JollyDodgerCanvas

If you are making enlargements, then the projector is a good way to go, but why not use a vinyl cutter with a pen in place of the knife to trace out your patterns on cardstock, they are generally cheaper than printers or plotters and range in width from 24" ~ 58" Using a projector is tough to keep the exact scale and you still have to do a lot of handwork, alternatively a wide carriage laser cutter to just make a fine line on your material would be another option, but the ones over 24" are very expensive.

I took a look at some of my other binders and they do have that "tab" running past the edge of the binder outfeed. Strange how KH didn't include that. I'm using the KH binding feet, they seem to get the back of the binder touching the center foot so seem OK. Is that outfeed tab what would enable me to do curved work easier?

Making prototypes is how you discover your design is affected by material choice. Find a material, cheaper, with similar thickness and make a prototype and measure the error. I use layers of cheap upholstery vinyl glued together or rubber to simulate thick materials, heavy canvas could do as well.

Using V138 bonded polyester thread, the attachments are from KH, using the 25mm one now. I bought a "bias binding folder" to make my own binding material out of 10 oz canvas, cut on the bias. I also bought cotton webbing in three different thicknesses and had luck with the thicker material, keeping the needle down when turning is a good tip! I have had to use my awl a lot to keep the material from walking away from the edge. The fabric I'm binding is a composite of 24oz canvas, thick interfacing and 10 oz canvas liner. I found sewing the edge on my flatbed machine first helps keep everything together. I have used standard straight binders in the past to good effect, but I'm just learning how to use the right angle binder and will admit the CB4500 is a beast and I may have been better off with the next size machine down, but that's what I have now and will eventually get it to work. I have used the CB4500 for top-stitching with heavy thread, v277 and it's been great for that. I"ll add a post later with photos, thanks for the tips!

I bought this binding attachment and it's working well for straight runs but I'm having trouble getting it to go around curved material without bunching up the fabric and sewing off the edge of the binding. I made my own bias cut binding out of 10oz canvas and am also using webbing, same issues with not being able to turn a corner with a less than 3" radius, sill learning how to use it. I need to bind a piece for a bag with a 1" radius and also tried to use a needle plate binder attachment for my P1206rb and had the same issues of not being able to turn a corner tight enough.

I have a terry cloth rag and wipe up under the head before loading material, drips are annoying, but it takes a while for oil to migrate down through the bushings.

The Cowboy4500 is fully manually oiled, no wicks no pumps. Oil a lot more frequently than other machines. I had a chat with my dealer about oiling the hook race frequently, hourly if you are running the machine constantly. He told me about a customer who didn't oil the hook enough and the steel turned color due to the heat build up.

I bought this machine years ago and use it for what it's intended for, repair. I spent a lot of time cleaning it up and polishing everything I could and it runs well, eventually mounted it to a table and attached a 550W motor to it. I only use it on occasion and it's great for those very hard to get at places which none of my other machines will sew. Is it for production of fine leather goods? No, but for repair work it's amazing. I looked at the old 29K's and could not find one any where near me so I took a chance and bought the Chinese patcher and am happy with it for the limited work it does. I generally run V92 top and bottom with 135x17 needles. I have run V69 for actually applying patches to a hat and jacket, works fine. Perhaps I was lucky with mine but if you play around enough with it you can get it to sew reasonably well. Not as nice as my other industrial machines, but unique in it's capability so I have left it set up.

I bought one years ago and as a repair machine it's fine. For making new leather products I would look elsewhere. It is difficult to run a perfectly straight line of stitches, but that's not what the machine was designed for! I keep mine for mending things I don't want to disassemble and the 360 degree sewing is amazing if you are aware of the machines limitations, the bobbin is small so it's not a production machine by any standard. As for scratching the surface of your work, get another presser foot and fill the teeth with JB weld and then keep it rough sanded for traction, not hard to do. For applying patches to hats and jacket sleeves it can't be beat and is worth every penny for that alone.

Installed my new "narrow" needle plate and feed dog today. Nicely made, fit my CB4500 perfectly. Test sewed on some 24oz cotton duck canvas and stitched well. Will use with V138 bonded polyester to see how it goes fabricating some products later in the week.

I have a Singer 20U, from the 80's I estimate. Decent machine for what it is, was never a factory quality machine but used in the alterations trade at dress shops and dry cleaners. People have used them in production, but they only have a manually oiled hook so take a lot more maintenance than a machine with an oil sump and pump. Drop feed only. The two advantages of the 20U design is it takes standard "high shank" feet, huge variety available, and is a decent ziz zag machine which also has a knee lift for the presser foot or you can switch it over to use the knee lift to vary the with of the zig zag while sewing, which is used for manually making embroidery. I use it for overlocking the edge of canvas, and sewing light weight fabric that would be overkill for my walking foot machines. It has a very small "L" bobbin which is fine for T27 thread, but runs out quickly for the T70 I normally use with the machine. The pulley is friction locked so you can wind a bobbin, but that's not what you want for heavy materials like leather or synthetics. There are many clones on the market and if you want this kind of a machine Consew makes a few models which could be considered "industrial", but compared to the computerized plastic machines available today for domestic use this is far more like an "industrial" machine as it sits in a power-stand and you can put any motor you want under it. Not as accurate as a Juki 8700 (drop feed) for straight stitch, but for a zig zag machine it's ok.

Schmets website says they no longer make the needle mentioned above, non stick. But I found this... https://www.allbrands.com/products/15553-organ-dpx17-135x17-cs-cool-sew-ptfe-coated-non-sti It's a PTFE coated needle by Organ. (Teflon) should help with sticky assemblies.

I bought a "cheap" Chinese leather patcher years ago, I spent a few hundred from an Ebay seller who included a large bundle of spare parts which I haven't needed yet. I didn't expect much from the machine as it's small and hand cranked, but it did the job I needed and I ended up motorizing it and mounting it to a table. The stitch quality is OK, but for repair work on nylon backpacks and bags it's been fine for me, certainly not a production machine, or for a commercial repair shop, but for my limited uses it's been great. I run it with V92 bonded polyester thread and a #20 needle, sews well enough. I've seen them advertised on Amazon now and Ebay for half what I spent.

"Standard workspace" is 10" for an industrial machine +/-. For a domestic machine it's 7". Medium is anything from 10" to 18" and that's where "long arm" machines start, approximately. I have machines which are 7", 10- 1/4", 10-1/2", 16" all straight stitch, and am considering a 20" zig zag machine for a future purchase.