luke213

Thanks for the reply appreciate it;) The needle is in per the directions in the manual best I can tell. The little I think they call it scribe or something, but the area that is ground from the needle is facing the set screw that holds it in place. I tried by advice elsewhere rotating the needle a few degrees one way or the other without any result either. It could very well be timing but I don't honestly know how the timing in these would be adjusted anyone have any idea? Any other suggestions would also be appreciated it sure feels like it must be something small that I'm just either missing because I'm really not familiar with sewing machines or I guess maybe that's just wishful thinking;) Thanks again! Luke

Alright guys I've got a question for those of you out there with more experience on this machine than me:) (which would be pretty much anyone since I'm just getting things working). First I'll give a bit of backstory, I saw this aero for sale fairly locally to Houston and picked it up for a good price. Lady's husband had passed away who was a saddle maker and had two of these machines. One functioning which she had sold and this one. I took the gamble and brought it home, sent Tippman a picture and told them to ship me everything I was missing. I also learned that mine apparently(according to Tippmann) never had a manual with vacuum locations and routing since it was a late model and had a new system used. So I also got a hand drawn diagram of where things were supposed to go. Long story short I spent the last two days getting everything working, lots of little headaches, I'm sure the guy who owned it just robbed parts from one to fix the other. So it works well at least everything moves as it should. (I'm pretty sure) I don't have any real sewing machine experience, my wife is a seamstress but has never worked on a machine like this one. The symptom is that when I press the pedal the needle goes down all the way and if I'm holding the needle thread very loosely it will pickup the bobbin thread(even a little tension and it won't). Then I string those out behind grab some scrap leather and try to stitch. Needle goes through the leather but doesn't pick up thread off the bobbin to complete the lock stitch. If I hold the thread in hand it will lock but only with very very light tension(almost it jamming because of double stitching). I'm running 277 on top and 207 on bottom at the moment, from what I'm reading that's actually too light for my holsters. First before I worry about that though I need to get the thing to actually throw down a stitch;) Any help or suggestions would be appreciated. I've been in touch with Tippmann but I didn't finish fixing everything else until they closed for the day. So I'm out another day and I still don't have a working machine:) I do however know the pneumatic system in this Tippman back to front and could draw another diagram of it after fiddling so much with it;) Thanks again! Luke

One other thing that I've found, if you have to order them from somewhere that has the final finish you can remove it. Today I did some testing on my Sig bluegun and found denatured alcohol removed the blue finish coat without hurting the surface. Other cleaners may work also but I didn't try any of them, a little elbow grease and it's without the blue that I normally have a fight with. Also you don't have to get it all off, mostly just the higher points that get the most contact with the leather. Good luck:) Luke

I actually had some luck a while back picking up a bluegun from MidwayUSA, I had some other bits and pieces for my 1911 that I needed to order along with a Sig 229 bluegun. Came in with the rest of my order in less than a week, overall good experience. I have though started getting them direct from Rings so they come without the final finish, thankfully first few holsters I made with that bluegun ended up being black so the little rub off that I would have gotten was not at all noticeable in the final product. Luke

A trick I've found that's worked for me to get the groove on the back side is to punch the holes then take a freehand stitch groover and do the back side. It's much tougher since you will bind a little on each hole and you have to be careful but it does work. Otherwise nice work, and great job boning:) Luke<br>