is apparently the perfect stuff for oil wicks - and a couple feet is practically a lifetime supply.

Oh definitely... my current craigslist search is "juki | pfaff | consew | singer| adler | commercial | industrial | upholstery | leather machine | sewing -embroidery -serger -coverstitch -treadle -featherweight -cabinet", which is the best I could do so far without going over the search term limit. Sadly, "sewing" is not always in the title of these, so I also have to filter through the industrial mixing machines, etc. Oh well. I'll just have to keep refining it. Congratulations on the addition to your family! My older dog passed away last week, but I adopted another one, and he is the most precious little cuddlebug you've ever seen, and gets along great with my other dog. Still thinks that the big wide world is a little bit too scary, but a while in a stable home with lots of love does wonders for rescues, in my experience. And his big sister Sophie (in my profile pic!) will teach him very quickly that the big world isn't scary - it's AWESOME and filled with smells and people who will pet you.

Ah, my apologies... I think I should have had some tea before I replied; it came across a bit crankier than I intended. Sorry about that. :-/ Guess I'll just keep refreshing craigslist, and call up one of the recommended leather machine suppliers here if I just completely run out of patience. I am pretty hyped for making more shoes :D Preferably before I forget everything I learned in class, heh.

Yep, I know. But you can generally get an idea of prices and trends by looking at what's currently available, and the snapshot of the local market that I'm seeing at the moment isn't terribly encouraging. I'm not requiring it to be within half an hour, but a six hour round trip really doesn't work for me for medical reasons.

If only I didn't hate driving quite so much :-/

Yep. Sadly, the best they (or Sewing Machine Service in Renton) can do is a new Highlead (206 clone, I believe) for $1400-$1500... and once I factor in sales tax, I might as well be paying freight. I mean, having something known to work with support from a local dealer isn't a bad thing, but part of me just wants to keep looking for a good deal. I suppose if I really want to go the DIY route, I could snag something like this 227 (I would really love a cylinder bed if possible, but those are much harder to come by) and try to get it set up. http://www.ebay.com/itm/Industrial-Sewing-Machine-Model-Consew-227-Walking-foot-cylinder-Leather-/182817166857

Checked with the seller, and they sent me pictures of the badge - assuming the badge isn't a lie, it is actually a Pfaff. That said, given the wear, I think that I will nope out on the three hour drive. It's just a pity there are no decent used machines available locally, even in the industrial shops. I'm not quite ready to dump $1300-$1500 into a new machine just yet.

Good catch - I hadn't compared it in detail to a picture of a new one. I'd definitely test it before buying, for sure. Well... it's either rent something, or try to cram it into my Honda Civic, which would probably be hilariously unsuccessful. And at that point I might as well rent something that lets me get it home without breaking it down.

https://seattle.craigslist.org/oly/for/d/pfaffindustrial-sewing-machine/6320813153.html If it works well, I'm guessing it's a pretty solid deal for my use case (topstitching boots, chrome tan under 3/8" total; as much as I love my Typical GC6760, I doubt that a garment needle feed will cut it), with the following caveats: I hear Pfaff parts are expensive and/or harder to come by It has a legit-looking servo, but I might still want to change out the pulley or add a speed reducer I really wish I had a truck. Figuring out how to move stuff like this is always such a hassle. >.<

Aww, thanks for the compliments! I'm just really happy to have shoes that actually fit, and some friends of mine and I are gonna get together and try making more. For most of my life I've had to settle for whatever shoes didn't actually hurt (bonus points if they weren't hideous, but sometimes I had to give up on that criterion), so I'm pretty excited about being able to make shoes that both fit *and* look neat. We're gonna split a hide of the raddest purple bullhide and make some exceptionally fabulous shoes.

Last week I took a class on making boots, and I am *super hyped* to make more (for friends, for everyday, for costumes, you name it). From what I've read here, I'd eventually want something like a Consew 205/206 or Cobra 17/18 (or the cylinder arm equivalents) for stitching the uppers, which would likely no more than 1/4" chrome tanned leather. However, I don't want to actually go out and buy a new machine until I've established that this is something I want to keep doing. For garment work, I currently have a Typical GC6760 - direct drive, single needle lockstitch, bottom + needle feed. I'm sure it's a clone of something, but it's a perfectly good machine and I love it to bits and pieces regardless (Juki 9010 perhaps - anyone know? Incidentally, a post outlining the knockoff family tree would be super helpful). The servo can be programmed down to a lower top speed, so at least in that respect I can make do; I suspect that the limiting factor is going to be the thickness of thread and needles I can use without throwing it out of whack. (I also have a teflon foot and a roller foot for this machine. Not the super fancy permanently installed kind of roller foot, just the kind you can swap in.) Do you guys think I'd be able to safely make another couple pairs of boots with this guy? PReferably without switching everything over to the heavy-materials version of the parts. (What I really want to hear is "yeah, you'll be fine, you're doing relatively light work, no need to get a new one" - but I'm fairly certain that is not actually the case. Le sigh.) Here are the specs and documentation for my machine, if you're interested... as well as a pic of the super awesome boots that I made, that I am still IMMENSELY PROUD OF. :D https://www.dropbox.com/sh/b5c0fqvankyotcw/AAANJTPg9KhoKqUt7Df98aTza?dl=0