hello fom the UK,something different.

[seikostew]

Hi all,Stewart from the Uk here,finally registered after my last 1 million google searches ended up here

Up until now my main hobby has been carbon fibre,been dabbling with it for about 15 years and thats how I ended up here...you see I got bored of telling people I couldnt do carbon steering wheels so I looked into it and realized the carbon bit was no different to what I already did but it seems most people who do that dont offer to reupholster the leather on the wheel..how hard can it be i figured,so obviously I needed a sewing machine..

I bought an old singer 99k and it just about did the job but I tend to get frustrated quickly by tools that limit me so after many hours researching walking foot machines I finally picked up a seiko LSW-8BL for what I felt was a good price,£250, and have spent the last week getting to grips with it and understanding the mechanics of it,my day job is repairing industrial frying/packaging machines so am fairly comfortable with this.

Turns out the clutch motor is just too crazy for me despite a a few tweaks,longer control arm,it already has a 50mm pulley so I now have a G60 servo and needle positioner on the way lol 

So i completed my first wheel and new leather using Cechaflo's incredibly useful vidoes,came out great and am just about to start 3 more but will be using the seiko as the singer stitch length was just too short.

I have many questions but am slowly answering them myself with the search,so much info on here im sure they have all been asked before..

Now that have the machine im looking at other options I can use it for,im enjoying working with leather and finding it far less stressful than carbon lol.

A few pics,thanks all

 

Edited November 8, 2018 by seikostew
spelling

[chrisash]

Thats a fine looking steering wheel well done

 

Did you bond it to the wheel or sew it like leather

Edited November 8, 2018 by chrisash

[seikostew]

thanks,well its 3 steps really-a row of stitches are sewed onto each edge of the leather then its bonded to the wheel then the final step is to hand lace thru the machine stitches to finish.

[Matt S]

That's some great work Stew, welcome to the forum!

Checaflo is a great teacher -- he knows his stuff and demonstrates it without excessive ado or pretension. I'm heard it said that the mark of a great teacher is being able to explain complicated subjects in a very simple way and he does this very well.

You got a very good price on that Seiko. I have its cylinder-bed sibling (LCW-8BL) -- really excellent machines, easily worth 5x what you paid. Let me know how you get on with the G60, I'm shopping for a new servo and that's on the shortlist. I'd be particularly interested in learning how you attach the synchroniser as my Seiko has a different attachment method to the synchroniser for the servo I currently have.

[SonderingSusan]

I was just wondering what kind of thread would be best for stitching a steering wheel ? Ive been having problems with some types unravelling and breaking.  I would love to hear all / everyones opinions....

 

Thanks !

s