Cobra Class 4 - Adjusting to sew thicker materials

[luckyclover]

I haven't done much adjusting on my Class 4 from factory settings. The presser feet raise up about 1/2" from the needle plate and I am needing to sew thicker materials. I have watched videos and scoured the manuals and haven't completely solved my problem.

 

I have adjusted the walking foot height on the banana slide - this raised the inner foot, but not the outer foot.

 

I have adjusted the presser foot pressure and increased the holding capacity with the regulator on the top of the machine. 

 

I can manually lift the feet up to where they are about an inch above the needle plate, but I can't find an adjustment to get it to stay up there and be raised and lowered with the presser foot lever.

 

Any help?

[brmax]

Have you been able to use the foot pedal lift in this task. In the specs of most all these machines the optional foot pedal or a knee bumper linkage is used.

These are the mechanisms that give the max lift. Though they arent meant to stay at that height as these function with the springs and mechanicals. 

 

Good day

Floyd

[Wizcrafts]

On 441 type machines the hand lift lever does not lift anywhere near as high as the foot lift pedal does. Mind you I have never tried to change that on my Cowboy or my buddy's Cobra. My shop is closed until Monday, so I will try to remember to ask a dealer if this is doable.

[Uwe]

On the 441 class of machines, the manual foot lift lever operates by means of a small eccentric cam inside the head that lifts the presser feet. The size of that lifting cam determines how high it can lift the feet. There's nothing to adjust here. Your only real option to achieve maximum foot lift is to use the foot lift linkages on the back that normally is operated via foot pedal and chain. That's how most people operate the foot lift linkage. 

If you're unable to install or use a pedal for some reason, perhaps you can install a secondary custom manual lever that operates the linkages.

The Artisan desktop version uses a secondary manual lever like this:

 

Here's another manually operated concept:

 

Edited October 7, 2018 by Uwe

[Willie0]

I was wondering about this issue as well.  My foot will not rise above 9/16th inches.  However, the machine came with a "test stitching" block of leather 3/4 inches thick, which it will not come close to fitting under the feet now. 

[glamb]

Could there be to much slack when you hooked your chain to the foot feed? Maybe see if you can hook the catch link tighter???

[Wizcrafts]

58 minutes ago, Willie0 said:

I was wondering about this issue as well.  My foot will not rise above 9/16th inches.  However, the machine came with a "test stitching" block of leather 3/4 inches thick, which it will not come close to fitting under the feet now. 

Once the lifting chain has been connected with the absolute minimum amount of slack that allows the outer foot to stop firmly on the standard throat plate (whew!), pushing all the way down with the ball of your foot should lift both feet so that about 1 inch clearance exists under them. Do this with the needle at its highest point! The machine's specs calls for 1 1/8 inches of clearance at full lift. If you can get one full inch, grab a beer and call it a day. The tighter the pressure spring, the harder it gets to raise the feet that high.

[Willie0]

Thank you so much Wizcrafts.  I will try this in the morning.

[Willie0]

Worked like a charm!

[luckyclover]

Thank you so much! I will try this. I had disconnected the foot pedal, but I will hook it back up again.