Consew 230r-1 vs Singer 211G166

[lilbax]

I’m making the decision between these two machines. Both are for leather and upholstery projects. Both are walking foot sewing machines. Which is better for my needs? Any help would be great. 

[Wizcrafts]

I own a Singer 211g156. It is a compound feed walking foot machine. I use it to sew in zippers, or to sew small upholstery projects, or to sew lined belts. It handles thread sizes 69, 92 and 138, using needle sizes 18, 20 and 23. Things to know about this machine are that it only takes a G size bobbin (1x), and the pulley is rather small. It is a little tricky getting it to sew slowly and still punch through veg-tan leather. Mine is equipped with a Family Sew 500 servo motor that is a bit underpowered at the lowest speeds. It could really use a 2:1 speed reducer to add more punching power. I added that motor after I removed the old clutch motor that came with it.

The maximum stitch length that matches in both directions is 5 to the inch. The feet lift high enough to sew 3/8 inch of light to medium temper leather (e.g., thick seams in a leather jacket). It uses the same bobbins, needless, feet and accessories as the older Singer 111w153, 155 and 156. But, those machines had larger pulleys and are smoother at slow speeds operation.

The machine is manually oiled. The stitch length is adjusted by pressing a button the the bed while rotating the balance wheel forward or backward. There is another button that controls the safety clutch that disengages the hook drive if you jam thread in the hook. If this happens, you have to remove all of the jammed threads, then unthread the needle, then press down the button and rotate the wheel until the clutch pops back into its operating position.

If you want to sew seat covers, this machine will get the job done really fast! It isn't quiet at higher speeds and shakes a bit.

[toxo]

My Adler Durkopp 239 is also very similar to the Singer 111 but with reverse. I overcame your problems by replacing the hand wheel with a much larger pulley giving me much slower speeds down to a single stitch at a time and more torque. The total cost was around £40 iirc yet no one on your side of the pond thought it was a good idea, prefering instead to spend considerably more money on under the table designs. I remember posting a video showing it sewing a few layers of veg tan. I  can do another if you like  

 

 

[dikman]

I had a 211G for a while and if I remember correctly the design of the handwheel meant it wasn't easy to replace with a pulley as there was a bearing as part of the handwheel assembly, when the handwheel is removed the shaft doesn't have any support at the end. The more common method is to fit the bearing inside the machine body to support the shaft.

[toxo]

8 hours ago, dikman said:

I had a 211G for a while and if I remember correctly the design of the handwheel meant it wasn't easy to replace with a pulley as there was a bearing as part of the handwheel assembly, when the handwheel is removed the shaft doesn't have any support at the end. The more common method is to fit the bearing inside the machine body to support the shaft.

If you're right dikman that's important information.

[Constabulary]

Yea the 211 are a pain when it comes to hand wheels. I failed to remove it on my 212 (same as 211 but double needle). The 111´s are easier to work with IMO. But you can add a speed reducer instead of installing a lager hand wheel if you want to slow down the machine.

Anyway - If I had to choose between the 2 above machines I would go with the 211.

Are you sure the 230 is a walking foot machine? To me it looks like a plain drop feed machine.

[Quade]

I had to use a puller to remove it from my 211.  It brought the bearing with it.  I made an aluminum pressing pin so I wasn't pressing on anything critical on the shaft, which is likely irreplaceable. 

I still have my 211 but don't particularly like it.    I particularly didn't like how you set the stitch length. It's pretty primitive by today's standards.  I had to make a cheat-sheet to map the numbers on the hand-wheel to actual stitch length.  I set it to various stitch lengths, sewed some paper them measured the length. 

 

 

Edited January 11 by Quade