Cowboy CB-4500 waliking foot pressure

[spurdude101]

Can you adjust the pressure of the walking foot itself? I know the presser foot  is adjustable but sometimes when sewing 6-90z vegtan the walking foot leaves deep marks in the leather. especially if it is a little damp from casing. any ideas?

[Uwe]

The two feet are connected via linkages and work off the same pressure spring. Any adjustment to the presser foot spring will affect both feet.

[RockyAussie]

As the 2 feet are interconnected the pressure applies to both so the only solutions that I can think of are to let the leather dry more fully before stitching or get a wider middle foot which may then mean getting both feet as a set to allow the wider space needed. Recently I bought from UWE a full set of feet and a narrow throat plate and dog foot set as well and I would say if you got this foot set and ground off the step down on the middle foot you would have what you need to avoid that problem. I think UWE is getting some more of these in quite soon. Regards Brian.

[ohio]

There is a lighter spring available for the CB-4500, I got mine from Toledo Industrial Sewing just give Bob a call.  My CB-4500 original standard spring was marking leather at the end of adjustment, and still had extreme downward pressure leaving tracks on the leather.  I learned of this lighter spring on this Leather Worker forum,  not sure where it was posted.    

[Wizcrafts]

Until you find a lighter duty spring, you can use a sander or grinder to remove a couple links from the existing pressure spring. This will make it shorter and give you more adjustment upwards and may even lighten the pressure enough to stop marking the leather.

[RockyAussie]

2 hours ago, RockyAussie said:

As the 2 feet are interconnected the pressure applies to both so the only solutions that I can think of are to let the leather dry more fully before stitching or get a wider middle foot which may then mean getting both feet as a set to allow the wider space needed. Recently I bought from UWE a full set of feet and a narrow throat plate and dog foot set as well and I would say if you got this foot set and ground off the step down on the middle foot you would have what you need to avoid that problem. I think UWE is getting some more of these in quite soon. Regards Brian.

Here is a picture of the feet set up and on the machine in action. As I said that edge could be ground down and give you the wider surface contact area. As you can see both feet would give close to twice as much contact area as the standard feet in the next picture.

[Uwe]

It would be useful to know which presser feet @spurdude101 is actually using. Some combinations are just doomed. Sewing wet veg tan leather with harness feet on a 441 class machine is like olympic weightlifting in stilettos on a waterbed - interesting but not quite what you hoped for.

 

[Wizcrafts]

Most new CB4500 and some other 441 clones that feature harness feet also ship with an extra set of large presser feet known as blanket feet. These extra wide feet have teeth on the bottom than can be ground off, then polished to smooth the edges.  Alternately, the teeth can be filled in with rubber compound or liquid steel. The wide footprint would greatly reduce the imprinting in the leather. Even if you ground off the right toe, there would be more metal on the work than the harness feet provide.

FYI: The blanket feet and matching feed dog are similar to the original equipment on a Juki TSC-441. They were used to help feed heavy cloth and webbing items and buffing wheels. The teeth provide positive grip.

[RockyAussie]

2 hours ago, Uwe said:

is like olympic weightlifting in stilettos on a waterbed

NO VIDEO needed this time UWE ....please....I guess it would get a lot of sharing around though

[spurdude101]

thanks for the info, I'll call Bob about the spring. I guess sewing machines are just a necessary evil that make trades you have to live with. one trick I do is to put a small rubber tube, like an oxygen type tube on the presser foot. this keeps the marks from happening. Sometimes I'll see some leather piece that is sewn and wonder "how'd they do that without leaving a mark or crushing the tooling?" guess a lot to learn yet. UWE made me laugh when I read that weight lifting thing!

[ohio]

Hey, spurdude101 did you get the lite spring?  And how do you like it?  I'm just curious to see what you thoughts are and did it solve the issues you have?

Thank you OHIO   

[AdamPCain]

I am getting ready to buy my first machine soon, here is a dumb question.  I know from reading that a lot of people grind and polish the feed dog teeth down so it doesn't mark up the leather.  Do you need to make an adjustment from grinding away the metal so the feed dog comes up high enough.  For instance if the feed dog was ground down on a consew 227 does it need to be shimmed up or is there a height adjustment. I am trying to learn as much as I can before I buy a machine. @Wizcrafts @Uwe

[alpha2]

Ordered my 4500 from Cowboy Bob today. Can't wait to have these issues! Hand-stitching holsters/sheaths/belts is killing my arthritic hands. Machines might be more involved, but have to less painful!

[ohio]

Congratulation, on your CB4500.  You are  going to really like the speed compared to hand sewing.

[garypl]

45 minutes ago, alpha2 said:

Ordered my 4500 from Cowboy Bob today. Can't wait to have these issues! Hand-stitching holsters/sheaths/belts is killing my arthritic hands. Machines might be more involved, but have to less painful!

Congratulations Alpha!  I bought. CB4500 from Bob about 8 months ago and after a learning cycle I feel very comfortable using it.  It does a great job on most of my projects, but I am thinking of getting a lighter weight machine for very thin leather.  I am sure you will enjoy sewing with your new machine.  What used to take me hours to sew I can now sew in minutes!

Gary

[alpha2]

I was worried about the lighter stuff, too, then I figured the things I make out of really thin stuff are small enough I can saddle stitch them without any trouble.

Now, I wait...tick tock, tick tock, tick, tock, etc.