Sewing machine advice

[Stricklanda92]

New here , so thanks in advance! 

I've been hobby leatherworking for about a year now. When I say hobby I mean between working 62.5 hour weeks on night shift, a wife and 2 kids, and volunteering with 2 fire departments I really don't have much time, but I enjoy it and that's my down/quite time to go to the shed and have some time to unwind and have a good talk with the Lord. That being said hand stitching is taking too long, I have the "Chinese patcher" but I'm not a fan. So I've been searching for a machine to handle up to about 8oz single layer leather. I have found a 1970 Singer 281-141 with the table, thread stand etc for $300 locally. My research concludes it is a high speed machine. My question is if I gear (pulley) it down how durable is this machine and is the setup worth $300? I am an industrial maintenance mechanic (millwright/machinist) by trade and have the ability to fabricate some parts myself. Is this machine worth my time/money?  Thanks

Anthony 

Edited January 18, 2022 by Stricklanda92

[Hags]

Or you could possibly just put a servo motor on it? Not real expensive anymore and can be very slow if needed or very fast.

Not familiar with the machine, but we have people here who will be I bet.

Edited January 18, 2022 by Hags
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[Stricklanda92]

13 minutes ago, Hags said:

Or you could possibly just put a servo motor on it? Not real expensive anymore and can be very slow if needed or very fast.

Not familiar with the machine, but we have people here who will be I bet.

Good suggestion, actually had thought of that too just not vary familiar with servo motors. My industral maintenance experience is 98% mechanical and 2% electronics. With a servo motor I understand I can slow the machine down almost to a crawl, but by doing so will I be sacrificing torque? 

Edited January 18, 2022 by Stricklanda92

[Northmount]

Moved to Leather Sewing Machines

[Stricklanda92]

1 minute ago, Northmount said:

Moved to Leather Sewing Machines

Thanks!

[dikman]

I couldn't find out much about it but yes, it's a high speed straight stitcher and appears to have an oil pump, which means it probably needs to run at a reasonable speed to keep the oil circulating. It's not an ideal machine for leatherwork.

It should be pretty easy to replace the existing motor with a servo and if torque is a concern then fit a speed reducer pulley too. It will likely be too slow for the oil pump but just oil the machine manually (like most of us do ).

Edited January 18, 2022 by dikman

[Stricklanda92]

2 hours ago, dikman said:

I couldn't find out much about it but yes, it's a high speed straight stitcher and appears to have an oil pump, which means it probably needs to run at a reasonable speed to keep the oil circulating. It's not an ideal machine for leatherwork.

It should be pretty easy to replace the existing motor with a servo and if torque is a concern then fit a speed reducer pulley too. It will likely be too slow for the oil pump but just oil the machine manually (like most of us do ).

Thanks everyone. Is $300 a decent price for the machine, table, and thread stand?

[DrmCa]

It looks like a bottom feed machine from what I can see. It won't stitch 8oz leather, not even with a teflon foot. You may get away with a roller foot but why when you can get a walking foot machine for a little more? $300 sounds like an awful lot of $$ for a single-needle straight stitcher.

[dikman]

I agree. If you want a machine for leatherwork this really isn't the right one. I have a similar Singer straight stitcher that was given to me, it needed a little bit of work to get it working but once it worked I covered it up and put it in a corner. Never used it.

My advice, look for a "proper" leather machine.

[Stricklanda92]

Thanks everyone for the responses, I appreciate all of the input. That being said I have decided against this machine. For all I'm really wanting one for I'm wondering if a treadle setup for my little "Chinese shoe patcher" would be more accommodating. In all honesty it sews fine for what I do, I'd just prefer both hands to be free during the sewing process. I've seen the servo motor conversions for these as well.

[DrmCa]

If you know how to set it up, go for it! But for me personally I am exploring the option of using a lawnmower PMDC connected through a speed controller. PMDC allows to reverse the rotation to CCW that the Chinese patcher needs (most other motors are CW), and the controller allows to slow it down to a crawl by way of a tiny pulley. My patcher is on a portable base, so I cannot afford the weight of a full-blown servo motor, which you may very well consider.

[kgg]

3 hours ago, DrmCa said:

PMDC allows to reverse the rotation to CCW that the Chinese patcher needs (most other motors are CW)

Some servo motors do have a reverse rotation switch on the back side. I have a Rex 550 watt servo with this reverse rotation direction switch while my other servo's don't have that feature.

kgg

[DrmCa]

True, but most of them are too heavy for a portable setup, in my particular case. Also, sewing machine servo motors are already CCW.

Edited January 20, 2022 by DrmCa