kgg

The common cheap Chinese hand presses ($60 CAD delivered) are normally used for installing cap rivets, button snaps and grommets. I hate a machine that basically does one function that isn't that convenient to use. So here is what I have attempted to do. i) improve the hand press operation by adding a work surface that is level with the steel block to provide a larger flat work surface, 4" (101mm) verses the little over 3/4" steel block surface. ii) add more stability to the hand punch press ii) add an adjustable straight edge fence to accommodate items up to 4" (101mm)wide iii) add interchangeable hole punch blocks that would replace the steel block when hole punching iv) install hole punches for punching holes Photo 1 is of a typical hand press Photo 2 shows how little work area and how a piece of 3 oz veg tan rests on the steel block. Photo 3 shows the same machine with my work area and adjustable fence installed. Tightening of the steel block screw is accessed through a hole in the support foot. Photo 4 shows how the piece of 3 oz veg tan now rests on the work surface with the same steel block. Photo 5 shows the hand press setup to hole punch with a 4mm hole punch installed, the steel block removed and a smooth surface block installed Photo 6 shows the hand press with 3 oz veg tan Photo 7 shows the 4 mm hole punched in the 3 oz veg tan Any and all comments are always welcomed. kgg

I know what you mean about what you mean about being nervous with one printer as sometimes stuff happens. When my Prusa MK3 decided to pack it in on an overnight print that left us with the Prusa MK3 Bear while we waited and waited and waited for the new Prusia core XY to arrive. The new Prusia was going to be expensive $5000 + CAD by the time we would get it versus $2200 CAD to the door for the Bambu. We had good service from the Prusia printers but they have I think fallen behind in both the customer service and the tech end while commanding a premium price. The Prusa MK3 Bear is now the backup if needed. The time, at least for us, of getting some spare parts (belt, head,etc) just like the printer took three days. Doing mechanical adjustments or replacement is so simple in comparison to Prusia. This to gave me some concern but the Bambu P1P and the X1 Carbon are more like your fridge or toaster rather then the tinker machines of say just three years ago which required a fair bit of tweaking if you changed something. The P1P is the cheaper version of the X1 with a different controller, probably less capable and cheaper. A couple of features that I thought would be useless or not really necessary: i) the camera inside the cabinet. Who really needs see it printing a part? It turned out to be a nice feature as we could remotely see what it was doing during a recent tweaking session. The the printer is one part of the house and the computer is in another part. ii) the wifi connection. We were use to doing the design, slicing then transferring the file to a card and bringing the card to the printer. Now do the design, slice and send it to the printer. Buy the time we get to the printer it is warming the plate up to temperature and doing it's self checks. Should you decide to go with a Bambu P1P or X1 Carbon I would suggest using the ORCA slicer instead of the Bambu slicer as the ORCA has more fine grain tuning, better calibrations options and offers portable install option. kgg

It does come to a point where the cost to repair is just not feasible either because of time or cost. The repairs seem to become more of a stop gap but more importantly those new parts put extra stress on the old parts which causes them to fail in a short period of time. This time I went with a Bambu X1 Carbon with the AMS system. I've only had it about two weeks and have gone through about six 2kg spools. So far it is really working out nice. Setup was simple say an hour to get decent prints and then about six hours of tuning the software to get what I like. The Bambu has cut print times down considerably, 16 hour bed slinger prints now take about 5 hours in the standard speed mode. I probably could get down to 3 using the ludacris speed mode. The most cost effective way (time and material ) to produce @RockyAussie molds is with 3D printing and design changes can be made on the fly as needed. The beauty is that you set the 3D printer to print and walk away to do other things. Once the print is done, remove the print and hit start again. With the number and size of parts of his design he can do at least one complete mold and possibly two in one print run. Also the molds can be printing while he goes to have a bite to eat or sleeps. kgg

Nicely done. kgg

Have you checked the bobbin winder? I think your problem lies with the operation or how you are operating the bobbin winder and not related to the speed of the servo motor. The speed of winding your bobbin depends on the speed that the pulley belt from the motor to the hand-wheel rotates. The belt turns the wheel on the winder by friction when you push the winder lever forward and the wheel is pushed up against the pulley belt from the motor to the hand-wheel. If you have a belt guard installed to cover the bobbin winder and the pulley belt remove it. Check and see if the winder wheel is slipping or otherwise not engaged properly when you want to wind a bobbin. Also when winding a bobbin first remove the thread from the needle and raise the presser foot up. If you are winding a bobbin as you sew the winding of the bobbin is going to depend on how fast you sew. kgg

I would drop @RockyAussie a PM (private email). The problem you have is that you are right on the crossover point both in thread size and thickness of material. As far as doing curtains I am going to say it would be easier to do on a 341 class machine a feat to do on a 441 machine. The needles of the class 441 are going to be a lot thicker then the 135X17 needles. I think neither machine would be the right machine for a curtain type project. I would suggest picking up an old Singer Class 15 machine or a Juki 1181N walking foot machine for those types of projects. The problem with the Class 341, typically rated to sew 3/8" thick stuff, as I see it is that some clones suggest they can use V207 thread for both top and in the bobbin whereas Juki rates their machine (LS-341old / LS-1341 new) to sew with V138 at max thickness for top and bobbin thread. So if you want to use greater then V207 in thick items you need to move up to the Class 441 machines which use the much thicker 7x3 or 794 needles. Your problem then becomes do you get a stub nose cylinder arm 10.5" CB3200 typically rated to sew 1/2" thick stuff, a stub nose cylinder arm 9" CB3500 typically rated to sew 7/8" thick stuff or a standard cylinder arm 16" CB4500 typically rated to sew 7/8" thick stuff. The cost difference between those machines: i) CB3200 at $2200 USD, ii) CB3500 at $2700 USD, iii) CB4500 at $3000 USD. iv) CB341 will run about $2400 USD. All I can say is If you need or want a Class 441 machine for whatever reason and can afford it opt for the standard 16" cylinder arm. Before I bought my Class 441 I even looked at the one armed bandits but quickly decided they weren't for me. When I bought my Class 441 and I have a Class 341 as well I opted for the standard 16" cylinder arm. Also don't forget to take into account the style of table that would suit your typical sewing position, seating versus standing. kgg

What are you planning on sewing and with what size of thread? kgg

Contact a Tandy Store there is one in Barrie. Phone Number (705) 728-6501 ( https://tandyleather.ca/collections/sewing-machines/products/cobra-class-26 ) Tandy Leather Barrie-705 237 Mapleview Drive East #8 Barrie ON L4N 0W5 Canada Also there are two other clone options of the Juki LS 1341 besides the Cobra Class 26 available in Ontario, the KOBE LS-1341 and the Techsew 2750 kgg

From the information I have seen a Brushless servo will have anywhere from 5 percent to 15 percent advantage of converting electrical power to mechanical power over the Brushed servo motor. The big but to this has a lot to do with how many coils the brushless servo motor was constructed with and particularly how good the box of electronic controls are. The performance advantage of a brushless servo motor when using a speed reducer probably will be unnoticeable. From a durability point when comparing quality built motors will probably the same. However the brush motors with the manual speed knob are much simpler to track problems which typically means replacing or cleaning the motors brushes. When the electronics and some brushed servo motors did have some electronics give problems and particularly the brushless it is probably cheaper just to replace the whole unit. I feel the only reason the brushless servo motors are becoming more available is that they are considerably cheaper to manufacture. kgg

I would pull some top thread through from the spool by hand to see if I could determine at what guide or tension disc is giving the problem. It could be from over oiling or rust or just a build up of old crude from use. Then I would do the same thing with the bobbin thread. Once you figure out the location then you can concentrate on cleaning or replacing that part. If it is from the bobbin area and you are using Aluminum bobbins replace it with a steel bobbin as Aluminum can discolor thread if they are old or of poor construction. kgg

Yes according to the specs the Reliable and the Sailrite motors appear to be clones of one and another with both being 12 coil designs. There is more at play here when trying to find the min startup speed of the motor. You need to know the size of the small pulley on the end of the motor and the size of the hand-wheel pulley on the sewing machine. So finding someone with the exact same setup and an rpm digital tachometer maybe difficult. Since you can measure the size of your hand-wheel all then left is to determine the size of the small pulley on the motors and their speed range. Once you know those parameters you can use a pulley calculator to determine what to expect on your machine whether it is a brush or brushless servo motor. What I found is that Reliable does not list the speed range but I'm assuming it to be like the Sailrite Workhorse. They say " which let you set your top stitching speed while maintaining variable speed control. Variable maximum speed settings range from 400-3600 stitches per minute. " which does differ from the max rpm of the motor being rated at 4500 rpm. So from that the motors low start up speed is 400 rpm. Sailrite lists two pulleys a Black one and Silver one with the Black one being a clogged 33mm and the Silver being a V-belt 60mm. These specs are from their webpage ( https://www.sailrite.com/Sailrite-Workhorse-Servo-Motor-110V ) The specs for the Consew I could not find. My experience with a digital servo motor with a speed range of 500 - 5000 rpm on a 800 watt, 9 coil and with no reducer pulley are Calculated top speed of the hand-wheel pulley should come in at 156 rpm using a 160 mm hand-wheel pulley size, a 50 mm motor pulley and with the motor speed set to the minimum speed of 500 rpm's. This particular servo motor is a 800 watt brushless 9 coil servo motor with a speed range of 500 to 5000 rpm's. Measured pulley and hand-wheel sizes were. i) The hand-wheel pulley measured out to be 159mm. ii) The small pulley at the motor measured out at 49mm. Measured results with 500 rpm's showing on the controller screen i) with the foot pedal fully depressed the rpm's with my digital tachometer showed 154.5 rpm's with no material under the needle ii) with the foot pedal feathered to get the minimum hand-wheel pulley speed the digital tachometer showed a low rpm reading of 61 rpm's with no material under the needle. From that I can assume a no load ramp up speed of 61 rpm's. Hope this helps, kgg

Getting nice cutouts or overhangs when 3D printing can be a chore particularly with bed slingers or single head core XY machines without an Automatic Material System (AMS). The trick to remember is some filaments will not stick / bond together with other filament types. If you are using i) PLA use PETg in those sections ii) PETg use PLA. Where it will have to change from one type to the other there is no need to do all the support in the opposite filament type. All you need is 2-3 'top' layers in the opposite type. Just enough so it pops off nicely and gives a nice finish to the 'bridge' area. Obviously, if you are putting a support that does not go from plate to the part (say in a 'window' on a part you are printing) you will need to make the bottom 3 layers also be the opposite type. This old school trick can be done with a bed slinger but you will have to babysit it and manually change / drain the filament in the head on every filament change. With a Automatic Material System (AMS) system it just does the necessary filament changes for you. An example is that I wanted a particular side of a edge guide for the right side of the needle to be printed face down on the plate so the side that would have material rubbing against it was super slick. That meant the over hang would be nearly over 30mm from one side to another, unsupported. I was using 3d850 so I used PETg to fill that area and when the print was finished it just popped off leaving a nice crisp cutout. The first photo shows the side that was face down on 3D plate to give that nice slick 3D finish. The second photo shows the 4.25 mm deep cutout with the 30mm bridge. The third photo shows the backside of the edge guide as it sits on the table top. kgg

Looking at the one that the leather machine company has on their website ( https://leathermachineco.com/product/flip-down-roller-edge-guide/ ) it appears to be different then the one that they sell with the machine. The one's in the video showing how to install them shows a flat chunk of AL with a divot notched out while the one I referenced and is listed is for the Class 26 is just a flat plate. As I see it you have two options other then buying the adapter plate. Option 1. Go to Home Depot and pickup a piece of 2 or 3 flat-bar and drill the necessary holes. Option 2. Find someone with a 3D printer and have them print a copy of the adapter plate with 3D850 filament. Me, I would do Option 2 as it would be a fairly easy to do. kgg

What a lot of RVers use to deter mice is use bounty dryer sheets. Before using them spring always brought a surprise after the winter and not a pleasant one. No matter what I done the little buggers would get in and destroy something in either the engine bay or inside the RV. The solution was the bounty dryer sheets and laying them everywhere, in cupboards, under seats, glove box, engine bay, under carriage storage, etc. The end result was no more mice just normal spring cleanup before the next trip. kgg

What I do for my work boots and I'm no expert is I use 100 percent JOJOBA cold pressed oil and white food grade mineral oil. I rub about two ounces of JOJOBA oil per work boot oil into the leather and let it get absorbed then I apply about six ounces of mineral oil in and let the boots sit overnight. Seems to work at making the boots water resistant, softens the leather and seems to add back some moisture into the leather. The downside is that the tan colored leather will be darken but for a work boot I don't mind. The JOJOBA oil is probably the closest thing to sperm whale oil. kgg

Thank you. I'm working on getting rid of the velcro strap. Working on a 10" X 16". Just got to finish the presser foot lift and a swing away roller edge guide. All opinions and comments are invaluable regardless of currency. kgg

Here is Uwe's video @Uwe. kgg

I have purchased leather from Cuir Di Zazzo Leather in Montreal and they are fully bilingual. It was worth the drive as there prices were much better then anywhere I could find in Ontario. Maybe worth a email or phone call. https://en.cuirdizazzo.com/ kgg

The machine you have takes 793/794 needle system needles. Basically you are stuck with that needle system which is a large diameter needle system meant to punch through thick leather up to about 3/4" thick with thread sizes from V69 to V346. I have never seen a needle size below a number 20 for that needle system. The best one to contact would be @CowboyBob for available needle sizes. The 794DIA 200/25 tells you the needle system (794) and the size of needle where the 200 is the metric size and the 25 is the US size. The needle that came with your machine is a #25 needle meant for V277 thread. A good reference chart for needles versus thread size can be found at https://www.tolindsewmach.com/thread-chart.html kgg

I am not familiar with the Seiko machines as in my neck of the woods they are not a common machine. Looking at the spec it takes a 793 / 794 needle so the needle has a large diameter and will punch large holes which maybe not want you want. I would put the Seiko CH-8B in the 441 class of machines based on it being rated for threads sizes from V138 to V346. This machines is a compound feed so I don't think a roller foot is going to work as I think you need a drop feed machine for the roller foot to work. I would suggest looking at other machines better suited to handling the thinner leathers of shoe uppers, wallets and with smaller diameter needles like 135 x 17 for fabric or 135 x 16 for leather. Yes you can sew thinner items and close to the edge if you can get the proper needle plates. They are available for the Juki TSC441 and clones but I don't know if they are available for the Seiko. As for an all rounder I would suggest a Juki LS-1341 or clone, there are a lot of them, when combined with a table top attachment can be very versatile. The drawback is V207 would be the largest thread you would be able to use. kgg

Thank you, I appreciate the compliment. I haven't tried a drop-down edge guide on the 441. I know when I did the installation of one on the Sailrite LSZ-1 clone it wasn't as convenient as I thought it would be and wound up in a spare parts bin somewhere in the basement. I can see that it could get a bit crowded in that section and with my chubby hands I would probably skin a couple knuckles. HaHa That would be a nice winters project. Maybe something like a one armed bandit. kgg

I did have a couple of comments that my first articulating table top attachment was shall we be honest and say a little overly complicated, the mounting hardware took away from the look of the machine and looked clumsy. So I think I have corrected those concerns while still allowing it to be swing away and be stored underneath the cylinder arm. The twist to the original table top attachment is that is now modular and I have added two drop down straight edge sewing guides. The surfaces of the table top and edge guides that any material will touch are really smooth / slick to prevent catching and reduce tension. The straight edge guides can be used together (one on each side of the needle) or individually (to the left or right of the needle). The front and back drop down sections have measurement marks in their surfaces with half moon marks indicating "inch" marks from the center of the needle so getting accurate and straight alignment of the straight guides is pretty easy. Also in the photo's is a adapter that I made that attaches to the existing vertical lifting rod for raising the presser foot up by hand. This is a rough working prototype as the original knuckle buster round black ball on the end of the vertical rod was a royal pain to get too with my chubby fingers. By extending it out towards the front of the machine it is much easier get to and more accurate to operate. The last two photo's are of the original vertical attachment and the new horizontal attachment. I know my welding skills are in need of improvement so for those who know how to weld have a chuckle and bear with me. There is another addition to this table top attachment that will extend it's size to about 10" x 16" that I will probably complete a little later on. I would like to thank @MtlBiker for his input throughout this project. All comments and or suggestions are always welcomed. kgg

If the machine doesn't say Juki somewhere on the machine it could be depending on the time it was made a Aurora A-460 ( tensioner on the front ) or possibly some clone of Mitsubishi, Seiko or some Chinese clone. There seems to be quite a mixture of what machines they modified. Some were walking foot machines unlike the compound feed machines of today. The best source of info would be the Hoffman Brothers as they took over some of the Ferdco ( https://hoffmanbrothers.com/leather-machines/ ), Weaver took over the Cub. kgg

I would check a couple of things first before changing / modifying your presser feet: i) the height the feet dog protrudes above the needle plate. It maybe needs to be adjusted up slightly to bite into the bottom of the leather a touch more. ii) the position of the presser foot. Is it at the level of the needle plate or above? iii) the tension on the presser foot. If I'm not mistaken the Techsew 2700 is the same as the Cowboy 227R so this manual may help. kgg CB227R_Oper.Manual_print_pages_3-13.pdf

Knowing what machine would be helpful. kgg