Consew 146 RB timing issues; Manual

[nylonRigging]

On 8/31/2021 at 1:23 PM, Chelan said:

Yes, I am the one who picked up the Craigslisted 146 about a month ago.  It was just a stroke of luck

You doing large skin/panels on Ultralites ? , just curious if you thought about getting a 2 or 3 point Cam for the work .
And yes, that was the 146 I was looking at ...LOL ,  a good buy does pop-up every now and then. That is a solid machine .
.

[Chelan]

Yes, that is a replacement sail for an ultralight.  All the good sailmakers for these flying machines have either retired or died, and the sailboat sail makers won't touch them due to liability.   Thus, I decided to learn to sew and this was my first attempt.   And, yes, I have thought about getting the 3 point cam for my 146, but the price is pretty steep...if you can find them.  And, knowing Consew, I doubt there is even the briefest of instructions about how to install and tune the new system.   For now, I will just run two rows of stitching side by side when I join large panels together.   You can barely see an example of that between the orange and yellow panels.

With your guidance and picture, I gave it another go at timing my Consew yesterday.   I started off by using a zig zag width closer to what I may actually be using in practice and then (kinda) followed the instructions.   The ensuing results were satisfactory, if not good.   I got the tension right about where I want it and ran several test stitches until I got fairly comfortable with this machine.   Since I can't use any sort of edge guide on most of what I do, I pick a spot on the foot and visually reference that as I sew along.   I just need to do some more testing to find out where that spot is on this machine.

[nylonRigging]

Hey also ..when you setting zigzag adjustment and doing Needle L and R on the Hook rotation . some needle have a little longer needle scarf cut , So make sure you not tapping the Hook top bottom of the scarf .
.

[trash treasure]

14 hours ago, Chelan said:

Yes, that is a replacement sail for an ultralight.  All the good sailmakers for these flying machines have either retired or died, and the sailboat sail makers won't touch them due to liability. 

 

 Apologies for being totally OT - My wife used to work for one of them, Gunnar Grabaum of Wingsails, in NY state.  We heard some years ago, that he had died in a crash, demo-ing a double that he was selling!   Patty always used to say how much it troubled her, seeing the condition of the sails they'd get in for repair or replacement - Held together with duct tape, etc - That people would actually fly an airplane patched up like that bothered her for some reason .......

Speaking of liability, it used to be that the sail cloth suppliers (Challenge, DP, Bainbridge, etc) wouldn't sell to you, if they knew you were making UL wings  - Is that still true ?

Again, sorry for the thread drift - Good luck with the timing

[Chelan]

Speaking if timing....this is perfect.  I was pining for the old days when Gunnar made a few of the aftermarket sails for our particular brand of Ultralights!  Beautiful, beautiful workmanship.  In fact, we still have one that is being used and it is still in great shape.  It even has his sailmaker tag on it.

No, getting fabric from D-P was never a problem.  In fact, they were willing to let me purchase some short rolls from them a year or so ago.  As long as I could hit a minimum.  If not, I can buy their material through a reseller like Sailrite.  Dimension-Polyant is wonderful material to work with for our particular product.

BTW:  I am getting real close with the timing and hope to start sewing panels together shortly.  I've gotten some excellent, helpful hints from this forum!

[IslandSails]

Hi there! Sorry to revive a dead thread but I stumbled upon this looking for info on timing my Mason (re branded consew 146). I have a bit of info for you if you need

When I got my machine it had a three step cam in it. I got a new regular cam off a place in Toronto for a pretty penny. Anyhoo, Sail rite has a video on how to replace them and it worked like a charm. I just did it in reverse. I'll add the link at the bottom. 

As for the flywheel being stiff, I think that's just because it's newer. My 20" Mason spins beautifully, though it's really old. But I have a newer 30" consew 146 and the flywheel is like how you describe. Tbh I hardly use it as with the extra length and the stiffness it's a bear on your shoulder. So I think it's just going to be time on that one. 

Hope you got your machine sorted in any case! 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=s1fMR4VZ-Us