A new machine?

[toxo]

1 minute ago, dikman said:

Mike, while I have no doubt you know what you're talking about re-paypal, to say that they always favour the buyer isn't quite correct. My experience, with a $500+ item, was not good, it took me three months and I only got a refund when I finally involved the Australian financial authorities (and even then they still insisted that they were in the right to refuse me!). I know of others with similar experiences.

Back on topic, toxo, if you're at all mechanically inclined then do the servicing yourself. Manuals are generally available for most machines, plus you have this forum as a resource, and in general these machines are not that complicated once you get into them. Save yourself some money.

Servomotors - you don't have to buy the most expensive one, many of the "cheaper" ones are quite satisfactory.

If it has a binder then there's not much you can do about the cost of standard feet etc, other than search ebay/aliexpress.

Collecting, just be grateful you're in England, where everyone lives close by (relatively speaking), here in Oz long distances are par for the course.

I hear ya But a basic servo = £120 with ENP, Even from Kent to Ruislip is gonna cost around £80 plus AND involves navigating the dreaded M25 (The London ring road. They call it the car park). By the time you get home it'll feel like an Aussie trip and you need a lie down in a darkened room. Stuff like changing out the hand wheel for bigger is personal choice but the parts needed to restore to normal and anything broken Won't leave much change out of £200 I'm guessing. I would probably take it on if it had been recently used and I could see it running.

[dikman]

Fair enough, I wasn't thinking about having to navigate London traffic!

Keep looking......

[mikesc]

Sounds like OZ paypal and EU paypal are two different animals..

How much are College Sewing asking nowadays for a jack 550 watt servo motor with EPN ?

 

Edited March 7, 2020 by mikesc

[Matt S]

13 hours ago, mikesc said:

How much are College Sewing asking nowadays for a jack 550 watt servo motor with EPN ?

About £120.

20 hours ago, toxo said:

I found this one but I'm thinking the extra costings would make it too expensive plus why won't the seller take PayPal? And it's not set up so can't test it.

A service/overhaul.

A servo motor.

Converting back to "normal" sewing.

Cost of collecting

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Pfaff-335-cylinder-arm-sewing-machine-awning-canopy-valance-edge-ready/114109301465

That's about 5 miles up the road from me. Tempting, as I'm missing a small cylinder machine, however I'm quite keen to keep the ecosystem I've got with my Seikos and don't want to have to keep up with different needles, bobbins and feet. As others have said, servicing it yourself is a useful skill to learn and not that difficult (if I can do it anyone can). Conversion for flat sewing should be a fairly simple job and can be done with Chinese 335-type parts. Paypal is an expensive way of taking payments, or at least it used to be -- a lot of private sellers JCBA -- cash or BACS is less of a ballache. 

There will be other machines closer to you -- patience! 

On 3/7/2020 at 8:57 AM, RockyAussie said:

Hey @toxo, I am putting together a few comparisons on different cylinder machines and their useful differences at the moment. This will focus mostly on the working cylinder end where all the important to making stuff happens. It will cover things like the thickness of leather they can handle,sizes of bobbins, how far the needle is from the left edge and the size of the cylinder at the end, Thread size capabilities and a few other bits. These things as a maker of a wide variety of products mean more to me than a lot of the information I find available on the dealer web sites generally. I am waiting on a few more dealers pictures to finish this off and hope to have this post up next week sometime. Here below are a couple of the pictures of the type of thing I am talking about -   

Brian, another excellent contribution to the community! I'd be happy to supply you with similar information and photos for my Seiko LCW8 (equiv. Singer 153 and its descendants -- Adler 169, Consew 223 and CB227 I think) and Adler Kl5/Singer45K/GA-5/CB2500.

[toxo]

This looks better. Looks like it has a servo with eps. Hasn't been used for two years. What's the 6B for? And the H2S? Not sure if I want to stretch that far but at least it looks like it won't take much to get it going and I'd rather travel to the outer reaches of Essex than go around the M25. What do you guys think?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Pfaff-Industrial-Sewing-Machine-Cylinder-Arm-Walking-Foot/223538687170?hash=item340bf1acc2:g:CI4AAOSw78hc9AN2

Edited March 8, 2020 by toxo

[RockyAussie]

10 hours ago, Matt S said:

Brian, another excellent contribution to the community! I'd be happy to supply you with similar information and photos for my Seiko LCW8 (equiv. Singer 153 and its descendants -- Adler 169, Consew 223 and CB227 I think) and Adler Kl5/Singer45K/GA-5/CB2500.

I will look forward to your input Matt.   What started as a little thought to stop people buying the wrong machine to start with has started to take on a marathon of digging up information which often does not match up between suppliers. 

@toxo I am waiting on some more information to come in but I would like to lead you away from the Pfaff 335 style to start with. Most always they are set up for binding and that means they come with a needle a full 9mm in from the edge. That is NOT ideal for gusset work. The thickness they can handle is 10mm if that, and that is less than the handles and perhaps the base on you Monte Carlo as shown below for others to understand. The bobbins on these old ones are only around 21x9mm and with 138 (20m) thread you dont get very far before its empty again. Another thing with these Pfaff 335 is that the feed dog does not oscillate unless it is a very rare P version. A way better alternative to the small cylinder range would be the Techsew 2600 which has a needle 7mm in from the edge, an oscillating dog foot and a M style bobbin of nearly twice the capacity of the other. 25x11 or 1"x3/8".  If you are doing belts believe me an M style is very desirable. It is I think a Juki LJ-341 clone.   https://www.techsew.com/us/techsew-2600-pro-cylinder-leather-industrial-sewing-machine.html

That said If you don't have a good working skiver to start with I would steer you more toward the Techsew 2750 or the Cowboy 6900 as they have the needle still close to the edge at 7mm, large M bobbins and will give you a full 13mm (1/2") leather thickness sewing. They will also get you up into the thicker thread 207 (13M) threads which you may want by the look of your Monte Carlo.

[dikman]

17 minutes ago, RockyAussie said:

What started as a little thought to stop people buying the wrong machine to start with has started to take on a marathon of digging up information which often does not match up between suppliers.

Which is probably why no-one has done it before. Beats me how you're finding the time to do this, Brian.

[toxo]

1 hour ago, RockyAussie said:

I am waiting on some more information to come in but I would like to lead you away from the Pfaff 335 style to start with. Most always they are set up for binding and that means they come with a needle a full 9mm in from the edge. That is NOT ideal for gusset work. The thickness they can handle is 10mm if that, and that is less than the handles and perhaps the base on you Monte Carlo as shown below for others to understand. The bobbins on these old ones are only around 21x9mm and with 138 (20m) thread you dont get very far before its empty again. Another thing with these Pfaff 335 is that the feed dog does not oscillate unless it is a very rare P version. A way better alternative to the small cylinder range would be the Techsew 2600 which has a needle 7mm in from the edge, an oscillating dog foot and a M style bobbin of nearly twice the capacity of the other. 25x11 or 1"x3/8".  If you are doing belts believe me an M style is very desirable. It is I think a Juki LJ-341 clone.   https://www.techsew.com/us/techsew-2600-pro-cylinder-leather-industrial-sewing-machine.html

That said If you don't have a good working skiver to start with I would steer you more toward the Techsew 2750 or the Cowboy 6900 as they have the needle still close to the edge at 7mm, large M bobbins and will give you a full 13mm (1/2") leather thickness sewing. They will also get you up into the thicker thread 207 (13M) threads which you may want by the look of your Monte Carlo.

 

Thanks Brian. Great information for a newbie. Hadn't even thought about distance from the edge and I can see where it would matter. Trouble is they're very expensive and you don't see used ones very often in the UK. However, even though I've never sold a single piece of leather in my life YET,  I've always believed in having the right tools for the job. Another couple of cliches, buy once cry once and start the way you mean to go on. I can feel my budget stretching by the minute. Any cheaper suggestions welcome.

[toxo]

It seems Brother machines are not highly rated but what about something like this?

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NEW-S335-CYLINDER-ARM-WALKING-FOOT-WITH-UNISON-FEED-INDUSTRIAL-SEWING-MACHINE-/143139355317?_trksid=p2385738.m4383.l4275.c10

[dikman]

It's a Pfaff 335 clone, so the points made by RockyAussie re- the Pfaff 335 will apply to this one.