Troy1

Hey Guys, you are correct most of the castings originate from the same place as they are all 441 clones. Most of these companies offering these machines are small privateers and don't have R&D budgets to develop their own castings. That doesn't necessarily mean they're all the same though. When researching my buy, I found there are many ways to build up off that casting that leads to one machine being a bit better than another. Parts choices ultimately make a difference in how the machine sews out. Additionally, Steve, the owner of Cobra ran technical service for Artisan for years and really knows his stuff. He's a technician and a customer service guy first, and a salesman second. On top of that he's one of the few that Ive found that sincerely wants to help and not always needs to pocket a nickel every time for doing so. Not to say you wouldn't be happy with other machines too, but Steve goes beyond his competition in building up a 441 clone and most certainly stands behind his customers in supporting them any way he can. A search on this forum will confirm what I'm saying, buy a cobra and you a get a piece of Steve in the deal...priceless!

Selling my still new Cobra 4 machine. I bought it at the same time I bought several new Jukis to start my bag company. It was my plan to use this machine for sewing heavier leather bags but went into sewing more canvas and it was more machine than I needed. Machine is perfect with less than a bobbin load sewn through the machine. Accessories include heavy duty stand, table top, presser feet, needle plates, roller edge guide and 4 big pools of thread. Rare color, Steve offered me a choice of cream or brown when I bought the machine and I preferred having it match my other equipment Asking $2,000 firm. I'm in Portland Oregon. Please email philobag@gmail.com or PM Thanks for looking!

Selling my still new Cobra 4 machine. I bought it at the same time I bought several new Jukis to start my bag company. It was my plan to use this machine for sewing heavier leather bags but went into sewing more canvas and it was more machine than I needed. machine is perfect with less than a bobbin load sewn through the machine. Accessories include heavy duty stand, table top, presser feet, needle plates, roller edge guide and 4 big pools of thread. Asking $2,000 firm Please email philobag@gmail.com

Hi All, I have a literally new Cobra 4 that I bought from Steve thinking I would be doing some canvas bag manufacturing. I bought a Juki 1508 at the same time and after sewing literally one bag off the Cobra I switched to the Juki and it hasn't been used since. The table etc is still in its bubble wrap and Ive not used more than one quarter of a single bobbin through the machine. Comes with the roller guide, and most of the other accessory presser feet including the saddle blanket one. Save a bunch of money and a lot in shipping if you're in the North West, $2,000 firm email or pm philobag@gmail.com

The cyclone is similar yet different, the cyclone was the top of the line model. The Campbell machine is my second choice, do you know of one? Thanks for the reply. Troy

Hi All, Looking for a Campbell Cyclone, I know they're very rare and hard to find, and I'd probably be better off playing the lottery, but I thought if there was a shot it would be here on leatherworker.net. Anyway I know there are a few shops with them out there, I'm looking for one in any condition. If you have one or know of anyone and can lend a hand in leading me in the right direction that would be great. Thanks Much!

"Barrier of entry" can be beautiful thing if you're on the right side of the fence. Like most companies that end up building specialty items in house, too often there isn't an off the shelf tool that's right for the job. LV has huge resources and budget to make whatever sort of tooling they need. If you were to see their shop floor, you'd find nearly everything in there, with the exception of their basic lockstitch machines, are one-off tools designed and built by them....and they like to keep things private...just try getting a factory tour, not going to happen. The best thing to do is try to learn from the few clips and pics that are out there and from there reverse engineer and build your own tools.

I was about to get a quote on my first maker's stamp from them...just got the art ready this past week. Sounds like I might be better off searching out someone else. Any recommendations?

The other difficult issue that has to be considered here is fixed stitch length. I've been perimeter sewing on leather for a while now and the typical problem I run into is that last stitch before you hit a corner to turn. Most of the time it just falls in the wrong place. Go one more stitch and you are off the edge of the leather, or turn where you've landed and you're in too far. The only real way to do this consistently in a production environment is with a programmable tacker. The stitches can be pre-programed to accommodate the pattern (ie variable stitch spacing). Problem here is that you need to add a couple more zeroes to your budget....that's a big sting!

I just got my cobra series 4 this past week. The machine is great and Steve has never missed a call from me asking silly newbie questions.

I'll have to try the edge guide on my machine. I'm a real newbie so my biggest issue is not enough seat time behind a machine. I've been trying to bind edges with 1.5-2 oz tooling leather and even that thin it seems that it is still stiff and not wanting to bend over on itself. If you get a chance could you post a pic of the right angle folder that goes on the machine. Again thanks for the input and sharing your work with us, this site has a lot of great folks on it.

Great Looking bags! Can someone tell me more about the seiko edge binding machines. I've been hand molding my edge binding pieces and havn't been able to get a folder attachment to work very well. Thanks !

Thanks DeeAnna, I appreciate the advice and tips on our approach. I think the conway will work out well. Once a person fits the length to them I can't imagine changing it much from there on out.

I'm new here to the forum and after reading many posts, I decided to pony up and buy a machine. I decided on A Juki 441 based machine and distilled that down to the Artisan or Cobra. After seeing the specials and all the banter, I called both Artisan and Steve. Completely different experiences I must say! A bunch of bragging from Artisan followed by the comment that the pricing was for the show only (although their post reads completely different)! I decided to go with Steve and I'm happy I did. I just met him at his new showroom this past week and he is a great guy and setting up a nice business. Although a newcomer, I coudn't reccomend Steve more! He's a straight shooter for sure!

One of the main reasons for the stay is that every industry was bombarding the cpsc with the challenge to tightly define what is and what isn't specifically a childs product, they haven't defined tightly enough these parameters for every business sector. In addition, they set such tight limits on restricted contents that technology couldn't physically comply. This stay is similar to the new 10+2 regs that importers are now having to comply with since Feb 28th of this year as well. Basically the Gov is giving everyone a year to get their systems of compliance together. Everyone must be showing that they are moving forward with compliance. Fortunately it really doesn't have a huge impact on the leatherworker. If I were a tannery or hardware manufacturer on the other habd I would be investing ins some $40 lead test. Brass will probably shake out as the sore thumb in this industry.

Thanks for the input.....sounds like I'll give a conway a try.

Back to lead and the cpsc, I come from the bicycle manufacturing industry and I'm well versed on the new cpsc rulings. I had the oh so fine pleasure of being involved in many rounds of banter with them. The good news is that there are but a couple of contention points for leatherworkers. Lead testing is actually the easy regulation to work around. In my industry its pthalides that are the real bear cat. Fortunately we don't work with many plastics and pvc's in this industry so thats not so big of deal. Here's a rundown of keys as it might pertain to you all. PROBLEM AREA: BRASS!! Contains high amounts of lead don't use solid brass PVC - if using any plastics make sure they are not poly vinyl chloride based products OK COMPONENTS: Leather - Veg Tan, and I would think chrome tan would pass as well but it would be interesting to test both Stainless & Nickel plated hardware etc. Polyeurathane - based plastics PU and TPU ok "most poly, and nylon wovens are ok Cotton - Canvas etc. To be safe one should have lead certificates in hand. These tests should be completed by the actual manufacturer making the raw components (the hardware casters, tanneries etc..). Certificates are issued by a certified third party tester (they are all over the world). Testing for lead is actually cheap ranging from $40-100. No you don't test every piece you make, you test by comoponent. So if you were making a kids handbag for instance you should have a test certificate for the leather, and the hardware pieces. Once you have this blanket test you're generally good as long as you buy the same components from the same vendor. All of this cpsc mess came from the lead-laden kids toys from China that quite a few young kids got sick from.The lead contents were higher than many of the old toys we used to chew on as kids. Originally the cpsc wanted to make this new ruling retroactive meaning that all the product on retailers shelves could potentially have been pulled. Fortunately it was demonstrated to the cpsc that this could and would have bankrupted more than a handful of American businesses so that was overturned. The nice thing about this cpsc ruling is that it lays down an even playing field. All offshore product have to comply as well as domestic goods. In the past a lot of things of this nature only applied to US manufacturers while folks in China were free to operate however they wanted, thus further creating a tipped playing field. I'm hoping we can rebuild some American manufacturing infrastructure and get people working again. For me more than ever about keeping it local!

I'm making a new 1-1/4" wide leather strap for an old filson bag I have. The strap consists of two pieces, one short with a conventional sort of buckle and the other much longer with holes so the length can be adjusted to the liking of the wearer. Is there any downside to using a conway buckle instead. The leather is going to be 8/9 oz. veg tan and I like how the conway's allow the belts to lie flatter and more parallel to one another. I've played around and it seems secure but I wasn't sure if there might be some caveats I'm unaware of. Any input would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

First Let me say what a great forum you all have here! I'm new to it about three days now and can hardly peel myself away from it. I've participated on many different sorts of forums and I've never seen one that is so community oriented, positive and helpful. OK... now I need to pool some wisdom here. As a kid I used to tool and hand sew wallets, belts, and ammo pouches. Thats been 30+ years ago and I'v probably forgotten more about leather than I ever knew! Anyway its always been a hope that I could get back into it at least on a serious hobbyist sort of level. Presently my interests lie in making over the shoulder type bags (messenger flap style bags). I'm interested in doing some Waxed canvas and/or cordura bags bound with thinly skived tooling leather with leather straps etc. I would also like to tackle similar stye bags in all leather, probably made from tooling leather in 7/8 oz. and three layers thick max. The portablility of the sailrite and their great customer service reputation has attracted and got me thinking this might be the perfect little machine for me to start on. At $700 or so with all the goodies I'm forced to have second thoughts and wonder if I mght be better off ponying up some more money and getting a true industrial machine. I would appreciate any input as to the pros and the cons and what you think about the sailrites LS-1 ability to actually do what I'm thinking. I've searched the sailrite threads and got some info but would like to hear directly from any one interested in shooting me their two cents. Thanks in advance!

That's a great looking bag! Where did you find the little stud to hold the flap closed?