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

[RockyAussie]

On 2/15/2022 at 10:57 AM, Spyros said:

you sure you don't have a third arm somewhere? LOL

Ha ha...don't I wish. Another 2 would be better but then I'd be wanting more again I'm sure.

On 2/15/2022 at 8:03 AM, Thescandall said:

rockyaussie, i spammed the techsew forum im a member of with your narrow needle plate and dog. hope your email blows up. 

im going to put it to work this weekend at the ranch. starting a new gunbelt and im gunna sew it with your stuff.  

Thanks @Thescandall. I hope all goes well and we get to see your new gunbelt when its finished.

[Doc Reaper]

On 2/13/2022 at 6:07 AM, Spyros said:

Thanks Mr JollyDodgerCanvas

One thing that annoys me with those machines is that I have to hold the ends of the threads with my hand to start a stitch.  Problem is that when I start a stitch is when I want my hands free more than any other time.  So I decided to just hold the threads with a magnet.  I had some aspirin-sized magnets in the shed.  I bored a piece of wood with a drill and popped them in there, and then epoxy glued a piece of coarse sandpaper on top to keep the magnets in.

Of course I could've just used a bigger magnet off ebay or something, but that's what I had on hand.  Either way it works great:  

I wonder why I haven't seen other people doing this, is there a reason that I shouldn't either?

What am I looking at in the first picture? To me it looks like a piece of wood with with a curved recess area filled with black grease. Could you please pm some pics with brighter lights, and explain it like I’m almost 2????   ;  )

[Spyros]

9 minutes ago, Doc Reaper said:

What am I looking at in the first picture? To me it looks like a piece of wood with with a curved recess area filled with black grease. Could you please pm some pics with brighter lights, and explain it like I’m almost 2????   ;  )

That's pretty much the best photos I can take... it is indeed a piece of wood but the "grease" you see is just some brown 240 grit sandpaper glued on the wood.  And under the sandpaper there is a hole in the wood that holds a few small magnets, that's all.

Honestly don't bother with it, one of those $10 magnetic phone holders that mount on the air vents in the car will do just a good job of holding the thread down.

[Thescandall]

I found these 2 neo mags in my junk drawer. Strong suckers. I’m gunna try it on my 5100. 

[dikman]

Good idea with the magnets, it never occurred to me to use them like that. I have several that I've removed from old hard drives that should work (hard drives are a great source for very strong magnets).

[Patrick1]

Great idea, so I decided to make my own parts on my Haas cnc mill. Will up load the finished product later in the day. Was going to make the stirrup and holster plate and along came this post. Not into selling them just rather make my own stuff. Received my Cobra 4 last week and as you can see the stitch size plate had to be shimmed before they shipped it to me. Not too happy about that from the Leather machine co. Chinese world class manufacturing. Have to make a new plate without the shim.

[alpha2]

48 minutes ago, Patrick1 said:

Great idea, so I decided to make my own parts on my Haas cnc mill. Will up load the finished product later in the day. Was going to make the stirrup and holster plate and along came this post. Not into selling them just rather make my own stuff. Received my Cobra 4 last week and as you can see the stitch size plate had to be shimmed before they shipped it to me. Not too happy about that from the Leather machine co. Chinese world class manufacturing. Have to make a new plate without the shim.

There's something fishy about that shim. Someone went to a lot of trouble to bend the sides up, and cut the slot. Wouldn't a washer have done the same thing? And what difference does the shim make? The movement of the lever is mostly up/down, not in/out. The in/out is adjustable with the knurled wheel, anyway. I just had a horrible thought, what if the top bolt there was a little too long, and they didn't want to walk over to the bin for the correct bolt. Heck, even if they wanted to shim it with that, a half or three-quarter inch long piece would have done the trick, unless they searched the scrap pile and found something there that "kinda" worked.

Jeff

[Wizcrafts]

1 hour ago, alpha2 said:

There's something fishy about that shim. Someone went to a lot of trouble to bend the sides up, and cut the slot. Wouldn't a washer have done the same thing? And what difference does the shim make? The movement of the lever is mostly up/down, not in/out. The in/out is adjustable with the knurled wheel, anyway. I just had a horrible thought, what if the top bolt there was a little too long, and they didn't want to walk over to the bin for the correct bolt. Heck, even if they wanted to shim it with that, a half or three-quarter inch long piece would have done the trick, unless they searched the scrap pile and found something there that "kinda" worked.

Jeff

I used a small washer on my machine. It really does work to correct the reverse, as long as the timing of the inside foot and needle is matched. Until I put a washer under the top of my stitch nacelle, reverse never matched forward 100%. Now it does. It beats laying the machine down and dinking with the internal cams.

[RockyAussie]

18 hours ago, Patrick1 said:

Great idea, so I decided to make my own parts on my Haas cnc mill. Will up load the finished product later in the day. Was going to make the stirrup and holster plate and along came this post. Not into selling them just rather make my own stuff. Received my Cobra 4 last week and as you can see the stitch size plate had to be shimmed before they shipped it to me. Not too happy about that from the Leather machine co. Chinese world class manufacturing. Have to make a new plate without the shim.

Looks a bit like my first efforts when I was working out how to make them. I eventually made the needle plate shaped to allow smaller gussets and stuff to run through. As in this pic -

Something you can do pretty easy but the dog foot may be a whole other story.....There is not a lot of metal in the web to support this shape and CNC cutting I think you will find will not give you the strength needed to resist the pressure of the foot bending the feed dog down and into the needle plate. This is why we decided to go with the casting and hardening process as the original machine makers have as well. If you stick to the light weight work it may be alright maybe.

17 hours ago, alpha2 said:

There's something fishy about that shim. Someone went to a lot of trouble to bend the sides up, and cut the slot. Wouldn't a washer have done the same thing? And what difference does the shim make?

You can do as Wiz said and use a washer instead IF you can get the right thickness to suit what adjustment is needed. Some machines can go out of adjustment and they can be hard to get every thing back where they should be. With this shim with the slot method the more in and down it goes the more the adjustment plate is angled forward and thus limiting the reverse length stitch to where it may need to be. Depending on the thickness of leather that gets used on a given job the amount that the adjustment plate needs to be angled may differ from a thinner or thicker job and this gives a quick and easy way to do any correction that may be needed. Some Adler machines along this line used an angle iron shape with adjustable pins that allowed you to limit both the forward and reverse stitch lengths. Myself... although my machine does do a good job at reverse stitching I never trust that I am going to get the needle back in the hole exactly where I want it to go so I just lift the foot and go back by hand a few times. If the machine does it it can spear and cut the threads a bit more than I do. Note: most of the stuff I make is out of crocodile and pretty high end so maybe I am over fussy.

[alpha2]

Ah, that's what I didn't get. The reverse stitch length. Yes it would affect that. I just couldn't figure it out on my own. Difference between a newbie and you all. Now I need to check my reverse stitches and see just how well they match up. My education continues...

I can see where Croc could be less forgiving.

Thanks!

Edited March 6, 2022 by alpha2