Sailrite Leatherwork Machine

[ChipperBags]

All reasonable suggestions/advice.

Thanks!

Chip from

CHIPPER BAGS

p.s.  I may have found a JUKI 1541 nearby for a reasonable price.  This to me would be a good name brand. High quality machine.

What do you think about this one?

Edited October 22, 2022 by ChipperBags

[Wizcrafts]

2 hours ago, ChipperBags said:

All reasonable suggestions/advice.

Thanks!

Chip from

CHIPPER BAGS

p.s.  I may have found a JUKI 1541 nearby for a reasonable price.  This to me would be a good name brand. High quality machine.

What do you think about this one?

Juki is one of the best sewing machine brands. It will be a great machine to start with. Later on, if business picks up, you can search for a cylinder arm machine to sew around gussets and round shaped items, like bags. Actually, if you can find a used Juki LS-341, or clone, you'd be golden. 

[kgg]

4 hours ago, ChipperBags said:

 I may have found a JUKI 1541 nearby for a reasonable price.  This to me would be a good name brand. High quality machine.

As Wiz has said the Juki is one of the best sewing machine brands out there. Lots of accessories are available and fairly inexpensive compared to some of the other brand names. The Juki DNU-1541's are still made in Japan and come in two versions the DNU-1541 or DNU-1541"S". Capability wise no difference just the DNU-1541"S" has a safety mechanism that will trip should you jam up and at some point I think everyone will overload a machine at least once. The cost difference on a quick check of the sew machines plus website shows the new cost of DNU-1541at $1729 US and a DNU-1541S at $1795 US. Those prices include a table and servo motor but shipping is extra. Those prices will give you an idea of how good or bad the price for the use one is in comparison.

kgg

[ChipperBags]

Thanks guys!  Also, I meant to say “… probably not…”

The price for the machine, table, and clutch drive motor is enough under my budget, that I could replace the clutch for a sewline6000 servo motor AND get a speed reducer!

Its a good deal IF the machine is in good shape.

I am going to look at it tomorrow!

The other one is slightly over my budget and 200 miles away, but it is only 2 years old and hardly used already repackaged on the pallet.

Actually, you can see that one on eBay.

Chip from

CHIPPER BAGS

[CowboyBob]

On 10/22/2022 at 8:43 AM, ChipperBags said:

All reasonable suggestions/advice.

Thanks!

Chip from

CHIPPER BAGS

p.s.  I may have found a JUKI 1541 nearby for a reasonable price.  This to me would be a good name brand. High quality machine.

What do you think about this one?

Not because we are a Juki dealer but I will have to concur with Wiz the Juki is a way better built machine than the Sailrite & will sew thicker & hold up better to the stress of heavier leather,it should sew an easy 5/16" or 20 oz.

[ChipperBags]

I got my machine!

Now, my machine is my birthday present from my wife and when I showed her the Sailrite Leatherwork, she liked the way it looked and the stitches that came off of it in the demo and unbeknownst to me, she went ahead and ordered it!

It arrived last Saturday!  I assembled it Sunday AM.  No troubles, or issues!  Did some test sewing on their piece of leather, so troubles.  Doubled up their piece of leather, which totaled 22 oz and sewed that, and as long as you went slow, it stitched just fine.  Speed up and there are some missed stitches.  But, that is WAYYY over the top for what the machine is rated at, which is 16 oz.

And she's right, "It's cute!"

I LOVE IT!

I have already made a sheath for our rather large sewing shears and I repaired a wax canvas and leather bag my son has for school.  The sheath was really easy, and the leather was 9 oz, 18 doubled up and the machine did GREAT!

The bag would have been much easier with a cylinder arm machine, but maybe after I make a little money, which will have to be after I learn how to do this better, I can get that kind of machine.

Regardless, I love my new Sailrite Leatherwork, which is on a table with the same Servo motor that the Fabricator comes with and it even has a speed reducer.  It is a pleasure to sew on.  Once I get a little better and understand the limitations of it more, I will be building the extension table that Willie Sanders made for his for mine.  I think that will be quite helpful.

Thanks,

Chip from

CHIPPER BAGS

[Wizcrafts]

1 hour ago, ChipperBags said:

Speed up and there are some missed stitches. 

You may be able to improve the stitching (and get rid of skipping) over 1/4 inch by adding pressure to the feet, and/or increasing the travel of the check spring, and/or by moving up one needle size. Also, needle shape impacts the stitching at the outer limits. Try different points. I find that the diamond points give more clearance in the holes than slicing points. The last thing to do, if you expect to sew this thickness regularly, is to alter the timing. Since your machine is new, try the simpler adjustments first. You don't want to void any warranty by dinking with something they don't want users to dink with.

[ChipperBags]

Thanks, Wiz!

Sailrite wants you to dink with stuff.  Sadly, I’ve dinked with it to the point where it does not feed in reverse.

I took their position plate off so I could measure forward and reverse stitch length, that’s all I wanted to was get them set the SAME!

once the forward and reverse lever had full range of motion, it will go 7.1mm in forward, with beautiful stitches, but try to go in reverse and the stitches were only 3mm.

Thats when I emailed Sailrite!  I already have an open customer support ticket.  They sent me how to adjust the pressor foot height and range of motion video.

I stopped for the night, put the machine back together so as to not lose pieces.

I figure this is something, that I don’t think I should have to go through, all machines probably need a bit of setup… Especially after I messed with the feed dog height coming up through the table.  This is a bit frustrating though.  The good news is I really don’t enough material for anything real, but I got some scraps for testing.

Chip from

CHIPPER BAGS

[ChipperBags]

Well, for anyone who is following my saga…

My machine is working again!  It turns out that when I was repairing the waxed canvas and leather bag, I must have “pushed” too hard on something because it just kept getting worse and worse.  It would not move any material in either direction at one point.  Sailrite kept sending me their adjustment video and I showed them a video of my machine.  The walking foot was not even lifting up.  I traced that back to the cam that controls the up down motion and when I checked, both set screws were loose.  After I tightened them up, the walking foot was moving as it should.  The inner foot, which is supposed to go up and down was not moving.  Figured there had to be something controlling that too.  Sure enough those set screws were loose as well!  Tightened them all up, then ran through their adjustment video and all is almost right with world.

Forward, check!

Reverse, check (still working on matching f/r stitch lengths though)

Now I have one new problem issue.  Thread shredding when going from forward to reverse.  Is it possible all of those adjustments I made threw off the timing of the hook slightly?

I have also set my Servo to a max speed of 5 until I’m more comfortable with the machine.

As always thanks for the interest, help and encouragement!

Chip from

CHIPPER BAGS

[ChipperBags]

Once I get the shredding under control I’m going to make 3 sheaths for the remainder of our sewing scissors.

Wish me luck!