kgg

It is good to be little cautious and maybe with a touch of paranoia thrown in when making a large investment of money into a machine or machines. Don't forget to bring some of the material and thread in the sizes you want to work with along with you to those dealers. By doing that there will be a fair comparison between machines. Some machines don't work as well with a particular material thickness / toughness, type or thread size then others do. kgg

Work tables which are comfortable to work at vary from person to person depending on the task at hand and their height. What I have found to be a comfortable height of the top of the work surface is the measurement to the floor as measured from the top of my belt buckle to the floor wearing the footwear that I normally wear. Some people even through they my be the same height one person my have shorter or longer legs. My table would be to high for my wife (5'-4" stretched) too comfortably stand and work at while it would be to low for my son (6'-1"). My work table is normally 48" x 48" with two 8" wide sides that are hinged to the main table that I can raise to extend the width out to 64" when needed. At present my total area for my stuff (materials/ equipment) is a 10' x 12' spare room. kgg

Very nice job of showing its abilities. Did you decide on a sewing machine? kgg

That is great news. kgg

Just give them a call and see how that goes. I spoke with them a while back about some edge binding material but was able to use some scrap ripstop instead that I had around. I haven't purchased from them yet but I am going to need some V92 bonded polyester in the near future but for now I have plenty of #69 (bonded polyester) and #138 (bonded nylon). I prefer the bonded polyester over the bonded nylon. kgg

You may want to try Cansew for the thread they are also in Montreal. I can understand you not wanting to drive in Montreal. I hate it every time I have to go there or through there especially with an Ontario plated vehicle. kgg

I also can only see two pictures. Have you thought of using really thin HDPE as reinforcement. The drawback with rigid reinforcement that I would be concerned about is that would need to be attached to the leather, sewn or glued, and as the leather ages it probably would stretch with use. That may lead to wear through from the inside. kgg

Bill this youtube video maybe of some help. As far as adjusting bobbin tension I think there is a screw on the side of the bobbin case holder around the five o'clock position that you screw in to add bobbin tension or out for less tension, make small adjustments like 1/16 of a turn. From an engineering point of view all sewing machines are intriguing marvels of machinery that basicly haven't changed in the last hundred years. Particularly when come to think of how everything has to be in perfect sink to lock together two simple pieces of thread to form a simple tough stitch to attach pieces of material together. What would be a nice improvement to sewing machine engineering wouldn't be more efficient motors, more computer controls or stitches but the elimination of having too wind bobbins and have the bobbin thread come off a large thread spool from underneath the machine. kgg

We all have to start from somewhere. This site is a great resource. Enjoy your Christmas dinner, just put ours in the oven and hopefully it's going to be great as it is my first time, yes my first go ever cooking Christmas dinner. Should be a chuckle. kgg

The owner must have miss listed the info as the manufacturer of the machine is "Consew" the model is probably a 227 so just do a search for Consew 227. The Consew 225 is a flatbed not cylinder machine. Merry Xmas kgg

I looked at your video and what I noticed was that I think you may have threaded the needle incorrectly. It is a little hard to see blue thread on blue material. The needle has to be threaded from the left side of the needle with the scarf (long scratch on the needle) facing directly away from the bobbin then through the hole in the needle towards the bobbin. I think what's happening is that the top thread is actually breaking around the bobbin hook area or being pulled back through the eye of the needle as the hook passes and then getting wrapped around the bobbin case. Also I would recheck the installation of the bobbin in the bobbin case to make sure it is correct. To check, remove the bobbin from the bobbin holder and with the bobbin in your right hand grab the thread with your left hand. Pull the thread to unwind some thread from the bobbin. The bobbin has to rotate counter clock wise in your right hand. If it does then drop it over the centre pin of the bobbin case and lock the centre pin down over the bobbin and rethread. kgg

You never mentioned what size of thread you are using on top and in the bobbin or the type and size of the needles that you are using. My first thoughts would be to unthread everything top thread and bobbin. Reinstall top thread checking thread tension / paths from the spool to eye of the needle checking needle is installed correctly (right direction of scarf and needle fully seated). I would then thread a different fresh bobbin checking for correct tension and correct direction of bobbin spin in the bobbin holder. Then I would hand wheel it through a dozen cycles with fabric under the foot and with the bobbin cover plate off to watch as how it is trying to pickup the bobbin thread and sew. kgg

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to one and all. Enjoy, be safe and sew on. kgg

The Janome DC2012 and the sweet little Singer Featherweight are both not going to last or are capable of trying to do the leather working patterns that you indicated. A brief look at the patterns it seems like they are using at least v138 thread which both machines cannot take or have the ability. Both machines are meant for light fabric materials and yes you can get them to do it once in awhile on bit heavier stuff. I rebuilt a Singer Featherweight 221 a couple of years ago just to bring the it back to life and see why they are so very popular with the quilting people. Personally I didn't like it and sold it very quickly for a small profit. Yes it did a nice even stitch, was compact and weighted next to nothing but it was very weak on any more then a couple of layers of light material. You mentioned sewing multi layers of felt and then leather together in your post. For this I think you need to look into the purchase of at least a portable walking foot machine that can handle up to V138 thread. There are many companies that sell these machines like the Reliable (Barracuda), Rex (607), Sailrite(LS) and Techsew (611) to name just a few which should be able to handle your mentioned project. kgg

Like Wizcraft suggested make contact with the Cowboy/Hightex rep. If you have leather factories near you it definitely would be worth a visit. It may give you some other ideas. Keep in mind that they probably have someone on staff to make any necessary repairs and those machines are going to be used all day, every day until they can no longer be repaired. kgg

Nice job, looks great. kgg

Since you are a distance away from any industrial sewing machine dealers a couple of points to consider: 1. Are there any sewing machine repair shops fairly close to you that repair industrial sewing machines? If so visit them and bring a sample of what you are planning on sewing and ask them for some advise. They will be able to tell what is common equipment in your area that they have experience with and maybe a good future repair resource. Also they may have a good used machine as well. 2. If the distance isn't to great to a dealer plan on a visit, once again bring a sample. Treat this as a part of your investment as you are planning on spending a lot of dollars to get the right equipment. 3. Check with multi dealers as there can be a substantial dollar difference between dealers of the same machine. For me there was approximately $1000 difference even through there was a dealer an hour away, I drove 4.5 hours each way. 4. Demand that the machine be sewn off and that sample to be included with the machine. This will help with not just getting a machine fresh out of the factory but a machine that someone had to set up, thread and sew on. kgg

You have selected some nice machines to choose from. The questions I have would be dealer support / warranty, cost of accessories like binder attachments / feet / etc and the cost of repair / maintenance parts after warranty. Here Alder and Pfaff are expensive to purchase / maintain with little support where as Juki are more common with access to a lot more after market parts / accessories. If money was no object I still would have a hard time justifying the purchase of the Alder no matter how good. I would be asking is the Alder anywhere from twice or ten times as good as the other machines. Hell if you bought the Juki made in China you could replace it every year for the next 9 years with warranty. That is assuming it is a Juki not a Juki clone. I would suggest going to a Juki dealer with a sample of material and compare the quality of the Juki machines from Japan and China as they seem to be moving more of their construction of machines to China. When I was looking to purchase a new machine some of the Juki clone machines sounded like a bucket of bolts banging around in comparison to the real Juki. kgg

The first picture is really a domestic (home) sewing machine for fabric where as the second one is a Tippmann Boss suppose to be able to sew up to 3/4 " thick leather. First figure out how thick the total material is going to be, decide if you want a flatbed or a cylinder bed machine and then decide if you are going to buy new or a good used one. I think you my need a budget of $800-1000 for a good used sewing machine c/w table and servo motor while you could expect needing a $2000 budget for a new machine c/w table and servo motor. If you want to get away from hand stitching then I would forget the hand lever style cylinder machines. I think you will get better / faster stitching results if you have both hands to hold your projects with rather then one to hold and one to pull the lever. kgg

The two fittings on the exterior of the lube pot seem to be adjustable to accommodate different thread sizes. I figure they could be tightened in around the thread to provide a more even amount of lube on the thread and help kept excess lube from dripping over the machine. One fitting for lubing the bobbin thread since it is directly above the bobbin thread guide and the other fitting facing the top tension discs for the top thread. Just my thought, kgg

I agree with Constabulary given the choice I would choose the white one as parts should be more readily available. With so many clones available the white one could also be a Robin Industry RC-03 Shoe Sewing Machine, they use a red hand crank handle on the side wheel. kgg

The Juki LU-1508NH is a really nice machine but I guess it would depend on ones budget as I would expect it to be probably around $1300 or $1400 US more then the CB3200. kgg

The Juki will max out with #138 so if you want to go higher the Cowboy 3200 should be the one to considered. kgg

I do own a Juki 1541S and it can use up to v138 thread where as the CB3200 has a better range of usable threads sizes v69 to V346. Yes the Juki maybe more user friendly but with a flat table top attachment on the Cowboy 3200 you would get the best of both worlds. I would suggest taking / sending a sample of what you are planning to sew to a dealer and ask for suggestions. If you do go with the Juki get the 1541S not the 1541 and yes you are going to pay extra for the safety feature. The "S" stands for safety clutch and will disengage the hook when to much load is put on the hook drive so you won't damage something or the timing. kgg

Chriscraft go get your eyes and blood tested the over the counter lenses my be good for awhile but. Like Northmount going to have to wait for 60 to come around again. I always had to where glasses for long distance and take them off to read or do close work. Then in the my late 40's became a type 2 diabetic and closer work started to be not as clear. Could never get use to those transition lenses, got sea sick bobbin up and down like a seal trying to find the sweet spot. So now I use a prescription distance glasses for normal daily activities, prescription reading glasses for detail / sewing / cutting that type of stuff and for computer / reading / writing / repair no glasses. Like an old guy once told me the only thing golden about getting older is the colour of your. Now I am that old guy. kgg