Landis 12 G Outsole Stitcher moving, cleaning, partial disassembly, resurrection

[AlizabethThomas]

23 hours ago, MikeRock said:

In the photo of the oiling points, don't forget that little Gits oil cup, next to a bolt head.

I didn't paint any oil cups red because they're obviously oil cups, unless you are talking about an oil hole that is not painted red...

[MikeRock]

Good enough!  Gits brothers are the guys who make all the oil cups.  The ones on my steam engine are HUGE......  You are doing such great work on this old machine, it does my heart good to see it coming to life.

Mike

[AlizabethThomas]

On 4/14/2021 at 7:09 PM, MikeRock said:

Good enough!  Gits brothers are the guys who make all the oil cups.  The ones on my steam engine are HUGE......  You are doing such great work on this old machine, it does my heart good to see it coming to life.

Mike

Haha, I was wondering what was with this "make sure you GIT that one wit' yer oiler" as I was interpreting it earlier. I was especially confused to see that your location was Wisconsin with that kind of talk (lived there 5 years). So thanks for the clarification. I made the effort to inspect them and they are indeed genuine, original Gits Bros. brand oil cups bearing that mark!

 

[AlizabethThomas]

I had ordered a new left thread holder. The one that had come with the machine was snapped off and re-drilled, and had a piece of whittled down broomstick as the center post. I just couldn't live with it. I saw one for sale on Ebay and snapped it up for about $30. It was now time to re-thread the wax pot and adjust the strippers. This is still an ongoing process, the rubber is going to compress, and I still have to figure out how much to tighten it over time as a factor to thread tension. 

[AlizabethThomas]

I made some new belts out of the round belt material that came with the machine. I sttiched it together with a 1/8" hole being drilled 1/2" from the end and stainless steel wire I have passed through the holes twice and then an L shaped end tucked in and all pounded flat. The main machine belt stretched enough that it was slipping and loose later on. I cut and re-stitched it an inch shorter to make it tight again. I might have to get used to the re-stitching a few times before it settles. The glazed over, hard one originally on there showed no elasticity left. I started anew because it seemed like it was going to be slippery. I'm not sure how much of a factor belt slippage is for regular users of these machines. I ended up using some spray adhesive to maximize traction temporarily, but it still slips some. Not sure if there is a belt dressing for leather belts, or a giant o-ring sized right for this machine. It has a lot of weight and rolling momentum that seems to like a certain speed and a pulsation of power to it seems to be the best way to keep the speed in the lower range, I later realized.

Edited April 19, 2021 by AlizabethThomas

[AlizabethThomas]

It was time to deal with the interestingly disgusting motor with it's chemically time-melted rubber pads. I couldn't tell quite how the pads fit into the mount mechanically since they were more of a substance than a material. Best I could figure is that they were bolted to the motor body against the contact plates that were part of that sandwich, and then the cradle mount had separate rings held to the cradle body that then dig into the rubber, sort of pinning into it to prevent rotation. I've seen canvas/rubber composite ones of these where both parts are bolted directly to the material. This one seems to apply two pressure points to the material's outside, over a disc. If the tips of the bolts went through holes in the padding material, there would be metal-to-metal contact, and we wouldn't want that. So I guessed my way through this one, it seems to work. I used leather instead of the shoe making rubber material I had originally thought I was going to use. It will probably squeak, I will probably then oil it. It has the fibrous strength I would be getting out of a canvas/rubber composite, and made from parts of the hide that were going to just end up stitching test scrap anyway.

Edited April 19, 2021 by AlizabethThomas

[AlizabethThomas]

The motor mounted. I had to bolt the plywood down on all 4 bolt holes that were there, it was flopping around on only the outer 2 when I got the machine. It used to stick out to the right further, more than it needed to, so I had also cut off some of the end including some of the metal L-brackets. They're concave for strength underneath the plywood, and it now appears I've butchered an original Landis parts set, but this is modified for functionality. With this bolted in, I had to loosen the pulley on the clutch driveshaft and pound the pulley to the right to get it inline with the motor pulley. Glad I bought that deadblow hammer, it took a lot of persuasion with all the grime on the shaft and gummed up oil. I could have cleaned it and hit it with some penetrating lubricant first, I guess. Despite having blown out the oily dusty gunk, the motor still gives off an oily grime smell when warm. Maybe I'll spray some essential oils in there or something.  

[AlizabethThomas]

Here, counterclockwise from left, we have:

1. "my first pizza pie"

2. Tension problem when going up a half sole. Honestly, with all the stories of "letting the machine do the work" of advancing the material, this one got stuck there too and did need some help. I should have wetted the work with an alcohol/water solution though, so that's another thing to do next time.

3. Tension problem sorted. I hope I can avoid ruining soles by being able to set up tension for different types of soles. 

I see in my future showing up at legit operating shoe repair shops, little poor kid look, asking "I'd like another bag of used soles, please" for practice material. Or just dumpster diving for them out back, and the answer for why if caught makes me laugh to myself. 

[AlizabethThomas]

With all this work and setting up my Singer 29-4 and troubleshooting it on Saturday, I really didn't feel like doing any more work on Sunday, but I just HAD to clean up those grimy hand wheels. I was growing tired of getting nasty antique oil crud on my hands any time I played with the machine. I still have that under my nails. It took a lot of effort, as if the human hand oils such as is found on steering wheels, doorknobs, and other common surfaces were the primer for the rest of the shoe repair shop dust and oil top coat. If you've ever cleaned that human hand oil residue off anything, you know how tenacious it is, and this combination was much worse than just machine residues I'd previously cleaned. That pretty much wraps up the grime cleaning except the clutch jackshaft and the back of the machine. Still debating on if I should leave the hoist box in place until I get all that cleaned up back there. As thorough as I've been so far, I probably should. 

Edited April 19, 2021 by AlizabethThomas

[shoepatcher]

I would until machine is done.  Great work so far Elizabeth.  The curved needle machines are a whole different ballgame as to sewing.  This is a G model machine.  Landis made them up to the L.

glenn

Edited April 21, 2021 by shoepatcher

[AlizabethThomas]

Now the handwheels. I chose to paint black. Came to find out that painting to match the body would have been the original style. Several of these cast iron parts were originally chrome- or probably nickel- plated (I say nickel because of their now-dull appearance, almost like tarnished silverware, I don't think chrome can dull that way but I've seen nickel coins do it... I digress...) Anyway they plated the whole table, thread spool holders, tombstone cover, and handwheels entirely, after smoothing the strip around the edge- the hand contact area of the wheels, the raised edge of the table, the collar of the spool holders ,etc., and PAINTED OVER the orange peel rough cast areas- tabletop surface, spokes of wheels... so stripping the wheels to chrome would have not made it more like original, painting it body color would have. But matching the moving parts seemed to bring out and tie in the mechanical genius of the machine with the aesthetics while also keeping it quiet mysterious. It looks more gothic, or like a stark art deco kind of element- this probably a 1940's model, there's no wikipedia section on Landis stitcher history, nothing like the

Comprehensive Singer Sewing Machine Model List (https://ismacs.net) of Landis machines out there... that I know of.

[AlizabethThomas]

On 4/21/2021 at 11:16 AM, shoepatcher said:

I would until machine is done.  Great work so far Elizabeth.  The curved needle machines are a whole different ballgame as to sewing.  This is a G model machine.  Landis made them up to the L.

glenn

You would... leave the hoist box up. Good call, I would like to clean up that clutch shaft assembly. I haven't lifted the whole machine with it, just the base and then the head, so if it pops or cracks, I will have to take it down and wait, see lumber is really expensive now, I noticed. 

About the models, I wrote about this in my last post, this seems to me to be a '40s model. I would love to know what decades which letter models were in production. I've seen G models with more of a toggle style lightswitch, but this has the mother of pearl inlaid push button style, looking original to the machine. It seems to be a 1940's model just as they were progressing away from that kind of thing.

 

Edited April 23, 2021 by AlizabethThomas

[Rickg1]

I see a landis model g on OfferUp in Seattle for free.  They are getting rid of it for scrap.  Search “free” if interested.  It looks fairly complete, but I’m not an expert.  I just don’t want to see it recycled for scrap.

[Ozarksleathersmith]

Thank you for sharing.

[FDC]

On 7/16/2022 at 8:47 PM, Rickg1 said:

I see a landis model g on OfferUp in Seattle for free.  They are getting rid of it for scrap.  Search “free” if interested.  It looks fairly complete, but I’m not an expert.  I just don’t want to see it recycled for scrap.

Noooooooo! Save it!