Stitching along a ridge

[Matt S]

Don't know if this is of interest to anyone but I reckon some people might encounter this problem or something similar.

Recently I decided I wanted to teach myself how to make raised-panel belts. So I did.



The most confusing issue I came across I'd never expected nor heard of: my W/F machine (Seiko LCW-8BL) was throwing a fit. Tension wouldn't balance; thread jams; uneven feed; unenevn stitch length. Re-threaded, wound a new bobbin, tried needle sizes up and down, tried a smaller bobbin thread, even checked the timing. Couldn't finger it quite out. Then I realised that the way I was sewing, the inner foot was bottoming out 2mm lower than the outer.

Here we have a clear shot of the issue:

The raised panel is around 6mm thick, and the lower rim about 4mm.

First attempt was to use one of my "delicately modified" outer feet, which have had the left toe amputated with the 40grit sparkmaker. This looked like it should work and indeed worked okay on the straight, but the marginal contact by the outer foot went down to about zero as soon as I started turning the ends of the piece.

[Matt S]

Several other lopsided outer feet were tried, to similar effect. I tried a blanket inner foot but it tore up the bridle leather too much. I was considering grinding a spare double-toe outer foot so the left toe was 2mm higher than the right, or even slipping one of the presser bars up or down. Then it hit me.

This machine uses the common 111-style feet. These have the inner foot held onto the presser bar with a screw tightened split collar but positively positioned with a small ridge on the bar. A quick experiment with the foot installed 2mm too low on the bar showed I was onto something but I didn't trust the foot not to slip up the bar in use. So I cut a piece of scrap split into small washer that was a snug fit on the inner foot presser bar. Boom. Perfect fit and function, even turning round the ends. All the weird symptoms disappeared and now all I have to worry about is user error.

That'll do.

[nylonRigging]

Nice fix to the tension and multi-height . Easy straight forward fix  . Belts look good also .

Sleeping, I love that feeling when my eye's blast open and the answer to a sew problem that I been haggling with all day just pop into my head . Sometimes the simple is hardest to see.
.

[Wizcrafts]

A piping foot set would accomplish a similar result. It would be a matter of trying different radiuses to find the best set.

[Matt S]

7 hours ago, Wizcrafts said:

A piping foot set would accomplish a similar result. It would be a matter of trying different radiuses to find the best set.

I'll give it a try but the piping feet I have wouldn't be a good fit for the shape of these belts.

Edited July 17, 2019 by Matt S

[RockyAussie]

Nice fix @Matt S and the belts look great

[blue duck]

Love inventive fixes for shop problems. Will file this one away. Nice belts too!

[Constabulary]

Not sure if it helps but for the Singer 45K and Adler 4 / 5 there were certain feet for sewing this kind of belt. A while ago I posted it somewhere else... let me check...

EDIT:

found it but you most likely cannot sew the round tips with them

 

Edited July 17, 2019 by Constabulary

[DrmCa]

Is not stitch length too short?

[Matt S]

4 hours ago, Constabulary said:

Not sure if it helps but for the Singer 45K and Adler 4 / 5 there were certain feet for sewing this kind of belt. A while ago I posted it somewhere else... let me check...

EDIT:

found it but you most likely cannot sew the round tips with them

 

That's an interesting find, I'll file it away under "will be useful one day". As you say it'd be hard to do the ends with a full width hollow in the foot. With a half width hollow and an edge guide on the right of the needle it might work though.

23 minutes ago, DrmCa said:

Is not stitch length too short?

Where? On the final belts it's about 9SPI, which is fine. It's a trouser belt not a harness trace -- so long as the holes aren't postage stamping the leather it's a purely a matter of taste. This is TKT20/V138 thread, much above 7SPI it starts looking like a racing stitch.

On the first attempts yes the stitch length was too short. Partly due to the feet not feeding the leather too well and partly cos I hadn't increased stitch length setting to compensate for the extra thickness (pendulum needle motion).