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

[Wizcrafts]

3 hours ago, Spyros said:

Yeah that was it, thanks Richard!  The other spring is much softer.

The presser foot still gets stuck halfway down, it's probably some moisture or something... maybe some WD40?

Open the front cover plate. It is time to oil the small crank shafts anyway. There are screws holding the presser foot bar (aka: presser bar) in place. The bar might be slightly askew causing it to hang when lifted. Oil all the tiny holes on everything that moves inside the head. You should eventually find out where the presser bar is hanging up and free it. I routinely swap coil springs if the work is softer or harder and my presser bar doesn't hang up under light spring pressure.

The presser bar also has a rolling wheel on the left side of the head, looking from the left side. It moves against a steel bracket that is adjustable. It could just need a little tweaking of the steel plate to let the roller move up and down freely.

[dikman]

WD40 has it's uses but I would only use it for "emergency" oiling on the machine. As Wiz said it's time to pull the cover off and have a look at how it works.

[Spyros]

How often do you guys oil you machines (beyond the daily drop of oil in the red holes)?

[RockyAussie]

Been holidaying a bit so sorry for the late answer here Spyros. I will get some pictures together and get back with some info tomorrow.

P.S. Can you pm me your number as I am stuffed if I can find it at the moment.

[michaelcbarr]

On 11/5/2021 at 6:35 AM, michaelcbarr said:

Thanks @RockyAussie - quote received and accepted 

Just as an update for the other forum members - I ordered the needle plate set before Christmas and, even with the crazy post around that time of year, it was shipped halfway round the world from Australia to Northern Ireland in less than 3 weeks.

The product is fantastic. It is a perfect fit, straight replacement for the stock items on my Cowboy (Hightex) 4500 with zero fettling. Thin leather is a breeze with this plate fitted and I'm now debating on whether to keep my Seiko STW-8B for lighter work, although it is handy having a second machine all set up with the correct needle and thread 

Thanks again to @RockyAussie and particularly Jessica for her patience with the ridiculous shipping situation regarding Northern Ireland. 

Mb 

[RockyAussie]

Thanks for the wonderful feedback @michaelcbarr.I have to admit that the postage to you was a real puzzle till Jess got it sorted. I know you will love the extra advantages you now have with this set and I am so so happy that you now have them.

[BigSiouxSaddlery]

I have used my set for over a month now, and wanted to test.it on all types of work before I gave a review.  It works splendidly for fine and narrow work.  In fact I didn't find anything that didn't work well with it until I sewed new sheepskin on a set of saddle skirts a couple days ago.  It didn't feed as well as the standard dog, which is understandable. I have plenty of other machines to do that on however, and I think I will just leave my machine set up with the narrow dog and plate.  Thank you for developing and making available to the rest of us a much needed accessory to these machines!

[RockyAussie]

On 1/13/2022 at 12:25 AM, BigSiouxSaddlery said:

I have used my set for over a month now, and wanted to test.it on all types of work before I gave a review.  It works splendidly for fine and narrow work.  In fact I didn't find anything that didn't work well with it until I sewed new sheepskin on a set of saddle skirts a couple days ago.  It didn't feed as well as the standard dog, which is understandable. I have plenty of other machines to do that on however, and I think I will just leave my machine set up with the narrow dog and plate.  Thank you for developing and making available to the rest of us a much needed accessory to these machines!

Good news to hear @BigSiouxSaddlery Just out of interest a couple of months ago I got a job that required the use of some sheepskin to be able to be put onto a wheel electric wheel chair armrest. I never got to take any pictures of it installed on the wheel chair unfortunately but was told that the fitted beautifully. The interesting thing about the job was that I designed it to be stitched with the fleece on both sides of the stitch line. Try as I might I could not find anything online anywhere on how this could be done so I went ahead and just gave it a go. Initially I had trouble with the standard needle plate due to the fleece getting caught up in the gap between the dog foot and needle plate so I switched over to the narrow needle plate set which has a lot smaller clearance for the fleece to get stuck in. That worked better but the the skinny foot kept getting caught up in the top fleece. I found a wider foot for the top and bingo my troubles were fixed. here are a few pictures to show some of it which may help -

The armrests to be covered. The sheepskin has to be able to be removed easily for cleaning as well.

 

I found that it was better to use brown thread in order to be able to see where I was stitching as i went. It does not show at all in the finished job.

Has anybody seen any examples of stitching done this way before? Do you have any links to share?

[DrmCa]

Furs are usually sewn on fur machines. Some have compressed air blowers installed that blow the hair down into the seam.

[RockyAussie]

3 minutes ago, DrmCa said:

Furs are usually sewn on fur machines. Some have compressed air blowers installed that blow the hair down into the seam.

Thanks @DrmCa. That would be interesting to see. I have a machine I bought a long while ago that is for stitching furs but it only stitches through the backs to join the pieces together. People I bought it from mostly made sheepskin rugs and stuff like that. The second picture above shows one of the seams like I am talking about.