New Table And Motor Or New Machine?

[Uwe]

I came very close to buying a used sewing machine on Craigslist simply because it was mounted in an electric Kessler table! I wasn't aware they're available new in the States - I spent a fair amount of time trying to track down a supplier for them. $1K is a bit more than I'm willing to spend on a table, I'm afraid.

[lfab]

So I successfully lowered the table this afternoon but I think I may have broken it in the process. I can't seem to get the foot pedal to work with the motor in this new position. I'm worried that while I was lowering it one side kind of went down a bit faster than the other (as expected/predicted), and in this lopsided position, something may have bent out of shape that's now preventing the pedal/axle/extender rod thingies from moving properly no matter how they are positioned. Yet another reason why I dislike this table design! So many moving parts.

It's also quite possible that I'm just missing something, as I've never done this before. But after literally two hours of tinkering, I gave up and will try to have a mechanic come look at it tomorrow. But in the process of taking things apart and attempting to put them back together I've noticed that whoever put this together in the first place did a careless job. Just little details here and there... I wish I knew better at the time. So if the table is indeed busted, I won't be too heartbroken if I have to find another one. Except for the money, of course.

@dikman: nope, no paperwork. Not even a manual for the machine. It was a typical NYC garment district shit-show purchase. Lo and behold, I did end up finding the speed dial on the motor today. It's right on the back! I couldn't believe it.

@UWE: thanks for the interesting examples. If i'm able to keep this table I was definitely imagining a leg/legs like the one you pictured. Glad to hear that you're working on an Adler 69 version. I'm actually getting a laser cutter next month (!!!), which will make fabricating a custom-fit flatbed attachment not too difficult, provided I can find a good way to attach it. How did you develop the ring that attaches around the bottom? Was it something you found to fit, custom ordered or even 3d printed? And it seems like a lot of these examples, yours included, involve removing the arm cover and then using the remaining hole at the base of it as an attachment point?

@gottaknow: Those tables look serious. 1K is over my budget but I'm glad to now have the Kessler brand to keep in mind for the future.

Thanks for all of the helpful feedback.

[Uwe]

Judging from your initial pictures it looks like the linkage pulling down the motor's speed control arm was a pretty steep sideways angle to begin with. Lowering the table would have made that worse, pulling nearly horizontal instead of straight down on that speed control arm. You may have to switch things around to make the linkage rods point towards the back on the connecting shaft like in this picture:

The little clamp piece on my flatbed table attachment was lucky find of a ready made part that fit perfectly. Any two-piece item designed to clamp onto a 2" pipe is a candidate (I've gone through muffler clamps, audio rigging clamps, etc.) I can't give away all my secrets, but I will state for the record that I live near an IKEA store.

[TinkerTailor]

http://drdanessmh.com/khlegstanta.html

They have some table stuff in the usa.

Here is a Hardware store mod to the factory table included with the 441 clones. It attaches the same way as the table Uwe made.

[dikman]

I'm with Uwe. If you didn't release the linkages first they would have bent when the table was dropped, and if you did release them then they need to be re-aligned to reduce the rather acute angles showing on the first photo. The linkages look pretty simple.

[lfab]

I had a mechanic come yesterday to fix the pedal attachment. Everything is fine now, so I'll be keeping the table I have for the time being. I asked him about removing the arm plate for a flat table attachment and he advised not to do it. The arm plate on my machine moves slightly forward and backward with the needle/walking foot mechanism, which he said was important for one reason or another (he is Mexican and kind of difficult to understand sometimes). He also said it was difficult to put back together and didn't recommend me trying to take it apart. So in the interest of avoiding another expensive visit, I'll design my table to fit around the arm rather than over it, which means i'm probably looking at some sort of legs for additional support. We'll see when I start prototyping.

Anyway, I'd be happy to post back here with progress. I won't have my laser cutter until the end of November so it will be a few weeks before I'll be able to work with anything besides cardboard mockups.

[Uwe]

I'm glad you got your pedal connections sorted out. Post some pictures when you get a chance.

The cover plate on the Adler 69 cylinder arm has recess cutout on the underside to allow free movement of the swiveling binder connector below. If you replace the cover plate with a plain flat piece of metal, it'll press on the connector and nothing will move. You'll have to either machine a recess (hard), cut a hole (easier, like on the Pfaff 335,) or sandwich two plates together (bottom has a hole, top doesn't). Or you can leave the existing cover plate in place and design something that simply goes on top of it.

Here are some photos that show the underside of my Adler 69 arm cover plate with the recess cutout and the part that sticks up above the arm surface that the cover plate rests on:

[lfab]

@Uwe I understand that we wouldn't want to jam up something that needs to move and how one might fabricate certain components to achieve that... but what you think about the mechanic's comments regarding the back & forth motion of the plate being important to how material feeds through the machine? I never really understood what that motion was for and I'm not sure if I buy his explanation.

[Uwe]

Your mechanic must have been talking about the binder plate used when doing binding operations. That cover plate along with all the attached folder bits actually swivels front to back as you sew to synchronise the folder/binder movement with the presser feet movement. This video shows the moving binder plate on a similar machine. That version of the cover plate has a hole that fits snugly around the guide that sticks up, which moves the binder cover plate synchronized with the feed dog movement. The whole affair pivots around the swivel point on the right end of the arm.

Edited October 22, 2015 by Uwe

[lfab]

Ah, ok. That's what I have but I don't have any of the parts that are standing up, i.e. those two posts or the bike-rack-looking feeding part on the right.

Edited October 22, 2015 by lfab