cdthayer

Are you planning to hand stitch everything, or machine stitch? I've been thinking about trying to make myself a pair of slippers with machine. CD in Oklahoma

Thanks Bob. You’re not kidding! It really slowed it down! I have only sewn on clutch motor industrial machines before, and this is my first speed reducer, so it’s all new to me. I was surprised at how much harder it is to hand wheel with the SR attached. I thought I’d done something to cause the brake to drag, until I realized that the gearing adds to the drag on the hand wheel when turning everything from the wheel now. I’ll have to change my style of sewing a bit. Less hand wheeling and more foot sewing. I was able to use the machine to sew an embroidered patch onto a baseball-style cap yesterday, and it’s like I have a completely different machine now. The additional slow-speed control will make using this machine much more comfortable. Although, it may make it more difficult to feather my other clutch motors now that I’m spoiled. CD in Oklahoma

I got my speed reducer mounted last evening. It hasn’t taken me since Thanksgiving to do it. I just hadn’t gotten to it until yesterday. It only took me a couple of hours, and even though it’s a little unorthodox-looking, it seems to work. I’ve only test-run it so far, so I’ll have to see how it works after a little use. My motor doesn’t have any spacers in the mount, and I don’t see any way to shift it to the right without re-drilling the mounting bolts through the top. I could have turned the motor pulley around and gotten some length, but it didn’t look to me like I would get enough. [bTW: The motor shaft diameter is 9/16 instead of 5/8 as I had posted earlier. I measured it again while I had it off.] With the motor pulley already crowding the left side of the belt slot, I decided to squeeze things in with the motor and machine as they were. To do it, I turned the SR pulleys around on their shaft and went up that way. This SR has bushings with a grease trough in the center running on a solid shaft. I popped off the clip, cleaned out the old grease, filled the center with new grease, and put the pulleys back on the other way. Since I’m using 5/16 leather belting, I can make and break the belt that gets trapped by mounting things this way. It looks a little different, but I don’t have any belts rubbing on anything, so I don’t see why it won’t work for me. I had to lengthen the belt slot towards the front, but I think I would have needed to do that anyway unless I’d have gone with a smaller motor pulley. I just didn’t dare mount the SR any closer to that 3 3/4 motor pulley. Actually, I only had to taper the top half of the existing slot, so I didn’t remove very much top material at all. Of course, I did have to re-drill the mounting holes for the bobbin winder. Thank everyone for the help, suggestions, and support. CD in Oklahoma

Good for you! I just come up with a rust-bucket Adler 205-64 single needle that I’m going to try to get going this winter. You got a larger photo of yours? CD in Oklahoma

It’s funny you should bring this up, just one day after I found an old boy that had used a 1/2” electric drill to fire up his Singer 111W153. Photo and text credits go to: https://growingbolde...ne--530627.html Begin text. Posted on December 11th, 2009 at 8:02 pm Carried this ' OLD SINGER ' 'round since '89 and finally took time to ' git-it-run'n ', but it took someth'n special, I'll git back to y'all on 'what' '!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Posted 11:24am April 19th, 2010 The factory-furnished drive-motor was 3450 rpm w/ 1to1 belt-pulleys, liked-to-fly-away when first jogged, so checking w/ SINGER SERVICE and they agreed that the BEST operators were using 1500 @ top speed, so looked around shop and found an alternate ( old 1/2 inch SPEEDWAY ) w/ 6 amp foot-rheostat filled-the bill!!!!!!!!!! End text. CD in Oklahoma

What size needle and thread are you using? CD in Oklahoma

It’s nice to have a shop dog. I couldn’t get along without mine. He’s a mix, but he looks like a half-sized Black Lab when he “puts on the dog”. My son has a full-size Black Lab that we babysit once in a while, and they’re built about the same, just a different size. I do a lot of my sewing (canvas and vinyl covers) out on my back patio in his yard where I can have table space to handle large pieces. Rex is just a 3-year old, and a Champion Tennis Ball Catcher (in his mind anyway), so we have to take regular ball-catchin’ breaks while we’re supposed to be working. When I’m sewing in my small bike shop, Rex will often drop a tennis ball next to me, and if I don’t get it right away, he sits looking out the glass door watching the world go by for a while, and then gives up and retires to his loveseat in the wife’s sewing room until I get up and walk around the next time. Then he comes back, finds his ball, and the whole thing starts over again. CD in Oklahoma

Here’s a link to your Charlene Photo. http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?app=galleryℑ=22937 CD in Oklahoma

Hey Andy, Charlene looks a little grumpy there. Maybe you woke her up from her after-snack nap? (I have a little work buddy named Rex.) CD in Oklahoma

Thanks for posting it. I’ve watched the first 30 minutes of it, and will watch the rest as I can get to it. I have a slow connection speed, so I spend a lot of time watching the 4 little dots spin around. My favorite part so far has been when they were putting the smaller pieces in the head. Some of those guys doing it had a hammer in their hand or lying nearby. Small hammers for sure, but in a factory of that size, I bet they could find a bigger hammer if they needed one. Them there’s genuine sewing machine mechanics!!! CD in Oklahoma

I think Bob is on the right track when he says to add restriction (a little tension) to the thread before it gets to the tension discs. CD in Oklahoma

Thanks Wiz. Of course the pulley size would matter, and I didn't give you that information. I can't get to them right now to measure them, but from photos I have of them, it looks like the Glaco may even be less than a 2" pulley, and the Singer appears to be about a 3" Thanks for your input. CD in Oklahoma

Yesterday, I received another part #240500, Tension Release Slide, from another source and installed it in my Singer 111G156 this morning. I'm thankful (Thanksgiving Day) that it is the correct part, and I must say that it's really nice to have good parts to work with. I test-sewed with it by hand-wheeling to begin getting things adjusted before putting it in a power stand. I've got to decide on a stand and get it set up later. I'm also thankful to you guys that have helped me with this basket-case machine that was so out of whack. I went back to some of Eric';s posts to fine-tune some things, and I really appreciate him taking the time to be so informative. I at least have it sewing now, and hope to dial it in and make it a good working machine soon. Thanks again. CD in Oklahoma

I have an H-leg industrial stand that has a Glaco Model PS-6 "Sewing Machine Transmitter" (clutch motor) on it. There was no machine in it when I got it, but the cut-out is good for the Singer 111-series machines. It's a 1725 RPM, 110VAC motor. It came from a cleaning shop, so it probably had a fabric-sewing machine in it previously. Does anyone have any experience with this Glaco clutch motor pulling combination-feed machines for heavier work than fabric? Would it be as good or better than my Singer #S-463141 "Electric Transmitter" (clutch motor) that came to me with my Singer 111G156? It's a 1725 RPM, 110-115 VAC motor in a similar H-leg stand. I can't keep them both, so I'm just trying to decide which one to keep and which one to let go. CD in Oklahoma

It set outside for a while before I found it. I started soaking it with sewing machine oil yesterday, and I'm already getting a slight movement at the handwheel plus nearly full travel of the stitch lever. The needlebar and feed dog moves with the stitch lever. The bobbin case pops out, and there was no bobbin in there with thread on it to soak up and hold water, so there's not much rust in it at all. A few more days of soaking and I'll start removing parts to clean them. I'm hoping the hook and race surfaces are not too bad. I'm going to need a bobbin and a needle clamp for it. CD in Oklahoma

Double post

Thanks Steve. That's what I'm hoping for. My wife and I will probably take a run at it this Holiday weekend while we have the shop closed and we can flip the stand without being in the way. And I can clean up my mess..... CD in Oklahoma

Hi Jeremy, I looked around half-heartedly a while back for a smaller pulley for it, but I didn't find anything. It's got a 5/8 inch shaft with a 3/16 inch square key. I think the larger pulley may help me more than hurt me on my choice of belting and the closeness that I want to mount the SR to the motor pulley. I think part of the reason that we've done ok using the machine for 6 years now without a major runaway is because of the round leather belting. The old one broke last year or so, and I put a new one on it of the same material. I set it just barely tight enough to pull the machine under light to medium duty work, and I'm sure we're getting some slippage helping us. I might be able to put tighter belts on it with the SR. CD in Oklahoma

Thanks Bob, I'm glad you're here. My photos don't show it clearly, but my belt is crowding the left side of the cut-out (viewing from above the machine) almost to the point of rubbing it. That might help me, but I'm not sure it's going to be enough. The closer that I mount the SR to the motor pulley, the more critical will be the pulley alignment, right? Won't that belt walk off of the pulley easier if not in good alignment? CD in Oklahoma Edit: I added another photo to the original posting to show the belt better.

I came up with a speed reducer (got it with my Adler 205-64 project machine) that I would like to install on my Consew 225. I've never attached one, and don't have one on any of my machines. Any tips on how to get it mounted on my stand would be a big help. The speed reducer has 8 1/2" and 2" pulleys on it. My Consew clutch motor has a 3 3/4" pulley on it, and is a 1725 RPM .42 HP motor. I do very little thick leather on the machine. We use it for general repairs and sewing embroidered patches on leathers. Now that I have access to a reducer, I'd like to slow it down. The 3 3/4"; motor pulley should allow me to mount the SR fairly close to it, and still get plenty of belt contact, shouldn't it? The machine has had 5/16" leather belting on it since before I had it, and I have more, so I plan on using that back. The bench top cut-out is already fairly long, so I'll have to work around that to keep from cutting any more additional beltway than absolutely necessary. I've looked through the archives and found some photos of mounted SRs, but nothing yet that looks exactly like mine. If you know of a photo that I've missed in a thread here, could you direct me to it? CD in Oklahoma

Thanks Gordon, I'll watch for that. Thanks Paul. This is the first one of these machines that I've tried bring back from the dead. I know I'm going to get educated once I get into it. I haven't started on it yet. I've still got a Singer 111G156 waiting for a part on my bench. I'd like to get that one going before I tackle the Adler. I'm going to have to come up with a larger drip pan to set it in before I start too. I doubt that shaft vibration will bother me much if I hand crank it, but I hadn't thought about that possibility for future powered operation, so thanks for the information. CD in Oklahoma

Thank pcox. Yes, it's really stuck. As soon as I find a tray large enough for it to fit in, I plan on giving it an oil bath with sewing machine oil and let it set for a while. Then I'll start removing the commonly removed things and see if anything wants to start wiggling. If I don't get any movement, I may try your suggestion. I like to bathe rusty machines in SM oil before I ever touch them with tools. It helps keep from damaging things. CD in Oklahoma

Thanks for the input, J. Since much of my sewing is repairs, I tend to do a lot of hand wheeling with some of my other machines too, although they're all either electric motor or foot treadle powered. It doesn't appear that many here on the forum have intentionally set up an Adler for hand operation, but I keep thinking about the Boss machines that are hand-operated stitchers, and wonder about the practically of my idea. I don't plan on doing anything to the machine that would inhibit converting to electric power later on, but I don't think that I need a motor for the time being. I have a hand-operated bobbin winder that I think can be modified to accompany the machine. I will see if I can come up with some type of clamp-on hand wheel knob for a crank handle so I can avoid drilling and tapping the existing wheel. If not, I'll see how it goes just hand wheeling the wheel rim. I'll also have to set up something for a presser foot lift, probably using a chain and foot plate. All of this depends on getting the machine freed up and operational again. Any tips that you can think of would be appreciated. Thanks. CD in Oklahoma

Does anyone think it's an option to hand crank one? I have one that I'm going to try to clean up and just want to use it for repairs. I won't be using it for production. CD in Oklahoma

Nothing wrong with that look in my opinion. It just looks like you personalized it a little. I don't think the machine will care. It made the handwheel look smaller, at least it seems like it to me. One of the nicest Singer 31-15 machines that I've seen belonged to a woman that painted it cherry red and used one of her rodeo trophy buckles to make a new rear inspection cover. To me, it looked really good, so I'm all for customizing. I'm just not very ambitious along those lines. The closest that I've come to it, is painting a snuff can lid gold and putting on the front inspection cover of one of my Singer 29K70 machines. It just added a touch more color, and I didn't have to work very hard. LOL You have your own 1-of-a-kind machine now. Good job. CD in Oklahoma