sandmanred

@Uwe Thanks! Where did you get the plastic banding? That looks great!

The Consew was purchased rusted solid on a sketchy home built table with rusty steel legs and a rough plywood top. I scrapped the top and got a solid core door slab and remodeled the steel from simple square design to a trestle with better knee clearance. The foot pedal was a leftover from a 132K6 foot lift that I removed and replaced with a knee lift. The Pfaff is in a table I made using 2 layers of plywood and a laminate top and an aluminum base. I had 2 inch square aluminum leftover from another project and only had to buy a few more feet to make this base. I thought the full width foot pedal was a good idea at the time but now that I've had it for awhile I don't think it's any better than a normal one. The table end showing in the last picture has large wooden pads with those plastic glides attached. The makes it's fairly easy to slide it around the room if needed.

My gears from ebay arrived today. All I could find was the upper gears but these are identical other than the bore on the horizontal shaft is 0.500 instead of 0.370. So I made a bushing to make up the difference. I got it running and with a little trial and error got it retimed. Everything is so quiet now. I'm running a hypoid gear oil instead of grease, it's nice and thick and clings to the gears without slinging off. What do you run on gears like this? Shown without cover in place to show the bushing on the one on the left.

I have a 31-15 and I really like it. It's can handle about 1/4 inch thick work and the manual claims up to a #23 needle. Though with a simple mod (drill out the need plate) I can run up to a 25 needle though I can tell it's really pushing the machine. I've slowed mine down with pulleys and added servo motor. I never got used to the roller foot. I like to run a teflon one most of the time. I've run from T90 to T210 on both top and bottom. Though the T210 is really limited on the bobbin due to the short lengths you can wind. Parts are available and it's a really solid simple machine. I've also lengthened the stitch length a bit by opening up the adjustment slot, I can get to almost 4 stitches per inch. It should do great with the boat canvas as long as you can get by without reverse. I've done a little large canvas work and I usually lock the stitch by spinning the workpiece 180 degrees so it's a little more work when the workpiece is large but it works. There's such a wide range of thing folks want to do with leather it's hard to say if it will meet your needs there but if you stay under 1/4 thick it should work for you.

I notice my rotary hook machines are a lot more likely to jam when starting if I don't carefully pull up any slack thread before starting. Even when I do I still have a snag from time to time right as the needle comes up from the first stitch. I try to always stop and start with the take up arm at the highest point. When starting to stitch any slack in the thread will get snagged by the hook on it's second rotation on my rotary hook machine where of course I don't have the same issue on the oscillating hook because it only comes by the needle one time per revolution of the hand wheel. Is this a common issue for rotary hook machines or is there something I need to do different when starting to stitch?

I sometimes even go a needle size bigger (up to a 25 in your case), especially if I'm going through any thick and hard. The larger needle has a larger groove so the thread pulls up easier with the take up arm. I have not bought these needles before but I have bought from this seller. https://www.ebay.com/itm/10-Organ-190LR-MTX190LR-Leather-Sewing-Needles-for-Pfaff-Industrial-Machines/161195915192?hash=item25880677b8:g:F9UAAMXQlgtS0ZJl

Does anybody know the actual changes in the machine that Pfaff makes to put the "L" in the model number instead of "S"? (L is for leather, S is for fabric)

Thanks for the part numbers. Yowsa! Those gears are over half what I paid for the machine! The Lithuania guy does not have a pair of the ones I need. I couldn't find the lower pair on ebay but I did find the upper pair. I have them on order. I'll bush out the large bore gear to make it work. I also found pairs of spiral bevel gears with the same number of teeth and very close to the same centerline distance on McMaster Carr. They have tool steel hubs and hardened teeth so they are the real deal. They are only bored to 6 mm and don't have set screw holes so I'd have a few more steps to get them installed. The gears are about $75. By the time I add metric set screws, drills and tap my total is about $100 plus probably a 1/2 day of fiddling to get them bored, drilled and tapped. That's a possible plan B if the generic ones don't pan out or last very long. Which supplier did you find them at? And thanks again for looking all that up!

Ah, good to know. As I just got this machine I know little of it's history. One of my theories was that a PO switched the top and bottom gears on the vertical shaft coming off the main shaft. Neither of the pair of gears on top of the vertical shaft have alignment dots. The pair on the bottom of the vertical both have orange dots. All that tells me the gears are likely all paired as originally installed. My plan at this point is to purchase and install a pair of upper gears and turn a bushing to fit the larger bore of the pair to fit the 9.4 mm shaft.

By the lower gears I mean the pair on the bottom of the vertical shaft that comes off the main shaft. For anyone that has had miter gears fail is it common for the pair at the bottom of the vertical shaft to fail or is it more likely the pair at the top to fail? Any idea what the little orange dot is for, it's on both of gears in this pair?

My new to me Pfaff 545 has a big problem. The lower pinion gears are shot :-( So far I can only find upper pinion gears on ebay or anywhere else I've checked. Any suggestions on where to find them? @Uwe

I decided the pressure was too high for what I need so I lifted the collar that retains the spring about 1/4 inch. The spring still has some pressure on the feet with nothing under them and reduces the pressure. I'll run with it that for a while and see how it goes.

I'm looking for screws and a slide cover spring for my Pfaff 545. Ebay is usually my go to but I'm not finding what I'm looking for for. Any other good sources for new or used parts on a Pfaff 545? Here are the screws I'm looking for. Even if you happen to know the spec for the screws it would be helpful. @Uwe

@UweThanks again for help with the machine and the forum. I think I can work with the range of pressure it provides. It looks like it if really bugs me I could loosen the set screw and shift the collar up a bit to relieve some pressure. I noticed that the feet were restricting the work from turning on tight turns but I've since softened the edges of the inside foot with a little abrasive and learned to pivot the work only when the inside foot is down on tight turns.

@uwe Here's another one for you

I recently got a Pfaff 545-H4-6/01 CLPMN. I found a decent copy of the manual on manualslib. I'm trying to understand the adjustment of the presser foot pressure. I can see the large coil spring around the presser foot bar but when I adjust the thumbwheel on top it doesn't change the length of that spring. There a plunger under the thumbscrew that compresses a much smaller softer spring inside the bar that hardly seems like much of an adjustment in pressure. What am I missing?

Thanks for you help!

Thanks! I see they have different hook arrangements for leather and cloth, any idea idea how specific they are? I mean can I still sew cloth with a leather machine or do I need to change over to the cloth specific parts? Would the 6 in the model number be the stitch length?

I have a chance to buy this machine. It's a long drive so I want to be sure it's what I'm looking for and the seller doesn't seem to familiar with the machine. Please help me understand this model number. I'd like to know the clearance under the presser, stitch length and max needle size possible. Thanks

I've got an old Singer 132K6 a rotary hook with no safety clutch. On mine there's a group of 3 set screws that fasten the hook to the shaft that drives it. It seems this is 'clutch' on these simpler machines as it was badly out of time when I got it and this was the only adjustment I had to make to get it sewing again. A modern clutch with a detent just makes the re-timing after a jam as simple as re-setting the clutch to the detent point. I have to remove a cover over the hook area, loosen the 3 set screws, re-time and re-assemble. It takes 5-10 minutes instead of a few seconds.

Lock stitch, compound feed, at least 3/8 under the presser foot, needle size up to 25 or 200 metric, stitch length up to 7mm or 3.5/inch, manual oiling and common so I can easily get parts. If it's rotary hook it'd be nice to have a clutch. Large bobbin would be nice too but not necessary. Head only is okay but would prefer it in some kind of table with motor.

Great, thanks for the information! I think I'll keep shopping, I'd like to run a bit bigger needle if needed.

Can anyone tell me the maximum needle size, max stitch length and max clearance under the presser foot of a 111w103? I have a chance to get one and I'm having trouble finding specifics on this model.

Here's one in Kasson MN if you're still looking. https://www.facebook.com/marketplace/item/108360061056759/?ref=search&referral_code=undefined

To prevent getting mixed up in the future. Available at WAWAK. The bobbins friction fits and the foam keeps even heavy thread tails under control. https://www.wawak.com/Sewing/Sewing-Machine-Accessories/Bobbins-Cases/28-bobbin-box-wfoam-insert-clear/?sku=PRT18