Help! I'm reaching the end of my tether!

[Cymro29k3]

Hey all. I'm Arwel from North Wales. I'm new here and don't have much experience with these old boot patcher machines so please be gentle with me!

I need the benefit of your expertise guys. I'm rather stumped! I have a Singer 29k-3 that I've only just recently bought.  It took me a while to clean her up, oil her and loosen her up. She was built in 1902 and now runs OK, considering her age.

The only thing is this: for the life of me, I cannot get her to sew!  I've studied every inch of her, read up as much as I could find about her to no avail.

It's obvious to me (even though my experience is with domestic machines and industrial lockstitch machines) that the needle on the 29k has already pierced the fabric before the foot has finished feeding the fabric through. Therefore,  the fabric doesn't feed and doesn't produce stitches.

I've tried everything I can think of and tbh, it doesn't seem like these machines have very much in the way of possible adjustments so I honestly don't know what to do next!

Please help guys!

Thank you in advance. Oh and, yeah, I painted her! I'm sorry if you guys don't approve!

Arwel

Edited December 13, 2018 by Cymro29k3
Trying to upload a photo!

[DJole]

I don't know anything about sewing machines, but I know a bit about Gwynedd -- I spent a summer in Wales back in 1988, learning Welsh down in Lampeter. I took a bank holiday to visit up north (Caernarvon, Bangor, Snowdonia, a bit of Ynys Mon as well) -- a lovely place!
Hope some of the machine gurus here can help your blue beauty work again. Pob lwc!

Edited December 13, 2018 by DJole

[Dwight]

Woo-hoo, . . . I love the paint job.

Not a big fan of purple, . . . but sometimes, . . . and this is one of them.

Cannot offer any specifics on "how to" to make it better, . . . but if that was mine, . . . I'd play with it in my spare time, . . . for days, . . . until I got it working again.

Best wishes and all the encouragement I can muster up, . . . is yours, . . . go for it.

May God bless,

Dwight

[Northmount]

@Cymro29k3 moved your post to leather sewing machines.  You'll get  more contact with the gurus here.

Tom

[chrisash]

Maybe a video of the action would help with maybe the bobbin cover mover out of the way so people can observe the pickup action

Might have been a shop window machine to get that colour

[Constabulary]

Hard to tell w/o sitting in front of it and watching the stitch cycle.

Well - when cranking the machine - in the moment the presser foot moves back (for making a new stitch) and touches the needle plate the needle bar should be in its lowest position and should start rising. If this is not the case it "could be" that the pulley cam is in wrong position on the top shaft.

Beside that - I guess you have the stitch length adjuster on the longest stitch right? Make sure the stitch length adjuster is correctly assembled. The squared frame and the gib have a "wedge" which have to be in a positioned correctly. The wedges give the presser foot bar space for its movement (feeding).

Also make sure foot lift mechanism on the backside is correctly assembled and foot pressure is adjusted as low as possible. Position of the foot lift slider on the leaf spring is also important.

I would like to see a pictures of the backside if you don´t mind.

BTW - very special color

 

Edited December 13, 2018 by Constabulary

[Wizcrafts]

First of all, buy a pack of new needles in the correct "system:" 29x3 or 29x4, or 135x16 or 135x17. These have the correct length from stem to stern. The wrong length would impede feeding. While these are on order remove the needle and adjust for the best possible feeding of 8 ounces of leather. The foot should pull back then lift off the leather as the needle bar moves up and down down. The lift is determined by a sliding block that rides along the end of the leaf pressure spring. There must be enough pressure applied by that spring to hold the foot down as the needle ascends to for stitches. Too little and the leather will lift with the needle, causing skipped stitches. Too much and the leather will have deep marks and you'll stress out the ancient mechanism. Lower the stitch length adjuster gib with the foot lifted up all the way via the hand lift lever on the back. This is the longest stitch length setting.

You can verify if your needle is the correct length by opening the throat plate sideways, rotating the hand wheel (c.c.w.) and watching the hook as it passes the needle clockwise, then reverses and intersects it about 3mm above the eye. The needle should go all the way down, make a slight upward jog, halt for the hook's arrival, then continue lifting. If the needle is too short, the hook may never intersect it above the eye as it makes its jog.

[Yetibelle]

There are a number of items that can keep the 29k from making a stitch. A few are really simple and frustrating.  Some include worn parts on the inside of the head, but lets assume they are ok.  From what I understand its sewing "in place" and not advancing the leather.  So even if it was not threaded and you just blank stitched you would not get even stitch holes?  Or are you getting very small stitch holes in a line?  Here are a few things to check. 

On the back of the 29 there should be a wing nut sliding adjustment, move that all the way to one side and the other.  When you raise and lower the foot, that spring should compress and release.  Sometimes it gets stuck and wont release so you don't get any pressure on the foot.  You may need more oil in there and not even know its stuck until you hear it click release.  But if the foot has no pressure and not moving its probably the spring.  So check that tension on the spring and see if it is actually doing its job, and you feel pressure when you raise and lower the foot lever. 

That little screw in the front middle under the second tension assembly is annoying and I'm not sure of its value other than to frustrate.  So loosen that and it makes the machine work.

If the machine is feeding correctly and you have the right pressure on the leather and getting spaced holes and its still not picking up the bottom thread.  Flip the needle plate around.  It has 2 sets of holes, again not sure why, one set works and the other does not.  This can also be frustrating.  Once you find the side of the plate that works mark it with a dot.

Last thing, since the head can rotate by turning the Wings, there may be one direction it prefers and it will start sewing.  I guarantee that direction is not directly forward like you think it should be. So turn the wings that rotate the foot to the right slightly and then left slightly and see if you find that point it actually picks up the thread.  This also means that you have a worn track in there and a few parts need updating.

 

 

 

[Constabulary]

I understood it the way that the feeding is the main problem at the moment not the loop forming / stitch building

Yetibelle - yours looks like a 29K51 - the 29K3 is a bit different

Edited December 13, 2018 by Constabulary

[Yetibelle]

1 minute ago, Constabulary said:

Yeti - yours looks like a 29K51 - the 29K3 is a bit different

Correct that is the 51. They are all 80 year old puzzles and figured any tricky thing to look for may help out a little.  When I put that head back together it was stiff and didn't spin smoothly, I took it apart 3 more times and then finally got it to spin smooth and I still have no idea what I changed.  Does that k3 have an internal presser foot spring?  Or is it getting foot pressure from the bar?