Thompson Mini Walker

[yotebuster1200]

I had someone offer me their thompson mini walker to sew some leather with. I have never seen one but with the word mini in the title I told her I was a bit skeptical that it would have what it takes to sew leather. But I thought I would ask anyway. The most I would be trying to sew with this would be 8/9 oz tooling leather to a piece of 5 oz chap leather. If it could do that it would be awesome. If it cant do that would it handle sewing a couple pieces of chap leather together?

Thanks for the Help

Scott

[Wizcrafts]

Scott;

Thompson minis are decent little portable walking foot machines, but are designed to sew vinyl and plastic boat windows, not leather. The pressor feet have teeth on the bottom, as well as a drop feed feed dog. These machines will sew about 5/16" of material. The bobbins look like standard industrial bobbins and I think they use the 135x needle system.

There are two drawbacks to using this type of stitcher, unmodified. 1: the teeth on the pressor feet will leave a trail in top grain leather and 2: the flywheel is small and not very heavy. You will need to hand wheel to start stitching on belts, or to maintain a slow stitch rate.

Some members of this forum use mini-walking foot machines made by Sailrite, Thompson, Morse, and various Chinese brands. They modify them by grinding the teeth off the bottom of the pressor feet, giving more sewing thickness capacity, and by adding a "Monster Wheel" and belt sold by the Sailrite company. Another upgrade would be to install a new Sailrite 1.5 amp 8000 rpm motor and heavy duty control pedal.

If you buy the Thompson machine and find that it lacks punching power, the Monster wheel and bigger belt will cost you around $125 plus shipping. Other pressor feet are available and go for around $25 a set, or less. I think the new motors go for about fifty bucks, or less. Visit www.sailrite.com for more info about parts for mini walkers.

Even with the Monster Wheel and 1.5 amp motor, a mini walking foot machine is no match for a real industrial walking foot machine, or even a needle feed machine. These are usually equipped with large clutch or servo motors rated at 1/2 hp and larger.

Let us know if you get the machine and how it works for your leather projects.

[esantoro]

Good write up on these machines, Wizcrafts. Somewhere around here I posted pictures of what one of these machines with a Monster Wheel and modified feet can do with leather. Try a search for "Yamata".

Scott;

Thompson minis are decent little portable walking foot machines, but are designed to sew vinyl and plastic boat windows, not leather. The pressor feet have teeth on the bottom, as well as a drop feed feed dog. These machines will sew about 5/16" of material. The bobbins look like standard industrial bobbins and I think they use the 135x needle system.

There are two drawbacks to using this type of stitcher, unmodified. 1: the teeth on the pressor feet will leave a trail in top grain leather and 2: the flywheel is small and not very heavy. You will need to hand wheel to start stitching on belts, or to maintain a slow stitch rate.

Some members of this forum use mini-walking foot machines made by Sailrite, Thompson, Morse, and various Chinese brands. They modify them by grinding the teeth off the bottom of the pressor feet, giving more sewing thickness capacity, and by adding a "Monster Wheel" and belt sold by the Sailrite company. Another upgrade would be to install a new Sailrite 1.5 amp 8000 rpm motor and heavy duty control pedal.

If you buy the Thompson machine and find that it lacks punching power, the Monster wheel and bigger belt will cost you around $125 plus shipping. Other pressor feet are available and go for around $25 a set, or less. I think the new motors go for about fifty bucks, or less. Visit www.sailrite.com for more info about parts for mini walkers.

Even with the Monster Wheel and 1.5 amp motor, a mini walking foot machine is no match for a real industrial walking foot machine, or even a needle feed machine. These are usually equipped with large clutch or servo motors rated at 1/2 hp and larger.

Let us know if you get the machine and how it works for your leather projects.

[simran]

This is an old post but I needed to jump in here somewhere. I was reading a post a few days ago about modifications to one of these machines.

One of the posters has made mods. to his/her machine and had put links to pictures.

I could not access the pics. because I wasn't a member; now I'm a member and can't find the string that I wanted.

So . . . .This string had lots of talk about these portable walking foot machines (I have one) and one person in particular had put up pics of mods

they'd done to theirs. I just ordered a monster wheel for my old Thompson. I know it's old because the upper tension is on the very left end of the machine

instead of over the foot assembly on the left front.

I also would like to find the original bobbin winder & plastic plate that goes over it if anyone has one of these parted out.

When I got this machine someone had bounced it off the floor and it landed on the bobbin winder.

I put one in from another machine but it is juussst not quite right!!

Simran

[Wizcrafts]

This is an old post but I needed to jump in here somewhere. I was reading a post a few days ago about modifications to one of these machines.

One of the posters has made mods. to his/her machine and had put links to pictures.

I could not access the pics. because I wasn't a member; now I'm a member and can't find the string that I wanted.

So . . . .This string had lots of talk about these portable walking foot machines (I have one) and one person in particular had put up pics of mods

they'd done to theirs. I just ordered a monster wheel for my old Thompson. I know it's old because the upper tension is on the very left end of the machine

instead of over the foot assembly on the left front.

I also would like to find the original bobbin winder & plastic plate that goes over it if anyone has one of these parted out.

When I got this machine someone had bounced it off the floor and it landed on the bobbin winder.

I put one in from another machine but it is juussst not quite right!!

Simran

Is this the tread you were looking for?

[simran]

Is this the tread you were looking for?

I do believe! I'm beholden to ya'; Thanks!

[maidenleather]

On the subject of the Thompson. I recently purchased a psw500 and need the manual to learn to thread this machine. This was an estate sale buy. Anyone have a manual or know where I can access. Thanks in advance for any assistance.