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

[alpha2]

21 hours ago, Wizcrafts said:

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.

ANYTHING beats laying the machine down and dinking with the internal cams. I can see where that could go south in a hurry. I've dinked enough with the internals just slightly adjusting the time on my CB4500. 

Spell-check is choking on "dinking". Spell-check needs to get out more.

[chrisash]

Nothing wrong with my spool-check

[suzelle]

On 10/30/2021 at 3:54 PM, dikman said:

I've already ordered one. Jess just sent me the invoice so now it's a matter of Australia Post deciding how long they decide to take to get it here.

This is probably the quickest I've ever bought something without thinking about it first. It looks like it will make the big 4500 a much more useful machine overall. What size thread/needle were you using on the wallets?

Oh, so excited for you!!! Dikman  Sewing machine envy over here.

[TomE]

Thanks so much for explaining this adjustment.  I've learned so much from this thread and forum about using and maintaining my 441 clone.  Much appreciated.

[Wizcrafts]

My hope is that as a result of the things discussed in this topic about matching forward and reverse stitch lengths, that the assault against our dealers will stop. No machine is perfect all the time unless it has expensive electronic controls that make it sell for $10k (think Adler 969 ECO). I am happy to be able to buy a heavy leather stitcher for about $3k that does the same sewing, but needs a little adjustment with a round washer.

 

[Spyros]

I think it will take me a while to fully trust the machine for critically visible stitches.  Sometimes it does things that I can't predict (yet), like chew through the thread or change stitching length.   But I realise it's probably just me pushing it to the limits, sometimes I hold the piece too tightly because I'm nervous, sometimes I start stitching 4 layers of bridle without testing the tension first, things like that.

One thing I know for sure is I love the machine but I hate every thread I've bought so far, machine thread is a total joke compared to a hand stitching thread like Ritza or similar.  It's fragile, I don't trust it at all and it makes me want to do weird things like double and triple stitch some high tension areas like gussets on turned bags.  Maybe I need to find a better brand, not sure.

 

[RockyAussie]

Couple of things come to mind when you say about the stitch length changing. The way the feed works on these machines means that as the leather thickness goes up the stitches get a little shorter in length. Not something you would notice on most jobs because you would seldom go from very thin to very thick. I did have a problem awhile back where when I was doing a large run of products the stitch length would not keep the same number of stitches at the same spacing piece after piece. I fixed that by putting in some more notches into the adjustment knob which you can see details of in this earlier post I did -

Regarding the threads....My favourite is Aman Strongbond but getting anyone here that stocks a good range I have not found lately. I was getting it from Shann accessories down there but there range is getting dismal these days https://www.theshanngroup.com/product/amann-strongbond-thread-bonded-nylon/

[Spyros]

1 hour ago, RockyAussie said:

Couple of things come to mind when you say about the stitch length changing. The way the feed works on these machines means that as the leather thickness goes up the stitches get a little shorter in length. Not something you would notice on most jobs because you would seldom go from very thin to very thick. I did have a problem awhile back where when I was doing a large run of products the stitch length would not keep the same number of stitches at the same spacing piece after piece. I fixed that by putting in some more notches into the adjustment knob which you can see details of in this earlier post I did -

Regarding the threads....My favourite is Aman Strongbond but getting anyone here that stocks a good range I have not found lately. I was getting it from Shann accessories down there but there range is getting dismal these days https://www.theshanngroup.com/product/amann-strongbond-thread-bonded-nylon/

I know, and the range gets worse and worse as you go to thicker threads that I use.  I think my best hope is ordering from o/s, I just have to find someone with not insane shipping charges (ie not threadexchange).  The changing stitch length happened on a turned bag gusset with some pretty stiff bridle leather so there were a few things at play: me trying to push a whole bag under the needle, the leather not being equally glued flat around the bend, jumping from 3 layers to two layers in another spot.... God knows what caused it.  But when the circumstances are normal it holds the stitch length perfectly in forward and reverse so I'm not worried about it (yet).  The chewing the thread part happened when I decided to do a long stitch in reverse (don't ask, it was just more comfortable), so maybe it's just not supposed to do that.  On the 20th stitch or so the thread just frayed and snapped.  Not worried about that either, I was probably just being dumb.

I still need to iron out my tensioning method though.  The top dials seem to do nothing at all, I started with quarter turns and half turns, and ended up turning them 10 whole turns either way with pretty much zero change in the actual stitch.   The only way I have to sink the loops inside the leather is from adding bobbin tension, which I can only do so many times before I strip this little machine screw and then good luck finding a replacement.  Again, I know it's me and something I've done, because the machine was stitching perfectly when delivered.  I just have to figure out how to dial it back to those settings and start from there little by little every time I need to adjust tension.  To be fair I'm probably fussier than most, I want the loop *exactly* in the middle, I always do a trial on an offcut and then cut the leather to see exactly where the loop is LOL 

Might be a simple matter of threading the machine differently, I've seen a couple of videos that have little differences between them.

Edited March 7, 2022 by Spyros

[Patrick1]

Made in the U.S.A. narrow dog with a flat plat and works great. Made the small slot plates but don't think I'll be needing them. I think the flat plate is better for what I'm doing, definitely more control. Also made a holster plate and down the road will make the stirrup plate when I build my saddles. Awesome idea! 

[RockyAussie]

On 2/13/2022 at 10:48 AM, JollyDodgerCanvas said:

The Cowboy4500 is fully manually oiled, no wicks no pumps. Oil a lot more frequently than other machines. I had a chat with my dealer about oiling the hook race frequently, hourly if you are running the machine constantly. He told me about a customer who didn't oil the hook enough and the steel turned color due to the heat build up.

Had one come in to be retimed last week was getting that way. They had not oiled the hook for 6 years among a whole lot of other parts. Good thing that the parts are able to be replaced still. Yes they had a manual ...just did not think unless something was wrong they would needed to look at it.