Landis #3 problem

[D.A. Kabatoff]

Hi,

I was wondering if anyone has experience with a Landis #3 and trying to sew thick material. I am trying to sew through and honest 9/16" of leather plus wool shearling on the bottom (about 1" before being compressed). The problem I am having is that the excess thickness of the material changes the angle of the thread between the loop thrower and the material... because the angle is flatter, the thread hook misses catching the thread and taking it back. It almost looks like the thread hook is about a 1/4" too short to catch the thread. The hook I am using is a long one (1 1/4"s) and almost catches on the presser foot when sewing thinner material so I don't think using a longer thread hook would help even if one was available. The first photo below shows how the tip of the thread hook just misses the thread. The second photo shows the thread hook length compared to a standard thread hook.

Here is a link to a video clip of what is happening. Sorry it's shakey and blurry... I was trying to hand crank the machine while holding the camera. If you click on this link it'll take you to an index... scroll down and click where it says "sewing1.Avi" and click on it. It might take a minute to download as it's a big file. sewing clip

Anyone have any ideas or is it possible I'm exceeding the capacity of the machine?

thanks,

Darc

[Kevin]

Been there, but not sewing around a whole skirt. I just used a little screwdriver and manually looped the thread around the hook, but that was only for five or six stitches.

Do you have enough pressure on the foot to compress the wool? I think it should handle that pretty easily. But its been about 15 years since I did any serious stitching on one and I may just be having fond memories.

Kevin

[D.A. Kabatoff]

Hi Kevin,

thanks for the idea... I just finished a skirt and that is exactly what I had to do except I got a pretty good work out hand cranking forty stitches and looping each one around the thread hook.

I tried lowering my presser foot and the collar above it so the whole assembly with the thread hook wouldn't move so far right and gained about a 1/16" in length on the thread hook. I also took a hammer to my thread hook and knocked out the curve to gain an extra 1/8" in length. This solved the problem on the scrap I was practicing on but turns out my skirt must have been a hair thicker cause it still wasn't catching.

Darc

[Steve Brewer]

Darc,clip your wool back about 3/8s.Where it won't interfere.It worked for me,hope it helps

Steve

[TroyWest]

Darcy,

I have a 3 also and your problem intrigued me, so I took some scrap and actually sewed through 3/4" of just leather and it sewed fine. Added woolskin and it was too much. Backed off to a full 5/8" of leather and added woolskin and it did sew it, so yours should too. It looked like in the video you had a little room you might possibly be able to raise the arm a little closer to the looper and that might help. I tried that on mine also and it sewed fine although mine didn't need it. Hope that helps.

As food for thought I used to plug mine with very heavy plugs but I take my plugs down a bit thinner than I used to. Just gives it a little more of a refined look and would make it easier to sew on your machine.

[D.A. Kabatoff]

Steve and Troy,

thanks for the ideas guys... I have one more skirt to get through and hopefully I won't ever get myself in this thick material predicament again. I think I'm going to try to increase the amount of tension on the presser foot as I had it backed off quite a bit when I was trying to reduce foot marks on the leather. I don't think it's compressing the wool very much. If that doesn't work, trimming the wool down probably would do the trick. I tried raising the arm a bit but when it was all the way forward and to the right, it started to rub on the looper. I did manage to get it as close as possible to the looper and it's so close to actually catching the thread now I think all i need to do is get the wool mashed down a little.

Troy, I think I discovered the same thing as you with the plugs and I usually use about 11oz leather for them on a typical flatplate rig. I don't usually wind up with such a bulk to sew through but the saddle I'm working on left me a real bunch of problems to work around. I'm doing a lightweight ladies saddle for a woman who is barely over 5' tall and rides a Welsh Cob pony. She originally thought she wanted a flate plate rig but I thought an inskirt rig would suit her requirements better (almost wishing I had kept my mouth shut but an inskirt rig really will make for a better suited saddle). I'm also using 11-13 oz leather and although I picked the best part of the hide for the top rigging layer, I was a bit worried about it tearing out through the one, light-weight layer at the rigging screws. I'm using #777 plates and decided to plug around the plates so that the leather wasn't pinched down around the edge of the plates... this gave me the idea to run the plug the better part of the front of the skirt so I could double up the leather where the screws go through. I used about 14-15 oz leather for the plug so it came close to the thickness of the plate and in the end I wound up with more thickness than I had wanted but I've decided to see it through and see how it turns out after it's all finished up.

anyway thanks again guys,

Darc

ps. I still have to groove a stitch line above the rigging opening!

Edited January 29, 2009 by D.A. Kabatoff

[Kevin]

That looks great. That was a lot to stitch through.

Kevin

[mulefool]

I've had the same problem with my Landis and at the time ended up doing the screw driver thing to get the thread looped. But it was a one time thing so I didn't want to go messing around with my adjustments. Those skirts of yours do look pretty thick. I've also had problems with the foot marks on heavy leather. I've been leery of lessening the pressure on the foot because it seems like in really heavy leather the awl sometimes has a tendency to stick a bit so if it sticks and there's not enough pressure it pulls the work up as the awl comes up. There's probably a better solution, but on the stitching on the inside of the rigging I run the top piece through the machine first before I assemble everything to make the holes and then just stitch it by hand. It takes a bit longer but I don't have to try and rub out those foot marks. Chris

[Hennessy]

I've had the same problem with my Landis and at the time ended up doing the screw driver thing to get the thread looped. But it was a one time thing so I didn't want to go messing around with my adjustments. Those skirts of yours do look pretty thick. I've also had problems with the foot marks on heavy leather. I've been leery of lessening the pressure on the foot because it seems like in really heavy leather the awl sometimes has a tendency to stick a bit so if it sticks and there's not enough pressure it pulls the work up as the awl comes up. There's probably a better solution, but on the stitching on the inside of the rigging I run the top piece through the machine first before I assemble everything to make the holes and then just stitch it by hand. It takes a bit longer but I don't have to try and rub out those foot marks. Chris

i;ve heard an ol saddlemaker who lifted his #3 head off the base and extended his upper lower drive shaft by?and could sew a full inch, had a machine shop extend it and made some risers to sit under head,to equal out with the new drive shaft length pete