So, My Techsew 2700 Has Been Shipped

[Northmount]

Congratulations. You will enjoy it much more than the Tipmann Boss you were thinking of before. My 2700 is doing a great job.

Get someone to help you lift the head when you assemble it so you don't lose your balance. Set the table height you want before you put the head on it. As I indicated in your previous thread, I had to set the table down to just clear my knees to avoid problems with my old shoulders and neck. If you alredy know a comfortable working height for a desk or counter top when sitting, you will want to get the cylinder arm near the same height.

Lots of good advice above about being careful with making adjustments, especially being able to return to original settings.

You can file a mark at 12 o'clock on the tension knob so you know the starting point to measure 1/4, 1/2 turns etc. Coloured fingernail polish, white-out, paint, etc. can be used to mark it instead of a file, but the file mark doesn't wear off.

CTG

[Sylvia]

My method, and I will be interested to hear Spinners, is to make a note of if I turned a knob in or out and how far i turned it. Half turn, one full turn, cw or ccw, that sort of thing. my notes are arranged by needle, thread and then what tension adjustments i made. I took pictures of everything when it arrived too so that I could document it's as received condition and settings. I need to know I can return the machine to it's last known working state, just like a computer, so I need to know where everything was set when it worked fine. I may have measured somethings with a drop mic and calipers but that might be admitting some OCD tendencies... :D

I don't know if you feller's even thought of something like this. What I would do, (assuming it's set at a good tension at the factory) is immediately put some sort of mark with tape, north south east and west on all the knobs and corresponding marks on the body of the machine... color coded. Then measure the distance from the knob to the body of the machine and note that in the manual. so let's say N is red, W is green, S is brown, E is red. This way you can see at a glance if you've turned it a few degrees or 180*.

[Techsew Ron]

Hey Andrew,

Just as TT said, I do the same thing. Once I had the machine dialed in to a common & known setting, say for "6oz of leather, XX needle & thread size" that becomes my baseline. From there for the knobs, it would simply be a matter of dialing the knob all the way in, counting the turns and that is the setting number. The reason for going in versus out is that by going in you know the the knob will stop at a given and generally set point. Going out, you may not recognize when the knob reaches the ends of the screw threads thus counting an extra turn, etc. Be sure when you have the tension knob bottomed out to mark the knob & machine to identify "top dead center".

So say for your known setting it is 9 counter-clockwise (ccw) turns to loosen to the correct point from zero and you need to switch to a different needle/thread. Simply change them out and start adjusting, counting the additional or less turns required and record it. To test/confirm, return the knob to zero (bottomed out) and open it back up to the new setting. Make slight adjustments as necessary and note the findings. Note, not all settings are full turns. It's very possible to have 1/2, 1/4, etc. to get the thread to loop exactly mid stack. As with anything, always sew off a test piece of the new materials to ensure the setting is correct.

It seems like a lot of work in the beginning but later on when you need to switch confidently and quickly, one look at the notes and a few turns and you're done.

Cheers,

Chris

P.S. - to make things more frustrating, different leathers of equal thickness may have different settings. Example: 12 oz of veg-tan is stiffer than 12 oz of lamb and will require a slight adjustment to the tension.

Great advice Chris. I get a lot of questions about how to remember tension settings and I'll definitely be directing people to this thread.

Ron

[Andrew Chee]

Definitely good advice. Right now I do a lot of "hmmm... This is thicker than the last thing I did so I should turn the knob in a few turns". Your method definitely makes for better repeatability. Thanks.

Andrew

[TTcustom]

I don't know if you feller's even thought of something like this. What I would do, (assuming it's set at a good tension at the factory) is immediately put some sort of mark with tape, north south east and west on all the knobs and corresponding marks on the body of the machine... color coded. Then measure the distance from the knob to the body of the machine and note that in the manual. so let's say N is red, W is green, S is brown, E is red. This way you can see at a glance if you've turned it a few degrees or 180*.

I guess I forgot to mention it but yes Sylvia I had marked the know as a reference.

[Sylvia]

I guess I forgot to mention it but yes Sylvia I had marked the know as a reference.

I KNEW you were smarter than the average Bear! Did you get it all figured out?

[Leatherbaron]

Good onya.....

Now what did I learn Immediatly after getting my Cowboy 441 machine...basically the same machine !

- Yep Make sure you hold the 2 ends of the thread when starting a new stitch

- I found that the thicker the leather the stitch length changes ,

- Also found that 99 % of my stitching is on the slowest speed setting.

- When going round tight corners use the hand wheel or counter weight to advance the stitches not power.

- Suggested use of 1 size smaller stitch in Bobbin than on top. but not a problem if both top and bottom are the same.

- Found that with my smart Servo motor , the foot pedal connections on the inside of the motor are cheap plastic and mine broke first week

- I drilled a hole in the steel on the underneath of the power pedal and put a bolt with 2 nuts and made a limiting mechanism so that

my foot pedal could not be pressed to far down , because that is what breaks the smart servo motor connections.

- When looking for heavy duty thread , I was at a loss where to get it from untill I went to my local Uplolstery Wholesaler and I found they have

a full range of all the heavy duty 270 threads etc. if you cant find the wholesaler goto an upolstery business and ask like I did, they will help you if you tell them what you are doing.

They also have the Durable press button studs etc , and Webbing which you can now sew, also they have Contact glue and other leather lookalike fabrics that are usefull for wallet linings and bags.

- You will run out of bobbins all the time , I find that because I use 2 size threads, and 2 colours , and I sew a lot of belts , I needed at least 12 bobbins to survive without having to rewind bobbins all the time.

I get about 2 belts with one bobbin if I do 2 rows of stitch on each belt.

- I got a bright large single LED light with a flexible bendy arm at My local Woolworths store for $20 , I think it was a "one watt led" ( Damn is it bright ) better by far that 12 or 16 leds.

- I found that if I finish my leather belts with a clear finish before I stitch the belts, the belts are softer and I get Foot stitching marks a lot more than if I dont treat the leather untill after stitching. That applies to all my leatherwork now.

Well thats just a few of the things I wish I knew when I got my machines

Cheers Leatherbaron

-

.

[Phatdaddy]

Well thats just a few of the things I wish I knew when I got my machines

Cheers Leatherbaron

.

Thanks, these are exactly the things I was was looking for.

Kevin

[Greene]

Excited to have stumbled upon this thread. I just received my 2700 PRO for Christmas. ( I have wonderfully generous and supportive in-laws).

Unfortunately so far, the very first run of stitches jammed the machine and threw out the timing. very first stitches. <facepalm>

A couple of phone calls to Techsew support later and I've learned how to adjust the timing of the machine. Just tonight I finally got it timed right.

After running a few test pieces successfully. I noticed that I needed to adjust the bobbin thread tension. I understand that most machines should come "ready to sew" but mine stumbled out of the gate. Now I'm trying to figure out how to do this. Right now my threads are badly uneven. The lower thread is being pulled right through the leather and the top thread is essentially laying on top.

I already love my machine even though I've only gotten to make about 50 stitches with it yet. I'm excited to keep learning about the machine and hope the bumps in the road are all surmountable.

[TinkerTailor]

Before you mess with the bobbin, make sure the top is threaded correctly. Its easy to do it wrong, or wrap something the wrong way.

Don't feel bad, i pulled on the thread too hard for the first stitch on my 5100, I did not have the thread under the foot. I pulled the needle sideways and back with the thread. First needle break, jammed that bugger right into the top of the foot.........Btw, are you holding the threads when you start out? If not, you should. Firmly but not pulling......

Edited January 5, 2016 by TinkerTailor