Lubricating thread for sewing machines

[Anubis78]

Good afternoon everyone.  

What is the best method for lubricating thread that won't damage the machine or the leather or over saturate the thread?  I've seen a vendor spray silicone lubricant directly on the thread while it was on the cone when sewing leather garments.   I've also seen in catalogs the thread lube box and thread pot.  But which which is the better application of lubricant on the tread?  Please advise. 

[Northmount]

On 2017-06-27 at 0:51 PM, Anubis78 said:

Good afternoon everyone.  

What is the best method for lubricating thread that won't damage the machine or the leather or over saturate the thread?  I've seen a vendor spray silicone lubricant directly on the thread while it was on the cone when sewing leather garments.   I've also seen in catalogs the thread lube box and thread pot.  But which which is the better application of lubricant on the tread?  Please advise. 

have you done a search here?

Take a look at this post http://leatherworker.net/forum/topic/36137-leather-lifts-up-with-needle-need-help-at-wits-end/#comment-223429

 

You can find more like this.  Posts by Wizcrafts and Gottaknow have a lot of good information on thread lubrication as well as many other sewing machine helps and problems.

Tom

[CowboyBob]

You mainly need to lube the thread For 3 reasons I can think of is when your sewing real fast,it helps cool the needle so you don't burn the thread,#2 if your sewing dry & or old leather & #3 is when the leather is real thick or if your thickness close to the max for your machine it prevents skipped stitches.

Edited June 29, 2017 by CowboyBob

[Anubis78]

On 6/29/2017 at 10:55 AM, northmount said:

 

On 6/27/2017 at 2:51 PM, Anubis78 said:

Good afternoon everyone.  

What is the best method for lubricating thread that won't damage the machine or the leather or over saturate the thread?  I've seen a vendor spray silicone lubricant directly on the thread while it was on the cone when sewing leather garments.   I've also seen in catalogs the thread lube box and thread pot.  But which which is the better application of lubricant on the tread?  Please advise. 

have you done a search here?

Take a look at this post http://leatherworker.net/forum/topic/36137-leather-lifts-up-with-needle-need-help-at-wits-end/#comment-223429

 

You can find more like this.  Posts by Wizcrafts and Gottaknow have a lot of good information on thread lubrication as well as many other sewing machine helps and problems.

Tom

 

Tom,

I'll take a look at it this evening. Thank you for the feedback. 

[Anubis78]

18 hours ago, CowboyBob said:

You mainly need to lube the thread For 3 reasons I can think of is when your sewing real fast,it helps cool the needle so you don't burn the thread,#2 if your sewing dry & or old leather & #3 is when the leather is real thick or if your thickness close to the max for your machine it prevents skipped stitches.

CowboyBob,

When I've used black thread on my Cobra Class4 machine, it appears to have a greyish look to it on items that I've worked on.  My thoughts were that the lubricant may help prevent that.  Plus I had seen a vendor actually spray a cone of thread once while altering a pair of leather jeans at an event (I believe the machine that he had was a juki) and I assumed that this was possibly a step that I needed to take to avoid this happening to my thread. I'm using nylon thread by the way. 

[LumpenDoodle2]

I've used silicone in a little squirty bottle on thread before.   I had a thread that just seemed be all problems, so I just gave the cone a spray over with the silicone, and let it sit for a while.   Of course, it does mean you have to re-apply the spray as you work your way through the cone.

The thread did appear to behave a bit better afterwards, although I was sewing a fabric not leather with it.

[gottaknow]

For sewing our heavy Pendleton wool, I dip the entire cones in liquid silicone I purchase by the gallon. I do it to reduce needle heat and thus thread breakage. You have to test it on the material  you're sewing. About 5  years ago we made 1,000 welding jackets for the Navy. We were using T90 Kevlar thread on several different chainstitch machines. The leather was chrome tanned suede with a total thickness of about 3/16". The silicone prevented the needles from sticking (titanium needles) as well as preventing thread breakage from needle heat. The leather was grey in color and it left a bit of residue along the stitch line, but by the time we shipped them, it had evaporated. I've used the spray, but it's really inefficient. The dipping method stays in the cone for quite a while. On machines where I don't want to gum up the tension units, I use a saturated felt reservoir and place it after the tension discs.

Regards, Eric