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These explorations may be useful for others, but please don't try any of these adjustments unless we are all sure of what we are doing. I'm simply offering myself as a guinea pig. If it all works out, our little community will have the best 441 resource on the net, if it doesn't already. Please remember that anything I post regarding these adjustments is not necessarily correct and accurate but simply my best educated guesses. This post concerns itself with the amount of to and fro travel of the inner presser foot of the 441: I should have taken detailed pictures and notes before I adjusted anything. What prompted me to adjust this amount of to and fro travel is that with my new rt and lt side presser feet and inner groover foot, there was at least a half inch minimum distance between the inside edge of the outer foot and the outer edge of the inner foot (see pic) The attached pic shows post-adjustment when I narrowed that gap to a more acceptable 1/8". I was having some difficulty with skipped stitches with my raised needle plates and running without lower needle guide. The other day I replaced the lower needle guide and saw better stitches. However I also noticed that the the needle now ever so slightly grazes the front oval of the cutout in the needle guide, I believe because I had adjusted the to/fro travel of the inner foot, which also moves the needle bar the same distance. Now I must readjust that to and fro/travel, maybe 1/16" away from the front cutout oval of the needle guide. If memory serves correctly, I believe prior to any adjustments, the needle was centered in that cut out oval of the needle guide. That centering of the needle prompted me to wonder what if anything does that needle guide serve, if the needle is always centered in the cutout. I think I'm seeing better stitches when the needle is a bit more toward the front of that cutout but nottouching any metal of the needle guide. I believe the following is correct, but let's wait upon confirmed feedback from those with tried and trued experience and knowledge to be completely sure. Please note that this adjustment is for a feed-dog-less flat needle plate with a needle guide that has an oval cutout for the needle. Needle guides from Ferdco and Artisan may have a larger cutout for the needle to enter. 1. suspend the presser feet with the hand lift. 2. rotate the balance wheel so that the inner foot moves to its farthes forward point. 3. Rotate the balance wheel more until the needle has just entered the coutout in the needle guide. In may case, this means that the needle is ever so slightly grazing the front of that cutout, so I must make a small adjustment to move that needle about 1/16" back off that edge of the needle guide cutout. 4. Now you need to loosen the top allen head bolt in the vicinity of the balance wheel. This top bolt loosens the clamp on that thick bar running along the back of the machine. 5. Once loosened, you can now move the inner foot freely in its to and fro travel. Position the inner foot as required and retighten that allen head bolt. If I am incorrect in any of this, or ignorant of anything else I may have altered on the machine, someone please correct me. Ed

Thanks, Bill, but keep in mind I'm not sure about those adjustments, as I'm making educated guesses and drawing upon others' informed experience. I'm hoping to get some feedback that points us all in the right direction. For my purposes, anyway, I feel that I do need to know what all those bolts adjust, at least in relation to presser foot height and walking foot relative travel. We'll see where the thread goes. The one thing I keep hearing about the sewing machine industry is that all these adjustments are some kind of secret known only to a few. I'm just curious that way, I suppose. Ed

I have the stitching pony from Tandy and never use it. Someone is free to it for $10 plus actual USPS shipping cost. ed

I've needed to find a more efficient way to set my tubular rivets, so I splurged on this benchtop die holder from OTB, $30. This would be a nice little product for someone to manufacture. I bet the actual die holder can be bought prefacricated. Then all that would have to be done is to machine the steel insert to the specified diameter. ed

nice work! I like the curvature of the flap. ed

I did it, but I'm not 100 percent certain what that bolt does. One minute I thought it was adjusting only the rise of the outer foot. The next moment it seemed to be adjusting only the inner foot. I once again removed the stop screw for the inner foot, as it was the only way to get the inner foot to apply some presser on one layer of 5/6 oz chrome tan. If you have one of these 441 machines and are willing, could you post a photo of how this 14mm bolt is adjusted? To the top of the track, or to the bottom. Before I adjusted anything, mine was about 3 mm past center, toward the top of the track. I think my slotted flat needle plate is the real issue, as it seems to sit lower than the stock needle plate did, maybe about 1/16" to 1/8" lower. ed

I have put the stop screw back into the clamp, behind the face plate, for the center presser foot, resulting in the center foot resting 1/4" off the needle plate. Now, if I can find my 14mm socket, I will attempt to lower the height of the walking foot as outlined in the manual page attached as a pdf, which is what I think I should have done in the first place. By any chance can someone tell me if this will simultaneously raise the inner foot and outer foot, or just the inner foot? It is my understanding now that this adjustment is most likely the only one necessary if one runs into a situation where a combination of presser feet and needle plate results in the presser feet not being low enough for a particular application, such as one layer of 5/6 oz chrome tan and the center presser foot's lowest position is 1/4" above the needle plate. Ed

I also like the longer flap on such bags, as I like to stuff sweaters and whatnot underneath and strap it all down and go.

I obsess over such details. Should the outside strap line be 3" from the edge, or should it be 3 3/8" as on the Ghurka bag. I was tempted to go into the Ghurka shop in Manhattan with a tape measure. I ended up emailing someone who was selling this very Ghurka bag on ebay. I asked her if she wouldn't mind measuring for me. She was very helpful. Ed

Last time I checked, Country Supply. Free shipping for $49 and above

Which spacing between straps do you like better, that on the black Ralph Lauren bag, or that on the Ghurka bag, whose spacing is narrower? Both bags are about 17" wide and 12" tall. Ed

I think for decent product photography, the least expensive digital SLR body with a good lens is a must. I'd say Canon or Nikon. I use the Canon rebel XT and am looking to sale my EOS film body. I'm really surprised how fast digital cameras have replaced film cameras. It seems like only a year ago people were arguing that that time was far off in the future. Even professional photographers are probably shooting more digital than film. ed

Steven King once wrote that he has typewriters all over the house, so if he gets an idea he can immediately sit down and start writing. I did a similar sort of thing with these magnets and magnetic bowls. They are placed all over the place so I can get to work in any space and keep track of needles, screws, tools, and such. HEre are some pics.

I called Ohio Travel Bags to pump to get information about the company. They wouldn't give it. There is a guy on Ebay who sells these rivets. Not sure if he gets them in the U.S. or directly from Belgium, but I'll ask him. ed

If you can, put the camera on a tripod, or something to keep it stable, expose the film frame a bit longer and without the flash. If you want to use flash, try bouncing the flash off the ceiling by placing an index card or something like it in front of the flash and angling the card 15 or so degrees toward the cieling. This may only work with a 35 mm SLr, but I'd give it a try even with a point and shoot.

I was just looking up rices for such a chunk of steel, something like $70. I'll start looking around welding shops. Thanks

For around that same price or$10 more you can get a .5" or .25" thick poly cutting board from U.S. Plastics, who doesn't stick you with high shipping charges.

I've heard the same about Belgium-made rivets. My boxes also state "made in Belgium". ed

I usually use scrap leather on top of the poundo mat. The few times I was too lazy to do so, I cut through the mat. It does come in handy, and every now and then Tandy has it cheap. ed

Dave, Thanks again for helping me out with those screws. If anyone wants to put together how-to tutorials for adjusting certain features of the 441 machines, I'm willing to lend my desktop publishing, photography and video skills to put together such tutorials in electronic format. It may be just me and my desire to take everything apart, but I'm really into making my machine stitch from a dollar bill to 1". I've realized lately that certain presser feet and needle plates are indeed needed for a wide range of applications. If I had the money and the space, I would take the advice to invest in particular machines for particular tasks. Instead, I've started trying to figure out what all those big allen head bolts do in the back of the machine. Until you screw something up, It's really quite interesting to see how all the mechanisms work in concert, which is one reason I think I have developed a quesionable obsession with these heavy stitchers . They're just so powerful, smooth, and elegant, and when you get to working on one , you feel as though you're constructing something on relative scale with the Brooklyn Bridge. Ed

I use a telescoping wand with a 3/4" diameter magnet with a pulling power of 9 to 15 pounds on the end to pick up dropped needles that are difficult to find.

This may seem necessary, but I'm worried about using one of the bowls on my heavy stitcher head. I just imagine that over time the magnetic pull might cause problems with the timing. I do use a few 3/16" by 1/8" magnetic discs on the head to hold small allen wrenches, screws, needles, etc. ed

I have a poundo board on top of the slab, and use my anvil or steel plate on top of that. I'll ask in a separate thread, but is there a good quality small steel anvil, or steel plate, that will resist indentations and pitting? ed

Is Tandy's stone slab marble or granite? I have three of them and am asking because I was at home depot the other day and noticed a granite counter top that looked a lot like my stone slab from Tandy, which is listed as "marble". Does Tandy sometimes switch between marble and granite, or is their slap indeed marble? It has been suggested to get a granite slab instead of marble for stamping logos and setting steel tubular rivets. Ed

I think I'll start using the softer poly boards for pounding out holes and pounding off strap ends. It's too easy to pound through the poundo boards, but I do like them to put underneath my granite slabs. ed