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Posted
16 hours ago, Matt S said:

Probably not big enough to go round a belt in a oner. Those bobbins are pretty small. I think that those who report using v138/tkt20 in these patchers are using it only in the needle, with a thinner thread in the bobbin. That's fine, but it limits the strength of the seam to that of the thinnest thread. It also presupposes that you can get yours to work with such a chunky thread. The tolerances on these machines is so loose that there is no guarantee that you'll be able to do so. For example not all the bobbins that came with my machine fit it.

Is there a specific thickness of thread usually used to reinforce belts/straps?  I usually use a single piece of 9-11oz leather.  

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Posted
3 hours ago, ffjdh said:

Is there a specific thickness of thread usually used to reinforce belts/straps?  I usually use a single piece of 9-11oz leather.  

I personally use #207 bonded nylon to reinforce belt edges that thickness (on a Cowboy CB4500, with well balanced tensions). Or, if the stitching is purely decorative, #207 on top and #138 in the bobbin. But, you will have better results just using #138 top and bottom on any patch machine.

Posted IMHO, by Wiz

My current crop of sewing machines:

Cowboy CB4500, Singer 107w3, Singer 139w109, Singer 168G101, Singer 29k71, Singer 31-15, Singer 111w103, Singer 211G156, Adler 30-7 on power stand, Techsew 2700, Fortuna power skiver and a Pfaff 4 thread 2 needle serger.

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Posted

People trying to go from hand stitching to machine stitching invariably face the same problem - trying to achieve the same look on the finished product. It can't be done unless you go to a big, heavy duty machine that will take larger thread. In this case you may get it to sew with #138 thread but the bobbin won't have much capacity for that thread (I doubt if you'll get a run around a belt out of it). The minimum you're looking at to achieve that is an upholstery-grade machine, and the finished quality will be much better using such a machine.

Machines wot I have - Singer 51W59; Singer 331K4; Seiko STH-8BLD; Pfaff 335; CB4500.

Chinese shoe patcher; Singer 201K (old hand crank)

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Posted

The thread capacity problem only exists in the small bobbin patchers, like these Chinese and Vietnamese street vendor patchers. Large bobbin Singer and Adler patchers can sew around several standard length guitar straps or men's belts with #138 thread tightly wound in the bobbin. I did this routinely on an Adler 30-70 until the owner got tired of frequent bobbin changes and stressful edge alignment by hand and eye and bought a Cobra Class 4 with a swingaway edge guide. I simply cannot imagine trying to produce sewn belts on a small bobbin patcher running #138 thread in the bobbin. This is foolishness.

Posted IMHO, by Wiz

My current crop of sewing machines:

Cowboy CB4500, Singer 107w3, Singer 139w109, Singer 168G101, Singer 29k71, Singer 31-15, Singer 111w103, Singer 211G156, Adler 30-7 on power stand, Techsew 2700, Fortuna power skiver and a Pfaff 4 thread 2 needle serger.

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Posted

There seems to be a lot of different places/people selling similar machines. Does anyone know if any one source is "better" than another? 

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Posted

Bantam saddle and tack

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Posted

I just bought a Yaetek version and mostly love it. The supplied metal base was garbage from the start so built a wooden one that fits on my bench. Bonded 92 nylon thread works good, haven't had a chance to test the size 20 needles and 138 thread yet so can't say for sure but based on the 92, you might have enough to do smaller belts but anything bigger, you'll have to reload. It beats hand stitching 100" of belt but powered would be better

Every day you learn something is a good day. If you don't learn something every day, was it worth waking up for?

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Posted

I wonder if it would be good for making wallets ?

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Posted
1 hour ago, Don Ayres said:

I wonder if it would be good for making wallets ?

I bought mine hoping it would and it didn't disappoint. You do need to make sure you have it mounted high enough so it allows the wallet to fold under the arm but other then that, works fine. One thing I did with mine was I picked up some plasti-dip and coated the pressor foot to stop it from marking the leather.

Every day you learn something is a good day. If you don't learn something every day, was it worth waking up for?

  • 2 weeks later...
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Posted (edited)

I'm still in the figure it out stage with mine.  The 138 works fine on mine, both top and bottom. If I had to guess, I'd say that tiny bobbin holds 5-6' of 138.  Everybody keeps talking about methods of winding bobbins. I just hold the bobbin with my fingernails, with the end of the thread pinched on the edge of the bobbin. Then I just twist the thread on and cut the tail before I install the bobbin. My problem is, I just have to figure out how to get the presser foot to quit marking up my leather. I've ground the edges off, and lightened the tension screw. It doesn't gouge anymore, but it's leaving indentions. May have to try that plasti-dip.

 

I haven't polished mine up yet. I'm waiting for my son to loan me his vibratory cleaner thing.

Edited by BruceWampler

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