Pfaff education

[fibersport]

Can some of the Pfaff experts out there help me out with understanding the models of a Pfaff machine?  Mine is a 145-H4 designed for leather, however it seems to have been downgraded to a fabric model B or C.  I'm curious what the differences between the H2, H3, H4, A, B, C and D models are.  I have the various manuals but nothing that actually explains the differences.  For instance, I know an H4 uses a 190 needle system, however mine seems to be better with a 135 system but I would really like to know why?  Any help or direction to a source is greatly appreciated.

[Uwe]

This topic has the Pfaff Model decoding info:

 

You can adjust  some machines to work with a shorter needle system by lowering the needle bar. This will decrease the maximum height the feet can lift and may cause interference between presser feet and needle bar. Sometimes that makes sense if you want similar machines in your shop to all use the same needle system, and you don’t need the high lift feature. 

 

[Wizcrafts]

If your H4 sews better with the shorter system 135x16/17 needles, this tells me that somebody before you lowered the needle bar about 3/16 inch and set it to be in time with the hook. There can only be a few explanations for this.

1. They didn't have any system 190 needles, so they set the needle bar lower to work with the shorter needles on hand.
2. They were bending/breaking the longer probably very thin needles and didn't need the extra sewing height they afforded.
3. They have other Pfaff machines that use the shorter system 134-35 needles and just wanted to standardize the one you bought to match the others.
4. They had other non-Pfaff walking foot machines that used system 135x16/17 needles, so they downgraded your machine to use that system rather than stock another needle system.

Along with lowering the needle bar, they also had to reduce the maximum lift of the feet so that the bottom of the needle bar doesn't hit the lifted feet on the bottom of its stroke. Other changes could involve changing the top thread tension spring to a lighter action unit, and lightening the action and reducing the travel of the check spring. The spring changes would only make sense if the machine was not going to be used with any thread heavier than #69/T70.

[fibersport]

Thank you both, all very informative and helpful in trying to decipher my machine.  It's interesting that there is a chance that my machine still can be an H4 - not that it really makes any difference to what I need it for.  The most difficult thing I've run into is finding documentation that is for my machine and not different or newer models.  I don't know enough about the history of the 145/545/1245 along with the H series and A-D models to be certain what I have and what the correct settings are.  I will still post the chart I have that shows the parts I have in my machine that would tell me it's now something it wasn't - just need to be able to extract a page first.  Again, thank you both for the information.

[HarrisonNewman]

Hello, fibersport! If possible, please, share what manuals you read/use? I am just at the very beginning of mastering leather

Edited April 9, 2023 by HarrisonNewman

[fibersport]

Here is one of them.  If you do a search you'll find a bunch of manuals.  Keep in mind the 145, 545 and 1245 are basically the same machines.  

pfaff_145-manual-EN.PDF

[HarrisonNewman]

On 3/23/2023 at 1:02 AM, fibersport said:

Can some of the Pfaff experts out there help me out with understanding the models of a Pfaff machine?  Mine is a 145-H4 designed for leather, however it seems to have been downgraded to a fabric model B or C.  I'm curious what the differences between the H2, H3, H4, A, B, C and D models are.  I have the various manuals but nothing that actually explains the differences.  For instance, I know an H4 uses a 190 needle system, however mine seems to be better with a 135 system but I would really like to know why?  Any help or direction to a source is greatly appreciated.

 

On 4/9/2023 at 9:13 PM, HarrisonNewman said:

Hello, fibersport! If possible, please, share what manuals you read/use? I am just at the very beginning of mastering leather I am not sure it will help, but I've just read edubirdie reviews (I used the service being a student) to find out if they can help with such a specific request. I saw that many students try to figure out if Edubirdie is legal or if it is cheating, but after I got acquainted with the review, I made sure it is totally safe to use. I would like to know if it can be an option while I am learning how to work with leather.

Thank you! I'll check it!

Edited April 26, 2023 by HarrisonNewman