ChipperBags

I will double check the post threading… I thought the two holes were only used on the Fabricator, Juki 1541, Consew 226R and other full indies. Admittedly though, no, I have not checked. Simply watched videos. And I may have skipped a step. Thanks, Chip

I hope my pictures make it. Nope! Too big. So, do I have to reduce image res on my phone camera? Chip

This is the thread when the shredding happens. I would linked it, but I don’t know exactly how to do this. It was from Amazon. Desirable Life Bonded Nylon N66 Sewing Thread 1100 Yards Size #92 T90 280D/3 for Leather Denim Hand Machine Craft Shoe Bag Repairing Extra Strong Heavy Duty High Temperature Resistant Waterproof Sorry about the font. I see your extra long feeds for the thread. I think this stuff might need to actually spin off of the cone. It feels sturdier than the polyester. It probably twists to the point of breakage and then the hook nicks it and that’s all she wrote. Makes sense. Thanks, kgg! Chip

Ahh, well, when I use the white bonded polyester thread that came with the machine everything is working now. When I use a bonded nylon thread is when it’s gets shredded. needle is a 20 and the thread is 92 for both kinds. I really wanted to be able to use the nylon as I thought that would be better for leather, but I could be wrong. Regardless, is there something I need to change on the machine to run the bonded nylon? Bobbin tension?, needle size? as you said, tension? It is getting me rather frustrated with my brand new machine, which is attached to a table with a speed reducer and servo motor. I can tell you that the setup, while not a compound feed, is really very nice. As long as I can get it sewing. And like I said with the polyester, no problems. I even got the forward and reverse almost perfect! Chip

Once I get the shredding under control I’m going to make 3 sheaths for the remainder of our sewing scissors. Wish me luck!

Well, for anyone who is following my saga… My machine is working again! It turns out that when I was repairing the waxed canvas and leather bag, I must have “pushed” too hard on something because it just kept getting worse and worse. It would not move any material in either direction at one point. Sailrite kept sending me their adjustment video and I showed them a video of my machine. The walking foot was not even lifting up. I traced that back to the cam that controls the up down motion and when I checked, both set screws were loose. After I tightened them up, the walking foot was moving as it should. The inner foot, which is supposed to go up and down was not moving. Figured there had to be something controlling that too. Sure enough those set screws were loose as well! Tightened them all up, then ran through their adjustment video and all is almost right with world. Forward, check! Reverse, check (still working on matching f/r stitch lengths though) Now I have one new problem issue. Thread shredding when going from forward to reverse. Is it possible all of those adjustments I made threw off the timing of the hook slightly? I have also set my Servo to a max speed of 5 until I’m more comfortable with the machine. As always thanks for the interest, help and encouragement! Chip from CHIPPER BAGS

Thanks, Wiz! Sailrite wants you to dink with stuff. Sadly, I’ve dinked with it to the point where it does not feed in reverse. I took their position plate off so I could measure forward and reverse stitch length, that’s all I wanted to was get them set the SAME! once the forward and reverse lever had full range of motion, it will go 7.1mm in forward, with beautiful stitches, but try to go in reverse and the stitches were only 3mm. Thats when I emailed Sailrite! I already have an open customer support ticket. They sent me how to adjust the pressor foot height and range of motion video. I stopped for the night, put the machine back together so as to not lose pieces. I figure this is something, that I don’t think I should have to go through, all machines probably need a bit of setup… Especially after I messed with the feed dog height coming up through the table. This is a bit frustrating though. The good news is I really don’t enough material for anything real, but I got some scraps for testing. Chip from CHIPPER BAGS

Hi everyone! This is the quick Sheath I made with my new Leatherwork. Sorry about the video being sideways, I am going to try and fix that! My first sheath Chip from CHIPPPER BAGS

I got my machine! Now, my machine is my birthday present from my wife and when I showed her the Sailrite Leatherwork, she liked the way it looked and the stitches that came off of it in the demo and unbeknownst to me, she went ahead and ordered it! It arrived last Saturday! I assembled it Sunday AM. No troubles, or issues! Did some test sewing on their piece of leather, so troubles. Doubled up their piece of leather, which totaled 22 oz and sewed that, and as long as you went slow, it stitched just fine. Speed up and there are some missed stitches. But, that is WAYYY over the top for what the machine is rated at, which is 16 oz. And she's right, "It's cute!" I LOVE IT! I have already made a sheath for our rather large sewing shears and I repaired a wax canvas and leather bag my son has for school. The sheath was really easy, and the leather was 9 oz, 18 doubled up and the machine did GREAT! The bag would have been much easier with a cylinder arm machine, but maybe after I make a little money, which will have to be after I learn how to do this better, I can get that kind of machine. Regardless, I love my new Sailrite Leatherwork, which is on a table with the same Servo motor that the Fabricator comes with and it even has a speed reducer. It is a pleasure to sew on. Once I get a little better and understand the limitations of it more, I will be building the extension table that Willie Sanders made for his for mine. I think that will be quite helpful. Thanks, Chip from CHIPPER BAGS

Thanks guys! Also, I meant to say “… probably not…” The price for the machine, table, and clutch drive motor is enough under my budget, that I could replace the clutch for a sewline6000 servo motor AND get a speed reducer! Its a good deal IF the machine is in good shape. I am going to look at it tomorrow! The other one is slightly over my budget and 200 miles away, but it is only 2 years old and hardly used already repackaged on the pallet. Actually, you can see that one on eBay. Chip from CHIPPER BAGS

All reasonable suggestions/advice. Thanks! Chip from CHIPPER BAGS p.s. I may have found a JUKI 1541 nearby for a reasonable price. This to me would be a good name brand. High quality machine. What do you think about this one?

I want to sew leather bags, and canvas/leather bags (based on some designs I have in my head) and ones I have seen online. I will probably do some wallets, as most do. Little ones, probably. As far as machines I have been thinking about: Leatherwork by Sailrite. This is the non-portable flat bed hybrid. It has the workhorse servo motor, a 24" table and the LS-1 Sailrite (in green) as well as a small speed reducer. It is a complete package that is pretty nicely decked out and superbly supported. Sailrite Fabricator? No, not really. I cannot afford this machine. Consew 226R. This one was used and was a local dealer. Unfortunately, he never got a chance to put it together as the sewer line blew out under his floor. Technicall the PFAFF under #5 below is also a flat bed machine. At this point, I realized (due to information gathered here and elsewhere) that perhaps the BEST option would be a cylinder arm, compound feed machine. Consew 227R, nothing affordable Tech Sew 2750 (recommended by a bunch of leather people here and on YouTube), again, not really in my budget Started looking at the Yamata YF-335B. Again, while really close to my budget, once shipping was added, it blew that out of the water. Cowboy 341, which was suggested here. Again, pricey. Artisan 335 from a local dealer. Well, he does not sell those any more because he doesn't like them (or they are discontinued), so he switched to the Artisan 246 (w/Reverse). And that is a nice machine, but again, over my budget. Also, he sent me a 30 sec video of the machine stitching and the quality was not there. Maybe it was not setup that well, I don't know. And last night I found, on eBay a PFAFF 145 C-3. This would work, but it was a 'barn find' and needs to be 'cleaned up' but I think that German engineering (and simple design) would be great. There is a New Tech GC-8B for $1,399 with free shipping on eBay, but that is a Chinese machine and I have no idea, but I think that will also have to include taxes. But, heck, so is the Tech Sew and "Little King Goods" and Parker of "Whit & Park" use those as well as other machines. Now, that is the gambit. Small Portable (non) Hybrid, flat bed Industrial machines and cylinder machines. Like everybody says: "No one machine is going to do it all." Which is why most of you have more than one and you have listed 11. I'm just starting out. My wife says I always pick expensive hobbies. What I am looking for is something to do in my retirement that can bring me in some income as well as be a nice hobby to do. I don't think I will ever become a power house like "Whit & Park" but I do love their videos! Just look at it as my 'First Machine'. And if I can make some money, I can get other tools/toys. Because the used market situation is really bad as they are priced at the same cost as a brand new machine. I am leaning heavily towards the Sailrite Leatherwork. Which will run me $1,554.53. It will be shipped to me in three boxes, I will put it together upstairs where the sewing room is and go from there. That number, $1,500, IS my budget. I could go with the GC-8B, but I have found little data on this as to how it performs in the real world by REAL USERS. And it is Chinese. I have nothing against the Chinese, but the quality of products from that country are NOT up to the same specifications as the Japanese, German or US machines. Can I sew everything I want to on the Sailrite? Probably. Maybe not gussets easily, but perhaps I just do those some other way? And now, the THICKNESS of the material. I am looking to sew tote bags, in the 3-4 oz 5-6 oz range. I am looking for the temper to be that they stand up by themselves on the table. I might make some softer bags, already made two of those and had to put a stiffener in the bottom of each. So, I hope that helps with my thinking and perhaps your ability to give me some 'advice'. At some point, like Willie from "The Thoughtful Woodworker", I would like to be able to make my own furniture... Cushioned in Leather, of course. Thanks! Chip from CHIPPERBAGS

Okay, so I am having trouble finding machines in the used market. I’m open to any machine that will fit the work and do it with great stitches. The local Artisan dealer went up to the 246VA and sent me a clip of his personal machine running through some webbing. Well the stitches were NOT super great and it even looked like it missed a stitch. I just can’t justify spending that kind of money on something that is going to skip stitches. And he didn’t answer my questions. The other dealer here is not responding to me. These 2 things alone are pushing me more towards the Sailrite. The Fabricator is currently $1,795. The Leatherwork is only $1,395. That is a difference of $400. You include shipping for around $55 and then add taxes and you are up to $1,554.53 for the Leatherwork and more than $400 difference by the time you are done. I have looked a lot of places… what am I missing in searching for a good, used machine???

Okay, so now that I am at my computer instead of my phone I can write a more thorough introduction of myself, when I started 'sewing' and taking an interest in Leather and what machines I have used and why I think I will LOVE working with Leather. I am a 60 year old male who is thinking about retiring in two years from my real life job, if I can. I started sewing literally, just a couple of months ago... Why? Well, let me tell you a story. (Promise not to be too long) When I was a kid my mother would not let me touch her Singer shiny black sewing machine because she thought I would take it apart and break it. Now, I did take a lot of things apart to figure out how they work, but that sewing machine was never one of them. And so (get it, So, Sew) I never used a sewing machine. Even when I bought my wife one shortly after we were married, I had no interest in it. On to just a couple of months ago. My wife signed up for a quilting class. She was frustrated because the machine I had given to her more than 30 years ago was not performing the way it should. The tension was off, the bobbin clutch in the flywheel would not unlock and it would not reverse. We took it in to the shop twice, each time paying $75 or more to get it fixed. When I bought it I think it was about $130. It is a nice little Seammaster SM1000 (SM100, I can't remember). Anyway, we got it back from the repair shop and she took it class. It would still not stitch in reverse and we could not get the flywheel to unlock for the bobbin to be would without the needle being engaged. So, I took off the flywheel, found the 'clutch' washer was on backwards, flipped it around and put it back together. I hand tested it and it seamed okay. Then I was thinking, well let's just get her a brand new machine. So, my co-worker happen to have a Singer Quantum 9960 sitting around that his wife was not using, nor every did, so it was literally brand new in the box and gave me a deal on it. I brought it home. Once we unpacked it, she was in love with it, but as with most people she was taking it slowly. As a matter of fact she still has to finish her first project on it. But... I said to myself "How hard can it be to make a quilt?" So, I looked it up on YouTube, found a young woman who did your first basic quilt in 6 lessons of about 10 minutes each and started off on the new Singer 9960. OMG! I LOVE IT! It reminds me so much of my other interest/hobby, woodworking. In woodworking, you get the material, measure and cut out the pieces, put them back together the way you want them to be and then you finish them so they look nice. And you get to use very powerful tools! I had no idea, that sewing was so similar. You get the material, you measure it out, cut it up, put it back together the way you want it via sewing and 'clean it up' to look nice (remove loose threads, etc.) I finished my first quilt in a week and I had to wait on some things from Amazon for that one. I finished the quilt for her class on the old SM1000, ensuring it worked perfectly! We have since donated this machine to a woman in need of a machine! (And she loves it!) Okay, next I figured, "Hey, why not sew leather?" So, I pulled out my father-in-law's 1949 Singer 128 and set it up for leather as best I could. I got a scrap bundle from Amazon and made my sister a 'bag'. It is my own design. Admittedly needs a little 'tweaking', but it came out not too bad. Still needs to be shipped to her. While I was using the 128, (Very nice machine and quite AWESOME for what it CAN do and OMG the stitching is PERFECT! Until you get to the leather), I found out that not being able to REVERSE is a problem. Next up my mother-in-law's old Sears Kenmore "Purple Monster" Lilac Model 21. This thing has two speeds. On (very fast) and Off. But, WOW, is she powerful. She has a 1.1 Amp motor and doesn't strain on anything I threw at her while playing around. Then I decided to make 'scale model' version of the tote bag on Sailrite's website with the Scrap leather I had. So, I stitched two pieces together to make it big enough and then worked the pattern they had on their YouTube video. Now, everything was going just fine until I noticed that the Kenmore was having trouble feeding the wrong sides of the bad material (Leather, quite 'sticky'), but I kept on going because almost all of the seams would be on the inside of the bag anyway and no one would see them. Now this machine has reverse, so I was able to back tack for this bag. BTW, using #66 Bonded Nylon in both needle and bobbins, working just fine with the #20 Leather Point needle I put in both machines. So, the stitching varies in length all over the place, but it is a straight seam and it is locked in. I made the straps, stitched them on and my wife "I'll use that." So she got that one. I love running the machine! But, you can't just sit there having it go and go and go doing nothing... So, what to do??? LEATHER! Other fabrics can work too. I already have a design in my head for a waxed canvas and Leather tote bag that should be pretty cool. But, and this is where I am now, I don't really want to hand stitch things, although I had to do a little bit for my sister's bag, I found I don't really like it much. But, I do love the machines. So, now I am searching for a sewing machine. I know I am not going to get them correct and they are not all the same class of machine. After joining the forum here I realized I probably want to go with a Cylinder arm machine with a flat-bed table attachment. This type of machine would be 'ideal' to get up and running and maybe make things to sell. The usual items as listed in my first post, but my emphasis I want to be on bags... And that may have to be eventually. I am currently in discussions with two local dealers who may or may not be able to provide me what I want/need for the budget that I have. kgg has already said "buy once, cry once" but I may not have the budget for that. So, I have three potential machines, and availability _IS_ an issue. 1) Leatherwork by Sailrite. This package is my budget. It is about the right price and what I am willing to shell out. 2) I almost got a Consew 226R complete package for about $1,100. And that would have been GREAT! But, the local dealer had an issue where he was not able to put it together and he would not let me do it either. 3) Some kind of Cylinder arm compound feed machine, the second dealer sells Artisans. This one would be a 246VA. All three machines have their plusses and minuses and I know they are NOT all the same thing. Should I just get the Leatherwork, learn more about sewing, get better at that, sell items, get money and then invest in a better machine when I get there? Or should I just 'bite the bullet' and get the more expensive Cylinder arm machine now (assuming that the Artisan is a decent machine). BTW, my comparison to ALL machines is my wife's 9960, which sews like BUTTER on everything at any speed! It is an AWESOME machine. I'm told it can even do some very light leather, but I don't want to touch her machine any more. Okay, that's about it I guess. I have layed out my 'story', told you who I am, why I have an interest in sewing leather and which machines I have used and which ones I am considering. And asked for some advice as well. At this point, all I can say is: THANKS IN ADVANCE! Chip from CHIPPER BAGS (which I want to be my little business name)

Thanks, mfg!

What used market? I’ve been looking, but perhaps not in the right places. Today I did look at the Cowboy CB341 and it seems very close to the Sailrite specs, except it has the cylinder arm. Also, I have a question for you: what does “buy once, cry once” mean? Thanks , Chip from CHIPPER BAGS

I’m thinking about getting the Sailrite Leatherwork machine. This would be a brand new machine as you cannot find them used. I have also considered the Consew 226R, which spun like butter. Old and used, but gone through by a professional. Then I watched a video by Little King Goods at something like that and he suggested that if you are just getting started, get a compound feed cylinder arm machine with table attachment. I love the way the Sailrite setup looks and the control that is demonstrated. I also Loved the Consew 226. The only complaint with the Consew was the G size bobbin. The only thing about the Sailrite I don’t like is the lack of a Compound feed foot. If anyone who has actually used the Sailrite (Leatherwork) and a 226 (or Similar) would give me their thoughts, that would be great! Ideally I need something that will let me go around the circle sides on the barrel bags I want to make. And gussets but if the Leatherwork can do those jobs then that would be all I need. Also, I plant to use a variety of sizes of thicknesses all the way up to sometime using 10 oz Bridle leather. Overall I’m looking for opinions from people with experience using the machines for making wallets, bags, sheaths, totes etc. Thank you, Chip from CHIPPER BAGS

What more do you need? the Consew 226r is the one I almost bought. Nice machine!

Nice machine!

Roger.

She’s beautiful! Do you think you really need speed reducer? I almost got a 226r… Chip from CHIPPER BAGS

I was recently looking at a 226r for leatherwork and while the machine is AWESOME, in my opinion, I had to pass due to the situation the vendor is in. He is just preoccupied with a building situation and had no time to put it together, not let me put it together as I am quite capable of setting up industrial tables, motors, etc. But, I learned everything I could about the 226. Bobbin winding, threading, sweet spot for release, stitch length setting… all that you need. From all of that I think it’s a great machine and when I turned it by hand at the shop, it was as smooth as could! I just started sewing, but in my opinion you not only need a triple feed foot (compound, needle feed), you picked a very good machine for the job. As a matter of fact, the Sailrite Fabricator is based on the 226. As well as some of the Jukis. And those Japan machines will last forever. look on YouTube for Consew 226 and watch the “Everything you need to know” video on the 226. You will be glad you did! Chip from CHIPPER BAGS

Thank you for the welcome! Where do I go to discuss specific machines? Starting at almost the beginning! Chip from CHIPPER BAGS

Hi! My name is Chip. I’m new to leather working. I instantly loved it because it involves sewing with a sewing machine and reminds me of wood working (which I also love). I want to make nice bags and wallets for both women and men to sell. No website yet as I am just getting started learning about this, but… I’ve already made two bags using a Singer 128 and a Kenmore Model 21 “Purple Monster”. The Singer does not have reverse, so that was a bummer. The Kenmore has reverse and is a left homing needle (kind of an annoyance, but works). Both of them had their issues and I realised I can’t use them for quality work. Even still, both prototype bags I made came out “ok”. Those are going to be gifts. I have not settled on what specific items I will be making for sale, but totes will be on the list! Chip from CHIPPER BAGS