Pfaff 335 BB (older model) experience?

[plinkercases]

Does anyone have experience with a Pfaff 335 BB (H3L?) older model pictured below. New model description indicates appropriate for "small leather goods" in addition to leather garment. It has a clear lift of 14mm or .55 inch. This one has a clutch motor. would it suited for holster/sheaths/belts and cases? etc? not looking to do 3/4 of an inch for sure.

[Northmount]

41 minutes ago, plinkercases said:

Does anyone have experience with a Pfaff 335 BB (H3L?) older model pictured below. New model description indicates appropriate for "small leather goods" in addition to leather garment. It has a clear lift of 14mm or .55 inch. This one has a clutch motor. would it suited for holster/sheaths/belts and cases? etc? not looking to do 3/4 of an inch for sure.

Picture?

 

[dikman]

I have an older model (quite old, I suspect) and while I could probably squeeze 1/2" under the feet I'm not sure how it would handle it as I think it's designed for 3/8" . I fitted a servo and a larger handwheel and it's actually quite a gutzy machine (it uses an internal gear drive rather than a drive belt). Biggest potential problem is the stitch length as the best I can get is approx. 4mm apart. I have got it to sew #138, but it's happier with #69 thread. It should be fine for belts, bags and sheaths as long as you don't go too thick. Holsters might work, depending on what you have in mind. If you're thinking about your typical Cowboy Action holster, then no. If you can get one at a good price then they are a pretty nice machine to add to the workshop.

[plinkercases]

Thanks dikman and here is the picture that fell off my OP

[dikman]

Looks pretty much the same as mine, with one obvious difference - on the plate that mounts the thread tensioner mine has a lever behind it and on the right, this is a manual tension release. When I first got it I fitted a rod in the hole behind the tension disk so that it would release when the foot lift lever is operated. Unfortunately, what happens then is that every time the needle bar rises during stitching the tension release operates! Not good. So far I haven't been able to figure it out because I can't see anything wrong/bent/broken. It looks like it's made to do that.

Has me puzzled.

[gigi]

 

[plinkercases]

Thanks Gigi for the great link. Normally Google finds threads on the site from but I missed this one.

[plinkercases]

So I went and saw and touched and ran the machine and was very impressed.

The owner had it all tuned up when he got it but he could get comfortable controlling it as there was no reducer and it just shot his project out the back! he ended up just using it t punch holes and then hand stitched.....

He had his needle in backwards and it was too large for the thread but.... I bought the machine!!! I was impressed with what I could run through it which was 3 layers of what looked like 9-11 oz. and it went like through butter and mechanically very quiet.

I was also thrilled that it also had a working reverse and went backwards hole per hole!

This model can only open up to about 4mm stitch length as had been indicated by the codes provided in the other post/thread but I think that considering the limits of the thread size that is fine for what I want to do.

Now here's a few new questions:

1. how do I go about sourcing and installing a larger hand wheel?
2. what HP servo should I be looking for to replace the clutch motor?
3. where might I get a guide for it?

There as a bag of odds and ends including some various presser feet some of which I recognised and others not sure so when I get it I will have to post pics and ask for some knowledge as to what they are for specifically.

And he sold me all his leather stock at much less than 50 cents on the buck. We had a great chat about the craft and he showed some of his work and we talked about how it was ashamed he had to stop fro health reasons... for now... I told him I would not even ask to see his hand tools and stamps etc. because if he sold those he was really done.

Now I need to convince a teenage son to help move it down 3 flights of stairs!! - broken down of course.

 

[jimi]

14 hours ago, dikman said:

Has me puzzled.

Hi, well i have an old one and a broken nut on the back ( i should have bought one off of constabulary a while back!) and find it very difficult to find one. so if you are looking for a hand wheel also maybe you should try looking at compatible models with the same hand wheel. maybe the 541,144,144,142 models could have the same type hand wheel, but not 100% sure even then it might be difficult. you might be lucky and have the newer type which has the screw only and not the screw and nut. for a guide you would probably be better getting a swing down, kwoking i think it is called have nice ones. unless you have the small plate and screws which attach on the arm which is used for the guides etc.. possibly some models for that plate might swing a little away to the side?? screws are not metric (at least on mine). i think the easiest solution would be a swing down so you might have to drill and tap two holes in the back of the head. jimi. 

sorry just saw your machine above, yes you have the newer type hand wheel with the screw only to fix. if your hand wheel is massive and not spoked i dont know why you would need a bigger one??

 

1 hour ago, plinkercases said:

how do I go about sourcing and installing a larger hand wheel?

Hey dikman, could you post a couple of pictures of the area where that rod goes?? front and back?

Edited June 13, 2018 by jimi

[gigi]

1 hour ago, plinkercases said:

I bought the machine!!!

Congratulations!  Those are great machines, I also have a Pfaff 335 old casting, mine is 17B H2L. I find useful the binding attachments, flat bed attachment, drop down guide. 

[plinkercases]

43 minutes ago, gigi said:

Congratulations!  Those are great machines, I also have a Pfaff 335 old casting, mine is 17B H2L. I find useful the binding attachments, flat bed attachment, drop down guide. 

I am very excited and got a whack of leather - $1200 CDN ( like 6 dollars USD!!) for the machine and $500 CDN for way more than that in leather. I would love to have a drop down guide and flat bed attachment though I think I can make one of those..... now I just need to quit my day job so I can play with it all - all day long.

1 hour ago, jimi said:

if your hand wheel is massive and not spoked i dont know why you would need a bigger one??

My new (to me but old model)  machine pictured  has a solid but small wheel...tough to hand set the needle and kick start it.

[jimi]

here are a few pictures of the restoration of one that turned up..

 

Edited June 13, 2018 by jimi

[dikman]

Plinker, I simply used a spare pulley that I had to replace the handwheel (coupled with the servo it slows things down quite a bit). I had to make a sleeve as the pulley hole was too big. A 550w motor will be plenty big enough.

Jimmy, the hole for the rod is pretty well a "standard" looking hole, the problem appears to be the design of the sliding lifter. I intend to have another look at it sometime simply because it annoys me that I can't figure it out! You can see the tension release lever in the photo, I haven't seen this design in any other photos I've looked at .

 

Edited June 13, 2018 by dikman

[dikman]

I just finished reading your renovation writeup, Jimi, and realised that yours appears to be the same vintage as mine - mine is labelled 17BL. Presumably they pre-date the introduction of the H designation, but I have no idea what the 17 stands for.

[jimi]

9 hours ago, dikman said:

but I have no idea what the 17 stands for.

there was a page describing this somewhere but i cannot find it?? i am sure i saved it, somewhere?? i saw a pdf in German talking about various machines and there was an illustration of a 335 and it had lat lever on it, same as yours. seems like your machine is the same type dikman so i can´t see why that wont work for you?? could you send a close up of the back where the foot lifter is, that is where it pushes the rod? 

[dikman]

I agree, it should work. I'll see if I can take a photo or two tomorrow.

[gigi]

I think Pfaff 335-17 is a binding machine subclass (so the machine was originally a binding machine). Quote  from the instruction book for the 335 old casting:

'The operational instructions given in this booklet pertain not only to the ordinary Pfaff 335-17 binding machine, but also to all other subclass varieties. The individual subclasses are fitted to suit different operational requirements. The various subclass organizations differ only in the type of rigid or swing-away binder or tape guide mounted on the feed-synchronized attachment bracket. An exception are the Pfaff 335-9, -09, and -09-33 which are specially designed for portfolio work and have a rigid tape guide mounted on the cylinder arm. The Pfaff 335-332 X 251 occupies a special position in that it is fitted with upper feed acceleration control rather than ordinary unison feed '

Edited June 14, 2018 by gigi

[jimi]

Ok dikman.

thanks gigi.

[plinkercases]

The machine and a whack of leather are in the back of van on the way to the farm shop and a TechSew 550 servo on the way!

thanks to all the links and this discussion I have all the manuals I need down loaded already. As mentioned I will ask fro a little help identifying some of the feet I got in a bag and sourcing a swing down guide.

Will be looking for a little larger hand wheel now and then I will QUITE my day job and live in the shop!!!

Officially a multiple machine fella now.

[dikman]

Yep, thanks gigi, that makes sense.

Careful, plinker, you're one step closer to collecting!. I'm curious to see what other bits came with it.

[dikman]

Jimi, a couple of photos. Plinker, apologies for a partial hijack

First photo shows everything assembled, second I've removed the unnecessary bits.The arrow points to the hole where the push rod fits, the sliding part in front is attached to the outer presser foot lifting shaft, you can see the cutout so the push rod isn't activated with the presser foot down. Third photo is the outer presser at the top of its stroke during a normal stitch cycle. As you can see, there's no way to stop the rod being pushed and releasing tension during normal use.

As I said, I'm slightly perplexed by this as it appears to be deliberately designed to operate this way.

 

Edited June 15, 2018 by dikman

[DonInReno]

During normal operation the presser foot shouldn't rise far enough for the sliding gizmo to engage the release pin - only when the foot is lifted beyond its normal range of motion by either hand lever or knee lifter. The large gap between the hand lever and sliding gizmo appears to show the sliding part is too high up on the shaft with presser foot down so it's engaging the pin as the foot rises when it shouldn't. 

11 hours ago, dikman said:

 

[jimi]

Yes i think you are spot on don i sent a couple of pictures to dikman of mine and the foot rests on the take up lever when up, so it would probably be just slackening off the 2 screws to let it rest on the take up lever when raised.

[dikman]

Don, I agree but was perplexed because it was like this when I bought it (it had been used in a small factory then eventually replaced) and I made an assumption that it had been correctly adjusted but something must have broken. Jimi's photos showed that the correct parts were fitted and nothing was broken, so as you said the lifter has to be incorrectly positioned on the shaft (I'm guessing it happened a long time ago and no-one knew how to fix it so removed the tension release pin and fitted a manual version).

Now I know (at last) what to play with to fix it .

[dikman]

I think I've finally got this thing sussed out (it doesn't help that there's virtually no information on these old ones). I'll post it here so anyone searching on Pfaff 335 will find it.

After a lot of adjusting and re-adjusting I've found that when it's set to operate correctly, i.e. the tension discs release when the lifting lever is operated, there is 1/4" (6mm) clearance under the feet. Any thicker leather and the outer presser foot will go higher and start releasing the tension discs!

If the release pin is removed and the curved slotted arm on the back is adjusted then you can fit 5/16" (8mm) under the feet. If you leave the pin in it will release tension during a stitch cycle.

If the release pin is removed, the slotted arm adjusted and the arm (next to the yellow arrow in my pic) re-adjusted on the outer presser foot shaft, as mine was, then you can just squeeze 3/8" (10mm)  under the feet.

For the second and third options you will need a manual tension release like mine has. It looks like mine was deliberately set up for maximum clearance under the feet, but I decided to compromise and set mine to 5/16" as at 3/8" the needle bar is almost hitting the leather during stitching.