Adler 30-5 General enquiry

[Leonguaranipy]

 Greetings fellow leathercrafters!

Thanks in advance for taking your time to spare some much appreciated knowledge! Been tooling veg tanned leather for almost 5 years and im ready to start stitching! I love the idea of hand cranking a machine to sew, thats what I enjoy the most of this craft. I came upon a Adler 30-5 on working condition and not rusted. Ive read that these are shoe making sewing machines, im mostly interested in stitching wallets and backpacks (pics of my work attached). The price is around 750$ for the machine. Ive been told by my friend its a bargain.

 

Im here for your insights regarding price of the machine.

1. Will it work for my purpose or will it be considerably more cumbersome than a Cobra. As I said I love the handworked part of the craft, I tool with a wrist brace and a light maul to care for my hands. I also use a gyroscope ball for 2 minutes before and after tooling. Very good to get some blood flow and avoid carpal tunnel

2. Spare parts I read, are hard to come by. The person that said it was a bargain also said that the spare parts are made locally. 

3. Im would locate the machine inside my showroom. I would like to repaint it in shiny black for cosmetic reasons. Would this affect longevity of the machine?

Thanks again for taking your time reading through this. Whenever I find a moment I will make a post showing of my work and my story!

Cant upload pics on the phone. Will post from PC.

Gracian

[Leonguaranipy]

Pics from the machine and my work 

Edited April 9, 2018 by Leonguaranipy

[Constabulary]

I would not call it a bargain but depends on what machines are available on the market. On this machine some parts are missing and some look odd.

• complete front tension unit is missing (not really necessary but it is missing).
• Stop screw for the revolving head is missing.
• Thread regulator spring is an odd one.
• Thread holder behind the hand wheel seems to be broke or is missing.
• Spring and tension discs on the spool holder which is mounted on the base are missing.
• The Foot pressure spring on the backside seems to be bent or is mounted the wrong way.

All smaller issues but still issues. Thats just what I see one picture - do you ave pictures of the back side?

Problem with patchers using for fabricating leather goods are:

The bobbin is holding only a very small amount of thread (BTW - the 30-5 is a small bobbin machine which is using the longer 332L (L = LONG) needles. The presser foot which is feeding the material (it´s a top feed only machine) is leaving marks on the leather because of the aggressive teeth the foot has. The max stitch lengths is 5mm in best case - worn machines just do 2.5 - 3mm stitches. 4mm stitches are often enough a good score already.

Personally I would not buy this machine for producing leather goods. Patcher machines are machines designed for repairing things / sewing shorter seams. Sewing a long straight seams is not an easy task with a patcher machine.

My opinion - better look for a compound feed / triple feed machine.

[Leonguaranipy]

Thanks for your response! Been up all night reading. Will check out compound feed machines today

[Leonguaranipy]

Any moderator can delete the thread please? Machine not gonna work for me. Im gonna make a post about some that would work.

[Northmount]

1 minute ago, Leonguaranipy said:

Any moderator can delete the thread please? Machine not gonna work for me. Im gonna make a post about some that would work.

Contains good info about this type of machine that others may find useful.  So we don't like to delete threads like this. 

Tom

[WydChelsea]

Do people still get on here? I need some help. 

[Northmount]

15 hours ago, WydChelsea said:

Do people still get on here? I need some help. 

You need to provide information in order to get help.  Simple!  No info, no help!