Cowboy Cb-4500 A Dud?

[SethJ]

Very nice work Seth. Are you stamping or carving? Either way, looks pretty good. Do you do a lot of saddlery in LA? (not to be confused with Lower Alabama or Los Angeles) Have some friends in Shreveport and the only horses they are familiar with are 390 if them under the hood.

Nice work.

Tim

No I hand carve all of it,..dunno where I'd get a stamp this big? lol...

with the machine now I'm doing a lot more saddles hopefully,...up til recently it's been hand sewn so I've only done a couple...aside from that my mentor passed away, so I figure a lot out from books, videos, reading everything I can get my hands on....never thought carving was my strong point, but folks seem to buy them anyways so I guess it's ok...

I was raised around horses, I have some now,...I still play "cowboy" on a daily basis,...I do more holsters and gunbelts than anything,..mag pouches,..etc...but I do a fair amount of tack and saddlery.

Edited January 26, 2014 by SethJ

[Dr JOEL]

What a great forum! You guys that are resonding are absolutely great. The wiz even willing to go personally to help Seth! Outstanding.

[RusticLeatherShop]

Hi,

 

I bought an CB4500 as well brand new (I am from Southamerica) a while ago and never ever have had the slightest hiccup with it.

One time it did fray without any reason the thread and I had to take out the bobbin to see whats going on but that never happened again.

The thread Ends have to be Held a bit but even if you dont hold them, the machine will work just OK. Adjusting the machine bobbin and thread is the secret. When oil gets into the bobbin thread then knots will Show up on top of the sewing since friction is lowered in the bobbin part.

Till date I use #277 thread with #25 needle but soon Change to #138 thread with #23 needle.

I sew mostly rather thin leather (2 to 4 layers of 4 to 5 oz leather) and thus have lessened the thread and bobbin Tension to the bare Minimum. That gives better results but still #277 thread is a bit overdo for thin leather.

As well the machine has to be threaded exactly as required by the manufacturer even if you think you are wiser than them.

For thin leather adjusting the machine can be at first done by Feeling if bobbin thread and upper thread have similar tensions. Bare Minimum Tension is best IMHO for thin leather. As well the presser foot can be reduced a bit the pressure so the foot presses less on the material.

KNOTS have to be between in the middle of the 2 layers of leather.

KNOTS ON TOP = reduce upper thread Tension OR increase bobbin Tension.

KNOTS ON UNDERSIDE = increase upper thread Tension OR reduce bobbin Tension.

I oil the machine before each use as such as I tend to overlubricate.

Here is my most recent Smartphone case I made for 17$ for my worker (It's not the most beautifull work but functional made with #277 thread. Dark Brown pig Skin with magnetic closure buttons). Observe that backstitching supposed to be "in the same hole" which is a Little optimistic IMO for the CB4500. Skipped stitches are non existant as I observed just 1 skipped stitch on one of my works. But yea precise Corner sewing is a bit a challenge since stitches are sometimes a tad to short on the edge or want to pass over the edge unless stitches are reduced to smaller (very small so it doesnt look nice). These needles (Organ #25) tend to incline a tad the stitch thread as it is not in an perfect straight line (thats due to the needle Point as I saw on YouTube).