Consew 225 Repair And Upgrade

[meets]

Hello everyone. Just got my 1st walking foot machine...Consew 225. It works but it needs TLC. Planning to make it work better, do some restoration to original condition and install Consew 226R parts to allow it to reverse.

Lots of questions for you:

1. I have the 10 page Operating Instructions for Consew Models 224 & 224R-1 / 225 & 226R-1 and the 3-page Parts Chart from the Consew website. Does anyone have the parts list that describes the parts with numbers? This way I know how to refer to each part.

2. Timing belt needs replacing. I have removed the handwheel but cannot figure out how to remove the drive shaft bearing. The bearing sits in a housing. How do I get the housing out of the cast-iron machine housing?

3. To remove the belt it looks like a retaining ring needs to be removed. What is the easiest way to get this off?

4. The lifter works now but it is repaired and ugly. And the hand operated lifting lever is missing. In addition, the thread is not released so some fixes are needed. Using the lifting bar for the foot pedal is fine with me. It seems that I need several parts to accomplish this. The hand lifter area is the worst area. Part of the head casting is broken in this area. I plan to make a SS cover for this area and use some available threaded holes to hold it in place. Do you have any watch-outs? Can someone send a couple of pics of what this area should look like including close-ups for the hand lifter as I can't see how that lever will be installed.

5. Finally I want to add reverse capability. The 225 is similar to the 226R-1 so I think I can fit the 226R parts into the 225. Is this possible? It looks like the rotating point of the reverse lever will fit in the hole under the handwheel. I'll send more pics. If possible can you send some pics showing the reverse mechanisms on the 226R?

Many many thanks in advance

[meets]

More pics of the 225 areas available for adding reverse.

[Gregg From Keystone Sewing]

Funny someone is asking for this. I was ordering parts for a Consew 226R (Old style) and discovered that I did not have a book for this and the 225 as well in my digital library. I didn't like it, you don't like it, so I grabbed the old, old Consew book and scanned a few pages. Now we have it to share! Hope this helps, and kindly realize there are many, various differences in the castings between a 225 and 226 model. If it were easy to do, everybody's 225s and Singer 111W machines would have a reverse.

225, 226R OLD STYLE.pdf

[cdthayer]

Hi Meets,

Welcome to the Leatherworker Forum.

You’re talking about quite an undertaking converting a 225 to a 226R. I suppose there’s no way that you can be talked out of it, huh?

You should probably get the belt changed before you attempt the conversion. On my Singer 111G156, I drove the bearing out toward the handwheel end using a soft punch by reaching it through the inspection plate opening and working each side out slowly. You may figure out a better way.

CD in Oklahoma

[cdthayer]

Oh, and I would leave the retaining ring alone. The belts will come and go over it without a problem. You have to take the belt off of the bottom pulley/sprocket to get slack to remove the old belt (out through the hole where the bearing was), and then after fishing the new belt in, you’ll put the new belt onto the bottom pulley/sprocket last.

CD in Oklahoma

[CowboyBob]

You need to loosen the 2-screws on the top shaft bearing on the inside (they are on a collar)you should also polish the sg=haft alittle all the way around where the handwheel so the bearing slides off easier.

[meets]

Thank you Gregg...your parts list with descriptions is EXACTLY what I needed to make sure I can order the right parts and refer to the parts correctly.

Thank you CD...got the arm shaft bushing out by placing a heavy-duty nail-puller bar on it and whacking it with a rubber mallet AFTER I made sure the 2 set screws were not in either hole. Arm shaft bushing with bearing are out. Had to use a gear puller to pull the housing and bearing the rest of the way off the arm shaft. The end of the shaft under the hand wheel was muggered up but the bearing/bushing didn't get scratched. I'll need to take emery paper to it to remove high spots and get it smooth again.

Thank you, Bob... I'm going to use stainless steel polishing rouge after the emory paper on the muggered-up areas on the arm shaft to make sure it is nice and smooth again for reassembly. All the washers and oil felt is missing along with the set screws. One set screw for the handwheel is missing. The order list is growing.

Thank you again CD...the timing belt (arm shaft connecting belt) will easily slide off the safety clutch pulley and then off the arm shaft pulley over the outer retaining split-ring. If I keep everything aligned, I shouldn't have to re-time especially since I'm not sure how to adjust upper and lower timing at this point.

To fix the broken part of the machine head I'm going the weld a small carbon steel plate to the face plate. We have a wire-feed welder and either me or hubby will practice on some similar thickness carbon steel and weld an extension piece to the face plate (which is also on the order list). I was thinking earlier of cutting a separate stainless cover and using existing threaded holes in the casting but I think a better idea is to use the jigsaw and cut a nice little carbon steel cover plate and weld it to the edge of the new face plate.

All the knee lifter parts are on my list to buy. I prefer the knee lifter on straight stitch machines and foot lifters on sergers. It seems the manufacturers designed their set-ups that way, too. So, the separate knee lifter assembly is on the buy list, too.

Concerning the arm shaft bearing and bushing: Previous owners had packed the ball bearings with bearing grease and removed the oil felt. (The only oil felt they left is in the lower feed mechanism.) I want to go back to the original intent. I think the bearings were packed OK but are a little dry with a lot of lint in the grease...I can see this isn't what the designers intended...if they intended that there would be grease fittings and bearing grease seals. So the plan is to the use oil again and add oil felts to the buy list. That's what the arm cap is for...inspect and add oil as needed. I'm thinking the bearing is OK...I can see some abrasions on each ball but the overall back and forth of it is a little loose but not too bad. I think it is OK unless you are thinking it shouldn't have any play.

There are lots of screws either missing or muggered-up in the feed mechanism area. Those will be replaced and installed as needed.

CD's parts list is showing a "reverse mechanism" and a "reverse feeding old-style". How do I know which style I could use? I'm thinking one or the other might have been made for the 226R at the time my Consew 225 was made and I can only know the date of manufacture from the serial number? My Consew 225 has serial number MH 6404074. Anybody got an idea or reference for the dates of manufacture of Consews and when the dates the old style reverse was used? I still think there is plenty of room to make this 225 into a 226R (after it is sewing great in the forward direction).

[CowboyBob]

You'll have to go with the new style parts,they old have been discontinued.

We have welded a lot of castiron & always use nickel rod & pre-heat.

[Darren Brosowski]

This is a bloody big job! if you manage to make this work then you are probably doing better than 90% of the supposed sewing machine mechanics in Australia. Go for it guys and if you can do this then you are better than most who have a shingle hanging out the front claiming to be sewing machine mechanics.