My chinese patcher

[Icho]

Hey, I haven't been around for a while but still trying to squeeze in time for my hobbies.  A few weeks ago I ordered and received my patcher from China.  Before I get into that I just wanted to say that I will likely be getting a CB3200 and this experience helped me decide to do it but that is probably a couple months away.

So I know just about everyone here has at least seen pics of these patchers but here is a pic of mine anyway.

 

 

From the beginning it didn't stitch all that good.  The best I was able to get it  is an inch or two of good stitch and then a really loose stitch or two and than back to good.  I really wanted to try thicker thread and a larger needle but there wasn't a supplier anywhere close to me that had anything.  I started thinking and came up with the idea of using the needle from my stitching awl.  The shank was too big of a dia. but the main body was perfect.  Since the needle was longer I was able to cut the shank off, grind a flat on the needle and it fit into the patcher.  My next problem was thread.  As I said I couldn't find it around my area anywhere.  The most specialized sewing machine store around here had no industrial thread or needles and didn't even know much about sewing leather.  Thick to them is a couple layers of canvas.  So I went and picked up the thickest braided fishing line I could find.  This is what I got.

 

 

So now I have thread and needle I decided to make sure the needle would go thru the stitching motion without the thread and of course there was interference.  I had to clear the path of the needle with a needle file.  After I got it to work I cleaned it up, threaded the machine and gave it a go.  All I have to say is birds nest.  I battled that for a bit and decided to go back to the thread and needle that came with the machine since I knew it did kind of sew with the original.  Now I had a birds nest with the original set up.  I truly thought I had scrapped the machine.  I left it for a couple days and got back to it today.  I decided to take the lower machine apart and clean, deburr and polish the areas that looked like could use some TLC.  Once it was ready to go back together I oiled it up, started assembling, set the timing, threaded is and tried it out again.  I used the thread and needle that came with the machine since my main goal was to get it to work as a patcher again.  A couple more adjustments with needle height and it started stitching again. At least as good as before I thought I scrapped it. A little more playing with tensions and this is what I got.

 

 

Still not perfect but it is the best it has been so far.  Ignore the larger holes and thread in the center of the sample.  That is coming up.  I still have to play around with it and get a little more familiar with it.  Next I decided I wanted to see what it will do with the thicker fishing line and stitching awl needle so I threaded the machine and gave it a shot. After some tension adjustments, here it is.

 

I still want to try out the #138 thread but at least I'm pretty sure I can get acceptable stitches with these two thread and needle set ups and I am pretty happy with the results.  The worst thing about this is that the bobbin does not hold much thread.  I can only get about 12 inches of stitch with the thick fishing line.

 

This thread may not belong here but there was no section called "What not to do" so I figured this was the best place.  Up until this little adventure I didn't even know how a sewing machine works.  I am definitely not a sewing machine tech guy but now I have a bit of an understanding of the basics of tension, timing and overall what a sewing machine is all about mechanically.  Turned out to be a great learning experience and it didn't even cost me any money since I still have a sewing machine that works.  My next mission is to start getting the funds together for the CB3200 that is calling my name.  Thanks for your time reading about my crazy little experiment and feel free to ask, comment, suggest and even criticize...just be nice.  lol

 

 

 

[dikman]

There's been a few posts about those machines, and for what they are they're not bad. The fishing line stitching looks good, but I have to admit I'm surprised you got it to work. These machines are best with #69 thread, and even with that the bobbin is small.

Still, good fun to play around with and can get into pretty tight areas.

[Icho]

Ya.  I'm surprised I even got it to stitch again let alone with the fishing line.  I think the smaller thread it came with is #69 and i'm really hoping to get it to work with #138.  I don't mind the small bobbin size as long as I can get at least 12 - 18 inches of stitch.  I'm guessing stitches with this will commonly be 3 - 4 inches for me but I guess I will find out.  I wiped out the threads against a rock on one of my hunting boots so I'm looking forward to trying this thing out when I feel a little bit more confident with the machine.

[Axeman]

I debated on buying one of these machines but folks here told me I would not be happy with the thickness I need to sew. 20-24oz is a lot. I ended up buying a 3200 from Bobb at Toledo and am very happy with it. You will love the capability of the 3200. I sew 24oz+ with 277 thread and plan to move up to 346 soon. Sewing is effortless, even for a newbe like me. My sheaths turn out beautiful and the 3200 puts the stitch in the same hole in forward as well as reverse. Save your pennies and never look back. The patcher will be good for your light stuff.

[Icho]

I'm pretty happy with the little patcher.  I wasn't expecting much from it and I think it may have even surpassed my expectations.  It will definitely be handy to have around.  I'm hoping to be able to make it out to Toledo in a month or two.  My wife is ok with me getting the CB3200. lol  I am still trying to justify the cost to myself.  It is definitely worth the money but I have to make sure I will be using it for more than just 3 - 6 sheaths per month.  I'm pretty sure I will be able to make a few extra bucks doing other things with it and I'm even trying to convince my wife that she needs a hobby... one that involves using a sewing machine.  The exchange rate is another hard thing to get over.  It is an extra 30% more or less.

[santi1970]

Long time lurker first time replying, just wanted to put in my 2 cents about the patcher. I got mine in late December and I know it’s not a CB3200 but I got it to sew 138 thread like this and because I’m a tinker I love this machine. 

Edited February 2, 2018 by santi1970

[dikman]

Looks good! How did you avoid the teeth marks from the foot? And getting #138 to work is pretty impressive (bet you don't get much on the bobbin!)

[Uwe]

Please upload some photos of the machine here. The original photos are being held hostage in Photobucket hell. 

[Wizcrafts]

Some people are still unaware that they now must pay a monthly or annual fee to PhotoBucket to have permission to embed their photos on 3rd party websites (like ours). They no longer allow that for free and all we see are ugly warning images telling the posters to upgrade their accounts.

[santi1970]

 I filed the bottom of the foot to avoid the teeth marks and I’m getting a little more than 3 feet with #138 in the bobbin enough for wallets, cases, key chains and other small items. I figured out that you need perfect tession of the thread top and bottom and I’m using a #21 needle by the way. I think it’s a good machine for small items. 

[santi1970]

This was also done with the patcher 6x10 in clutch purse.  

[Chadd]

I am digging my patcher as well. It took me a while to get it timed perfectly and work out the kinks (knowing nothing about sewing machines) but when I did, it was magic. I spent an hour yesterday replacing a zipper on one of my daughter's Cordura tote bags with a heavy duty replacement. Not super beautiful, but functional, and black on black kept my mistakes from showing too bad. I have gotten some heavier thread to work with the needles that come with it, just 15 weight upholstery thread for now. Haven't tried larger. I made a little bag out of scraps to hold my common sewing tools, and did some stitch drawing practice to learn how to control the thing a little better. I bought a manual off of a guy named Darren here that helped me a ton! It's a good little machine that can punch through significant weight for the price.

 

[santi1970]

Good job I just made this tote bag for my wife with this badass machine. I really like it and it saved me alot of time not sewing it by hand. 

[santi1970]

Sorry Chadd for a delay respond, I didn’t realized that I had not checked in for a while. 

[Kpi890]

On 2/1/2018 at 10:55 PM, santi1970 said:

Long time lurker first time replying, just wanted to put in my 2 cents about the patcher. I got mine in late December and I know it’s not a CB3200 but I got it to sew 138 thread like this and because I’m a tinker I love this machine. 

 

On 2/3/2018 at 10:48 AM, santi1970 said:

 I filed the bottom of the foot to avoid the teeth marks and I’m getting a little more than 3 feet with #138 in the bobbin enough for wallets, cases, key chains and other small items. I figured out that you need perfect tession of the thread top and bottom and I’m using a #21 needle by the way. I think it’s a good machine for small items. 

Hey Santi I just recently got one of these machines and was hoping to be able to run #138 bonded nylon in it! I currently am running #69 with a 110/18 needle and it runs great but I like the look of the thicker thread for sure. What needle type did you buy in the #21 size that fit this machine or did you have to modify it to fit? 

On 1/29/2017 at 6:13 PM, Icho said:

Hey, I haven't been around for a while but still trying to squeeze in time for my hobbies.  A few weeks ago I ordered and received my patcher from China.  Before I get into that I just wanted to say that I will likely be getting a CB3200 and this experience helped me decide to do it but that is probably a couple months away.

So I know just about everyone here has at least seen pics of these patchers but here is a pic of mine anyway.

 

 

From the beginning it didn't stitch all that good.  The best I was able to get it  is an inch or two of good stitch and then a really loose stitch or two and than back to good.  I really wanted to try thicker thread and a larger needle but there wasn't a supplier anywhere close to me that had anything.  I started thinking and came up with the idea of using the needle from my stitching awl.  The shank was too big of a dia. but the main body was perfect.  Since the needle was longer I was able to cut the shank off, grind a flat on the needle and it fit into the patcher.  My next problem was thread.  As I said I couldn't find it around my area anywhere.  The most specialized sewing machine store around here had no industrial thread or needles and didn't even know much about sewing leather.  Thick to them is a couple layers of canvas.  So I went and picked up the thickest braided fishing line I could find.  This is what I got.

 

 

So now I have thread and needle I decided to make sure the needle would go thru the stitching motion without the thread and of course there was interference.  I had to clear the path of the needle with a needle file.  After I got it to work I cleaned it up, threaded the machine and gave it a go.  All I have to say is birds nest.  I battled that for a bit and decided to go back to the thread and needle that came with the machine since I knew it did kind of sew with the original.  Now I had a birds nest with the original set up.  I truly thought I had scrapped the machine.  I left it for a couple days and got back to it today.  I decided to take the lower machine apart and clean, deburr and polish the areas that looked like could use some TLC.  Once it was ready to go back together I oiled it up, started assembling, set the timing, threaded is and tried it out again.  I used the thread and needle that came with the machine since my main goal was to get it to work as a patcher again.  A couple more adjustments with needle height and it started stitching again. At least as good as before I thought I scrapped it. A little more playing with tensions and this is what I got.

 

 

Still not perfect but it is the best it has been so far.  Ignore the larger holes and thread in the center of the sample.  That is coming up.  I still have to play around with it and get a little more familiar with it.  Next I decided I wanted to see what it will do with the thicker fishing line and stitching awl needle so I threaded the machine and gave it a shot. After some tension adjustments, here it is.

 

I still want to try out the #138 thread but at least I'm pretty sure I can get acceptable stitches with these two thread and needle set ups and I am pretty happy with the results.  The worst thing about this is that the bobbin does not hold much thread.  I can only get about 12 inches of stitch with the thick fishing line.

 

This thread may not belong here but there was no section called "What not to do" so I figured this was the best place.  Up until this little adventure I didn't even know how a sewing machine works.  I am definitely not a sewing machine tech guy but now I have a bit of an understanding of the basics of tension, timing and overall what a sewing machine is all about mechanically.  Turned out to be a great learning experience and it didn't even cost me any money since I still have a sewing machine that works.  My next mission is to start getting the funds together for the CB3200 that is calling my name.  Thanks for your time reading about my crazy little experiment and feel free to ask, comment, suggest and even criticize...just be nice.  lol

 

 

 

With that stitching awl needle and that fishing line combo that turned out pretty darn good looking! Do you have any pictures of how you setup the needle in the machine?

[Memphis514]

On 2/3/2018 at 8:48 AM, santi1970 said:

 I filed the bottom of the foot to avoid the teeth marks and I’m getting a little more than 3 feet with #138 in the bobbin enough for wallets, cases, key chains and other small items. I figured out that you need perfect tession of the thread top and bottom and I’m using a #21 needle by the way. I think it’s a good machine for small items. 

did you file it long ways or across the feet

[santi1970]

Long way just to make them dull.

[santi1970]

In my experience with this patcher the way to make this machine work with the #135 thread and I got it to work good is one,  the bottom bobbin tension and two the top thread tension. So this patcher has a hard time getting a strong top tension I had to give it  two turns around the top tensioner yes two so it can pull the the bottom thread to the middle of the leather. If I had a trick to share that would be it, you want to pull the knot of the bottom and top thread to the middle of the project. I think you have to focus on how to get the thread knot to the middle of the leather and it’s all done by adjusting t the top or bottom tension.