williaty

OK, I have to amend my statements a little bit after looking at the machine more closely. I couldn't find any take-apart guides but I did find some ebay pictures of replacement tension units that showed all sides. From that, I could see how it was supposed to release the tension and then compared that to what my machine actually does. 1) The foot pedal lift of the presser foot does eventually release the tension discs but you have to raise the foot right to the limit of travel. I've been lifting the foot just enough to clear the work and that's not enough to activate the tension release. 2) The lever for the presser foot lift has 2 places it'll stop. If you lift up on the lever, you fight spring tension a bit and then suddenly the lever gets over the hump and the resistance goes away and the lever will stay up. In this position, the little pin that's supposed to push on the tension unit to release it hasn't moved at all. However, if you keep moving the lever up past this point, you'll get spring tension again, another feeling of getting over the hump, and the lever will settle into a much higher position. In this position, the lever will hit the tension release pin and the discs will open. I had no idea there was a second detent position on the presser foot lift lever. Basically, as soon as the little pin that comes out of the machine begins to move, the discs fall apart exactly like they should. It just appears that getting the pin that passes through the machine to actually start moving requires a LOT of presser foot travel.

Needle tension can't be reduced any more or the nut falls off the tension unit. If I loosen the screw on the bobbin case, the stitch gets unbalanced and pulls the bobbin thread clear to the top. Has to be locked tight on bobbin tension, about to fall apart loose on top tension, and then I get a correct stitch. Sounds like it's time to learn to take one of these tension units apart. Does anyone have a guide/tutorial/adjustment instructions for it?

OK, to try to catch up on everything that's been said/replied/etc. 1) My only experience with domestics is the old Singers and they do bump the same pin that the presser foot lift does in order to release tension. That's why I assumed all domestics acted that way since so many of them are clones or clone descendants of the 15 and 66 designs. 2) No, the tension discs on the 227R-2 do not move away from each other at all when I lift the presser foot via the lever or the foot lift (I have a pedal, not a knee paddle) 3) FWIW, I've never been convinced this machine is exactly right. The only way I've been able to get it to make a balanced stitch is with the bobbin case tension maxed out and the upper tension so loose the nut just about falls off.

On a domestic sewing machine, the mechanism releases the upper tension at one point in the stitch and also releases the upper tension when you lock the presser foot up. My Consew 227R-2 doesn't do either of these things. It's full tension all the time. Is this a normal difference between a typical domestic sewing machine and a larger industrial, or does this indicate a problem with my 227R-2?

This came up on one of my craigslist searches and I have no idea what on earth a machine of this size would do to leather. Does anyone know what it does and have an example of the kind of work it can do? https://pittsburgh.craigslist.org/tls/d/new-kensington-leather-sewing-machine/6909043461.html

I am aware you've said you've tried many other adhesives, but have you tried Tandy's EcoWeld contact cement? If you use it correctly, it will tear the leather before it'll come apart at the glue line. The issue is that I see almost no leatherworkers using it correctly. It's MUCH more picky about being actually dry before you stick the two pieces together than Barge is. Almost everyone I work around coats both pieces, gives it about 30 seconds, slaps the pieces together, and then complains about the lack of holding power. I coat both sides, pay attention to something else "for a minute", totally forget that I just coating some work, and come back 20 minutes later cussing up a storm to find completely dry pieces that stick like a SOB. Also, thanks for the tip on the bilge fans! I do wet plate collodion photography, which uses a lot of ether, alcohol, and nitrocellulose, so I need a better basement venting fan. You saved me a fortune!

They're showing it thinning the whole width of a strap. If you get yours to take just the edge down on a panel, I'd love to hear your results once you get a chance to work with it.

The thread is all on the 1lb spools/cones.

Both chrome and veg, unfortunately.

I'd like to have some kind of a machine to thin down edges for a bunch of different stuff. The obvious tool for this would be a bell knife skiver but they're just too much money for me at this point. I have some motor disability, so skiving freehand along a long edge isn't going to work either. Is there some sort of middle ground machine that will maybe take more work on my part or be slower or whatever but will allow me to thin an edge consistently without requiring a lot of fine motor skill from my hands or a lot of cash from my wallet? Thanks as always.

A few weeks ago I bought a used Consew 227R-2 and it came with some cones of 138 thread. When I bought it, the machine had a bobbin in it that was loaded with the black, so that's what I threaded in and, after a little fiddling, it sewed well. A few nights ago, I wanted to try the red thread that was in the box, so I changed over to it and it wouldn't sew worth a damn. Immediately, it was pulling the bobbin thread all the way to the top and laying the top thread down as a straight line. When I went to pull the test piece away from the machine, I could hardly move it because the tension on the top thread was so damned high even with the presser foot up (to release the upper tensioner). Playing with it, the tension was coming *before* the tension assembly. The problem seemed to be from running it through the two... unloopers? before the tensioner. The peg on top of the machine and the little series of holes on the front of it that you run the thread through to take the memory of being on the spool out of the thread. I re-threaded it and just passed it through each of these once rather than looping through them like you're supposed to and it would at least sew but it wasn't pretty. I played with the red and black threads in my hands and they were a hell of a lot different. The black thread felt soft and supple like I'd expect bonded nylon to be. The red thread was stiff, sharp, and almost crunchy like monofiliment fishing like from the 80s. Both spools claim to be bonded nylon. Both spools claim to be 138 thread (though the red feels thinner). The black thread says it came from Cowboy and the red thread says it came from Weaver. Am I right that the weird hard feeling and the fact that it doesn't pass through the thread guides well is probably why the red thread didn't sew for shit? Is the way I described the red thread normal for Weaver thread or was this a bad batch or something? Pretty much any wisdom you guys can impart is a hell of a lot better than what I know now.

My Singer 15-91 acts almost like this. Sews beautifully forwards, makes loops and fuzz on the bottom when you reverse. The sewing machine repair guy locally told me "that's impossible".

Well, I too just noticed the existence of this thread. Waxed thread in a machine is usually a no-no, but this one specifically says for machine sewing. Has anyone actually tried it to see if it makes a royal mess of things?

How do you get a consistent spacing with the tool?

Can you copy as much of the information as possible here? I deleted my Facebook account but I'd like to come to the event.

No, the roller is parallel to the blade so the skive will be a even across the whole width of the work. FWIW, you can get the same thing Tandy and Cowboy are selling for $300+ on ebay without a brand name on it for as low as $158.

I've been sitting on this for 2 weeks because I wasn't sure if the person who told me would get in trouble if I brought it up here. It's been interesting to see what's happening with this. Tandy Corporate is trying to take business customers away from the stores. Business accounts are going to be.... strongly encouraged... to stop buying in store and start buying through the website. The stores have lost their authority to do ANY price changes or deals. If you normally get a bulk discount beyond wholesale through your local store, you can't do that anymore. Only corporate can make those kinds of deals now. It took some hemming and hawing to get confirmation that I could, as a business account, still buy in-store. Wholesale will now be a straight 15% off the retail price. On a bunch of the stuff I've checked so far, that means only a few pennies or dollars difference in price for me. However, a couple of the leather SKUs actually rose meaningfully for me (even though the retail price plummeted) because the former wholesale price was such a tiny fraction of the retail price. Both of the managers I've been able to talk to about this seem to think this is part of a large corporate push to justify closing the retail stores. Take away the business customers and the stores will show less volume. If in-store sales are seriously declining, it MUST be time to shut them all, right? Less staff, less middle management, less overhead.. must mean PROFIT, right?

The machine now lives with me, so I definitely want a flat bed/table. Is there really no commercial one available?

Barring disaster, I'm going tomorrow to pick up my first leather machine, a used Consew 226R-2. Does anyone know if there's an off-the-shelf option for a flat bed adapter so I can use it as either style of machine? I got the idea because some people here on this forum have shown homemade versions. I'm just checking to make sure I can't buy a commerical one before I spend the time bodging one together. This is the sort of thing I'm talking about:

I would if I could remember which order this week it was ! I'm pretty sure it was Rocky Mountain Leather Supply but truthfully with the week I've just had I'd actually have to go back through receipts to make sure. I was overloaded and must have placed 30 orders with vendors (not all leather stuff).

I had the same problem with BuckleGuy recently and it resulted in me ordering from elsewhere. They have thread sampler cards for $7, which I thought was a fair price for making them up. I then tried to check out and was hit with $15 in shipping for a thread sampler card. Figuring the website had to be broken, I contacted them only to be told they would only ship the sampler cards in a medium flat rate box. Upon hearing that stupidity, I ordered the same sampler card from one of their competitors who promptly stuck it in an envelope and charged me about a dollar for shipping. Guess which one I'll be checking out first in the future?

Thanks for the help. I had no idea that the whole 211 line was similar enough to be covered by one manual nor that the U vs G just was country of origin.

I'm going to go look at a Singer 211G566 and I would like to know how to thread it and operate it so that I can confirm it sews before I buy it. However, I can't find a manual for it anywhere online. Does anyone have a copy of the manual they could email me? Thanks!

I didn't realize they'd changed leadership. That does explain the sudden tanking of the platform. I have repeatedly looked at Etsy and thought "How on earth would I compete with all the stores selling "hand made" products that are actually coming out of Malaysian sweat shops?".