Junker & Ruh Lever Operated Leather Stitcher

[Aidan]

Hi first posting on this forum. I have had a look at some of the work on here and awesome is the only would that could describe it..

I Have just bought The above sewing machine from that well known auction site.

Has any body got any experience of using one and if so any tips . i have watched a you-tube video and it looks really good.

Where would I buy spares ,spools, needle, bobbins

[electrathon]

I don't have an answer for you, but I have always wanted one of these machines.

Aaron

[Wizcrafts]

I have an answer for the OP: Contact Henry Veenhoven, in Toronto, at: 416-231-1870. Read this topic he started in 2009 about these sole stitchers.

[amuckart]

+1 to what Wiz said. Henry's da man for these.

They're good machines, but can be a little fiddly to get going. Needles are a pain to find, so grab all the ones you come across and be real careful how you store them. Parts haven't been made for years, so the only way to get them is to get another machine, but not all Junkers are the same and the Pedersen's are different again. I have 2, and the plate from one won't fit the other, and there are other minor thread/part differences.

[Aidan]

I have an answer for the OP: Contact Henry Veenhoven, in Toronto, at: 416-231-1870. Read this topic he started in 2009 about these sole stitchers.

Thank you for your replies I think I got a real bargain just need to source some spare needles. I have down loaded the manual from the link that should be a big help

There is a site in Germany that has a couple of J&R for sail but they are £580

[amuckart]

Couple more points on these. Good luck finding needles. They're getting like hen's teeth these days. The good thing is you don't need many, you can resharpen 'em if you're careful and they just don't break unless something goes horribly horribly wrong.

You need a good sharp point on the shuttle or it won't pick up the top thread, this can be a bit of a pain if the shuttle is worn.

My two don't cycle right without tension on the top thread. I don't know if this is normal, but they both do it. The tension on the top thread pulls the takeup lever into the right position for the roller to move it. Without the thread tension the spring pulls it into a position where the roller sticks in the wrong part of the 'loop' bit of the takeup lever.

[Mister Me]

Thank you for your replies I think I got a real bargain just need to source some spare needles. I have down loaded the manual from the link that should be a big help

There is a site in Germany that has a couple of J&R for sail but they are £580

on what site are they for sale?

[Aidan]

The site is a well known auction site and the item is 220726050054Hope this helps

[Mister Me]

There is a guy who wants to sell his junker&ruh machine (i think its a Junker&Ruh 22).

He says it works properly and there are no parts missing, some parts have a little surface rust, but that should be no problem.

What would you say, how much should i pay for it ?

[amuckart]

What an interesting machine! Any chance you could email me bigger pictures of it? It's an obvious earlier version of the SD.28 and it's interesting to see what's been refined. I'm quite interested in Junker & Ruh machines from a historical persepective.

What you should pay for it depends on what you want it for. If it's being offered as a collector piece, be prepared to fork out big, the 22s are less common than the 28s. If you want it as a using sewing machine, consider what it does compared to what you want to make, local availability of needles, how it fits into your workshop, how well it sews, etc and go from there. Their advantages are that they're small, and hand operated. Their disadvantages are a very short throat depth, needles that make quite a big hole for the thread size, and lack of availability of needles and parts. If you want it for outsoling shoes, there are better hand-cranked options, but none quite as small as the Junker & Ruh. I have a Frobana Gritzner outsoler that makes a better stitch than the Junker, and uses the same shuttle as the 45k. The needles for it make a huge hole though. I still want to get my hands on a Rafflenbeul MS200 - they're a hand-cranked needle & awl machine.

IMO, used SD.28s go for far more than they're worth. They're good machines, but the reality is they're just not EU600 good, considering what else 600 Euros will buy you.

When you consider that Henry Veenhoven sells refurbished ones for US$600 and that unless you luck into a really good second-hand one they can take a lot of work to get going well, they aren't rare enough as collector pieces to warrant that kind of price. I have two, I paid NZ$120 for one, and NZ$400 for the other and a 6" crank splitter. The only reason I bought the second one was for the harness plate. Both of them have been fiddly to get going properly and needles for them cost me as much as one of the machines.