Newbie needs help with industrial walking foot and lighter material

[Netsmoreau]

He everyone,

Let me start by saying how grateful I am for this forum.  Has been a lot of help.  This time though, I can't seem to find an answer to my problem.

I have a Pfaff 546 H3 walking foot machine that runs great with heavy leather however, I cannot seem to get it to feed properly if I have only one layer of "garment" leather on top of nylon.  Is this normal or are there adjustments I can make?  This is my first walking foot machine that I got during the holidays.  I used to use my Consew 230 but it had its limitations. The purpose of this machine is to sew a leather piece on top of waterproof nylon but when I try to do so, the machine does not feed.  I get these tiny little stitches even though I'm at 6 stitches per inch!  I tried adjusting the presser foot but with no success.  I was hoping this machine would be able to make my double stitching but it does not seem to do so...

Thanks

Sylvie

 

[Netsmoreau]

Just realized this happens when I sew close to the edge.  One of the presser foot's "toes" has no material underneath so I think this is what causes the issue.  Hmmm.

[Northmount]

@Netsmoreau Moved your post to leather sewing machines where you should get more answers.  Looks like you might have the problem mostly figured out.  Foot needs to be wide enough or positioned so it pinches the material on the feed dogs to feed properly.

Tom

[Bugstruck]

Is that 546 a double needle machine? Walking foot? This is probably not your problem but I'll toss it out as it may help someone. When feeding your problem fabrics, with plenty of material both sides of the presser foot, does the material self feed straight or does it want to sew and  an arc? Doing close to edge sewing can sometimes be problematic. Bringing nylon into the equation doesn't help. Sometimes that is a stitch formation issue, not so much feed rate, although the nylon can impact feed rate somewhat, slippery. It should not be doing that to the degree you describe. What does occur sometimes, is that one paw of the presser foot sometimes contacts the feed dog plate before the other paw. This is usually more noticeable in thin material. Geometry is a little off on the outer presser casting (or feed dog plate a little bent) creating uneven paw contact and unbalanced pressure and drag favoring one side of the needle. Usually all it does is make the material want to turn instead of feeding straight and you can usually overcome that with how you control the fabric. When you have material under only one side/paw of the outer presser, you create a somewhat similar condition.

I don not think that your feed rate variance issue is what I just described though. I'd guess you MIGHT have a small calibration issue between the walking foot center and outer presser that shows itself as the material thins up. Thicker material could mask that. My guess (if that were occuring) is the outer is cycling/lifting late. Before I'd go get into those weeds I'd  play with presser tension first. Could be just that simple.