American Straight Needle Parts Needed

[harnessman]

HI all

I have recently aquired a old American straight needle machine in pretty good condition and am looking for parts and information on it. Of course I need needles and awls. I would also like to find the harness attachmetns that were originally available for this machine. Finally some information on what thread to use with what needle and awl would be great! Oh, I also have the old owners manual for this machine and it states that you are supposed to use left twist thread on top and right twist on the bottom. Does this hold with modern nylon thread, or is it only for linnen?

Any and all information on this great old machine will be appreciated.

Thanks

Jim

[dirtclod]

http://www.pilgrimshoemachine.com/ is a good place to look for parts. I had one of those machines for several years and their fine for sewing straight lines and mild curves. If you want to sew harness you need to make a plate and take the rounded shoe plate off. I made my plate out of 1/4 thick steel plate i think. You can make a pttern in about 10 minutes out of poster board.

I used regular nylon for top and bottom no problem. Number 6 needles is what i used with number 6 thread. I don't remember what size awl because it came with several awls. Bite the bullet and buy 10 pack of needles it will save you a bunch of money over buying 10 packs. The last i bought was $150.00 for a 100 pack versus $3.00 a piece when i bought a 10 pack and that was several years ago. I think i got the needles from New England Needle. Both of those prices was several years ago.

The harness guide i used didn't work to well. It better and quicker scribeing a line and sewing free hand.