Just Picked Up A 211G155, Thread Question

[andyb]

I registered quite a few years ago, and check in on occasion. Lots of other projects as well as my kids taking up a lot of time, but I am finally dusting off the old sewing machines and doing some leather projects. I have no plans at present to sew holsters or saddles, but I would like to make a jacket, in fact that was one of the reasons I first found this site.

I found a Singer 211G155 locally and the servo motor arrived Friday and I have been playing around with it the past few days. All I have is some size 92 bonded nylon and 92 bonded polyester thread, and 135x16 #21 needles. The poly thread seems to have some trouble (the top thread breaks every inch or two if I try to sew anything with it), but the nylon thread works okay, even with the slightly too large needle. This is the first sewing machine I have that will supposedly sew leather of a decent thickness, so I stuffed two layers of 8-9 oz veg tanned tooling leather under the presser feet, and I was amazed that it just chugged along without any problems. I am a happy camper!

I have several "domestic sewing machines", as well as a 31-15, an old 29-4, and a 153W102 cylinder bed machine. I do not collect sewing machines (I am in denial).

I just wanted to say thanks to all of the regular posters here as there is a ton of useful info that helped me decide to get the 211 as well as get it set up to make sure it runs okay. I have to order some 138 thread and more needles, as well as a few smaller parts, so tomorrow I will be contacting a few of the vendors that I always see posting here.

I do have a few thread questions. There is an obvious difference in how my machine performs with the nylon versus poly thread. Is this normal? Is nylon the thread of choice for these old machines for leather work? I think the #21 needle is a bit on the large size for 92 thread. Can that cause issues with the thread breaking, or is that probably not the reason for it?

Thanks again to all of the posters here who make this site a great resource. Hopefully there may be some opportunity in the future for me to post information that others may find useful.

Andy B.

[ramrod]

i got my 211w155 about a year ago and have just started to expirement with it. it was used in an awning shop exclusively. it came with a ton of nylon bobbins as well as a spool of nylon upper thread. size 69 for all of the thread. the needle is quite large - i can't make out the size of it because the numbers are worn off. it seems too large for the thread.

i figured there had to be a reason why there was all nylon with the machine.

this doesn't answer your question directly, but the previous owner must have used nylon exclusively for a reason.

[andyb]

this doesn't answer your question directly, but the previous owner must have used nylon exclusively for a reason.

ramrod,

No, your answer does help. As I have been reading through the posts here, it seems as all anyone is using is nylon. I don't know why, but that is good enough for me to just stick with nylon. If I compare the nylon and poly thread side-by-side, they are obviously two completely different animals.

Andy B.

[Wizcrafts]

Polyester thread is often softer than the equivalent nylon thread. It may require altering the tensions along the top thread path. Also, the timing of the needle may be advanced or retarded, causing the softer thread's loop to be cut rather than picked up.