solowiej Report post Posted February 8 I've been searching fruitlessly for the diameter of the pulley shaft on the Sailrite (and clones) portable walking foot machines. Anybody know offhand or have one to measure? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
MtlBiker Report post Posted February 8 1 hour ago, solowiej said: I've been searching fruitlessly for the diameter of the pulley shaft on the Sailrite (and clones) portable walking foot machines. Anybody know offhand or have one to measure? May I ask why you want/need that? I have an LSZ-1 with WorkerB motor and Monster wheel and the belt (short as it is) is a cogged belt unlike what's on my other industrial machines. I can't imagine a need to change the pulley size on these machines. Is that what you plan to do? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
solowiej Report post Posted February 9 Nope. I'm hoping to adapt a monster wheel to my DNU-241. If the Sailrite shaft is wider than 14.7mm I'll need a shim, if it's narrower I'd need to put the flywheel/pulley on a lathe and open it up. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Quade Report post Posted February 13 (edited) I ended up with a sailrite pulley when I bought the "worker B" motor. The ID seems to be about 20.4-20.52 mm. The depth of the metal insert seems to be about 25mm, The teeth of the pulley extend below the metal bushing about 7.25 mm. What I mean is there's a gap between the bushing on the inside end and the face of the gear. The total height of the part the belt engages is about 17.6mm There's no key in the metal bushing. I believe sailrite uses a pin through the pulley to keep it in position,. or so, Same thing it's only as accurate as my caliper usage. I didn't use a bore gauge, just my mito caliper. Initially I thought there was a taper but I think it's just an artifact of me not being able to get the caliper on square on one side. Edited February 13 by Quade Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
solowiej Report post Posted February 13 Thank you Quade! Sounds like exactly how I would measure it. So maybe you did something like what I'm scheming over and ordered the Worker B kit to apply it to a different machine than intended. If so, can you share how you applied it and how it went for you? Even if you did apply it to a Portable Walking Foot / Sailrite type machine, do you mind sharing any available info or part numbers for the motor, controller and foot pedal? Seems a shame to butcher a new kit just for components, when those components must be available out there somewhere (and ideally cheaper). Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Quade Report post Posted February 13 I installed a "worker B" on my singer 211. I used the singer pulley. I modified the stock worker B pulley to take a belt that would work on the singer pulley. It was successful, I could sew with it but, the motor and brackets were bulky enough they got in the way of tilting the machine back on the table. I'll try to post some pics when I get a chance. The worker-B motors runs on 90 volts DC. The controller controls the speed probably through PWM. It's only got two wires going to it so it's clearly not a stepper motor. The pedal is just a conventional 3 wire hookup to a 1/4" phono type jack. I'm using the pedal on another project now. I supply 3.3 volts to one leg, ground the other and I read the wiper with an ADC The magic happens in the controller. It converts line current to 90 volts DC, reads the pedal and sends the proper signal to the motor. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
solowiej Report post Posted February 13 Wonderful info! This is exactly what I've been hoping to do with my DNU-241 (Mercury branded). I'd love to see pics. If you're comfortable, do you mind starting a new thread with pics and the info from your adaptation? I imagine others will also be interested. I'm also curious if you've looked into sourcing a motor and controller separately for this. Sounds like the combo (proprietary?) transformer / controller unit might be the lynch-pin. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Quade Report post Posted February 13 Quote if you've looked into sourcing a motor and controller separately for this. I'm working on a tangential project right now. I've acquired some Husqvarna early mostly metal sewing machines. Their first gen with stepper motors for needle position and stitch length. I'm using a raspberry Pi4 to drive the steppers and the main motor. So it's kind of what you're talking about. Using a 13 amp brushed motor driver and a PWM output from the PI I can control the speed of the main motor by pedal position. I might end up going pure stepper motor for the drive motor. In that way I can use the same driver for all 3 motors. These machines all have "Crank position" senors so it'll be possible to build in needle position without adding an additional sensor. Ultimately I want to be able to program my own stitches into the PI including bar tacks. It'll probably never be as compact as the purpose built Worker B controller. Quote do you mind starting a new thread with pics and the info from your adaptation? Once you see the pictures, you'll see 99% of the work behind the adapter. Getting it mounted to the machine was most of the effort. I took the pics, I just haven't offloaded them from my phone. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Quade Report post Posted February 15 (edited) Pics: I mounted the existing worker-B bracket to some aluminum extrusions which allowed me to adjust the position of the pulley pretty easily. The pulley can drive a belt if I was going to take it further, I'd machine off the plastic belt pulley part and install a larger aluminum one. This one is too small to grip the belt properly. Edited February 15 by Quade Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
solowiej Report post Posted February 15 Splendid work. I think you've answered my first big question, which is whether the controller and motor parts can be found separately to save $$ and not have to buy a new kit from Sailrite just to cannibalize it. Sounds like the controller is proprietary and not easy to replicate. That said, I imagine there are a bunch of forums out there openly discussing this stuff. Basically a small Arduino or even ESP32 board, a power transformer and rotary pot switch in a 3D printed case, plus countless hours of learning with trial and error could replicate the controller functions and more. ? Super cool that you're programming stitches with Arduino! I'm not too worried about the setup blocking the head's tip-back, as I can get around that for bobbins and maintenance. I'm on enough of a budget, plus experienced just enough to be happy with my clutch motor, that I'll let the current Sailrite sale end on the 19th and keep looking for individual components and insights. Please keep sharing your project! It's an inspiration. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Quade Report post Posted February 16 Worker-B was close to $300. A decent servo motor with more power than the worker-B is about $150-200. It's hard to beat the Chinese. I'm thinking by the time you finish, it would be cheaper to just buy a Chinese servo. I have a Cutex branded one on one of my machines. It's been flawless. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
solowiej Report post Posted February 16 I'm trying to reduce the volume of the machine when I'm not using it, which is my attraction to a smaller body-mounted motor like your WorkerB setup. Striving for a stage in between the oversized (for me) industrial table and the underperforming (for me) Sailrites. And right now until 2/19 the WorkerB is on sale for $225. Are you happy with the torque from the WorkerB motor, and what have you tried it on so far? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
