Singer 111W155: Inside Presser Foot Not Inline With Needle

[spenzher]

So, kind of an interesting issue I'm having, I was hoping some of you may have seen it before. I noticed when I got a new pair of feet that the needle was almost scraping the very left edge of the inside presser foot. At first I thought maybe the presser bar was bent, but I was able to slide the bar out with no issues when I disassembled, and there isn't any play between bar and rockshaft. I've replaced the needle, and the needle is dead square in the feed dog hole. Ive made sure the back presser bar/foot is straight. To get the feed dog hole and the inside presser foot to line up I would have to rotate the presser foot left (see pictures). Is there a bushing or something that is worn? Are the feet faulty? Thoughts?

Pictures are here:

http://imgur.com/a/FRsQ0

Edited February 16, 2016 by spenzher

[TZBrown]

All was centered before you changed to the new foot, correct?

Possibly poor reproduction parts?

[spenzher]

All was centered before you changed to the new foot, correct?

Possibly poor reproduction parts?

It seems worse with this foot, I have another that fits better, but they both sit left. I have a feeling it was like that and I've just noticed. I think this foot I just got is worse than the others.

[Uwe]

The needle bar and inner presser foot bar are running inside one solid piece of metal. I don't see how they could get out of alignment other than falling off the truck. Are you saying your needle bar is not aligned front-to-back with the inner presser foot bar? Can you post pictures that show side and frontal views of the full length of the exposed needle bar area?

Edited February 17, 2016 by Uwe

[spenzher]

That's why it doesn't make any sense. I would expect resistance from the bar, something wrong, but nothing really is besides this alignment. I'm specifically talking about the side-to-side alignment, not front to back. I have that properly adjusted to fit in the feed dog hole squarely. I'll take more pics when I get home. I'm thinking I just have a bunch of bunk presser feet.

[Uwe]

We're talking about the same thing. When you look at the needle bar from the front, the inner presser foot bar should be perfectly aligned directly behind the needle bar with no sideways offset or twist in any way.

Perhaps the mounting hole drilled into the presser foot that slides onto the presser bar is not drilled perfectly straight or at an angle. That might cause the bottom of the foot to point to the right a little, which you have to correct for by rotating it to the left to make the needle holes line up.

I'm curious to see more pictures that would illuminate this little mystery.

Edited February 17, 2016 by Uwe

[spenzher]

We're talking about the same thing. When you look at the needle bar from the front, the inner presser foot bar should be perfectly aligned directly behind the needle bar with no sideways offset or twist in any way.

Perhaps the mounting hole drilled into the presser foot that slides onto the presser bar is not drilled perfectly straight or at an angle. That might cause the bottom of the foot to point to the right a little, which you have to correct for by rotating it to the left to make the needle holes line up.

I'm curious to see more pictures that would illuminate this little mystery.

Here's more pics, I don't know if I got the angles you asked for:

http://imgur.com/a/ys1UZ

[Constabulary]

poorly manufactured after market foot or your original foot & feed dog combination were manufactured for a special sewing purpose and the two only work together but not with other feet (you never know).

[spenzher]

Okay update. I bought the foot at a local store that works on the industrial machines, so I brought in the head and asked them what was up. They ended up telling me that it was OK that the needle was rubbing the side of the foot. I was livid. I was not about to run my machine with a needle that was practically bending, and I couldn't believe that the store would disregard the integrity of the machine like that. Anyways, I returned it. I think it was a faulty foot, but I have yet to try it out on another foot, however I have one coming in the mail in a few days. Disgruntled but determined to find the fix.

[Wizcrafts]

FWIIW

About a half year ago I bought a set of 4 spring edge guide presser feet for my Singer 31-15 straight stitch machine. When I took them out of the bag and tried them for fit, one was facing slightly sideways, so the needle would hit metal rather than the hole, and another was actually on an angle along the bottom plane, not laying flat on the feeders. All were made in China. I sent them back and got replacements. Even then, one had a slight sideways alignment. But at least they all now sit flat on the bottom. It does require a slight rotation of the needle bar to align the one that is off center.

I am guessing that your now returned presser foot was similarly cast on an angle. It is a crap shoot to get properly made parts from Asia.

[Mariohanel]

I have had the same problem in the past with a inside foot I bought for a 111w103 and a 111w153, probable from the same company in southern Cal., I recently bought a set of feet from Toledo sewing for a 111g156, almost twice the money but problem solved and lesson learned.

[spenzher]

FWIIW

About a half year ago I bought a set of 4 spring edge guide presser feet for my Singer 31-15 straight stitch machine. When I took them out of the bag and tried them for fit, one was facing slightly sideways, so the needle would hit metal rather than the hole, and another was actually on an angle along the bottom plane, not laying flat on the feeders. All were made in China. I sent them back and got replacements. Even then, one had a slight sideways alignment. But at least they all now sit flat on the bottom. It does require a slight rotation of the needle bar to align the one that is off center.

I am guessing that your now returned presser foot was similarly cast on an angle. It is a crap shoot to get properly made parts from Asia.

I have had the same problem in the past with a inside foot I bought for a 111w103 and a 111w153, probable from the same company in southern Cal., I recently bought a set of feet from Toledo sewing for a 111g156, almost twice the money but problem solved and lesson learned.

I'm thinking that was the issue. I still am waiting to try a new set. By the way, where/what website is a place to get quality presser feet? I see Toledo sewing

[Wizcrafts]

I'm thinking that was the issue. I still am waiting to try a new set. By the way, where/what website is a place to get quality presser feet? I see Toledo sewing

Toledo Industrial Sewing Machines: Call 866-362-7397 toll free. There is a contact form on the website, where you can send a request for machine specific parts and prices. They do not have an online shopping cart.

[TinkerTailor]

Toledo Industrial Sewing Machines: Call 866-362-7397 toll free. There is a contact form on the website, where you can send a request for machine specific parts and prices. They do not have an online shopping cart.

A forward thinking company would pay their webmaster some big bux to add shopping cart functionality...

[Wizcrafts]

A forward thinking company would pay their webmaster some big bux to add shopping cart functionality...

This subject has come up before. I want to lay out some details about what it takes to have an online shopping cart for a sewing machine and parts business. This is only in broad strokes, minus a lot of boring but terribly important technical details that must also be taken care of, on an ongoing basis.

Such an undertaking involves a lot more than placing add-to-cart button code on html pages and a checkout page for payments; that's fairly straight forward copy and paste from your payment portal provider (who takes about a 3% commission on each sale). It requires somebody at the business location to compile a database of items they have for sale, complete with photos, descriptions and prices, which may need to be updated from time to time (as new parts are added, old one deprecated, or prices change), as well as whether or not each of those items are still in stock at any given time. It actually calls for a dedicated department for Internet orders and inventorying. Some of our friends in the sewing machine business are very small operations, with one or two people running the entire business and a delivery and pickup driver. These few people are usually as busy as they can possibly be just setting up and repairing machines and taking and returning phone calls from customers.

When you see a sewing machine company with an online shopping cart that is updated and leads to a smooth checkout, with full HTTPS encryption and safe-seller verification certs, as well as malware, intrusion and DDoS protection, you should know that they have staff dedicated to running that part of their business on a regular paid basis. The website would not be hosted on a low cost shared hosting server, but on a VPS, dedicated, or cloud server, costing magnitudes more than a static shared hosting informational site. The actual Webmaster would only need to be paid once in a while to write new pages, or descriptions, or add new links or buttons. He or she would have nothing to do with the physical maintenance of the inventory and its database, unless he was employed on-site at the shop (a very high paying job, ~25/hr or more).

Some larger sewing machine businesses can afford to hire qualified, technically adept people who specifically handle the database, inventory and Internet end of their business, on an ongoing, highly paid basis. I would love to have a job like that.

[gottaknow]

I purchase most of my parts from one company. I can choose from original or generic depending on the part. For my single needles we mainly use topstitch feet from 1/16" to 1/4", both right and left. I buy generic because I can run 2 stacked #402 Dremel cut off wheels in between and they'll fit most of my machines without adjusting the presser bar. These cost $3-$5 each and I buy a lot of them. For my double needles, I buy only original presser feet. They have a compensating guide. They are about $55 ea. You have to decide what you're willing to live with. On some older machines, original parts are no longer made. I purchase extra as Wiz referenced so you get some good ones and so so ones. It's simply the way it is. Even though my main supplier has an online store, I prefer to talk to a sales person. As for needles, both Groz Beckert and Schmetz are discontinuing certain needle classes. They start with limiting the tip selection, then poof, they're gone. For a buyer that has never experienced this variation in parts, it can be a rude awakening.

Regards, Eric

[Wizcrafts]

I would like to expand on something Eric mentioned in the previous post. He and I both use spring guide presser feet. These are either the outside foot of a walking foot set, or the sole foot on a straight stitch machine. They have a pivoting steel tab on the right side, at a certain distance from the center line, where the needle passes. There is a tiny coiled finger spring on top of the guide tab to hold it down. It is useful for times when a regular edge guide attachment isn't feasible. I buy them with 1/8", 3/16" and 1/4" distances from the center to the guide. The spring loaded guide tab is fully upwards compressible so it can ride along the same bottom plane as the fixed parts of the foot. This lets you use it for regular top stitch sewing when the guide isn't required (like poor man's reverse operations).

Note, that because of the length of the sprung guide tab, doing inside curves can be problematic if the radius is too small.

Edited February 24, 2016 by Wizcrafts

[Constabulary]

A properly set up web shop will increase your sales - that's a fact. It of course needs some time. For a lot of customers the "give me a call" thing is quite dead. Lots of people do not have the time for making dozens of phone calls. Times have changed as we all know.

There are several web shop hosters out there. Not sure if this is common in the US but we have plenty of them. Most systems are working quite well. Some open source systems like modified ecommerce software are wide spread but you of course have to change some settings in the backend and fill the shop with products.

Magento, Gambio, modified ecommerce softaware just to name a few shop sytsems.

FI Gambio has an English version: http://english.gambio.de/

Modified ecommerce is bilingual and has an English support forum: http://www.modified-shop.org/forum/index.php?board=25.0

I´m by far no expert but I at least know the modified ecommerce shop software a bit and once you have worked with it for a while it is quite easy to work with but you have to open your mind for it.

You can even install a local shop on your computer using XAMPP so you can test settings before you make changes in the live version.

[LumpenDoodle2]

Freewebstore is a pretty good system for a webshop, and is already set up for sales. Again though, someone then has to take the time to list, describe the items, and update stock.

Proper webshops with basket facilities aren't the 'big company only' thing they used to be. It's also something you kind of get used to, so when you come across a company whose webshop lists all their items, then asks you to phone them to order, it feels a bit old fashioned.

Sorry, back to subject, I agree, try a different foot. The variations you can find in generic parts can turn buying them into a bit of a lottery.

[TinkerTailor]

I would like to expand on something Eric mentioned in the previous post. He and I both use spring guide presser feet. These are either the outside foot of a walking foot set, or the sole foot on a straight stitch machine. They have a pivoting steel tab on the right side, at a certain distance from the center line, where the needle passes. There is a tiny coiled finger spring on top of the guide tab to hold it down. It is useful for times when a regular edge guide attachment isn't feasible. I buy them with 1/8", 3/16" and 1/4" distances from the center to the guide. The spring loaded guide tab is fully upwards compressible so it can ride along the same bottom plane as the fixed parts of the foot. This lets you use it for regular top stitch sewing when the guide isn't required (like poor man's reverse operations).

Note, that because of the length of the sprung guide tab, doing inside curves can be problematic if the radius is too small.

Have you ever seen a spring guide presser foot for a 441? I do alot of stitching right at the edge of the foot, using my finger as a guide against the side of the foot while sewing. One of these feet would be ideal for this. I have considered making one, but it is not high on the list, and if china already makes one, why bother? I for sure can buy a couple of them from china for the time-cost it would take me to grind and silver solder one up myself from an existing clone foot...

On that note, I have to say, it is sickening to look at clone foot prices for some machines and then compare them to what the resellers charge for 441 feet.......Genuine juki is one thing but $75 bux for a clone foot is crazy. The thing cost maybe pennies to make. OOOH AHHH, this one is stainless, That will add a dollar to costs......My feet are covered in dripped down oil all the time, not sure how stainless is an advantage anyways... The weird part is how few companies carry 441 accessories outside of the resellers.

[Wizcrafts]

I am not aware of anybody who is currently making spring guide presser feet for 441 clones, or 205 clones. The market share is so small that any feet other than standard would have to be custom milled. The small market also keeps the prices higher than those of ubiquitous presser feet. We do have members who own or work in metal shops and they may be able to modify or build presser feet.

I have been told that a piping foot set has been produced and is being tested in the USA. I've also been told that it may be undersized for most welts, aside from motorcycle seat diameters. I'm sure that once feedback makes its way to the manufacturer that other diameters will be produced. I will pass along a wishlist request for spring guide feet. This will probably fall on deaf ears since edge guides are readily available (swing away and drop down).

We do or did have a member who was printing plastic throat plates for our 441 machines. I have a couple and the last one was pretty good and is usable. I don't think that the plastic they use is strong enough for a presser foot, but it may be worth trying. Anybody out there with a 3D printer wanna volunteer?

[spenzher]

Hey guys I want to say I've read all your replies and I want to thank you for taking the time to reply. I'm disappointed but it makes sense. I didn't realize that the alignment of the parts would have such a poor tolerance, I mean, Im taking a class on fashion and they say the garment industry is one of the biggest, there's gotta be good feet out there lol. I'm going to follow your advice and use a dremel to cut some clearance next time.

Edited February 25, 2016 by spenzher

[gottaknow]

Hey guys I want to say I've read all your replies and I want to thank you for taking the time to reply. I'm disappointed but it makes sense. I didn't realize that the alignment of the parts would have such a poor tolerance, I mean, Im taking a class on fashion and they say the garment industry is one of the biggest, there's gotta be good feet out there lol. I'm going to follow your advice and use a dremel to cut some clearance next time.

It's true that the garment industry is making a comeback in th US. But make no mistake it's a fraction of what it was 30 years ago. Cheap overseas labor followed by cheap overseas raw materials and eventually cheap overseas sewing machines. I used to buy parts from Singer and Union Special, quality original made to spec parts. You could install them without regard to if they were identical to what was removed. Those days are long past. The oldest machine in use at the moment is a Singer 112, early 50's. I'm using it with an 1 3/4" gauge set to sew 2" webbing on the sides of utility bags made with our oil cloth. My newest machines are Juki 9010's, a pretty decent needle feed machine with a motor mounted to the top shaft. They are less than a year old. I'm long over the reasons why my industry went overseas. I make a really decent living keeping everything running smooth in the factory and apprenticing a young mechanic. I don't want my now unique skills to just pass on when I'm done. That's probably why I spend time in this forum. This site overall has really improved my leather work to, which I'm really thankful for. Good luck in your endeavors.

Regards, Eric