Presser Foot Making Marks On My Leather

[ramrod]

how do i go about reducing the foot pressure on my 211g155? the marks seem to be heaviest on the backside where the teeth make contact with the leather. almost like...i don't know....train tracks.

and will reducing the foot pressure alter anything else?....like thread tension? crazy question, but i'm covering all the bases.

[Art]

Hi Rod,

There is a screw on the back of the machine right about where the riser (that connects the top and bottom of the machine) comes up. Smooth feed dog and feet will help too. Check with Bob at Toledo. Too little pressure on the feet will cause the material to flag.

Art

[gottaknow]

You want light pressure and sharp feed dogs. Dull feed dogs slip and leave marks, kinda like burning out with a car on pavement. You also want to make sure your feed dogs aren't too high and back feeding. The easiest way to check for back feeding is to take a piece of paper, unthread your machine and turn it over by hand in the operating direction (towards you). Carefuly observe the holes made in the paper after several stitches. They should be not be oblong at all. When your feed dogs are too high, as they rise they will move in reverse back towards you just a bit. You can see the paper move backwards as well. A good starting point is to have the valleys of the teeth even with the throat plate at their highest point.

Since the 211 is a compound feed, make sure your needle feed and your feed dogs are syncronized. There's an adjustment on the right side of the upper shaft that changes your needle feed to match your bottom feed. You can use the same paper techique for this adjustment as well. On new feed dogs, lay a piece of 400 grit abrasive on your bench and lightly hit just the corners of the teeth. Don't sand down the teeth themselves.

I have a set of rubber feed dogs for my 111, which are great for leather as well. I haven't ordered any for years. I wonder if they're still available.

Regards, Eric

[Anne Bonnys Locker]

Rubber coated feed dogs are available in the standard straight sewer style but not sure about the 111 series.

[gottaknow]

Rubber coated feed dogs are available in the standard straight sewer style but not sure about the 111 series.

Feed dogs for the 111 and 211 are interchangeable, but the throat plate must match the dogs whichever machine they're on.

Regards, Eric

[Anne Bonnys Locker]

You could always just hit them with a bit of "Bead Magic" or the dipping compound used on the handle of electrical pliers.

This stuff works well on the 29k feeder foot so cannot see any reason why it would not have the same effect on feed dogs.

[ramrod]

once again, thank you to all for replying. i just got back from an extended weekend so i couldn't reply until now.

i'll give the tension adjuster a go and see if it makes it any better. i haven't really noticed any marks until i used some smooth 4 oz. leather. i'm not sure why it chose this leather to manifest itself, but i wanna stop it before the next project.