United Think It's A Consew 226

[Mildbill]

Have a chance to buy a united, motor and stand. Looks to be good shape for 400$ run and stitches good, I think it's a consew 226 can you guys look and give me a little more information.

[Northmount]

Have a chance to buy a united, motor and stand. Looks to be good shape for 400$ run and stitches good, I think it's a consew 226 can you guys look and give me a little more information.

Pictures?

Tom

[Mildbill]

Can't figure out how to post them.

[Northmount]

Just below the box for your post, on the right, click more reply options and you'll find options for uploading pictures ..

[Mildbill]

I'll try to resize them tomorrow.

[Mildbill]

see if this works

It sews real fast, and I will most likely need a speed reducer or servo motor. My brother may go look at it with me this evening, anything I need to watch out for?

Edited October 15, 2015 by Mildbill

[SARK9]

One thing to double check- The plunger you depress to change the stitch length seems to be missing.....

-DC

[Mildbill]

I'm glad you circled where it should be, I might have looked for hours. Do you think it's a 226? Or whatever a 226 is copied from?

Or just pass...

Thanks for the help, William.

[Art]

William,

It sure looks like a 226R, which is kind of a clone of the Singer 211. The button/plunger that SARK9 mentioned should be there, but could be missing. You should check to see that the rest of the mechanism is still there. If you look under the cover over the riser (far right top of machine), there should be a little wheel or something engraved with stitch lengths. You push the button (eyeball and see if you can use a dowel or something) and rotate the balance wheel toward you, when the button drops in, the wheel in the riser should indicate the current stitch length setting. Just to let you know how it SHOULD work.

Art

[Mildbill]

My brother used to sew at a furniture plant that's closed down 5 years or so ago. This machine is supposed to come from there. It comes with a handful of parts and a small box full of cones of thread some still in the plastic.they are at least 3 most likely 5 years old, for practice only. If I gear this down or servo motor this will it do 3/8 or more leather for holsters. Have that as a tinkering project and long term goal.

Thank you, William.

[Art]

William,

Well, the factory part explains removing the button that changes stitch length. My guess is it still can be accomplished via a dowel or pencil. It will sew 3/8 but not much more, period. I did 22oz with one ONCE, could barely get it under the presser. Broke a needle along the way (my fault), so I would say 3/8 is the functional limit.

Art

[Mildbill]

Thank you all.

Going to check it out, see if all parts are with it, and if she will move on the price.

Thank you, William.

[Colt W Knight]

If its a consew 226 copy, I think 400 is a steal. best of luck.

[Mildbill]

Got it and 6-7 extra large to me cones of thread and hundreds of bobbins of black and white thread. Has an adjustable stand and a 1/2 horse power 120v clutch motor,with knee lift for 300$ everything we could stuff under the foot it would sew good looking stitches. I"m going to have to look into adjusting the stitch length, I checked under the table and everything looks to be there, ill have to get a diagram to be sure. Have it covered in the truck to heavy to move it in the dark.

Thanks, William

[Uwe]

I think the stitch length indicator on this version of the 226 is right next to the hand wheel like shown in the photo of a pristine 226 below. The older style 226 had the indicator wheel inside under the top cover (also visible by peeking through the hole in the front). The missing button normally just engages a notch in a disk on the underside to keep a shaft from rotating as you turn the hand wheel to adjust the stitch length. You can stick a screwdriver or something else suitable into hole to engage that notch.

[Mildbill]

Started cleaning it up yesterday, but the sun popped out and I bush hogged some instead. I'm going to get some sewing machine oil and oil it up good maybe tomorrow. Seems the darkness in the woman's basement wasn't the only reason I had thought it was green. Her husband must have been a heavy smoker, and it took a while to clean it up but it is a nice shade of industrial grey. Going to have to change the needle and bobbin thread as I keep jamming on the bobbin side and I read some threads last night and this seems to be pointing in this direction. I have also done some searching on speed reducers and servo motors and I have some questions.

1) Servo motor, I gather its quiet till you hit the pedal,

2) Would it also need a speed reducer? I would rather have say 0-800 spm. I'm just starting the industrial sewing and this thing is fast I'm guessing 4 or 5 times too fast.

3) Clutch motor, noisy all the time. I looked at some videos and I'm not sure of the reduction but it still looks too fast.

After i finish cleaning some more and get it oiled up and sewing a good stitch, ill post another picture. Thanks for all the help!

William.

[SARK9]

The "servo" motors I use don't run at all until you step on the pedal....its hard to be more silent than that! Mine just make the merest whisper when running as well. I use speed reducers *with* the servos on my upholstery class machines - Juki LU-563's, a Consew 206RB5 & a Mitsubishi CU-865) ...and your 226 is of the same type/class. For me, its more to multiply the torque a bit when going very slow through multiple layers of folded webbing and Cordura. I have a couple of "fabric" machines that do fine with the servo alone. I've tried reducers on a couple of random clutch motors that actually seemed well-behaved and controllable, and I'm quite sure with practice they would have served me well....but there is no getting around the noise most of them make. I'm a maintenance machinist for a medium-sized factory, and I get enough background cacophony during the day to make me appreciate stillness. Enjoy your 226!

-DC

Edited October 17, 2015 by SARK9

[dikman]

I've been messing around with speed reducers (pulley system) and they do help, but a servo is far better, in my opinion, when it comes to control. I've just fitted one to my Pfaff 335, after experimenting with various pulleys with the clutch motor. I used a small 1 3/4" pulley on the motor, fitted a large 8" pulley on the machine itself and once I tweaked the settings in the servo I got it to crawl along! Top speed is also quite slow, which is fine by me.

Fitting a larger pulley on the machine helps immensely, as it slows things down while giving more torque. On some machines it's difficult (if not impossible) to fit a larger pulley - my Singer G166 is one that I can't fit one to - so a speed reducer may be a good idea. I intend to build one for the Singer eventually, to go with the servo on it.

[Mildbill]

Been reading several things on the servo motors, Wiz had mentioned 1 in a write up about a built in gear reduction of 3/1 built in. I have found a video or 2 but no pricing information as of yet. That one seems like it may be the way to go even more so if you can control the speed with the drive.

The other units like the Consew I'm wondering if you would loose any punching power on start up if it was turned way down to creep along. Rather not have to buy a servo and a separate speed reducer if I don't have to.

SARK9 I also am a maintenance man but for a CNC machining facility. It sounds like rock crushers running full tilt all around me most of the time.

[SARK9]

As popular as the "servo" motors have become, someone should compile a sticky about the various designs and pros/cons.

I think the model with the integral geared-reducer is no longer around, but I'm not in the supply chain. Others may know.

The main *species* divisions for these motors are brush or brushless....both have their fans. I've not owned a brush-style motor that employs the rheo dial for speed range control, but they seems to have a reputation for better starting torque at minimal RPM. I will leave that subject for its adherents.

I have probably owned 10 of the Consew servo-type motors...they suit me pretty well for the stuff I sew. Recently, they seem to have replaced the older style (CS-1000-with an optical speed controller) with a more modular design (the "Premier" CSM-1000) which I *hear* uses an hall-effect sensor, though I confess I've not had either of my two apart to see.

My 2 cents: I think the later generations of the older model CS-1000 were somewhat preferable to the new units

in a several ways...one, the optical control in the later ones seemed to be pretty usable right out of the box, but if you did the well-known "hack" to the blade, you really could get super fine predictable control of the low speeds that I don't think could be much better. I personally found shaping a progressive arc shape out of a thin, opaque material gave the best granularity, but many had good results with the "gradient" method. The older units also had a traditional belt-tensioner threaded rod which everyone knows from the clutch motor designs. I also miss the switched 110V outlet for a sewing lamp on the rear of the switch body.

The new Consew Premier CSM-1000 is rated for roughly the same 3/4 hp/wattage/RPM as its elder, and now has the unit broken up into 3 parts- the motor and its mount, the actuator with control arm, and the much larger switch unit with the electronic controls. There is a new range of applications one can use this new design for, by reason of the remote actuator---it can be mounted anywhere in any position, which is dang useful. The downside is the controller does seem a bit more abrupt when starting now..... its not horrible, but its certainly not as delicate and gradual as a CS with a well-done optical hack. I can literally make my old motors take (n)number of seconds to go from TDC to the needle touching my material if I limit my coffee intake. These new actuators will undoubtedly get modded at some point. The other main potential drawback with the new design is the lack of a positive mechanical belt tensioner rod to hold its setting against the reactive force of the belt when it suddenly hits high resistance at speed. I really haven't (yet) worked mine hard enough to test the failure point, but I'm not 100% confident some of the leather jobs won't overload it. Its not particularly robust. New vs. old:

-DC

[Wizcrafts]

Been reading several things on the servo motors, Wiz had mentioned 1 in a write up about a built in gear reduction of 3/1 built in. I have found a video or 2 but no pricing information as of yet. That one seems like it may be the way to go even more so if you can control the speed with the drive.

That gear driven motor was the SewPro 500GR. The company that built them made nothing else. One day they decided that making the cases out of aluminum and reducing the top speed would save money and shipping costs to the dealers, allowing them to compete with the lighter weight push button servo motors that were the rage. What they didn't know, since they were builders, not users, was that the heat from the spinning motor and coils was going to warp the aluminum casings. The complaints and returns increased suddenly and rather than returning to the old cast iron case (and higher top speed), they decided to close the factory and go home, for good. Poof! No motor for you! This is how things are sometimes done in China.

[Mildbill]

I'll look some more then, Wonder if the fs 550 servo motor Toledo Industrial sells or the Consew would be the better buy.

[Colt W Knight]

I'll look some more then, Wonder if the fs 550 servo motor Toledo Industrial sells or the Consew would be the better buy.

I have this on my consew 206. great addition to my machine

[Mildbill]

After looking and doing more cleaning I don't have a wheel under the place indicated. It appears that i can adjust the stitch length by loosening a set screw on the pulley wheel and moving it backwards or forward. Do any other of the clones adjust this way? I have a call into United (waiting on a return call) maybe they can give me a little information. I have looked at some threads about the safety clutch and appears that mine has either been modified or rigged I think this is causing thread to wind around my bobbin basket. And it seems to be out of time slightly.

Thanks, William.

[Uwe]

Make sure you spend some quality time with the manual for your machine: http://www.consew.com/Files/112347/InstructionManuals/225.pdf

Your United is the same as the Consew 226R-1, as far as I can tell. You should not need to loosen any set screws to adjust the stitch length, just depress a button in the bed (page 5 in the manual.)

That set screw is there to allow calibrating the numbered wheel to match to actual stitch lengths.

Make sure you buy some new needles of the correct system 135x17 and size you plan to use. Check hook timing against specs (probably close to Consew 225 hook timing specs, but verify).

Edited October 26, 2015 by Uwe