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That's enough for me. R&D is over and the magnet idea is now in the trash bin. I'll have to find some other excuse to go to taco bell. By the way, anyone interested in going in on 600 nickel plated flap closures. OTB has a cool one on its catalog back cover. They can tool a similar one but minimum order is 600 at 4.50 per piece. Just though i'd ask, since the magnet idea is a no go. I hope I don't win the auction for 10 magnets. Thanks, Andy, for putting the idea to rest. ed

just though of something as i was heading out the door. you don't need two magnets, though that would make for a stronger closure. You just need one magnet and one piece of metal. The metal can be placed on the bag face. the magnet on the bag flap, which would lessen the chance of a magnetic force damaging anything electronic or magnetic inside the bag. Additional material can still be placed behind the metal plate for insurance. The only risk now is from incidental contact between the magnet in the flap and contents of the bag. But again material can be placed between the magnet in the flap and the outside surface of the flap, so that the strongest magnetic surface is on the inside of the flap to allow contact with a metal disc on the front panel. However, I'm still making the run for the border. Ed

credit cards, uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuhhh! But what about if there is 4/5 oz of leather between the magnet and anything else? That would certain lessen the force. There also might be some kind of material I could put between the back of the magnet and the leather covering. I should test this out on a credit card I no longer use. stitch it into some leather, run the card across it 200 times about five inches away. Then go to taco bell and see if I can purchase a bean burrito with the card. If I get my bean burrito, then i'll swipe the card directly over the leather, return to Taco Bell and see if this time I can buy a burrito supreme. If I end up damaging the magnetic strip on the card, I'll have the bank issue me a new card, or I'll just cancel the account -- always looking to do R&D on the cheap. Ed, who never "seems" to tire of experimentation and certainly is never bored but sometimes a bit hungry

Regis, About how many threads do you have showing on the primary and secondary tensioner bolts? I had about nine showing and was still having problems getting 277/277 to pull up properly. I figured that top tension was plenty tight and that the problem must lay elsewhere. This was the case with softer chrome tan as well as regular veg tan, about 5/6/7 oz in both cases. Ed

I have that. It works but could have been designed better. If you could find one for about six bucks pick one up. More than that I'd say no. I'll try to play around a bit more with mine to give it a fair shake, but I do know that nothing compares to the first four hours of cutting with a new blade. Hands down, if you can find these blades cheap somewhere, you're better off than buying this sharpener even for six bucks. ed

ooooh, that's a nice idea with the water. If you can and you have the chance could you post pictures of the primary and secondary tensioners on your 3000? I'm curious to see how many threads are exposed on those tensioner bolts. I've had both ratcheted to about nine threads showing, which made pulling out top thread with the tensioner discs apart a bit difficult. This was telling me that my top thread was plenty tight and that I should look elsewhere for the fix. Thanks again for the water idea. Thanks

I was cruising ebay looking at bags and got the idea to incorporate two 1" by 1/8" circular rare earth magnets into the bag flap and face panel as a flap closure, but no lock. These magnets have about 58 lbs of pulling power. I was looking through the OTB catalog ans saw that their closure magnets cost about $3.50 apiece and I bet they have nowhere near the pulling power of these rare earth magnets that can be had for maybe $.75 to 1.50 apiece. I'm not sure if this would detract from the masculine features of the bag, but I do like the idea that the Maverick would be incorporating some unseen ubiquitous force. Do you think the size of the magnets should be larger or smaller.? there is the issue of magnetic sensitive electronics people carry in their bags, but I think there are ways to obviate any problems. I'll post links to bags and magnets later. Ed

Regis, Are you doing 346 top and bottom and getting good results with half a bobbin? What tyoe and thickness of leather are you stitching. I'd like to be able to do 277/277 and 346/346, and I'm wondering if the mach1/neel's5/ferdco baby bull bobbins might work better in the 3000/4000/2000/441. It's my impression that they spin a bit more freely in the larger stitchers. I've never tried this focused on this one aspect, only to see if the smaller bobbins do work in the larger machines, which they do. All of my other experimentations earlier had been with the same size thread in fully wound bobbins. It may not matter that much, but is your thread coming off the bobbin in a ccw fashion? I'll be sure to report back later. Ed

Boom, are you hand stitching with 277/277? For the life of me I can't get my 441 cylinder arm machine to pull up the lockstitch into the leather, but than I'm not stitching two layers of 10 oz veg tan either. I'll give that a try. Mainly I'm working with two sometimes three layers of 5/6/7 oz chrome tan, veg tan, latigo, and bridle leather. ed

Hi John, Funny you should mention Lowes. I'm just on my way out the door on my way to them. Ed

Incredible!!!

okay , now I'm really starting to get pissed off. I just now tried the screws from the needle plate, which are .165" thick. They work fabulously in the holes for my material guide. The manual says that those screws for the needle plate are supposed to be 3/16" with a pitch of 28. No way in hell does that screw have a pitch of 28. It has the same pitch as the screw that's giving me this headache. Here's what I'm gathering now. I just need a fricken screw that has a tpi/pitch of 40 , is about 3/4" long , and has a thickness of about .160" to .161". The screws I picked up at HP would work nicely if only they had a pitch of 40 instead of 32. I might just be able to use metric screws: 4mm with a pitch of .7 Ed

I've been doing a bit of research and have realized that my understanding of bolt measurements is faulty: an #8-32 is not 8/32". I took a caliper measurement of the original bolt and it is about .150" thick, which means the replacement bolt cannot be 11/64". The bolts picked up at HD are about .160" thick. What to do, what to do? The only thing I think I am sure of is that the tpi must be 40. My next best educated guess is that a US #8 is about the same as a metric #4, which is about 5/32" thick, which is about .15625". I think my real problem is that I need a tpi of 40. The bolts I bought may be an adequate thickness, but their tpi is 32 not 40 . Ah, hell, I'm calling Artisan tomorrow to see what screws they have. ed

I found a pretty large selection of bolts at boltdepot.com http://www.boltdepot.com/product.aspx?cc=1...m=6&cd=1208 if the original allenhead bolt in the machine is 11/64" , in decimal that would be 0.171875". The allenhead bolts I bought tonight at home depot are #8-32 (which I understand to be the same as 8/32", which in decimal is 0.25"). I could return to home depot and get the #6-32 allenhead bolts, which in decimal is 0.1875",just a bit wider than the 11/64 bolts. When I was looking at the 6-32 bolts, they seemed much too narrow. I think I remember even trying the original bolt in the 6-32 demo hole at home depot, not a chance. Am I correct in assuming 8-32 and 6-32 respectively are 8/32" and 6/32"? Ed

I just now downloaded this pdf and am wondering if a 3/16" bolt with 40 tpi would work. Thanks for the tip on the auto part's store. I'll try tomorrow. fasteners_nuts_bolts_screws_chart.pdf fasteners_nuts_bolts_screws_chart.pdf

I couldn't find many metric bolts at home depot. Any suggestions for another source?

The manual says 11/64-40 10.5 At home depot I tried the bolt in the metric screw holes. didn't fit any. I tried the 8/32" hole it fit but not 100 percent perfectly. I'll look around more tomorrow for 11/64" and metric. My other option is to get the locktite titen gap builder, but I still think I need to get longer bolts. The original bolts are about 3/8" long. ed

just got back from home depot with some 8/32" bolts. They seem a bit tight in the machine and don't want tot force it. Doeas anyone know where I can get the 11/64" bolts with a thread pitch of 40 and about 3/4" long. I'll try some other hardware stores tomorrow. I was almost sure these bolts would work. ed

Hi Art, Is there one adjustment screw that will raise or lower the resting height of the inner and outer presser feet in unison, rather than having to adjust them separately? I think that's what you were getting at it your post. FWIW, I think I now know with conviction how to adjust the height of the inner and outer feet: 1. Suspend both feet with the hand lever. Turn the flywheel so that inner and outer feet are the same height. 2. Loosen the allen head bolt on the left side of the short shaft in back of the head (as if you were sitting in the operating position). 3. Lower the inner foot about 3/16" below the level of the outer foot. Then tighten that same allen head bolt on the left side of the short shaft. 4. Now I just need to find the one adjustment that will raise both of these the same resting distance to or from the needle plate. As always, thanks so much for your help, Art. For me, anyway, I think it's good to know how to do these things, though I do realize that most people use these machines to do 10 oz or so all day and never seem to need to make these adjustments. I'll take all the pics necessary to document these procedures, and then this thread cold be a useful resource for adjusting all things related to presser feet. ed

I just want to get back to stitching my bags and stop all this fiddling with the hardware. I think I've figured everything out and am no worse for the wear, probably a bit better in the long run. Another thing I did, because I wasn't thrilled with the stitches with the raised needle plates and the new presser feet, was to reinstall the needle guide. Stitches do seem better with the needle guide installed. Now bag to a little bag work. Ed

I really think I do have a knack for all this mechanical stuff,which is just another way for me to justify jumping into this honorary PhD in mechanical engineering, with thanks to all who have provided me the necessary encouragement and confidence, also which is another way to say I have already started fiddling around with the clamps and screws and bolts and....There ain't no turning back now. I'm getting my wish to learn how these machines work. okay, I think I have figured out a bit of what's going on. I'll have to check thicknesses to be sure, but I'm pretty sure I'm correct. Ever since I changed from the stock blanket needle plate to the slotted flat and raised plates, I noticed that the presser feet were too high, though in reality this was only the case with the flat slotted plate.. This was also primarily the case with the harness makers foot, which is not as thick, thus a lower overall descent that that with the blanket foot. At the time I never had cause to fiddle with the center foot bar. Then the need arose to improve stitching on gusset corners, really only with the middle gusset stitching, three layers of leather. The harness makers foot just did not allow me to stitch those corners properly, forcing meto hand punch and hand stitch. This was the case even with the raised needle plates. I then opted for the outer presser feet and inner groover foot, really needing only the rt. foot and inner groover for these gusset corners. This set up was of a much different length then the other setups: the inner groover is shorter than the other inner feet I have, rising 3/16" to 1/4" off the slotted flat plate when at its lowest descent. so, here is what I had to do. I had to find a way to lower the center groover beyond the point that the stop screw would allow. The stop screw is in the lower red circle pictured in "head1 ann.png." however, by taking out this stop screw and allowing the center foot bar to descend 1/8" to 1/4" lower, the rocker arm elbow, pictured in the green circle of "head1 ann.png", was pushed out farther toward the left wall of the head face plate, which had to be filed down a bit. Someone please let me know if taking out the stop screw was a bad move. Now that I've made the fix, I realize this problem also arose because the slotted flat needle plate is thinner or has a lower rise than the original blanket foot plate that came with the machine. I could have fixed this problem by shimming the needle plate and using two washers underneath the plate. i still may do this. What I also learned I also learned how to reduce or increase the to and fro travel of the center foot in relation to the outer foot. When I set up these new feet without any modifications, I noticed that the outer foot was always well in front of the center foot, too much for my taste. There is one allen head bolt on the machine that when loosened allows for the adjustment of this to and fro motion, which I now have set to about 1/8" at its narrowest. (see pic "cf tofro ann.png" ). A picture of this foot with the adjustment is in "rt ft 1.png" Please let me know if this was a wise move or if I may have set off some other problem waiting to happen. thanks, ed

Thanks Jordan. I think a combination of blue locktite and longer screws are in order. By the way, how long are these screws in the 441 versions others of you might have? Mine I think are just what the manual states: 11/64- 10.5 Ed

Hi Art, I'm going to illustrate my entire adventure and post it later this evening. But before I do that I want to post my latest discovery. With these new outside presser feet and the inner groover foot, I was getting 1/4" of clearance with the flat slotted plate. This motivated all the fooling around. I loosened the one allen head bolt that allows lowering of the center foot bar. There was one stop screw that did not allow the center foot, which is by the way shorter than the other two center feet I have (blanket foot and harness makers foot), to descend all the way to the needle bar or about 1 to 2 mm off the needle bar. I took this stop screw out and was able to lower the center foot bar as low as needed. However, another problem occurred: there is a a swing arm elbow that slightly grazes the inner back wall of the head face plate. I will now proceed to dremel off a smidgen. I thought I'd report on this move now, just in case anyone wishes to stop me in the next ten minutes. Thanks, Ed, who, if he were a cat, would be killed by curiosity by now

Thanks regis, I think one thing I need to do for sure is run to home depota and get screws that are longer than 10.5 mm, about a quarter of an inch longer. ed

Have any of you who have a 441 clone ever encountered a problem with the two screw holes right of the needle plate stripping and needing to be retapped. These are the two screw holes that secure the metal plate to the right of the needle plate or the T-bar ffor the material guide. I was just now doing some stitching. I was resting my hand on that T-Bar as I leaned in to get a closer look at a stitch, and those two screws popped out under the pressure I had applied. Does this mean I need to retap those holes or might there be some other fix? Anyone ever experience this? Thanks, Ed