Susan Kennedy Report post Posted February 24, 2019 Does anyone have the new Weaver 205? It's supposed to be good for sewing everything. I have a Cobra Class 4 w servo motor and I sew a lot of biothane which can be very difficult. I called Weaver and they tell me the Weaver 205 is a much better choice. Supposedly close to the original 205 - 370 Adler. I'd love to hear some input! :-) Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
brmax Report post Posted February 24, 2019 Good day! Can you help in describing what might be a better ability or, the machine needs to better cope with these issues. Thanks for the tips Floyd Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Wizcrafts Report post Posted February 24, 2019 (edited) 16 hours ago, brmax said: Good day! Can you help in describing what might be a better ability or, the machine needs to better cope with these issues. Thanks for the tips Floyd In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth. Then, the Juki TSC-441, followed by the Adler 205-374,. Then he rested. The Adler was a much smoother machine and better balanced. Unfortunately, it was very expensive at about $7k USD and not many crafters could afford them. So, Adler stopped building the 205s and decided to replace them with the more souped up model 969 ECO, which only costs about $11k. That splains it. Edited February 25, 2019 by Wizcrafts Corrected my timeline between the Adler and Juki Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
shoepatcher Report post Posted February 25, 2019 Wiz, Sorry to correct you. The 441 came out before the 205. It was originally designed and built by Nakajima and introduced in late 1984. Juki later bought Nakajima years and they tweaked the machine to it's present day specs. The Adler 205 did not hit the market until late 1985. It had been delayed almost 15 months from when it was supposed to come out. I sent samples to Adler in Atlanta in 1984 which it turned were sent to Germany for test sewing. They were returned to me 4 months later. Once the 205 hit the market, Adler redid a bunch of changes on the machine in the first 6 months of its introduction. Once they were completed, Adler made almost no changes on the machine until it was discontinued in 2015. The clone that Weaver sells is very nice. I had a chance to sew on it at the auction this past June. I have owned an Adler 205 since 1991. I know the machine. They are very good machines. They are smoother sewing than a Juki 441. The only real difference in the two machines is the fact that the 205 has a needle guard system on it, the 441and it's clones do not. This makes needle deflection a lot less. The 441 should sew the bio thane with no problems. You have to use a bigger needles when sewing biothane and increase the foot pressure on it some. Hope that helps. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Wizcrafts Report post Posted February 25, 2019 Thanks for the correction. I wasn't quite sure about the timeline between the Juki and Adler. I met them both in about 1988. Most leather crafters I knew were using Singer 111w155 machines (I had one plus a Singer 132k6). Only the harness shops could afford the Adler and Randall machines. I saw the 205 in a harness shop I frequented. They were trying to run Barbour's Irish linen through a wax pot it with mixed results. A few months later I saw the Juki 441 at a dealer's warehouse, still in its box. They wanted around $6000 for it at that time. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
blue62 Report post Posted February 26, 2019 I don't have any experience with the Weaver 205, but I have used a real Adler 205 at the saddle shop, I wish I would have saved my money and got one rather than the cb4500, the Adler runs so much smoother and quieter than the cowboy and seems to make a nicer stitch. When I got my flatbed I waited till I found a Adler 467, accessories and parts are a bit more expensive, but it works very well. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
amuckart Report post Posted February 26, 2019 Biothane is just a pain to sew, regardless of the machine. I've sewn it fine on my 441 clone, and while the 205 might be a better engineered machine, it's not magically better in ways that are probably going to be relevant for sewing biothane. My experience of biothane was that you absolutely, positively, must use thread lubricant. I used silicone thread lube and that worked well, but be aware that once silicone lubed thread has been through the thread path it will always have some silicone lube on it. I'm not aware of anything that will reliably completely clean silicone lube off. I made a lube stripper for the lube pot on my 441 by poking a needle hole through a thickish bit of silicone cut out of an old reusable coffee cup lid. I poked the thread through this with a needle and left it inside the lube pot. It left enough lube on the thread to work but not so much that silicone lube dripped and sprayed around everywhere the way it did without it. The other thing you have to do with biothane is go up at least one, maybe two, needle sizes for the size of thread you're working with. The coating on biothane doesn't punch cleanly and it fills up the groove in the needle which stops the machine from throwing the thread loop properly and you get missed (or no) stitches. I ended up going up a needle size and cranking the tensions up as high as they'd go to get a decent stitch. It worked Ok, but if I was going to do it again I'd want to dedicate a machine specifically for biothane that wouldn't get used for anything else. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
shoepatcher Report post Posted February 26, 2019 I agree with you totally Al. Bio thane is a pain to sew. Bigger needles, more tension to sew it. glenn One more thing. I believe Weaver sells the 205 clone for $2995.00 plus shipping if you have a sales tax license. More if you do not. glenn Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
