Presser foot for Vilh Pedersen #308 damaged. Help repair or replacement?

[Westaussie]

Hi leatherworkers,

I have a Vilh Pedersen 308 sole stitcher. Unfortunately it is near impossible to stitch in a straight line and I suspect it may be because a previous owner seems to have “modified” the foot, possibly to get a bit more space for the needle to go into the leather without hitting the foot. Subsequently the 2nd row of teeth are missing from one side as well a about 1.5mm in width of the toe part.

So I have two questions:

                                          [1] Am I correct in believing that the toes on the presser foot, that is the section with the ridges that move the leather forward are supposed to be equal in size, shape therefore perfectly symmetrical and able to move the stitches in a straight line?

                                          [2] Is there any way to rectify this problem of poor stitching as I doubt anybody has a spare presser foot to sell or is it possible to have one made, perhaps 3D printed?

Thanks for all and any information so that I can get this wonderful old machine working as it should.

Regards

Cheryl in Perth Western Australia

[Handstitched]

@Westaussie There's  someone on here that was asking about parts for one of those.

The name is @Calidora

just wondering if they were successful  in obtaining  parts?

or the only other place i can think of is ' good ol ebay '

i'm in the central wheatbelt, WA . I think There's one of those machines in our local museum. 

Not too many  West Aussies come on here, welcome  

HS

[Handstitched]

The one in our local museum  may be a ' Junker Ruh' SD 28, not a Pedersen.

Good luck in your search

HS

[Calidora]

23 minutes ago, Handstitched said:

@Westaussie There's  someone on here that was asking about parts for one of those.

The name is @Calidora

just wondering if they were successful  in obtaining  parts?

or the only other place i can think of is ' good ol ebay '

i'm in the central wheatbelt, WA . I think There's one of those machines in our local museum. 

Not too many  West Aussies come on here, welcome  

HS

Unfortunately. I've not been able to find the parts I'm looking for. They are quite hard to find. I'm working on making them myself. For now I have been making due with manually moving the work myself without the stitch length regulator. 

Mine is also a Pederson 308. This and the Junker & Ruh are identical machines. 

[Westaussie]

HS,

I came across this post when doing Google searches for Pedersen 308 machine. It seems the bloke fell in love with it but he does not appear to use it for leather.

[Constabulary]

new SD28 / 308 parts are made of "unobtainium" those who have parts usually keep them except they rip apart worn / broken machines. if it was me I´d tried to look up "cheap" toothed feet for top feed machines and see if I can cut and weld the toothed end.

maybe: 

https://de.aliexpress.com/item/32861132738.html

https://de.aliexpress.com/item/1005010121787509.html

https://de.aliexpress.com/item/1005009251866963.html

just a wild idea.... 😉

Edited 18 hours ago by Constabulary

[dikman]

Know anyone with a welder? Have them build up the damaged end with weld and then file to shape, creating new teeth.

[Tastech]

@Westaussie. Although your problem may seen unsolvable, it is a reasonably easy fix . I own and have restored a few 308's  and the problem you have is not uncommon for a machine of its age .  If you know a welder  take it to them and get them to first grind the teeth flat and then with a mig welder get them to weld some "meat " to the feet . It is then a matter of filing the shape and the required grooves . You can do the filing yourself . You will need 2 files .1 flat medium file to get the dimensions and 1 triangular file to make the grooves . The foot is case hardened from the factory which makes it hard . The welding will soften the steel to make the filing easy . After welding it is important to let the foot cool on its own , do not dip it in water or oil while hot as this will cool it quickly and harden the steel . Once the shaping and filing is done and you have done a test and you are happy with it . You can then get it red hot with a blow torch and drop it in oil while its hot to harden it 

[Westaussie]

Oh wow Tastech this is very helpful, I think I’ll pursue this method. Thank you so much from the other side of Australia, who said ‘Not much intelligence is spoken in Canberra!!!’  Oh that’s right it only refers to Pollie-speak!

I will get onto this repair Tastech.

[Tastech]

@Westaussie Yes we have our fair share of idiots in Canberra however they are generally not home grown . They are born and  bred in other parts of the country then elected and sent to us . We tolerate them because we must . Canberrans have to wear the flack when its not of our doing. To the men of the country i say ,If you put half as much thought into electing a politician as you do analyzing a footy game post match we would be in a much better place.To the women i say put half as much thought into electing a candidate as you do buying shoes online and we are good . I asked a customer last election who she will vote for . She said the best looking candidate . I thought to myself typical . But then she elaborated . Whoever i vote for is going to screw me and if i am going to get screwed it may as well be the best looking one . LOL i can't flaw her logic .

I make and repair shoes for some of our politicians and their advisers.  Not all of them are dumb arses but  some are world class idiots where i wonder to myself how these people even have jobs . I would not employ them to collect shopping trolleys in a car park let alone sit in parliament.  I think democracy is a bit over rated .