Junker & Ruh SD28

[Mulesaw]

I found a J&R SD28 on a Danish classified page catering for vintage cars. there's a section for miscellaneous and the machine was suddenly there. 
The seller wanted 500 Danish kroner for it (72 US$), so I figured that it couldn't hurt to buy it.

It was placed quite far from where I live, but I have a friend who happened to be in the neighborhood anyway, so I sent him some money and he paid the seller. 
Now I just need to get it from my friend at some point. But that's no hurry - well and I also need to try to locate some needles for it. From what I have read they are not readily available anymore, so if any of you happen to have a spare needle that you could spare, I'd definitely be interested. It should be a system called 1551 as far as I have been able to gather.

There is one needle on the machine, so I am not completely stuck, but it couldn't hurt to have an extra.

It is kind of strange that even as a adult, finding a bargain like that is able to make you happy. But I like that, since I guess it is proof that even though my age is advancing, my heart and mind is still pretty much what it used to be :-)

I haven't got any pictures of the machine yet, but when I get my hands on the machine at some point, I'll be sure to post them.

[TomE]

Looks like a beast of a machine.  Should be fun to work with.

[Mulesaw]

9 hours ago, TomE said:

Looks like a beast of a machine.  Should be fun to work with.

Yes, I'm looking forward to it. I don't think it is very fast though, but it might be able to do some stitching near hardware etc. :-)

[Handstitched]

I had a good look at one of these machines up close  in our local museum , owned and run by a good friend of mine.  Its amazing what you find when you look around your own ' back yard' . I recognized it straight away after reading about it on here. 

HS

[chrisash]

Often wondered why obsolute needles cannot be hand made in limited quantities, i do realise its not worth the big machines running off a few hundred, but the last time I have seen SD28 needles for sale they were mighty expensive and that was years ago, and i have always wanted that machine as the simple mechanism seems fantastic in our complicated world

[Mulesaw]

On 9/24/2023 at 6:46 AM, Handstitched said:

I had a good look at one of these machines up close  in our local museum , owned and run by a good friend of mine.  Its amazing what you find when you look around your own ' back yard' . I recognized it straight away after reading about it on here. 

HS

I have never seen them before. Actually I haven't even seen my own machine yet, since I got a friend to buy it for me, and he has given it to another friend who lives a bit closer to me, so I need to get to him to pick it up :-) 

From what I was able to scour from the Net, Wilhelm Pedersen in Denmark copied the machine so at least I can get a Danish manual for it.

[Mulesaw]

On 9/24/2023 at 10:09 AM, chrisash said:

Often wondered why obsolute needles cannot be hand made in limited quantities, i do realise its not worth the big machines running off a few hundred, but the last time I have seen SD28 needles for sale they were mighty expensive and that was years ago, and i have always wanted that machine as the simple mechanism seems fantastic in our complicated world

I checked on Schmetz' homepage (I think that was the one, though it could be another manufacturer)

They could make a production run of the needles, I just don't know how many needles I would have to order, but I seriously consider to contact them and ask. 
There seem to be quite a lot of those machines out there, so it ought to be possible to sell the needles, but I guess only if they aren't too costly.

 

[CowboyBob]

2 minutes ago, Mulesaw said:

I checked on Schmetz' homepage (I think that was the one, though it could be another manufacturer)

They could make a production run of the needles, I just don't know how many needles I would have to order, but I seriously consider to contact them and ask. 
There seem to be quite a lot of those machines out there, so it ought to be possible to sell the needles, but I guess only if they aren't too costly.

 

I asked them 10 years ago & the minimum was 10,000 BUT they were bought out by Groz-Beckert a couple yrs ago & things may have changed.

[Mulesaw]

1 minute ago, CowboyBob said:

I asked them 10 years ago & the minimum was 10,000 BUT they were bought out by Groz-Beckert a couple yrs ago & things may have changed.

Jeez that's a lot of needles. 

It is a couple of months since I tried to locate needles, and I couldn't remember which manufacturer it was, just that it was a German one 

I thought that maybe they'd make a series for 500 needles, but 10.000 that's not going to be easy to sell.

[Gunnarsson]

4 hours ago, Mulesaw said:

Jeez that's a lot of needles. 

...

I thought that maybe they'd make a series for 500 needles, but 10.000 that's not going to be easy to sell.

I expect they use machines that are relatively complicated and time consuming to adjust for making a specific needle, but once it's good to go it will keep spitting them out 24/7 with very little work. This means that 500 needles could be done very quickly once the machine is set up for it, perhaps in minutes, and those few needles have to be priced to compensate for the production loss due to spending perhaps hours on adjusting the machine. Those needles would have to be VERY expensive.
If I remember it right the SD28 uses a curved needle, complicating matters even more. Most sewing machine needles are straight, and logically most machines to make them will only be able to make straight needles - there's no point in building machines with features they'll never need. The machines able to make curved needles may not be possible to adjust for another needle radius or such changes may require more or less extensive modifications, including making new machine parts.

So, if it's even possible to find someone who can make the needles they would have to be very expensive, otherwise it would not make any sense to spend the time required to make them.