A little change to make a BIG differance on Cowboy sewing machines

[RockyAussie]

The Cowboy CB4500,3500 and 3200 narrow needle plate and feed dog set.

Why was it developed?

A few years back I decided that I wanted a cylinder machine that could handle a wide range of threads (particularly thick) with a large bobbin that could hold a lot. Smaller machines I have could do thread up to 138 (20m) but with that size thread in the bobbin I may only get 1 or 2 belts done before the bobbin needed loading again. Also the thickness of the job would often be more than desirable for the machine to handle. I managed to get a Cowboy CB4500 from our local dealer at the time and found the machine could do large jobs like tool pouches and such with no trouble but..........when I thought I could do smaller weight projects like wallets I was sadly mistaken. The large needle plate hole and wide feed dog allowed the job to be pushed down into the hole if I wanted to get closer to the edge than about 5mm and it would make a mess of any edging that was done prior to be stitched.

 I was approached by the local correctional centre about this time to make up for them an improved stronger personal alarm pouch and the numbers were pretty significant. I went ahead and designed a good pattern and proceeded to put it into production. Here is a picture of the finished article –

Everything went well up until the stitching stage. The best way to do the job was to get all of the edging done first before the stitching and that is what I did.

I knew when I was doing it that the job was going up and down a lot and was very difficult to control but I did not take enough notice of the edging at the time.. This picture below was by no means the worst one but just an average one after the stitching. “Golly” I said (perhaps something stronger and shorter to be honest) This was going to take a lotta fixin

On a close inspection I found the reason. This belt strip shows that at the start of the strip as the needle enters the job all looks good.

Then as the needle goes back with the dog foot and the dog foot descends the belt strip lowers down into the hole as well.

The sharp edge of the needle plate was tearing up the edging every time the dog foot went down as it got to the back of the hole.

 This set me onto a path to find some way to get this machine to behave the way I wanted.

After a year or more later and a good deal of development time with the new Cowboy sewing machine dealers here in Australia (Good people) this is what we came up with.

A narrow needle plate which has a narrower hole in it than the original and also been reshaped to improve tighter curve stitching like gussets. The narrow feed dog gives the advantage of assisting the needle to be guided at all times through its motion whilst the feet are down. This means the stitches are less likely to miss and revering is now more accurate at lining up the stitches. Previously a narrow slotted needle plate was provided but that involved having to take out the dog foot altogether and at the cost of an unreliable stitch length at times, especially in reverse.

This shows the original needle plate hole width in metric (8.75mm)    and the next in English (.344 of an inch)                                                                                                         

 

This next picture shows the new needle plate hole in metric (5.54mm) and following that the English size (.218 of an inch)

 

Due to file size limits on loading here I will follow this up a bit later with a link to a couple of video's I have done showing off the improved capability given with this new set as well as some practical use pictures I have taken whilst making some of our products.

 

 

 

[Spyros]

That's very interesting, thank you.  I'm pretty much sold on one of those machines but I have to discover some solution to make room first, my tiny workshop is full to the brim.

Unrelated comment but I'm impressed you bothered yourself with edge finishing considering the customer and the nature of the product.

[RockyAussie]

OK back again with the video links -

and another -

and here are just a few of the practical use products this set has enabled me to do.

[Spyros]

^those are perfect, I'd struggle to tell them apart from hand stitched. 

The last one has some machine marks but nothing that will not probably disappear on its own over time.

[RockyAussie]

3 minutes ago, Spyros said:

That's very interesting, thank you.  I'm pretty much sold on one of those machines but I have to discover some solution to make room first, my tiny workshop is full to the brim

You can get these on the short table that comes with castors and I find they are quite easy to wheel and pack out of the ways when not in use. If you can't fit it in then you must be holding onto less important stuff toooo much

 

7 minutes ago, Spyros said:

Unrelated comment but I'm impressed you bothered yourself with edge finishing considering the customer and the nature of the product.

They are chrome tan mate and you know I only do quality work. I do get some pretty good sales from the workers there and I like to think they should get a bit of quality at least now and then.

[RockyAussie]

7 hours ago, Spyros said:

Those are perfect, I'd struggle to tell them apart from hand stitched. 

You probably have not seen how bad my hand stitching can be then I am still taking this as a compliment and thank you

 

[Spyros]

5 minutes ago, RockyAussie said:

You can get these on the short table that comes with castors and I find they are quite easy to wheel and pack out of the ways when not in use. If you can't fit it in then you must be holding onto less important stuff toooo much

Yeah, I'm holding on to woodworking.  And with every day that passes, I'm wondering more and more why.

[Constabulary]

I´m not a 441 type machine user but always interested in developments...

Have you tried the "needle feed only" throat pates (w/o feed dog) for the 441 type machines? Wasn´t there a video just recently? How would they perform in your business?

[Rylando]

This is awesome!!! I’ve been so frustrated with my CB3200 for exactly this reason! It sucks down the edges and totally screws things up, it’s had me so frustrated I’ve almost sold it. 
 

How do I get one? I’m in Texas USA and have to have one! Lol. 

[Squilchuck]

Will it work on a Cobra 4?  -John