center presser foot on Artisan 4000R

[Doug C]

I am relatively new to using a sewing machine. I have an Artisan 4000R which works great and will sew most things I need to sew, however, I have a problem when sewing around a tight radius curve with the center presser foot groove maring (sp) the leather and sometimes pushing me out of the stitching groove. Does anyone else have this problem? I'm sure the answer is simple and maybe my inexperience is the only problem.

Thanks in advance.

Doug

[esantoro]

I am relatively new to using a sewing machine. I have an Artisan 4000R which works great and will sew most things I need to sew, however, I have a problem when sewing around a tight radius curve with the center presser foot groove maring (sp) the leather and sometimes pushing me out of the stitching groove. Does anyone else have this problem? I'm sure the answer is simple and maybe my inexperience is the only problem.

Thanks in advance.

Doug

Which presser feet and needle plate are you using? Also, what are you trying to stitch?

ed

[Doug C]

Which presser feet and needle plate are you using? Also, what are you trying to stitch?

Ed,

I am using the standard needle plate with the left presser foot. Is the center presser foot called the feed presser foot? It has a small "bump" to the rear of the hole the needle goes through. If I try to make a 90 degree turn this bump will mark the leather or if I try to make to short a radius turn, say 1 inch radius it will lay a mark to the outside of my stiching groove.

Doug

[esantoro]

Ed,

I am using the standard needle plate with the left presser foot. Is the center presser foot called the feed presser foot? It has a small "bump" to the rear of the hole the needle goes through. If I try to make a 90 degree turn this bump will mark the leather or if I try to make to short a radius turn, say 1 inch radius it will lay a mark to the outside of my stiching groove.

Doug

Doug,

I'm not sure of the bump you're talking about, but for stitching the gussets on my bags, I've found the combination in the attached pic works the best. I suppose a lot depends on what you're trying to stitch.

Ed

Edited March 2, 2008 by Johanna
reduced pic size

[Doug C]

Ed,

That looks like my setup except you have a right hand presser foot on your machine in that picture. I may need to call Artisan tomorrow and ask about the walking center foot. My machine has the "bump" I was talking about on the bottom of the walking foot, I assume to push the stich down tighter. I am not in my shop now, but if I get a chance tomorrow I will try to take a picture of what I am talking about.

Doug

[bruce johnson]

Doug,

I know the center foot you are talking about. It is designed to push the stitchline down into the leather. As you have found, it will not track true going around a tight turn. The pivot point is the needle, and the bump or ridge is behind that. That is just the nature of the design. My Ferdco's center feet are smooth on the bottom. I stitch in pretty deep grooves usually so the bump would be redundant. One of my old pals gave me some parts when I bought some tools from him. One was a center foot from an Adler that he had modified the center hole to line up with my 2000. It has the ridge. I use it on straight line projects like breast collars sometimes. Nothing that has to make a turn. If you don't want to invest in another foot, you can grind that ridge off smooth easy enough.

[esantoro]

Doug,

I know the center foot you are talking about. It is designed to push the stitchline down into the leather. As you have found, it will not track true going around a tight turn. The pivot point is the needle, and the bump or ridge is behind that. That is just the nature of the design. My Ferdco's center feet are smooth on the bottom. I stitch in pretty deep grooves usually so the bump would be redundant. One of my old pals gave me some parts when I bought some tools from him. One was a center foot from an Adler that he had modified the center hole to line up with my 2000. It has the ridge. I use it on straight line projects like breast collars sometimes. Nothing that has to make a turn. If you don't want to invest in another foot, you can grind that ridge off smooth easy enough.

Hi Bruce,

REmember a while back when we were discussing gussets. You mentioned that you use a rt. foot, which is what prompted me to get the one in the pic. By any chance, is that the foot you were writing about?

Ed

[barra]

Doug. I may be way off track and reading your post wrong. When trying to stitch around tight curves, you can walk the job around ie: form one stitch at a time by hand winding the balance wheel. Form one stitch, slightly lift the foot and re-align for next stitch by hand, form another and so on til around and on the straight again. Does your machine have the foot lifting pedal or a knee kicker. It can take a bit of getting used to, stitching where both feet have a job to do (kinda like driving a manual car after many years).

Make sure the previous stitch is formed by ensuring that the needle is on the way up before making any turns. Another thing you might try is on the tight curves, stitch over a peice of reasonably firm "clear" plastic so you can see your stitch line thru. This helps with foot marring. When done, rip the plastic off.

Barra

[esantoro]

Doug. I may be way off track and reading your post wrong. When trying to stitch around tight curves, you can walk the job around ie: form one stitch at a time by hand winding the balance wheel. Form one stitch, slightly lift the foot and re-align for next stitch by hand, form another and so on til around and on the straight again. Does your machine have the foot lifting pedal or a knee kicker. It can take a bit of getting used to, stitching where both feet have a job to do (kinda like driving a manual car after many years).

Make sure the previous stitch is formed by ensuring that the needle is on the way up before making any turns. Another thing you might try is on the tight curves, stitch over a peice of reasonably firm "clear" plastic so you can see your stitch line thru. This helps with foot marring. When done, rip the plastic off.

Barra

At least with bag gussets, if you're using a lt. side presser foot, which early logic told me to do, that presser foot is going to start forcing the needle off line. Bruce's idea to use the rt. side foot is a good one. When I do stitch these gussets I also have started using a raised needle plate.

ed

[bruce johnson]

Ed,

The foot that Doug is using has a narrow raised ridge on the bottom behind the needle hole in the center presser foot. What it does is press the stitchline down into the leather after it has been sewn. The ridge on mine is maybe 1/8" long, it looks all in the world like the Adler center foot in Weaver's catalog. Problem with it is on a 90 degree corner or tight curve or point. When you lift the presser foot and turn the work, the pivot point is the needle. That ridge sits out behind that and pivots off the back or outside of the stitchline and makes an impression when it comes down. On a 90 degree corner it looks like an over-run crease line. On a tight turn, it looks like chatter marking chicken tracks outside of the stitchline.

The reason I use the right foot on gussets is because of the plate I use. I usually sew gusseted things with tight corners on my stirrup plate. This are things with tighter bottom corners like a shaving kit, purse, or brief case. The rounded top of the stirrup plate makes the radius smaller and easier to go over over those bottom corners. My stirrup plate has a very narrow left ridge, and a wider right ridge. That is by design to get in closer to the wood on stirrups. It also allows me to deform the gusset less while sewing, helps to maintain a near 90 degree bend in the gusset lip, rather than flattening it out. The issue with using the right foot. If I use the left foot, it doesn't contact that narrow ridge and forces my work down over the edge. The right foot will walk on the wider ridge on the right side of the stirrup plate. That is why I use the right foot. To further muddle the issue, and clarify what some were thinking when we discussed this a while back - Why not use the double toe foot? On mine, the double toe foot pairs up with a wider center foot. If I use that, neither of the walking feet contact the stirrup plate.

[Art]

Hi Doug,

I noticed that the first time I did a 90 degree corner. That thing is really not necessary and a file will get rid of that problem in a few strokes. A grinder works also, but go easy either way. It is good to round over any edges you may create with filing or grinding. Laying the stitches in a groove will accomplish the task better than that little nib anyway.

Art

I am relatively new to using a sewing machine. I have an Artisan 4000R which works great and will sew most things I need to sew, however, I have a problem when sewing around a tight radius curve with the center presser foot groove maring (sp) the leather and sometimes pushing me out of the stitching groove. Does anyone else have this problem? I'm sure the answer is simple and maybe my inexperience is the only problem.

Thanks in advance.

Doug

[Doug C]

Thanks to everyone for your help. I think I'll go ahead and grind off that "bump".

Doug

[esantoro]

Thanks to everyone for your help. I think I'll go ahead and grind off that "bump".

Doug

I really like the standard blanket center foot that came with my machine. It's much wider than my inner groover foot I use with my narrow double toed harness makers foot. Tonight , however I'm going to experiment with that wide inner foot ant the rt. side foot that works so well on gussets. It just might be the perfect combination.

Ed

[esantoro]

Hi Doug,

I noticed that the first time I did a 90 degree corner. That thing is really not necessary and a file will get rid of that problem in a few strokes. A grinder works also, but go easy either way. It is good to round over any edges you may create with filing or grinding. Laying the stitches in a groove will accomplish the task better than that little nib anyway.

Art

Hi Art,

would it be possible for you to repost those pics of your double toed foot from artisan.? I got the same foot in today from artisan and thought it would work with my current center foot groover. I may have to get Artisans inner groover foot, but would like to get a look at the dimensions.

Thanks,

Ed

[Art]

Hi Ed,

Is this it?

My blanket foot is 3 or 4 times that wide.

Art

Hi Art,

would it be possible for you to repost those pics of your double toed foot from artisan.? I got the same foot in today from artisan and thought it would work with my current center foot groover. I may have to get Artisans inner groover foot, but would like to get a look at the dimensions.

Thanks,

Ed

[esantoro]

Hi Ed,

Is this it?

My blanket foot is 3 or 4 times that wide.

Art

Hi Art,

Yup, that's the one. I got that same double toed outer foot from artisan, though mine seem to have a wider spread. Steve at Artisan told me that many people bend those outer toes inward and snip off the ends of the toes to be able to stitch narrowre areas. Did you do any of that with yours.

I asked for the pic because I wanted to get a visual of your setup, as I am uaing a non-artisan inner groover with my new artisan double toed foot. I'm sure we have the same blanket foot which is much wider, though I really like the inner blanket foot, for it holds the leather down nicely. I'm even thinking of slightly filing the edges of my inner blanket foot to work with this new artisan foot.

Thanks for the pic.

ed

[Art]

Hi Ed,

My inner blanket foot is way wider than this one also, not sure it would fit in these narrow outer feet, it also has big aggressive grooves to move fabric, they would mark leather badly. I bent these outer toes in so they would clear the inner foot closely, it didn't take much though, they are pretty narrow to start with.

Art

Hi Art,

Yup, that's the one. I got that same double toed outer foot from artisan, though mine seem to have a wider spread. Steve at Artisan told me that many people bend those outer toes inward and snip off the ends of the toes to be able to stitch narrowre areas. Did you do any of that with yours.

I asked for the pic because I wanted to get a visual of your setup, as I am uaing a non-artisan inner groover with my new artisan double toed foot. I'm sure we have the same blanket foot which is much wider, though I really like the inner blanket foot, for it holds the leather down nicely. I'm even thinking of slightly filing the edges of my inner blanket foot to work with this new artisan foot.

Thanks for the pic.

ed

[esantoro]

Hi Ed,

My inner blanket foot is way wider than this one also, not sure it would fit in these narrow outer feet, it also has big aggressive grooves to move fabric, they would mark leather badly. I bent these outer toes in so they would clear the inner foot closely, it didn't take much though, they are pretty narrow to start with.

Art

My inner blanket foot has the teeth or grooves filed off, so it's smooth. I'm trying to decide to either file the sides of that smooth inner blanket foot a smidgen or squeeze the artisan toes a bit to accommodate the narrow grooved inner foot I already have. I'll post pics later.

Thanks, Art.

Ed

[esantoro]

Hi Ed,

My inner blanket foot is way wider than this one also, not sure it would fit in these narrow outer feet, it also has big aggressive grooves to move fabric, they would mark leather badly. I bent these outer toes in so they would clear the inner foot closely, it didn't take much though, they are pretty narrow to start with.

Art

I just realized another issue. The inner blanket foot attaches with a screw that sticks out to the left, which may nix the whole idea of using a filed down inner blanket foot.

Quick question: With your narrow feet from Artisan, can you remove the inner foot without first removing the outer feet?

Ed