Found my Weaver Cub Gremlin Finally

[WMages]

Around the first of the year, I was just getting into leather working and only had one Flatbed, a Cowboy 797 then and now, I found I'm in that twilight zone of frequently needing a heavy duty stitcher for holsters etc and still a hobbyist, I couldn't afford or at least justify buying a Class 4 or a CB4500. Prior to purchasing my Seiko CW8-B, which will sew almost 3/8" with 138 thread, I bought a Weaver Cub, a second edition but steel model. From day one, I thought the learning curve was steeper than it ought to be but I got by with mostly so so results.

The other day, it started twisting thread even on the first throw. I inspected it closely and found the drive cam which slightly parts the needle to the outside just before the hook pick up the thread had a bur deeper than I felt I could polish out without changing the profile too much to work properly. I called Weaver Machinery and spoke with John. He is fantastic by the way and quickly agreed to send me a replacement part, which costs me 50 bucks. Then came putting the lower shaft back in and getting it in time. After several days of trying and retrying, and I forget how many times I watched his video Steal Cub Timing, I failed. At the point I needed to pause to set the needle timing the think would throw with tremendous pressure and a clanking sound. The Cubs I watched on youtube didn't have that loud of a sound. 

About ready to give completely up, my wife suggested I dig deeper into the machine. So I pulled the Flywheel / crank wheel off and saw my first clue. The very radical cam has two set screws at 90 degrees. Neither were set at the two flat sides but rather were up on the corners.  Not certain but it couldn't have been good. I readjusted the cam and torqued the heck out of those two hex screws so it won't move anytime soon.  This quieted the machine down three or four fold and made it so much smoother to run, smoother than it's ever been since I've owned it. Now I wonder if the seller would have sold it if he had understood there was a simple issue. I share this so hopefully some other poor soul like me doesn't have to fight so long with one of these things. If there is anything hinky at all going on, pop off that fly wheel and make sure those cam screws are really tightened down.  Cheers.