Machine Sewing Leather

[raysouth]

Hello Luke.

I am located in Opelika, Al., about 30 or so miles west of Columbus, Ga., and @ 65 miles east of Montgomery, Al., just off I-85. Also about 100 miles southwest of Atlanta. Sister city to Auburn, Al.

Small city but growing fast. Growth comprised of few small companies and shopping malls. If ever in the area, drop a line and visit a spell.

God Bless.

Ray

[raysouth]

Hello Ray, and thank you for the advice. Promise not to put fingers in the way. Scary thought as am on blood thinner and very cautious around anything sharp.

I just may have to get up the courage to try the machine and see if I can make a stitch. lol I apprciate the time folks take to respond and lifts ones spirits.

God Bless.

Ray

[raysouth]

Thanks Kevin. Must take a look at the sewing machine forum. Had a bit of an issue when buying machine and someone there put me onto machine I purchased, He was some sewing machine guru, I believe, but can't remember the name. Old timers syndrome, I suppose. Ever walk across the room to get something and when you got there you couldn't remember what it was you were seeking? Have had to return to my starting point and then all of a sudden I remembered what I wanted but got smart, and wrote it down but forgot to carry with me. ckl. Life is great but always full of surprises.

God Bless.

Ray

[Luke Hatley]

Ray have you looked at "You Tube" for sewing Videos there are a lot of them..

[benlilly1]

If you don't have any guilds or Tandy close by what about befriending an upholstery shop. They have heavy duty machines and could show you attachments and use. Just a thought. Other than that as said in other posts YouTube videos could be of assistance.

[raysouth]

Thank you, Benlilly. Hope I got the spelling correct.

Have visited a local upholsterer and nice guy but so busy and he said he is not much of a "teacher" of anything. Thought about taking a junior college course that he had taken to learn his craft but when I contacted the school, I learned that they had just discontinued the upholstery program. lol. Not much happening around here.

God Bless,

Ray

[raysouth]

Hey Luke,

Have looked at some of the you tube videos and great information in some of them. My machine is about 100 yards from where computer is so not able to tie the two together for now. Videos are difficult for me as the Verizon ZBroadband connection is a bit faster that dial-up but still very slow. Cable won't run their connection to my building unless I am willing to pay @4.00 ft. for 900 feet of cable. They run in front of the property and my building is about two thirds back into my place. Phone company, which I have cancelled, had no service avaulable in my area for high spped dsl. Life is grand. ckl.

Many times I think that I should have remained in the city but when I look around me, that feeling rapidly disappears. Love the wildlife and greenery around me.

I think I will grab my cane, hop in my buggy, and get myself to the shop to experiment a bit with finish and polish concoctions. I feel like a mad chemist with no idea of what I am doing. ckl. At least I am having fun and this site makes thing even better for me.

All of the folks reaching out to help are indeed, a genuine pleasure. God Bless you all.

Ray

[particle]

Ignore all the various feet and base plates for a while. Just use the standard double-toe foot and flat base plate that allows the use of the lower feed dog for now (assuming your machine has a lower feed dog). As you sew a particular type of project, you will quickly learn which presser foot works best for a given application. The only way to really know which presser foot to use is from experience. For example, when I first got my Tippmann Boss, I quickly realized the standard flat base plate wasn't going to work with my Avenger style holsters because of the way the reinforcement piece wraps around the back on my design (the needle was going through the holster at an angle). So, I had to order the stirrup plate to raise the holster off the base a bit. The double-toe presser foot is the only foot I ever used on that machine, and I never took the stirrup plate off the machine for any other type of project. That doesn't make it right or wrong - it just seemed to work fine like that for me.

Along came the Cobra Class 4 that I bought recently. It came with a holster plate and a stirrup plate (among one or two others). From my past experience with my Boss, I knew the holster plate wasn't going to work for me because of the way the plate is designed. It may work fine for everyone else, but not for me and my particular holster design. So, I tried the stirrup plate. It works great, but I had to modify mine to remove the top radius so the holster would stay flat and not rock forwards and backwards. Unfortunately, the stirrup plate won't really allow me to use the left-toe presser foot because the left side is too thin and the left toe only makes a very small amount of contact with the stirrup plate. So, unless I am able to weld a piece of steel to the left side of the stirrup plate to widen the contact point, I'm stuck using the double-toe presser foot. Typically speaking, I could do 100% of my sewing using the left-toe presser foot and the modified stirrup plate (after thickening the left face of it), but the only way to know that is by experience with my particular type of sewing.

Bottom line - don't over think it. Just hold the top & bottom thread for a few stitches, then rock-on. Practice until you've burned through a few bobbins to get a feel for the machine, being sure to sew lots of curves too - not just straight lines. Use reverse to practice lock-stitches. Practice stepping up and down off additional thicknesses of leather (the stitch length can get too long if the presser foot slides off the edge of another piece of leather.

Above all else, don't expect the stitching to look nearly as nice as hand-stitching. It's just not gonna happen. Thankfully, you can always dampen the leather on the back and hammer the puckering flat. At the end of the day, think of all the hours you can save by not having to hand stitch, and you can quickly look past the "not as nice" look of the machine stitching.

[Sylvia]

Ray:

Just like any machine it takes some time to learn to run. As the others have said... start slow, practice on scrap, keep the fingers out of the way.... but don't be too afraid of it. It's just a machine.

As for High Speed internet. You might want to consider Satellite DSL. Here's a link to one provider. http://www.hughesnet.com/residential-satellite-internet/plans.cfm

1mbps is plenty of bandwidth to watch some videos online.

sylv

[raysouth]

Thank you, Particle. As it now stands, I don't believe that there are any books about this subject so will have to go the trial and error route, I suppose. All of the adjustments are confusing but will dig in soon and see if I can make a go of it. I take each day as a learning experience and hope to learn how to handle the machine before I get the curtain call. I look at it every day and wonder when I will get around to fooling with it. Soon, I hope. After I received the machine, I had a few additional health issues and seems as though I have forgotten just what I intended for the machine. Will figure it out, especially now that I am receiving so much support on the site. Great place to be.

Thank you again and God Bless.

Ray

Ignore all the various feet and base plates for a while. Just use the standard double-toe foot and flat base plate that allows the use of the lower feed dog for now (assuming your machine has a lower feed dog). As you sew a particular type of project, you will quickly learn which presser foot works best for a given application. The only way to really know which presser foot to use is from experience. For example, when I first got my Tippmann Boss, I quickly realized the standard flat base plate wasn't going to work with my Avenger style holsters because of the way the reinforcement piece wraps around the back on my design (the needle was going through the holster at an angle). So, I had to order the stirrup plate to raise the holster off the base a bit. The double-toe presser foot is the only foot I ever used on that machine, and I never took the stirrup plate off the machine for any other type of project. That doesn't make it right or wrong - it just seemed to work fine like that for me.

Along came the Cobra Class 4 that I bought recently. It came with a holster plate and a stirrup plate (among one or two others). From my past experience with my Boss, I knew the holster plate wasn't going to work for me because of the way the plate is designed. It may work fine for everyone else, but not for me and my particular holster design. So, I tried the stirrup plate. It works great, but I had to modify mine to remove the top radius so the holster would stay flat and not rock forwards and backwards. Unfortunately, the stirrup plate won't really allow me to use the left-toe presser foot because the left side is too thin and the left toe only makes a very small amount of contact with the stirrup plate. So, unless I am able to weld a piece of steel to the left side of the stirrup plate to widen the contact point, I'm stuck using the double-toe presser foot. Typically speaking, I could do 100% of my sewing using the left-toe presser foot and the modified stirrup plate (after thickening the left face of it), but the only way to know that is by experience with my particular type of sewing.

Bottom line - don't over think it. Just hold the top & bottom thread for a few stitches, then rock-on. Practice until you've burned through a few bobbins to get a feel for the machine, being sure to sew lots of curves too - not just straight lines. Use reverse to practice lock-stitches. Practice stepping up and down off additional thicknesses of leather (the stitch length can get too long if the presser foot slides off the edge of another piece of leather.

Above all else, don't expect the stitching to look nearly as nice as hand-stitching. It's just not gonna happen. Thankfully, you can always dampen the leather on the back and hammer the puckering flat. At the end of the day, think of all the hours you can save by not having to hand stitch, and you can quickly look past the "not as nice" look of the machine stitching.