First time in your barn

[BarnOwl]

Greetings my name is Mike and I came across your site while researching my newly acquired Durkopp Adler 204-64 industrial sewing machine. I love to learn, typically hands on building type learning. My brother in law at one point in his life was a very accomplished knife maker and I learned tons from him as we worked in his shop. I have made more than a few custom knives including the leather sheaths. Back then it was all hand sewing, although very strong, production was very slow. 

I have chosen the name Barn Owl because I am known to hunt for barn finds that are too good to pass up. Mostly to add to my car collection, but recently I have found myself enjoying estate sales and online auctions of businesses closing their doors. I had a line on a long arm Consew 744-R30 industrial sewing machine but someone was willing to pay more than I was. I stopped bidding at $3600, it retails for more than twice that but it was a used machine and I just did not know the history. 

I have worked at a large local church here in San Diego for 28 years and have built up the maintenance shop to include many tools to accomplish most anything that needs to be done on the ten acre campus. One of our venues has a stage curtain that is 20 feet tall and 100 feet wide. It is over 20 years old and is showing its wear. I know that at least half of the cost of replacing the curtain will be labor to sew it, and I kept looking for an industrial sewing machine. I found the Durkopp Adler on an auction and won it for about $450. Although it is not a walking foot like the Consew, the walking needle feed should be adequate for my needs. Of course with a machine like this I will probably find myself sewing all kinds of things I could not in the past. 

I was reading several members post about the care and maintenance of industrial sewing machines and figured I would hang out in your barn for a while and learn from some experts. 

Although I am formally trained in metal craft and have fabricated lots of cool sculptures with a welding torch, I am looking forward to deepening my knowledge of industrial sewing. Whether welding or stitching, fabrication requires forming and joining of different materials to make a product. I will probably never make a saddle but learning from folks who have the skills to make something as complex and proprietary as that is just what I am looking for.

I have many other skills I highlighted in my profile, so if any of you have a question within my area of expertise I will be happy to share my knowledge. 

Mike

p.s. The photo is me with a sculpture I did of MLK for the college where I teach. It is a true half tone constructed of 6000 holes punched into a steel plate. There is not a photograph or painted image of Martin Luther King, it is only holes of various size in front of a white background to create photographic effect. 

 

[blue duck]

Welcome Mike! The folks on here are very generous with their knowledge. If you haven't already check out the sewing machine section. There is so much information in there. Many years worth. As for the leatherworking, you may, indeed, find yourself looking for a new family of tools. Leatherworking would fit right in your wheelhouse I bet. If you have any, show us some pics of the sheaths. 

[toxo]

Welcome Mike. An ex fabricator welder here. That's a great MLK.

[chuck123wapati]

welcome and you are one talented hole puncher for sure that is awesome work friend.

[Tugadude]

Holy Cow!  That's awesome.

[BWL]

Welcome Mike! This is the place to learn and share leathercraft. Awesome work! Good luck!

[Frodo]

19 hours ago, BarnOwl said:

Greetings my name is Mike and I came across your site while researching my newly acquired Durkopp Adler 204-64 industrial sewing machine. I love to learn, typically hands on building type learning. My brother in law at one point in his life was a very accomplished knife maker and I learned tons from him as we worked in his shop. I have made more than a few custom knives including the leather sheaths. Back then it was all hand sewing, although very strong, production was very slow. 

I have chosen the name Barn Owl because I am known to hunt for barn finds that are too good to pass up. Mostly to add to my car collection, but recently I have found myself enjoying estate sales and online auctions of businesses closing their doors. I had a line on a long arm Consew 744-R30 industrial sewing machine but someone was willing to pay more than I was. I stopped bidding at $3600, it retails for more than twice that but it was a used machine and I just did not know the history. 

I have worked at a large local church here in San Diego for 28 years and have built up the maintenance shop to include many tools to accomplish most anything that needs to be done on the ten acre campus. One of our venues has a stage curtain that is 20 feet tall and 100 feet wide. It is over 20 years old and is showing its wear. I know that at least half of the cost of replacing the curtain will be labor to sew it, and I kept looking for an industrial sewing machine. I found the Durkopp Adler on an auction and won it for about $450. Although it is not a walking foot like the Consew, the walking needle feed should be adequate for my needs. Of course with a machine like this I will probably find myself sewing all kinds of things I could not in the past. 

I was reading several members post about the care and maintenance of industrial sewing machines and figured I would hang out in your barn for a while and learn from some experts. 

Although I am formally trained in metal craft and have fabricated lots of cool sculptures with a welding torch, I am looking forward to deepening my knowledge of industrial sewing. Whether welding or stitching, fabrication requires forming and joining of different materials to make a product. I will probably never make a saddle but learning from folks who have the skills to make something as complex and proprietary as that is just what I am looking for.

I have many other skills I highlighted in my profile, so if any of you have a question within my area of expertise I will be happy to share my knowledge. 

Mike

p.s. The photo is me with a sculpture I did of MLK for the college where I teach. It is a true half tone constructed of 6000 holes punched into a steel plate. There is no photograph or painted image of Martin Luther King, it os only holes of various size in front of a white background to create photographic effect. 

 

Welcome!!

I like the portrait,  It is amazing what a C-n-C machine can do

 

[BarnOwl]

9 hours ago, Frodo said:

Welcome!!

I like the portrait,  It is amazing what a C-n-C machine can do

 

This was not CNC, this was all hand punched on our iron worker one hole at a time. I loaded the image into basically a photo shop editor to create a pixelated half tone out of the original image. Then I made blueprints of the hole locations based upon the half tone for my students and gave them each a 20" sheet of 16 ga steel and told them to follow the map. It consisted of letters A through G laid out on a 1" spaced grid pattern and each letter represented a different size punch. All of the blueprints had to not only be followed to the letter (pun intended) but the edges all had to line up to create the effect. The amazing part about the project was that they really did not know what feature of the portrait they were given and in the raw steel unpainted phase, even I could not tell if the punch locations were correct. Not until it was painted black and placed in front of the white back ground could the image be seen. The project was the main feature for San Diegos Martin Luther King Jr parade, but I chose this labor intensive task to teach them that even if you don't have a clear picture of the whole, following directions will lead to success. 

Edited May 22, 2021 by BarnOwl
horrible spelling