A Singer 16-88 Again In Service

[SARK9]

That style of external clutch motor has the pulley integrated with the movable clutch pad, at least its that way on one I have that is very similar to the one pictured. Replacing it with a smaller drive pulley may be non-trivial.

On the plus side, the unit I have is the most controllable clutch motor I have used, though it was still a source of noise and other annoyances. A servo swap brought much happiness.

-DC

[Otto6294]

Not integrated. There is air space between the disk and pulley. I wish there was room to simply put another pulley on the shaft so the clutch could still engage the large pulley.

[SantaFeMarie]

Will those holes close up a bit over time?

[Twoshot]

I replaced the open clutch system on the 16-88, with the FS 550s servo from Bob at Industrial Sewing. For me, the open clutch setup was almost impossible to use on leather. With the servo connected directly to the 16-88 head, the speed is very manageable at the lowest potentiometer setting. A close guess would be approx 1.5-2 stitches per second. Perfect for straight runs on holsters, but I personally have to slow down and use the hand wheel on tight curves in order to stay in a pre-cut stitching groove.

The leap forward in motor technology is appreciated, when comparing the noise from the original motor and clutch. It is all but gone, as well as being able to watch the needle bar go up an down as opposed to the almost uncontrolled blurred motion of the original 1/3 hp motor.

I'm also using #207 thread. I was able to sew a holster together for a Beretta .380 using a single, fully loaded class 15 bobbin, and a 16x64 needle. When completed, I still had a bobbin with some thread remaining. Since the holster was for personal use, and R&D, I decided to experiment, and saddle stitch part of the holster using Tandy's largest size thread in the same color to compare it with the machine stitches and color. As always, the saddle stitches pick up dye from hands and leather and appear grayish, compared to the machine stitching. The machine was set at 6-7 spi, and hand stitches were at 5 spi. I'm new at using a machine for stitching leather, and need to practice in order to keep stitches where they belong... on target. It sure saves my old hands from hurting.

I used 7-8 oz. leather, and although I had no problems sewing the pieces together, I believe that I have reached the machines maximum capacity for sewing leather . It works fine, it's just that this thickness is all that will fit between the presser bar and needle plate. Class 15 bobbins and cases are very inexpensive. For the money, I wouldn't be concerned about frequent replacement.

Although this machine is an antique, it holds it's own for being 105 years young.

Edited April 14, 2015 by Twoshot

[Twoshot]

I tried to add a pick of the stitching on the holster, but for some reason it is not appearing with the post. Don't have a clue as to why. Sorry.

[Twoshot]

I've posted pics without difficulty before. I don't have any idea why they won't stay with the text input.

I've inserted the pic here, this time trying to use the text box instead:

]

That didn't work either. Sorry, I'm out of ideas on how to post a pic. The text box was a shot in the dark.

Edited April 14, 2015 by Twoshot

[SantaFeMarie]

Have you tried uploading to Photobucket, then using the Image button in the second row of the menu bar and then pasting the direct link into that box?

[Twoshot]

Thanks for your input, SantaFeMarie. No I've not tried Photobucket. I posted the four images at the beginning of this thread a couple weeks ago, without using Photobucket and had no problem. I used the Link:shown below through the menu which can be found on this website. There must have been some changes made to dis-allow this function.

http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=62465#

Thank You.

[Twoshot]

Sorry for the blunder, but here's the image depicting the stitching with #207 thread vs. Tandy's white waxed thread saddle stitched.