Textima/Claes 230 or DDR Clone of Pfaff 335

[alexitbe]

Really just posting this out of interest.

Textima seems to have been the umbrella company of a lot of others during the DDR time and one of these is the Claes company, which produces even now th eking of patchers that can easily sew 12 mm thick leather.  I love mine and am a bit of a fan.

 

From the Claes website it says that the 230 is a walking foot machine, which can sew 7mm.  This does not seem the case for mine as the outer walking presser foot only lifts about 3.5 mm and the innder 5.5 mm.  I have tried and failed to have adjusted it any better than that.  If I make the outer presser foot lift higher, then the inner presser foot lifts lower... They are directly coupled...   However, I can lift both 7 mm using the presser foot lever.

Front

 

Hook

Internal workings of the walking foot.

Max height of outer presser foot.

and adjuster for outer presser foot height

.

the little screw on the right.

 

The stitch length feature is quite nice.  You adjust it with big knurled knob in the middle of the drive wheel.

I haven't got it stitching yet, as have only spent time cleaning it.  i will post some when I finally get to it.

Cheers

Alex

(sorry for the under lining... its my new computer)

Edited July 16, 2017 by alexitbe

[Uwe]

Interesting machine, Alex! That looks like a surprisingly big bobbin in that machine. I'm wondering if the feed dog goes up and down as it moves, or if it is only a horizontal movement. 

You're mixing up walking foot lift height with total foot lift.  Your total foot lift height determines how much material you can put under the feet, and how thick your machine can sew (7mm in your case)

The walking foot lift height is the up-down movement the feet make as they walk. That determines how big of a step up or down they can take, but it does not determine how thick a material they can sew. 

The design of your machine has very little in common with a Pfaff 335, though.

Your machine is a very close relative to the Singer 108W20:

I have a similar flatbed version of that design, a Singer 151W1

Edited July 16, 2017 by Uwe
typo

[alexitbe]

Dear Uwe,

Thank you  for the information and clarifying both of my mistakes.

I bought the machine, because I wanted to make wallets and bags and I was a little sad thinking I could only sew a thickness of about 3mm.  I am very pleased that you have corrected my assumption. I can now use it for what I intended it for, although it does seem a little light (came with very short 100 nm needles).  We shall see..

Stitch length is adjustable from 0 to 4.5 mm.

I will measure and photograph the bobbin, but I am not sure I understand you question about the feed-dogs.  I thought all feed-dogs do both vertical and horizontal movement.  It would be best if I did a video, but I have never done that before and it might take a while for me to get right.

Since you are German, below is an interesting website describing Claes machines, including this one.

https://www.naehmaschinenverzeichnis.de/verzeichnis-der-naehmaschinen/claes/

If I could change the title I would, so i didn't spread mis-information...We have enough of that in this world without me adding to it

Again, thanks for the information....  I am off to find more about the Singer...

Alex

 

Edited July 16, 2017 by alexitbe

[Constabulary]

Alex, CLAES / TEXTIMA machines are really excellent machine and price wise underrated I´d say. I picked up a lot of "Garden decoration sewing machine" and the suitcase full of rusted parts a while ago (in this lot also came my 45D91 I have restored) and in this lot also came a CLAES 230-1 but it was not functional (bent needle bar, missing tension unit parts....). You can actually use some Singer parts in this machine. I replaced the tension unit (Singer 107w) and needle bar (Singer 111) and it all worked w/o problems . These were more or less designed as synchronized binding machines. I have set up the machine for 134R needles. Not sure what the original needle system as.Will check if I can find the pictures of mine.

Hook parts are different and so are the bobbins (Singer bobbins do not fit) - the CLAES has a larger hook which is pinned to a long shaft - not sure if I still have one... will take a look...

vintage Singer, Duerkopp and CLAES machines often share a lot of parts as I figured!!! F.I. the Dürkopp 239 is like a Singer 111. I have replaced some worn parts on my 111G156 with Dürkopp parts... Lots of similarities... They also share the same feet.

EDIT:

But seems yours has a different tension unit - mine was like the 107w tension unit

BTW- if you need a spare hook, just found this on Ebay - dirt cheap

http://www.ebay.de/itm/Rotationsgreifer-Welle-lang-Claes-230-Industrienahmaschinen-Textima-DDR-Produkt-/152599505332?hash=item2387a3a9b4:g:xSQAAOSwEzxYdlvA

Edited July 16, 2017 by Constabulary

[Uwe]

Thanks for that link to the CLAES info page, Alex - great info and lots of detailed pictures! 

For slim diameter arm cylinder arm machines it is actually unusual for the feed dog to have vertical movements. Neither Pfaff 335 nor Adler 69 have vertical feed dog movements in their standard configuration (rare subclasses add the full-motion feed dog movement to those two machines.)

Edited July 16, 2017 by Uwe

[Constabulary]

Uwe is right, the feed dog is not oscillating it just goes back and forth but thats no issue.

Some pictures of my machine I took when I sld it - yours is much nicer!

 

Edited July 17, 2017 by Constabulary

[alexitbe]

Thanks again for both of your replies...

 

Constab: I am really envious of the binding attachment you had... This is something i will look out for.  Unfortunately, I have already ordered a 335 binder attachment, before I posted this thread.

 

I have a few feet already, but I think I might look for some that are specific to binding.

 

Uwe:  I have several Claes machines, the 214 sattler machine, the 200-3 patcher and now this.  If there is anything you would like to know about them just ask and I will do my best to measure or post pics.

 

Cheers

Alex