wydfuqnopn

i bought a consew 206-rb5 flat bed machine and love it. its a workhorse and with zero prior sewing machine knowledge have managed to keep it running well for last 2 years with infrequent issues easily remedied by various resources. BUT, and i hope she doesnt hear this, had i to do it again i would have bought a comparable Cylinder bed machine instead because i can used it for mostly everything the consew can do and so much more that a cylinder bed can do too.

my name is Steve P. and 2.5 years ago i converted my apartment in anaheim, Ca. into a workshop playground for this leather obsession that i apparently have. Complete with a consew RB 206-5, work 3 benches, $1000 in tools and 50 hides hanging from the ceiling. It is only a hobby so far but i have several projects going at any given time all in different stages. For myself and for friends. i have made belts, wallets, handbags, tool bags, backpacks, and custom art transferred from photos or pictures from the internet. I have never made what you are making but i am eager to learn and have tools and basic skills. Ive been to the last two leatherworkers trade shows in prescott, Az. I do have a "full time" job as a mobile home sales person and been employeed with the same company for last 8 years in Fountain Valley, Ca. but as a realtor of sorts only selling mobile homes, it has afforded me the ability to sometimes laugh at how i can earn a living and have all that free time. You are welcome to call me 714-737-1089 or bigpemp@aol.com. Thank you

Myself and a friend were booked for the making realistic figure carving pieces. We were to make a lifelike portrait of sitting bull. He is horribly ill and cannot make it. If you are going to the southwest leatherworkers show and was interested in an 8 hour class tomorrow please call the Brian at leathercrafters and saddlers journal. 715-362-5393

Myself and a friend were booked for the making realistic figure carving pieces. We were to make a lifelike portrait of sitting bull. He is horribly ill and cannot make it. If you are going to the southwest leatherworkers show and was interested in an 8 hour class tomorrow please call the Brian at leathercrafters and saddlers journal. 715-362-5393

duh...thank you sir. adobe illustrator is way out of my league skills wise and time to learn it. I will search on here for it as you suggested. thank you

Hello and thank you for participating in my forum. I have been searching for some type of software, preferably the free kind but that isn't imperative, that I might use to create patterns and templates of my own that I might print out and then use to cut out the leather pieces and make it. So what is everyone using now and where might I browse for it? Thank you in advance for sharing your wisdom. -Steve

I have had good luck with proleathercarvers.com it is a site owned by Jim Linnell. He is a designer and maker and also carries stamps from several other makers. I have also had good luck with steckstore.com He carries an assorted variety and because I am the kind who would rather buy ten or 15 at a time at $5.99 each and use them one time during a practice session knowing I might just find several that I really like what I can do with them and give the others away, I go there. I also have some 25 stamps from the gentleman from Bulgaria who is mentioned above. Yes, his products are very detailed and exceptional if you are looking for stamps that are very unique and designed to be used to make complete designs or backgrounders. Lately I am into tooling and carving pictures and characters and they aren't really for shaping of leather in my opinion. Hope this helps.

You can also use the hand wheel going forward but holding the reverse lever down will give you 100% control with your backstitch. I own and use a consew 206RB-5 and was brand new to sewing and leatherwork 1 year ago. trial and error my friend. have fun with it. go slow and practice your gas peddle foot. you can always ask me anything regarding the machine. I am not an expert in any stretch of the imagination. hell, I am still a rookie in my eyes but I have been through a lot with this machine.

First of all I love the machine. I knew nothing about sewing with a machine or by hand until I started sewing leather 8 months ago. I am on the machine almost daily. still know mostly nothing. I was using just the hand wheel and every time I make a stitch and the needle is almost back to top position I hear a sound like threat trying to get through a thorn bush. So I opened the bed window and flashed a light in on the bobbin while continuing tp roll the hand wheel forward and sure enough every time the needle picks up the bobbin thread and rotates one time around the bobbin case, the thread gets hung up ever so briefly. I am going as slow as possible using the hand wheel and I can actually sew but the faster I go, the top thread starts to shred which eventually ends in thread snapping. I am using tex90 thread and 21-23 needles. I noticed that when I use reverse it really seems to snag and get held up. so much that I can actually feel the friction through the machine. Thank you for sharing your expertise in helping me to find answers that do not cost $145 per hour. Sincerely, Steve

thanks again Mr. Wiz. check on all that you recommended. I have 7 projects going at once now all friend/customers. I absolutely love my consew machine. I can hardly wait for the show coming up in Prescott. hope to see you there

I am excited to attend my first show too. I have friends in Tuscan but I dont know about the 4 hour drive from there after I have already driven 7hours from southern California. Since I have turned my living and dining rooms into a leather workshop complete with sewing station for my consew 206rb-5, stamping/tooling station, cutting table, and I have 45 hides hanging from the ceiling I figured I had better go if it is this close. been working with leather for 8 months now. Picked it up and ran with it after my girlfriend of 11 years passed on and haven't looked back. love leather as a medium and it allows my creativity to flourish. hope to see you all there. I will be the 6'7" dude with the s%#t eating grin who is acting like a 1o year old at his first baseball game.

Don't know how to say this so I will just say it and if none of you never help me in the future, then I don't necessarily blame you guys (and girls). I woke up this morning and went right over to the machine and turned the pulley around. I was installing both of them the way that was obviously right to me. small nipple side out instead of in the hole provided in the machine. And I cannot even start a sentence with "in my defense..." YES gentlefolks. You cant get anything by me...that's for sure. Please, since I cannot buy you all a drink, have a good laugh on me...laughs are on me, laughs all around. I love it. I quoted you all because everyone deserves a laugh. thx steve

i feel like I am in the twilight zone. when I took off the simple nut and the lockwasher washer kind of thing, the consew 50 mm pulley didn't fit on the machine. I took a picture of the way it was before I touched it for reference and the when I revoved the wheel, there were only 3 things. the new wheel is maybe a sixteenth thicker than the 55mm. couldn't fit on the new one so tried to re-install the original and ot it is like the shaft shortened. before and after and there is no way to get the nut on it even with the original on it....I am trippin first picture is before I touched it. second picture is with the original wheel back on it and same hardware. 2nd picture the wheel is against the servo motor housing and I don't think it will turn

every word you wrote made perfect sense to me. makes total sense. originally I bought a full cast iron 6" pulley but it didn't have the screws coming through it to tighten it to the shaft so I returned it and got a new one with spokes but still cast iron and heavier than the original. once I get the machine up and running again (after thread stuck in my hook and my aggressive extraction threw my machine out of whack) I will explore my set up and see where I am. in truth one of the reasons I wanted a larger wheel is because my hands are ver large and I enoy and larger wheel to tug on. thank you again for sharing

thank you Lee. isn't that Seiko an almost exact match for the consew I have? I downloaded the manual for that one and it is much better than what consew offers. so you have a big wheel on the same kind of machine as mine. and more effective. that's great. how long have you been operating this wy?

thank you for contributing. my thinking about the timing I really don't know. doesn't a small pulley go faster so the component it is connected to would go faster and if something internally is going faster or slower (a bigger pulley) then wouldn't it be tougher for the part that has the matching mark to line up with it to actually hit its mark? obviously I am such a greenhorn that I do not yet even understand the way a sewing machine works. so then I will ask you.....is there any way that putting a larger hand pull on a machine and a smaller one on the servo motor could damage the machine??? that you could think of? if so, then please explain how in you mind. thank you

Not trying to beat a dead horse here but many of you folks have seen and commented on this video from you tube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9y2Aapk7X8E&t=3s . The author makes claims and shows proof of concept for changing the pulley on the servo motor to a 50mm smaller one and instead of a standard speed reducer, he proposes changing the hand pull on the actual head to a larger one. He is using a consew 205RB-5 machine and after he changes out the pulleys, it does show a significant change in slowing down the system in a similar way that the generally accept method achieves. I recently purchased this machine and saw the video and it has been on my mind ever since. I have changed out the hand pull for a 6" one and will be changing the servo one later tonight before adding the correct belt. He makes the claim that no one is talking about this. He sort of infers that that is because all of the people he has spoken to that are in the business do not want to lose business if everyone starts doing this. Some of you have mentioned that the cost of the larger pulley for the head has gained because of the video and I myself have verified that the costs are certainly higher than is quoted in the video. I have also spoken to two people in the business representing consew and also an industrial sewing machine company doing business for 50+ years and both of them said " the machine was not designed to use a larger and heavier hand pull. Why don't you just do it the way that is widely used, proven, and readily available? " but they were either unwilling or unable to provide what I would deem a logical and acceptable explanation as to just HOW it would damage the machine. I personally am not a technician. I have spent maybe 5 solid hours watching "consew 206rb-5 maintenance video #1, and #2 while I had my thinking cap on and tools in hand under the proverbial "hood" of my machine. This qualifies me to be classified as a "caveman holding a rock but still having to wait for lightning before I get to use fire" compared to some of you cherished lifers. I can make no claims based on knowledge, experience, and understanding. that is why I am offering this subject up to public forum hoping some real technicians will respond and we all will learn and grow. inside the machine there are several places that are two moving parts each with a mark someone has made that should line up when the needle is in a certain a deliberate position. is it possible that a larger wheel mean less or more revolutions so these marks will no longer line up. ergo a timing or maintenance issue reason for not using a larger pulley? obviously showing my lack of experience not knowing if that would cause more or less RPM, but im trying to understand why??? Thank you all for your time and help. I need it.

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Grizzly-G5436-Single-V-Groove-Pulley-6-Pitch-Dia-1-2-Bore/134318402 this is the one I bought. but I am replacing the stock hand pulley on the machine with this one. it is almost twice as big and coupled with a 50mm replacement on the motor I think it will work. will keep you posted on the results.

well I returned the pulley I bought bevause there wasn't a place to set it to the bore so then tonight I bought this one https://www.walmart.com/ip/Grizzly-G5436-Single-V-Groove-Pulley-6-Pitch-Dia-1-2-Bore/134318402 it has two places for the screws like the one that came with it and it is a little under two times the size. any bigger and I would have to move the bobbin winder around. (musnt do that) hahahahaahah. just gonna run with it. thanks again gentleman

man that is beautiful right there. every 2.5 seconds that's almost enough time to pour a cup of coffee..in the kitchen. guys I thank you. this forum is incredible. so glad I joined. wish I would have before I bought my machine but hey, whaddayado.

ok so I have seen the you tube video but I have talked to 3 different people who work for companied selling the machines and they all said that it would possibly harm the machine but they hadn't done it themselves so couldn't give me reasons why. I know there are plenty of manufacturers who make a larger wheel for their machines and works without damaging the unit. I actually bought a pulley before talking to them and decided to just do it the established method. My pulley didn't have any places for screw to go into the bore so returned it. Bye would like a bigger handwheel anyway. Thx for input can you recommend where to buy one?

I haven't actually installed the 50mm pully yet because I wanted to use it as it came before changing it so that I could recognize the difference. thank you for help

Just bought this machine and love it. Would ultimately like a cowboy 105 too but could only afford one or the other. I bought it for the range of sewing it will do. I will be using it primarily for belts, purses, wallets, briefcases, etc. nothing really above 8-9 ounce leather. but occasionally for applications where I will appreciate its speed. I also bought the 50mm pulley for the motor from consew. Here is my question that I will appreciate anything you can offer. How slow can I get it down to? can you recommend that I use a gear reducer or a larger pulley system underneath? is there a "monster wheel" or something of the sort for the actual "head" that I can use in conjuction with the 50mm to accomplish a slower speed without having to use a gear reducer or larger pully system underneath? Thank you in advance. im new to all this sewing stuff with a machine. Been doing it all with two needles and thread up until now. Best regards, steve

battlemunky thanks happy to help. im new here and looking forward to shared experience. ive made a lot of mistakes and wasted a lot of money. because there is JUST SO MUCH out there.

http://www.frogjellyleather.com/item/rawhide-maul-lb-1 was using the $15 one from amazon until I bought this and when it arrived I was dumbfounded. I will never use another maul. (and I don't work there). seriously, it is a quality piece. you can just hold it and feel it...thank you. I have the 2lb. And was $44.95 instead of over $100