Maxing out Consew 225

[Uwe]

You really do have to step up your communication skills if you expect meaningful help here. You’re the one looking at the machine and observing HOW it’s not sewing (needle breaks, birds nest, skipped stitches, loops, a dozen other ways to “not sew”.) If you can’t bring yourself to give us more details then there’s not a whole lot we can do to help. 

12 hours ago, 327fed said:

For some reason it will not sew leather with leather (16) needles. Sews leather with 17 needles. 

 

[327fed]

Will not penetrate leather at times, locking machine. Birds nest under walking foot. Birds nest on bottom of stitches. With 17 needle it does none of this. With 16 it does. It appears this is all it will do, with 138 on top, 92 on bobbin. 

[sandmanred]

So you are running 138 thread with a #16 or #17 needle? 

So far most of my experience is with jeans and heavy canvas but I would be running at least #21 for 138 thread and often a #22 or #23 if it's really hard canvas and/or many layers.  The reason you get the snaggle of top thread on the bottom is that the top tension needs to be very high for the take up arm to pull the top thread loop up through small needle eye and small hole in the material.  If you're tension is maxed out but still not enough the arm can't pull up the loop back up and it gets left on the bottom side.  I'd go with a bigger needle and you should be able to back way off on your top tension.

[327fed]

135 x 17 (round) size 21. 135 x 16 ( leather) size 22. 138 on top, 92 on bottom, 135 x 16 needle is the problem. Just thought leather needles would perform better sewing leather. 

[sandmanred]

Sorry I misunderstood, 16 and 17 are needle style not size, so your needle size seems to be about right.  I don't have enough experience in leather to offer much help other than loops of top thread on the bottom means something is keeping the take up arm from pulling it up all the way.  Needle too small or top tension too low or thick/sticky/hard material are typical causes that I know of.

[327fed]

Been trying this thing all weekend. Broke one needle this afternoon. Got it sewing perfect on scrap. Same double shoulder as the 2 holster projects. Sew the holster, it wads up under feed dog, birds nest under bottom of project. Pulled stitches out and re sewed 5 or six times. Related to changing speed or direction. Finished the 2 projects. Will have to do something not leather for a week or 2. One holster for me, one for brother. His will do. Mine looks bad. At least it is for concealment.

[DonInReno]

It sounds like the machine is right on the edge of sewing or not - very slight changes  like type of needle point shouldn’t be making the difference between sewing or not.  That’s assuming the needles are of known good quality - not mystery needles.

When thread wads up under the material that’s usually upper tension being too low, bobbin tension not correct, thread is binding up somewhere in the thread path under the bed, or timing is not correct.

I hate to sound like a broken record, but with sewers of all skill levels, when a problem comes up the first thing I look at are the basics.

Double check the thread sizes - more than one spool of thread has been mislabeled.  I’m guilty of giving my sister a dozen spools of the wrong size thread for her machine - to this day she hasn’t mentioned it, but there’s no way any of it worked.  

How do you determine bobbin tension and upper tension?   As a starting point when the bobbin and case are out of the machine, suspending it by the thread tail the tension shouldn’t allow it to fall under its own weight, but bouncing it up and down should allow some thread to come out.

For any given material it should be possible to over tension the upper thread so the knot comes to the surface.   Time and time again when a sewer says they have the top tension tightened all the way and they can’t tell a difference that’s a big red flag either the upper tension isn’t working correctly or lower tension is way too tight or a tight spot in the thread path pinches the thread.   

Do you ride the knee lifter? Upper thread release that’s tied to presser foot lift can decrease tension if the pin is too long or someone rides the knee lift.

How do you check timing?   Hook timing is covered often and there are great videos showing what to look for.   Also look at the timing of the case opener - as thread goes around the hook and is pulled up tight in a stitch the case opener should be timed to help the thread pass through the tight spots.

Are the needles in correctly?  It’s easy to forget the groove in the needle always goes away from and the scarf always goes toward the hook.   One machine that was having problems and a frustrated owner gave all common sense - tried turning the needle around backwards and just randomly made adjustments in case by some random chance they would magically stumble across the correct combination.  There should be a logical reason to make any adjustment.

Have you checked the problem needles for size with the 138 thread?   Thread a loose needle and hold the thread at a diagonal - the needle shouldn’t slide down quickly nor get hung up.  

If the lower thread path is adjusted correctly there shouldn’t be any tight spots that grab and suddenly release the thread as it makes its way around the bobbin and finally gets pulled up in a completed stitch.

Good luck with it - sounds like you’re really putting a lot of effort into figuring it out.

 

 

 

[Handstitched]

This is of no help I know,...... maybe it will be 

My machine is a Seiko  STW, a 226 pretty much, I use 135/17 DP needles, with V69 thread .  I sew a multitude of stuff, canvas,  horse rugs, shade sails ( just finished a repair a few minutes ago) ,  webbing , as well as leather, wallets ,bags etc.  and webbing attachments on leather components for some horse gear, sews fine .  The only time it struggles a  little bit, is on some  heavy folds on horse rugs, but I just carefully turn the flywheel by hand, simple.

I know this machine can take a heavier thread, but it all works just fine , ( touchwood) and I'm not going to mess with it    

 

HS