Chadd

I am digging my patcher as well. It took me a while to get it timed perfectly and work out the kinks (knowing nothing about sewing machines) but when I did, it was magic. I spent an hour yesterday replacing a zipper on one of my daughter's Cordura tote bags with a heavy duty replacement. Not super beautiful, but functional, and black on black kept my mistakes from showing too bad. I have gotten some heavier thread to work with the needles that come with it, just 15 weight upholstery thread for now. Haven't tried larger. I made a little bag out of scraps to hold my common sewing tools, and did some stitch drawing practice to learn how to control the thing a little better. I bought a manual off of a guy named Darren here that helped me a ton! It's a good little machine that can punch through significant weight for the price.

Thanks! I just wanted to give thanks and put a post out there that might help others stepping into working with these reasonably priced machines.

I received the unbranded machine as a Christmas gift off of my Amazon wish list. The manual was laughable and i have absolutely ZERO experience with sewing machines. I was having trouble with thread breakage, wads of thread under the project, and all sorts of other functional issues. After multiple hours of YouTube videos and Googling, I came across a post on this forum from Darren offering advice on these shoe patchers and for something called an ABLE290. From one of Darren's posts, I read "the last thunk or change before the problem is the most likely cause of the problem" (paraphrased). Good advice! From my research, I have found that Darren resells these machines in Australia under his own brand and includes a well written manual (in English, with great pictures). So he really seems to know these machines well. I looked through hundreds of his posts on this forum and finally found him offering just the manual for sale along with his email address (darren@ablesewing.com.au). I sent him an email with a little about my problems and my search for documentation. The next day, I had a message from Darren in my inbox with the manual attached and a request for $20AU via PayPal. I learned what a needle scarf is... and that mine was facing the wrong way. I learned how to properly install the bobbin shuttle driver. I learned to grab the threads (top and bottom) and give a little pull tension when starting the stitch to set the rest up for success. I learned how to properly thread the bobbin and provide bobbin tension for differing types of thread. I also learned all of the adjustment points for my machine that was very similar to the ABLE290. The manual is only a few pages long, but it contains the critical information to make the machine work correctly and consistently. I had my issues corrected less than an hour after fully reading the manual. Now I just need to get some experience with thread tension that will only come with time and experimentation. I have included a couple of pictures showing the stitches I was able to do after correcting my machine's configuration. (Have a pile of scraps on hand while you are configuring and testing.) The reason I am posting this is because I did the research, watched the videos, and was still frustrated until I got the RIGHT information from one place. Darren's manual was 100% worth every penny I payed for it. Thanks Darren!