Help Or A Manual With Juki Dlu 490-4 ( It Has Efka Vd552 Clutch Motor ) ?

[mikesc]

Hi, hopefully someone in this part of the forum can advise me as to what the various controls on this Juki DLU 490-4 ( which has a Efka variostop VD 552 clutch motor ) do ?..or maybe miraculously someone has a user manual ( I have a parts list manual for the Juki DLU 490-4 head and the stand, but not for the Efka Variostop 552 ) that they could scan and send to me ?

I have looked all over the internet for info about this type of machine, very little info available, some of it plain wrong ( I saw in a thread somewhere on another site that it has "needle feed", it does not ), it isn't a "leather machine", from what I can tell it was made for heavyweight textile work, has "variable top " feed, ( this appears to be controlled by various dials etc on or around the reverse bar on the head, which is much shorter than usual )"needle positioning" ( EPS ? ),automated bottom thread cutting ( also was once fitted with a "wiper"..some of these "features" appear to be controlled by the Eka Variostop VD552 clutch motor and control box which are mounted below the table on the stand. Motor is 550 watt..originally mounted 380 tri-phase, it has been rewired ( with a condenser and a change of the contact bar positions ) to run on 220v monophase using the "pseudo 220v tri-phase condenser method".

I mentioned this machine in my "intro thread" here, when I went to see it, it was in pitiful condition, the wiring badly done ( touched it and you got a jolt ), dirty as hell, half the "sump gasket" gone, leaking oil ( I eventually picked 300 gr of crap including 6 broken needles out of the sump ), it came with 3 spare presser feet ( which I have since discovered are not from this model at all ) around 30 bobbins ( only 10 actually fit it, the others are around 1mm too big on their diameters to fit in the bobbin holder ) half a dozen 2500m spools of thread ( none of which have sizes marked, they are polyester ) two of which fit the system 134 ( 120/19 ) needles that came with it ( it also had a handful of nm 100 system B-27 needles in the drawer ), the other cones are of what looks like 3 cord to fit 140 needles.

I had to drive ( actually a friend drove me as his car is big enough to get a head and stand in easily ) quite a way to get to it, so, when I saw it I thought,"as long as it runs, if it doesn't cost me too much I'll take it away"...It ran like a bat out of hell ( about 2800rpm ) ..The lady who had bought it "used" ( sold to her by a French dealer ) to try to sew hard plastic made from seaweed, was scare to death of it, jumped like a scalded cat when I put a length of cut up shoe upper under it and squeezed down on the big pedal, jumped even more when I heeled back to see if the lift worked ( she didn't know that was how to lift the needle presser assembly, the dealer hadn't shown her )..so she accepted my offer.

I know it isn't for leather, but as I'm only making leather garment prototypes before sending them as examples along with patterns to the people who make our stuff ( garments, lambskin, kidskin, calfskin, cowhide and water buffalo ) it will do me for now.It is very hard to find tripe action ( unison feed ) true"walking foot"machines in France.

One reason being that almost everyone who sells them ( that isn't a dealer ) describes machines as "piquese industriel", rarely specifying what type of action they have, and never ever showing a close up of the feet and needle bar, ( and describe as walking foot machines which are not ) so you travel a lot to see machines, and are frequently disappointed.

Dealers charge a fortune compared with the USA or the UK for new or used machines, showrooms are few and far between.

So while I'm waiting to find someone advertising a good used Juki 563, ( someone did just 3 days after I bought this, but she didn't advertise that it was triple action, just "machine a coudre industrielle "€800.00 ) or a Singer, this Juki DLU 490-4 will have to do me.

Now have it cleaned it up and rewired it properly, I ordered a 45mm pulley for the Efka unit from College sewing along with some leather needles and a sump gasket, two shorter belts ( to cope with the smaller pulley ) and bought it a litre of clean vaseline oil ( it had about 25cc of very old linseed oil in the sump when I got it, that is what the dealer told the lady it used ).

Btw..anyone else reading this because they have one ( or the 555 which uses the same "sump", there may be others ) and wondering ( as I was ) how much oil is needed for the sump ( nowhere on the interwebs tells you, until now ) ..it takes 500ml to reach the "low" mark, go too much over that mark and you'll have oil leaking out via the foot lift lever that runs vertically through the sump.

Also a 45mm pulley ( even designed for the Efka clutch motor ) rubs on ( and "locks up" and would break something ) the motor casing when you fit it to the tapered shaft, it is the right one, but the 45mm size is machined with a beveled inset in the rear ( motor facing side ) and that rubs against the motor casing ( whereas the 106mm original pulley doesn't rub )..you need to "shim" it away about 4mm from the motor casing with a washer or two placed on the taper shaft and right up to the hex nut ( but small enough outside diameter to not be touching the motor casing ), the "next size up" pulley at 50mm or maybe the 55mm would clear the casing without "shim(s)"..I need to phone Dave ( the UK's best and most helpful sewing machine mechanic at college sewing ) in the morning to tell him I solved the problem of the "grinding pulley".

Once I can get it running and understood, I'll probably be making a reducer just to see how slow I can get it ( and no doubt that will make the Efka unit "untimable" ( sic ? ) and surplus, but the Efka units sell used here for around €350.oo so I can recoup some of my outlay when that day arrives.

That leaves me with the problems of having no user manual for either the Juki DLU490-4 head and stand, and no user manual for the Efka VD552, and a whole load of dials and switches etc on both of them which I don't know what they do.Some of them I think act together, and some of the ones on the head may well be being "over ridden" by the Efka variostop.But as when you action the large foot pedal so many things are happening, it is really hard to know what to set to what, what is doing what, what is controlling what, what can I switch off ( I really don't want the bottom threads cutting "automatically" every time I stop) all I really need is that the feed foot and the presser foot and needle lifts when I stop. In fact I'd really rather that all of the things that the Efka unit is doing were done manually, but until I change the motor, I need advice about what is doing what, and what to set etc , so as not to break anything..or as well as some explanations, if anyone has user manuals ?

I've used normal triple action machines in the past ( but it was over 20 years ago now and I cant even remember which ones unless i see photos of them and it "jogs my memory" ), normal "reverse bar", tension controls etc not a problem, all of that I have no problem with, but this machine has so many unknown ( to me ) variables .

Here are some photos of the various dials and controls on the heed and also of the various switches and connectors on the Efka unit.

I also included a photo of the feed system ( even Juki call this a "walking foot" in the parts manual, it isn't, but, it will do for now ) and presser foot fitted,

( the method of attachment seems specific to this machine, apparently there were different feed foot,presser foot, feed dogs, feed plate sets available, this is the "heavy materials set", the length of the top feed foot and the presser foot make it difficult to see the work which is under the foot at the point where the needle is penetrating, there were other "sets" made, the "set" that I would like to get is the "tight curves set", I'll find the parts pdf file and "screenshot" it in another post to show the difference, in case anyone has a set that they would be willing to part with, or knows where i can get one, or at least some of the 4 pieces ( feed foot, presser foot, feed dog, feed plate ) that make the set.

Meanwhile as this forum kept coming up when I was searching, and from reading extensively here before joining I saw that some of you know more than anyone anywhere else, about a greater variety of machines ( not only those designed for leather work ) both new and old ( and ancient ) from all over the world, I'm hoping that some of you can help me out about what all these dials and controls do.I don't think I ever read such a helpful forum anywhere ( certainly not in France ), my apologies about the length of the post, I figured the more detail that you had, and the more images, the more chance someone will be able to help me.

Thanks for reading this far and hopefully thanks in advance.. :)Mike

[mikesc]

The feet sets..screenshots taken from the Juki DLu 490-4 parts manual.

Had to "break the page" into two screenshots.

The column outlined in red shows the parts that make up the "heavy materials" set ( the one that my machine has )

The column outlined in blue shows the parts that make up the "tight curves" set ( the one that I would like, it obscures far less of the work that is under the foot )