Can You Identify This Singer?

[MoMatt]

Hello, wondering what model this machine on the local craigslist is, the price is down to 250 obo. I want to try my hand at shoes, and don't want to hand Stich the uppers. Based on what I read I'm looking for something with a roller foot and that can slow down. Another option for sale locally is a singer 241-13 walking foot with no reverse. Would that be a suitable machine for vamps?

Thanks

Matt

[Wizcrafts]

I can't ID that machine from the photo. You would be smart to take some of the shoe upper leather with you and see if the machine can hold it down, feed it without binding, use #69 bonded thread and sew slowly. If you see a glass oil bubble, it indicates that this is a high speed self oiled machine with a pump. It is supposed to run at several thousand rpm to distribute the oil.

The 243 is definitely a very high speed machine, made to run at over 4000 stitches per minute.

[MoMatt]

Thank you, neither machine sounds like its what I am looking for after speaking with the seller

[Wizcrafts]

Sewing machines used in our type of leathercraft tend to be run at a turtle's pace, compared to a garment making machine. These slow speed machines are usually manually oiled, whereas the high speed cousins have a sump pump like a car. There are very few self oiling machines that can efficiently pump oil to all the extremities at speeds under 2000 stitches per minute (33 per second). There are very few types of leather sewing operations that need or use than kind of speed. The exceptions would be upholstery shops and leather garment factories, where time is money.

Garment and upholstery leather can usually be sewn very fast (33 sps+) without the needle smoking and melting the thread and burning the inside of the leather. Veg-tan leather, unless it is soft, will burnish inside and grab the needle at rates much faster than 12 to 15 stitches per second. I can usually get away with sewing belts at 10 per second with little or no smoke. The heat actually fuses the knots inside the leather. Chaps, like upholstery leather, can be sewn very fast.

[Darren Brosowski]

Straight sewer with the most rediculus take up lever system EVER

[DrmCa]

On the good side, when you run a self-oiling machine at leathercraft speeds, it is sufficient to run it at full speed once a week to distribute oil. These machines last for decades at full speed in an industrial setting, so at a home shop they can last years even w/o oil. I am not advocating running them w/o oil, but at $100 a pop I really do not care if I starve it of oil for a week or two.

[Gregg From Keystone Sewing]

Singer 400W class, rotary take-up, pain in the butt, we threw away many of these long ago when we last had a dumpster at our building.

[Cobra Steve]

Gregg, but the 400W was one of the smoothest running machines around, at the time because of the rotary take up and the ball bearing hand wheel.

[TinkerTailor]

[Darren Brosowski]

Until they started to play up........

A good one - and I have had a couple - is very smoothe and I have set a couple up with 180W domestic motors.

When they start to grab and play up they are scrap.

Gregg, but the 400W was one of the smoothest running machines around, at the time because of the rotary take up and the ball bearing hand wheel.

[Gregg From Keystone Sewing]

Gregg, but the 400W was one of the smoothest running machines around, at the time because of the rotary take up and the ball bearing hand wheel.

Ahhh, the ball bearing trick, higher speed, higher performance...

Kindly of like all the burned out 143Ws that were supposed to perform better than the 107Ws, that never really seemed to.

[CowboyBob]

Wilcox & Gibbs had them & since Singer was never one to be outdone, they probably copied them so they could bid against them for the garment industry?