JiangLong 341, First Impressions

[friquant]

As much as I love the Pfaff 545, half of the projects I attempt find me
wanting to be able to tilt the workpiece away from the machine head.

So on March 25 I ordered a JiangLong 341 through alibaba (with a flatbed attachment so I can still
have "flatbed style" but also have the cylinder arm for 3-dimensional projects.)

On May 25 the crate arrived with the head unit, servo motor, table, and some accessories.

Here are some photos after getting it set up.

Edited Friday at 02:22 AM by friquant
Informative subject line

[friquant]

Coming from a flatbed machine, I like that the goods being sewn are easier to see
(by virtue of being up higher.)

The reverse lever is quite stiff to move. Perhaps I bought a heavier duty machine than I needed.

I like how easy it is to change stitch lengths. As long as you press down just a bit on the reverse lever to take the weight off the cam, that is.

I love the long stitches it can make. It's advertised as doing 9.5mm stitch lengths but so far for me it does 8.5mm going forward, and 9.0mm in reverse. (Planning to adjust that soon so it's the same both directions.)

The flat plexiglass top it came with I have not used yet...it sits about 3mm too high, but I think I just need to file/grind the plate on it to bring it down.

It does have a bobbin winder on top, but it winds slowly when your machine is set up to stitch slow. I'd like to get in the habit of winding bobbins for other colors while I stitch to get two for one, but so far I still use an electric bobbin winder instead.

It has been convenient to be able to fit larger things under the machine without having to bend the goods as much. The downside here is the weight of the material seems to want to pull themselves off and too the left, so if I'm not careful with flexible materials my reverse stitches at the end of a seam go somewhat sideways instead of straight back over the previous stitches. I guess that's what flatbeds are good for...keeping everything flat and neutral.

It came missing two screws: the screws that hold the extension bar for the foot lift pedal to the regular lift bar. The factory says they are an odd size, like #12-24 I think. I used some smaller screws instead and put lock nuts on the other side.

The crate arrived with a bit of damage, but only to superflous things like the table legs were squished slightly so that the plastic caps don't quite fit on.

It's louder than the pfaff 545 was, and it makes a singing sound when the middle toe lifts. I tracked this down to the return spring for the middle toe rubbing against the cast steel block that the needle bar slides through. Even though it's oily, it still "sings".

 

[dikman]

Looks nice.

[kgg]

9 hours ago, friquant said:

On May 25 the crate arrived with the head unit, servo motor, table, and some accessories.

Looks good. You really should flush the machine prior to doing any real sewing to get any bits of manufacturing stuff out of the machine. Oil everything just not what is suggested. If it is metal touching metal oil it.

Two questions:

1) Is that a plastic pulley on the servo motor??

2) Cost

Here is a couple of pdf's for the Juki LS-341 that may help.

kgg

341 engineer manual.pdf Juki LS-1340&42 Servcie Manual.pdf Juki_LS-341N_Engineers_Manual.pdf Juki_LS-341N_Instruction_Manual.pdf

[friquant]

3 hours ago, kgg said:

Two questions:

1) Is that a plastic pulley on the servo motor??

2) Cost

Here is a couple of pdf's for the Juki LS-341 that may help.

 

Appreciate the manuals. I'll look through them tonight. I only had one of them before, and it seemed rather thin.

1. Yes that's a 35mm plastic pulley on the servo motor. The servo motor actually came with a 75mm pulley, but I made a smaller one. See this post: 

2. Cost from Invoice
  A. The machine price is USD 620, include machine head, table, servo motor, needle position sensor, foot and knee pedal.
  B. Flat top table price is USD 45
  C. Binding attachment price is USD 20 (I bought two of these, so USD 40)
  D. Shipping to the USA:  USD 395
  E. Paypal fees: USD 15

Total cost including shipping and fees: USD 1,115

[kgg]

4 hours ago, friquant said:

Total cost including shipping and fees: USD 1,115

Basically you saved about $1200 USD or more for a similar machine being sold in the US.

kgg

[friquant]

1 hour ago, kgg said:

Basically you saved about $1200 USD or more for a similar machine being sold in the US.

kgg

Cool. Here's the link to the machine I bought if anybody's interested. I kept asking for whatever add-ons they had, that's how I found out about the accessories they offered.

[AlZilla]

Maybe a dumb question, but does the feed dog(s) go up and down? 

Because "binding machines" we've seen here have feed dogs that go back and forth, but flat. Both the videos for that machine show it binding.

Amazing you did this during the giant tariff kerfuffle and seem to have been unscathed. I wonder what all the fuss was about ...

I've been reluctant to order anything very expensive from overseas even before the big kerfuffle, not wanting to get hit with some kind of import duty surprise.

[friquant]

43 minutes ago, AlZilla said:

Maybe a dumb question, but does the feed dog(s) go up and down? 

Because "binding machines" we've seen here have feed dogs that go back and forth, but flat. Both the videos for that machine show it binding.

 

Yes the feed dog goes up and down. 

[AlZilla]

4 minutes ago, friquant said:

Yes the feed dog goes up and down. 

IMG_0874.MOV

Thanks. The seller site is a little thin on info. I'd have believed you without the movie ...

On a related note, @Johanna, this is a 7 meg upload. We've seen a couple of large uploads lately. Has the file size limit been raised?

[friquant]

1 hour ago, AlZilla said:

Thanks. The seller site is a little thin on info. I'd have believed you without the movie ...

 

Yes, I asked the seller if they have a regular website with more info, and they said no. But when I asked questions about how this or that doo-dadd works, they'd send a video demonstrating it. I ended up asking in the alibaba chat with Ben Juan, asking questions about the different kinds of machines they offer. He asked to see photos of what kind of bags I was making (I showed pictures of heavy cloth purses I had stitched) , and he said either their 261 or their 341 would be good for those. It definitely took some work asking questions, and I'm in central time so I'd ask questions in the evening when they're arriving at work.

Movie...yeah it felt a little bit overkill hehe

[toxo]

When I bought my JL341 I had a direct contact with the factory or that's what I assumed. Every time I wanted something confirmed they would send me a video, for example same hole stitching in reverse. mine also came with a speed reducer under the table

I hated the pedal lift so changed it to a knee lift. Can post pics if you want although I think I covered it all a while ago.