kgg

Definitely not pretty and by the looks of it was used in a industrial setting to have that amount of paint wear. I would go to a dealer with your stuff and look for a newer or new sewing machine before spending that amount of money for that particular machine. kgg

I don't think the Nakajima have been around since 1966 when Juki took them over. That is not to say it is a bad machine just based on age as there are a lot of excellent machines of that age and older still working perfectly. It will depend on how it was maintained. The price of $800 US ($1018 CAD) to me seems high. I would have a tendency to look at machines from a dealer / repair shop that has been professionally serviced / restored. Some of the things I would look for are threads paths cut into the thread guides and take up arm; clunking noises; bearing slop; amount of paint worn from the bed; rust; condition of drive gears, condition of the table top and does it sew properly. A couple of photo's maybe helpful and what are you planning on sewing? kgg

From the information I have seen on your machine it uses 135 x 7 in sizes from #9 to #24 as noted on page 6 of the Singer manual not 135 x 17. So if you want to use 135 x 17 needles you may very well have to retime your machine. kgg

Good idea. I have used a similar method on both my flatbeds and cylinder machines where I have used a rare earth magnetic on the flatbeds and a simple tight slit or seam in my table top attachment. The only drawback is that it can be a fine line between the thread holder holding the threads at the right tension. If the threads aren't held tight enough then the initial stitches will not be proper. If the threads are held too tight and if you are not careful enough to make sure they slip out of the holder it will drag the material towards and / or downward to where the holding point is. Most times it works perfectly and frees up your hand to help guide the material so you can get those first couple of stitches in. kgg

If you want to try a inexpensive binder I would search Amazon France for a 2" Single fold binder would. To give you a rough cost the double fold binders in 2" are available in Canada for $15.99. CKPSMS brand - 1SET #KP-123 Sewing Machine Double Fold Clean Finish Top & Bottom Binding Binder Attachment (Tape Size 2" =50MM) Amazon.ca ( https://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/B07RTJZMK3/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&th=1 ) Another option is if you know someone with a 3D printer they should be able to print you one if you can't find one. kgg

Finding reviews / video's / capabilities / specs of industrial sewing machines in general are pretty much left up to the individual dealers to provide whereas if you were looking for a domestic sewing machine there are many sites that do sort of side by side comparisons of different manufacturers machines. I guess the leather part of the industry is just too small / specialized area in the overall scheme of things. Also not every dealer / distributor has the expertise / want to provide the same level of information as the Sailrite site. kgg

Welcome to the forum. There are a couple of options. If you a using a single fold binder you maybe able to pry it open slight to get some extra thickness of material through the binder, have a custom binder made which is going to be expensive or adapt a cover stitch binder to work on your machine sort of like what this person done ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YF04w4xKpOI ). You did say the width of webbing but not the thickness of the webbing or the thickness of the material you will be edging or you what it to be a single or double fold binder. kgg

He probably made it himself out of a steel nail. It almost looks like a metal flatten sharp headed crochet needle. kgg

No, you are not over thinking the purchase of a new machine. The cost whether you buy a brand name or a clone is going to be expensive. An example would be the Juki LS-1341 at $3650 US ( //industrialsewingmachineman.com/machines/mach.asp?dir=sewmach&brand=Juki&Model=LS%2D1341&ProductType=Industrial+Straight+Stitch+Machines ) verse the Cowboy CB341 at ~$2400 US ( //www.tolindsewmach.com/cb341.html ) verses the Techsew 2750 at ~$2750 US ( //www.tolindsewmach.com/cb341.html ). Most of us have gone though this process and have made purchasing mistakes over the years. What I would advise is: 1. Determine what you are sewing mostly and what you would like to sew. Wallets, bags, holsters, saddles. 2. What size of thread you would like to use: V69 or V415. 3. Budget amount. 4. Be willing to travel and make a visit to a dealer with a sample of your stuff and test out various machines. I have a travel radius of about 4 hours for a new machine. Put your money into a new or good used machine that will suite your sewing needs best. If you are sewing 90 percent of items that are best done on a flatbed then buy a new or good used brand name flatbed machine. You can always pickup a good used cylinder machine to complete the other 10 percent and vise versa. No one machine will do everything. That is why all of us have more then one machine as some machines are better suited to certain tasks. kgg

The Techsew 2750 and Cowboy CB 341appear to be close clones of the older Juki LS-341 while the Techsew appears to be a close clone of the Juki LS-1342. Techsew appears to have some errors in their thread size ratings as it relates to the size of needle the machines can accommodate. I did a quick comparison of a couple of machines. TS 2750 CB341 TS4800 Juki LS-1342 Claimed sewing capacity 1/2" max 3/8+ 1/2" max no info Needle size 18-24 16-24 18-24 16-24 Claimed Thread capacity v45 - 210 v46 - 207 v46 - 277 v69 - 138 Stroke not listed not listed 36mm 36mm Sewing speed 2000 spm 2500 spm 2500 spm 2500 spm Cylinder arm length 10.0" 10.5" 10.5" 255mm (10.03") cyclinder diameter 3" 3" 3" 2.8" (72mm) pressure foot clearance 5/8" 1/2+" 5/8" 16mm (5/8+) max stitch 9mm 8.06mm (3.15/inch) 9mm 6mm Tensioner single single dual dual thread winder table table machine machine feed compound compound compound compound pressor foot climb no no yes yes kgg

I think when you start to skive 90 degrees to a all ready skived edge you need to i) lift the pressor foot up ii) insert the piece past the pressor foot so the already skived edge section is just past the edge of bell knife and the feeder wheel then can catch the un-skived leather iii) lower the pressor foot and then start to skive otherwise you would double and possibly cause holes in that section. kgg

Probably in a similar manner as of those in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NljAni7tIkQ kgg

The gauge I was referencing is the stitch regulator that is slid up or down to change the length of stitch. I am wondering wether this may have jammed the pressor foot in an upward position. Since I don't have a parts manual for 29k-4 I would ask you to check and see if you can follow the section " To Regulate the automatic Lift of the Feeding Foot" on page 13 using Fig. 31 of the 29k-71 to change the height of the pressor foot. kgg

This video may help. ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6-W3hT6x4Q ) kgg

I haven't see one but most things are possible. Since you are planning on building a work shop I wouldn't bother. I figure you can either build a workshop a little sooner or if you keep irritating the wife, a doghouse. kgg

If the 555 doesn't workout for your other projects the way you want / need and the other major parts like the table top, metal table frame and servo motor can be repurposed to be reused on another machine. If the table frame is older chances are it was constructed with a much heavier gauge of metal unlike a lot of the newer flimsy imported ones that are typically supplied with a lot of the machines these days. Even the table top can usually be redo, depending on the age, as a lot of the older ones were a full 2 inches thick of good plywood. The machine you could probably sell just as the head only or repurpose some of the parts. I often repurpose sewing machine parts: my manual lathe is sat on a sewing machine table; the lathe is powered by a 550 watt Rex brush servo motor; one of my Singer 29k's is mounted on a cut down table top and metal frame repurposed from a POS PFAFF 487 that I paid $90 ($70 US) for; another older sewing machine frame was repurposed as the base for a 4' x3' working surface. The clutch motor from the PFAFF 487 was used to replace the burnout motor on a Consew 223 just before selling that machine. The PFAFF 487 head will be stripped for the shafts / gears / etc and reused in another project. That would be about $100 US in total. kgg

Yes More then likely you are using bonded nylon or bonded polyester thread and the ends can easily be melt to prevent fraying. The max rated thread for the Sailrite is V92. kgg

The thread designation "M" is that for the thread designation for the "Far East" it does not mean metric even though they are the same sizes. The M13 thread is the same as V207, Tex 210, 13 (metric size). According to A&E " Thread Size Comparison Chart 2 12 16 " the minimum size needle for fabric would be a number 24 (180 metric). I would suggest moving to a number 25 (200 metric) depend on how thick and tough the leather is. For V138 (Tex 135) the minimum size would be a number 22 (140 metric) for fabric. Wrong province, the capital is in Ontario while Techsew is in Quebec and the truckers protest is only 10 days old. kgg

Could you post a photo of the pressor foot. The top adjuster for the pressor foot only adds more tension on the spring and does not lower the pressor foot it only adds more pressure to the pressor foot to hold the material in place. Have you tried to lower the pressor foot so the gauge shows it at it's lowest setting? kgg

What beautiful piece of iron. None of the newer machines look that nice. kgg

I think a lot of people search the net for "the best leather sewing machine" reviews before buying. When you look at almost all of them they are nothing more then domestic machines being reviewed. This coupled with sales people not being properly trained that are dealing with mostly the domestic market and you wind up with members of the general public being mislead (insert non politically correct word) to say the least. kgg

Her writing the book is great but it has to be fully funded. Sounds like the book itself is done and the funding is to cover the cost of printing a certain number of hard copies. In this day and age I can't see why she doesn't just release it as a pdf or something where interested people could download a copy for a price. No relying on the mail or third parties yet providing 24 service. kgg

What I would do first is check and see if the shuttle gears are placed correctly and the hook is cycling correctly. Youtube video ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lwaAFjj9468&list=PLQfkXK-k2GObuzXBR8wKzGMRfv2j5_i0C ) and since finding a parts manual for the 29k-4 is difficult I would look at the some of the parts manuals for a 29k-71 to help with showing how they fit together. kgg

Juki's are overall excellent quality machines but these are made for the domestic fabric side of the sewing hobby. These machines would not standup very long to the day in day out of a production setting. The max thread size for domestic sewing machines as well as these ends at V69 where as the industrial machines usually that is their minimum thread size. The machines you mention are drop feed machines being good at what they were intended for, fabric, and the very occasional sewing of very thin leather. If you need to sew multi layers of leather or even fabric you need at minimum a proper walking foot machine similar to a Juki 1181n or preferably better. Trying to in general compare a domestic sewing machine to an industrial is like trying to compare apples to oranges particularly the newer AL or plastic bodied machines. The older domestic Singers even though they were made for the domestic market would and have stood up better as they were constructed with better quality materials in a lot of cases then a lot of the now higher quality. Yes there are quite a number of people both the pro's and the hobbyists that have more then one machine each better or more capable at doing somethings then others. There is no one machine that will do everything you just got to figure out what machine will cover most of your bases. For thin fabric and 4 or 5 layers of 21 oz canvas or binding I like my Juki 1181N for those tasks. kgg

A couple of photo's would help to show what is going on. kgg