Members bubbagum Posted July 18, 2015 Members Report Posted July 18, 2015 I see mainly duty gear out of corduroy, scuba webbing, and regular nylon webbing. I have handstiched holsters and sheaths in the past but for now I mainly want a machine for nylon. I want something that can handle leather for belts but nylon is most of it for now. There is a Consew 105rb-1 available used as well as a tacsew 111-155. I like the 105rb but it is not a needle feed machine, will that cause any issues for leather occasionally? If I buy a new machine is the Consew 1206rb any good? I trust Consew name more than Tacsew but they look similar and have seen no reviews of 1206 on here? Any advice you can give will be appreciated. Quote
Moderator Wizcrafts Posted July 18, 2015 Moderator Report Posted July 18, 2015 I would set my sights on a new walking foot machine with reverse. The Consew P1206RB is a brand new model and has a built in oil pump. It need to run fast, often. There are no reviews I've seen yet. It has similar specs to the 206RB-5 and may be an upgrade, or a replacement. Ask a Consew dealer for more details. The Consew 206RB-5 is well established and is manually oiled, which is better if most of your sewing will be a very slow speeds. Both Consews use a large M bobbin that plugs in under the machine, on the left side. They will sew up to 3/8 inch, at 4 to the inch, with at least #138 thread. They use the same type 111 feet that are used on most compound feed walking foot machine. If you must buy used, try out the machine first. If it can't sew 1/4 inch of webbing, pass on it. Stick to compound feed if possible. If you can't find one, look for at least a dual feed (top and bottom, with teeth) walking foot machine. It will mark leather badly, but is great for cloth, vinyl and webbing. Quote Posted IMHO, by Wiz My current crop of sewing machines: Cowboy CB4500, Singer 107w3, Singer 139w109, Singer 168G101, Singer 29k71, Singer 31-15, Singer 111w103, Singer 211G156, Adler 30-7 on power stand, Techsew 2700, Fortuna power skiver and a Pfaff 4 thread 2 needle serger.
Members bubbagum Posted July 18, 2015 Author Members Report Posted July 18, 2015 Thank you . A local dealer said 1206rb was not a replacement for 206rb5 but a cheaper model to compete better with less expensive machines. consew website says it is a replacement. I don't really want to buy a new, and possibly inferior machine but if it might be their replacement it might be the thing to buy. I just want reliability and easy to find parts. Quote
Moderator Wizcrafts Posted July 18, 2015 Moderator Report Posted July 18, 2015 Bear in mind that the new model has an oil pump. You have to sew fast to distribute oil to all moving parts in the top end. If you don't anticipate sewing at 30 or 40 stitches per second most of the time, go for a Consew 206RB-5. It is manually oiled and uses gravity feed. Sew as slow or fast as you want. Just make sure it has an oil drip pan under the head. Quote Posted IMHO, by Wiz My current crop of sewing machines: Cowboy CB4500, Singer 107w3, Singer 139w109, Singer 168G101, Singer 29k71, Singer 31-15, Singer 111w103, Singer 211G156, Adler 30-7 on power stand, Techsew 2700, Fortuna power skiver and a Pfaff 4 thread 2 needle serger.
Members EmergerFlyFishing Posted October 14, 2015 Members Report Posted October 14, 2015 Bear in mind that the new model has an oil pump. You have to sew fast to distribute oil to all moving parts in the top end. If you don't anticipate sewing at 30 or 40 stitches per second most of the time, go for a Consew 206RB-5. It is manually oiled and uses gravity feed. Sew as slow or fast as you want. Just make sure it has an oil drip pan under the head. Hey there guys. Brand new to leatherworker.net but I've been watching and reading up in the forums for a while. I'm a little late to this post but I wanted to check in on this. Wiz, I've been looking at purchasing a new 1206RB pretty soon. I've talked to a couple of dealers, and no one has mentioned anything about the need to sew that fast with this machine. I sew fly fishing gear bags and smaller wallets (mostly 18oz waxed canvas but my wallets have 6oz English Bridle straps sewn onto them) and things like that, and I don't really ever sew that fast on my products. Is this oil pump really something to be concerned about? If so, it may impact whether or not I go with this machine. Quote
Moderator Wizcrafts Posted October 14, 2015 Moderator Report Posted October 14, 2015 All of the oil pump equipped sewing machines require a fair amount of speed to fully distribute the oil. I have no way of knowing if this new model is any different. The spec sheet says that the top speed is 3000 rpm. It doesn't say what the minimum recommended speed is. That is an unfortunate oversight. It is probably included in the user instructions that come with the machine. Based on other self oiled machines, my guess is that it must spin at least at 2000 rpm to get oil to the extremities. That's only about 33 stitches per second. You can do that by winding bobbins before you start sewing. Just unthread the machine, lift the presser feet and floor it as the bobbin winds. You should be good to go for about an hour before you need to spin it that fast again. Quote Posted IMHO, by Wiz My current crop of sewing machines: Cowboy CB4500, Singer 107w3, Singer 139w109, Singer 168G101, Singer 29k71, Singer 31-15, Singer 111w103, Singer 211G156, Adler 30-7 on power stand, Techsew 2700, Fortuna power skiver and a Pfaff 4 thread 2 needle serger.
Members EmergerFlyFishing Posted October 14, 2015 Members Report Posted October 14, 2015 Ha! Awesome Wiz. Good to know. Thanks for the reply. Quote
Members dikman Posted October 14, 2015 Members Report Posted October 14, 2015 Out of curiosity, I looked at the machine on the Consew website and then read the manual that they have made available. One discrepancy, the website lists the top speed as 3000 spm, the manual says 1800 spm - bit of a difference there. The manual also refers to a low speed of 1000-1500 spm, so I'm guessing that if you run it at the sort of speeds some leatherworkers like (real slow) and it seizes through lack of lubrication any warranty may be considered void! (I couldn't see any reference to a minimum speed). I think I'd be pushing the dealers a bit harder about what's needed to keep the oil flowing - if they know! Personally, based on what Wiz has mentioned, I wouldn't touch one of these for (slow speed) leatherwork, at least not until someone else has proven that they will be ok at ultra slow speeds. Quote Machines wot I have - Singer 51W59; Singer 331K4; Seiko STH-8BLD; Pfaff 335; CB4500. Chinese shoe patcher; Singer 201K (old hand crank)
Members EmergerFlyFishing Posted October 14, 2015 Members Report Posted October 14, 2015 Out of curiosity, I looked at the machine on the Consew website and then read the manual that they have made available. One discrepancy, the website lists the top speed as 3000 spm, the manual says 1800 spm - bit of a difference there. The manual also refers to a low speed of 1000-1500 spm, so I'm guessing that if you run it at the sort of speeds some leatherworkers like (real slow) and it seizes through lack of lubrication any warranty may be considered void! (I couldn't see any reference to a minimum speed). I think I'd be pushing the dealers a bit harder about what's needed to keep the oil flowing - if they know! Personally, based on what Wiz has mentioned, I wouldn't touch one of these for (slow speed) leatherwork, at least not until someone else has proven that they will be ok at ultra slow speeds. Yeah, I'd looked at the manual and info on the consew site as well. I wasn't really paying attention to the speeds that much because I didn't know the self oiled machines would have this issue. I will say that I've emailed back and forth with Bob at Toledo Industrial about this machine. He said the 1206 is meant to be a replacement for the Chandler 406 (the reason I had emailed him to begin with). I described to him what I typically sew and he felt said that he felt certain it would sew what I needed to sew, that he would set it up with a FS 550. But he didn't say much about speed. It didn't come up in our conversation. I'll probably check back with him about it now. Quote
Moderator Wizcrafts Posted October 14, 2015 Moderator Report Posted October 14, 2015 It will be easy enough for Bob to check the oil flow at various speeds, once he has one set up on a table. Quote Posted IMHO, by Wiz My current crop of sewing machines: Cowboy CB4500, Singer 107w3, Singer 139w109, Singer 168G101, Singer 29k71, Singer 31-15, Singer 111w103, Singer 211G156, Adler 30-7 on power stand, Techsew 2700, Fortuna power skiver and a Pfaff 4 thread 2 needle serger.
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