sewing machines

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angel
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Re: sewing machines

#926 Post by angel »

the other one
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Re: sewing machines

#927 Post by Arttu »

I finally got around to fixing the Pfaff 193-5 I posted about 2 years ago (photos on previous page). I had to adjust the hook clearance (the hook was hitting the needle) and while doing that, I threw off the timing.

Does anyone know the timing settings for older Pfaff post bed machines?

Right now I have it at: hook tip passing the needle when the needle is 2mm up from the bottom dead center and 1mm between the hook tip and the top of the needle eye. The hook tip is barely clearing the needle, but not hitting.

This seems to work, but if someone knows the "correct" timing set up, it would be reassuring to compare those to mine.
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Re: sewing machines

#928 Post by mmiel »

Hello all,
I've recently come across an opportunity to take a look at a handful of machines that are up for sale in my area. I've yet to see the machines in person, but have been sent photos of a number of the pieces available. One machine, in particular, I'm quite curious about, and wondered if you all might have any info on it. It's very hard for me to tell from the picture whether it is a McKay style stitching machine, or a nailer. I'm attaching the picture, and would be curious to learn the maker/model if anyone knows. I'd love to have a McKay around...and welcome any advice on specific machines and/or pitfalls I should look out for when looking over a potential purchase.

auto-soler

Thanks kindly,
maya
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Re: sewing machines

#929 Post by dw »

I don't use these kinds of machines...but in the dim past I did. From what I can see that's a McKay. The presser foot gives it away. IIRC, Auto-soler did make more than nailing machines. But whether it is a lock-stitch machine or the more common chain-stitch machine, I don't know.
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Re: sewing machines

#930 Post by Bootmaker1 »

I have a Singer 29K 171 patching machine. However the walking foot and the needle are not timed or in synch. The needle is down or imbedded while the walking foot is trying to move the leather. How can I fix it

Tried to post this under a new topic but I could not find the ( the new topic) selection icon?
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Re: sewing machines

#931 Post by admin »

This is the right topic. Members are not allowed to create new topics without specific permission of Admin.
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Re: sewing machines

#932 Post by dw »

I have a number of manuals for free download on my webpage http://www.bootmaker.com/manuals.htm ...among them is an operator's manual for a Singer 29K patcher. Almost any variation of the 29k class should be covered by this manual but whether or not timing is addressed in the manual, I cannot recall.
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Re: sewing machines

#933 Post by das »

I'd check the manual, but the 29K 71, like all the 29K class, only have a small eccentric screw at the right end of the long rack (coming out of the rack box) connecting rod (accessed through a small hole in the front of the base). All it does is advance/retard the shuttle hook a little bit at the needle (see the manual). It has no effect on the needle bar/feeder foot timing per se. The needle bar's up/down action is controlled by the needle bar cam roller at the pulley, where the leather belt is. Without seeing it, it sounds like maybe the pulley was removed and reinstalled 360 degrees out of whack, so the needle bar is going down when it should go up. The feeder foot is controlled by a separate mechanism, that I'm pretty sure would be impossible to make run "backwards".

The pulley should have a tapered drift pin securing it to the shaft that comes out of the far right end of the head. The hole in the pulley is tapered, the hole through the shaft is tapered, IOW it should be impossible to reassemble it wrong because the pin is tapered too. That's what I'd check first.

Is the machine new to you? Maybe the last owner got the pulley on 360 degrees wrong? Maybe a parts machine with the wrong pulley? These things are so elderly, 90-100 years, and often so mucked-with by previous owners, almost anything is possible. Keep us posted on your progress.
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Re: sewing machines

#934 Post by SharonKudrle »

Donald Brown,
Are there any photos of your boots or tack & saddle work? It just seems odd that you don't have any at all on your Facebook page or shop website, and I would love to see your work.
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Re: sewing machines

#935 Post by das »

Shuffling my stable of machines around a bit, adding some "new" (new to me elderly Singers out of a factory) and revisiting this thread. A bit of Internet searching reveals the go-to US suppliers of parts for early 20thc Singers 10-15 years ago (Hudson, etc.) are going the way of the Dodo. There's some chatter on Leatherworker.net about old Singers, but if there's still a warehouse of SIMANCO parts out there, or a boneyard of old heads to pick good used parts off, nobody's revealing the source.

Thanks to over-buying 10+ years ago, my 236W is set to go another 68 years, but the ones I'm trying to gather spare parts for are all pre-WWII made:

42-5
11-37
18-22
17-23
45K70

I'm amenable to grabbing parts machines cheap, if they have the needed parts, but just little stuff like throat/needle plates, tension check springs, and shuttles/hooks are elusive. Where're you all finding your bits and bobs these days? Saw a vendor from Asia offering a 42-5 shuttle-hook complete for over $250 on the web! Needless to say, I'm not THAT desperate.
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Re: sewing machines

#936 Post by dw »

Last time I looked, Mark Rofini (mrofini@industrialsewmachine.com) at Industrial Sewing Machine Service (http://www.industrialsewmachine.com/) was still in business.
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Re: sewing machines

#937 Post by mmiel »

Hello all. I have an old singer post machine, model 51-w-28, and have been having some consistent problems that I haven't been able to troubleshoot, despite my best efforts. The machine sews beautifully on straightaways, but almost every time I stop to turn a corner, even a small one, the upper thread gets sucked down into the bobbin area and gums up underneath. It's most noticeable when stitching on backstraps, where I turn to go across the top line to stitch back down the other side. I've tried turning with the needle just barely in the material, at the bottom of the needle's travel, and after the needle start to rise back up...same problem every time. I've taken the lower mechanism fully apart, cleaned and de-burred everything and re-oiled, to no avail. I'm thinking perhaps it has something to do with the change in thickness of the material at that spot, or the speed at which I'm stitching, since often it will do just fine on turns when I'm just working with a scrap piece to adjust tension before stitching my uppers, but for some reason as soon as I'm working slowly going around corners on my actual piece, it behaves horribly almost every single time. I'm at my wits end with it!
I'm wondering if anyone has experience with this model (or another in the 51w family), or has had a similar issue that they've been able to correct. Fingers crossed that one of you has a suggestion!
Thanks, Maya
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Re: sewing machines

#938 Post by amuckart »

mmiel wrote: Tue Oct 23, 2018 12:54 pm Hello all. I have an old singer post machine, model 51-w-28, and have been having some consistent problems that I haven't been able to troubleshoot, despite my best efforts. The machine sews beautifully on straightaways, but almost every time I stop to turn a corner, even a small one, the upper thread gets sucked down into the bobbin area and gums up underneath. It's most noticeable when stitching on backstraps, where I turn to go across the top line to stitch back down the other side. I've tried turning with the needle just barely in the material, at the bottom of the needle's travel, and after the needle start to rise back up...same problem every time.
It sounds like something's mangling the takeup of the stitch where you're making the turn. What happens if you go up a needle size? An additional bit of groove depth might be what's needed to stop the top thread from catching someplace and jamming.
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Re: sewing machines

#939 Post by dinerio »

I use a 51w57 post machine and it is a good machine. Mine will ball up the thread if it is lacking lubrication under the shuttle, a couple drops of oil cures the problem, but that doesn't seem to be your problem. I have a 7-33 singer for stitching side seams that would drop stitches quite regular. One day I was turning it over by hand observing the needle and shuttle hook and noticed that as the needle came up and the shuttle hook ready to grab the thread loop, the loop would flip to the side and the hook would miss it. By raising the needle bar a little the loop was smaller and cured the problem. A different problem than yours, but maybe worth looking into.
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Re: sewing machines

#940 Post by mmiel »

Thanks for the tips, amuckart & dinerio, I will look into what's going on in both those areas. I think I had tried a larger needle at one point, and retimed/relubricated the hook & shuttle areas last time I took a stab at it, but I will play with the needle bar height & see if that makes any difference. Since I've already pretty much disassembled and reassembled the whole lower arm of the machine, I guess next I'll try and go through the upper thread assembly...I've always suspected that something with the check spring is not quite right.
Appreciate all your suggestions!
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Re: sewing machines

#941 Post by das »

OK, now here's a question.... Round, leather, sewing machine belting with hair on? It's still manufactured and selling for like $400 per 100' roll, as opposed to plain leather belting at around $100 per 100'. Historically (and today) why the on-going preference for hair-on sewing machine belting that it's still being made and sold for 4x the price of plain? "Asking for a friend" (I'm curious too).
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Re: sewing machines

#942 Post by dw »

I've never seen it...I've seen the round belting with what looks like a three day old shave on parts of it, but never full-on hair-on. Just guessing but I suspect that the hair-on belting would slip more than the hairless type, some people...myself included...might like that.
Why it would cost 4x more, I dunno.
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Re: sewing machines

#943 Post by das »

I can think of many "free" ways to make (non hairy) leather belting slipperier, without paying 4x as much to get hair-on. Nice guess. Some 1870s-80s machinists' texts discussing belting and transmission (power), seem to suggest hair-on flat belting actually had a higher friction coefficient, with the hair positioned against the pulleys. Others debate whether putting the grain (no hair) or the flesh belting against the pulleys, from increased friction to increased belt longevity. At $400 a 100' there must be folks alive today, who use sewing machines, who know the real reason for the preference and added expense.
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Re: sewing machines

#944 Post by bcFour »

As much zen as I've been getting from hand sewing uppers - I am looking at getting a post bed machine in the near future. (read: Christmas) I feel sort of foolish asking some basic questions on what seems to be a Cadillac of a machine. I'm looking at a Pfaff 591 since it seems, from some limited research, to be THE machine for closing uppers.

a) Am I misguided in the notion of this being the one to get?
b) I see there is a B and a C version of the machine, from what I can tell - these are the differences. Is the B the one I want/need?
Needle size: Version B 90 Nm, Version C 130 Nm
Max. sewing speeds: B 3.000 s.p.m / C 2.000 s.p.m
Max. stitch length: B 5,0 mm / C 7,0 mm
c) Am I biting off more than I can chew with this? I'm handy and capable, but NEW.
d) Any must-have add-ons for it or will I be good-to-go as is?

again, I realize it's a heck of a machine for a beginner, but I'm all-in on this and I'd rather my frustrations be found in learning to use a good machine as opposed to learning to FIX an old machine.

thanks in advance!
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Re: sewing machines

#945 Post by dw »

Any machine worth its salt will be able to handle multiple needle sizes. That said, both the included/default needle size and the max. stitch length suggest that the 'C' is intended for heavier work.

I use a Singer 136 post machine...and mostly with a size 90 needle--that's fine for most upper work on men's dress shoes.
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Re: sewing machines

#946 Post by SharonKudrle »

das wrote: Wed Nov 28, 2018 12:20 pm I can think of many "free" ways to make (non hairy) leather belting slipperier, without paying 4x as much to get hair-on. Nice guess. Some 1870s-80s machinists' texts discussing belting and transmission (power), seem to suggest hair-on flat belting actually had a higher friction coefficient, with the hair positioned against the pulleys. Others debate whether putting the grain (no hair) or the flesh belting against the pulleys, from increased friction to increased belt longevity. At $400 a 100' there must be folks alive today, who use sewing machines, who know the real reason for the preference and added expense.
And now I'm curious: have you ever heard of worsted wool belts for machinery? I don't know if the article reprinted below is accurate, but the author refers to them as hair belts for machinery in the 2nd to the last paragraph. I do understand you're discussing leather drive belts with hair still on the leather.
http://www.tartansauthority.com/resourc ... v-woolens/
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Re: sewing machines

#947 Post by das »

Kept finding that when searching for hair-on (round) leather belting. I think they were just a cheap alternative to leather. Remember, some machinery needed long wide flat belts, some several inches wide.
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Re: sewing machines

#948 Post by Amasiah »

hi I have a singer 52w17 double needle and wonder if there's any way to have the wiring diagram for the tread, it has been unused for 20 years, i have never used it myself and it is in need of some help...
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Re: sewing machines

#949 Post by das »

Have you looked online for a downloadable manual? There're many free PDFs of old Singer manuals.
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Re: sewing machines

#950 Post by Amasiah »

it does seems to be a hard one to find, the machine itself seems to be discontinued
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