Why cant I modify or replace my needle bar to use common needles?

[LederMaschinist]

I got my first machine a few weeks ago, and am just getting it set up.  First of all, let me disclose that it's a Singer 95-1.

I am fully aware that this machine is in no way shape or form designed to sew leather.....yet.  The reason I bought it was that it was on a table that's in excellent condition with a consew clutch and westinghouse motor..  I got the whole thing for $60, and figured it would be useful to have the table so I won't need one if I found an ideal machine without a table.

Being a machinist and a tinkerer, I figured I'd use parts that I have laying around the shop to see if I can get this thing to at least be usable for leather and other heavy materials.  So far I think it's actually doing pretty well.  I put a 2" pulley on the clutch, and a gigantic 8" pulley in place of the balance wheel and a v belt instead of the leather round belt it came with.  The machine looks ridiculous considering how small it is in relation to the pulley, but it is also very effective for manual stitching.  Whoever decided that the top shaft on this machine should be .540" in diameter instead of a standard fractional size, made things somewhat more difficult.  Just had to bore out the pulley hub and spacers from 1/2".  I can now do about one and a half stitches per second with careful clutch control and with the flywheel inertia from the large pulley and the additional torque, it doesn't even hesitate punching through thick material.  It doesn't seem to have an issue with #69 bonded nylon, and I think I can get it to work with #92 but haven't tried it yet.  Good enough for wallets and camping gear.

The issue I'm having is that it uses 88 x 1 (1128, DA x 1, take your pick of sizing convention) needles.  I haven't even been able to find a leather point needle of that type, and selection is very limited.  I bought some common 110/18 needles to study a bit..  It seems to me that the critical dimension is the distance from the end of the needle bar to the eye of the needle.  The points of the needles in the 110/18's extend slightly further below the eye, that might cause a timing issue.  The needle bar on this machine is a simple .250" rod with a needle socket on the end and a set screw.  The 88 x 1 needles have a .0625" (1/16") shank, while the common needles have a 2mm shank.  It would be easy to drill out the socket to the correct size and depth for the common needles to get the eye in the right position.  Or I could make some new bars so I'll have an assortment.

 

Is there any reason this can't be done?  And if it can be done, what type of needle should I be designing the needle bar modification to fit?  Thanks, I hope this isn't a silly question.  So far I only have about $90 into this machine and some time.  As usual the problem solving aspects have been pretty enjoyable.

 

[CowboyBob]

The needlebar is chrome steel,very hard to drill.There is another needle 16x2 that measures 1&1/2" long that we stock in a leather point.You should be able to raise the needlebar to make these work.

[LederMaschinist]

13 hours ago, CowboyBob said:

The needlebar is chrome steel,very hard to drill.There is another needle 16x2 that measures 1&1/2" long that we stock in a leather point.You should be able to raise the needlebar to make these work.

Its good to know that you have needles that are almost compatible, I'll call tomorrow and order some needles.
 

Modifying the needle bar is not a problem.  I have all sorts of tooling designed to cut hardened tool steel.  So I guess the question is, if you had your choice of needle type up to about size 19 or 22, what type would that needle be?

[CowboyBob]

I have to admire your desire to make this machine sew heavy material.But it just is not designed for ,it has a leather timing belt that will end up getting stretched out when you work it with the larger thread.There are better machines like a 44 class which is like a 31-15 (only a shorter bed that will fit in your table) that has an oscillating hook which is designed for heavier thread than the full rotary hook which is made for High speed sewing of lightweight clothing type of material .Search this forum for 31-15 & you'll see a lot of people are using it for heavier sewing.The 95 is in the same class of machines as a Singer 241,251 & 281 only these are slightly more HD since they have metal gears driving the hook, you can search them too.

Back to your question there's a needle 135x8 that has a larger diameter shank than the 16x2 you can get in larger sizes.We stock these too.