Recently in Industrial Sewing Machines Category

In the summer of 2017, I made a short video of my Cowboy CB4500 heavy harness and holster stitcher sewing along the edge of a strap using a special set of inline feet. These aftermarket feet only take up the width of the inside foot, which is between 1/8 and 3/16 inch. They allow me to sew very close to obstacles on the left of the needle. My video, which is on YouTube, got a lot of views and questions about where to buy those inline feet. Unfortunately, the company that originally made them has gone out of business ;-(

UPDATE #1, April 2, 2019:

I just learned from Bob Kovar, owner of Toledo Industrial Sewing Machines, that he has contracted with another machine shop to produce inline presser feet for the Cowboy heavy leather stitchers. I will be getting a set shortly and will provide photos of them, followed by a description of what, if any changes need to be made to use them.

UPDATE #2: May 19, 2019:

I have finally received a set of the new, corrected Cowboy inline presser feet from Toledo Industrial Sewing Machines. Installation was a breeze! All that I did was unscrew the existing inner and outer feet and first install the front foot, positioning it so the needle is centered in the hole, then the back foot. I didn't have to change any other settings like on the original set. The heights matches the standard harness feet. You can use the standard feed dog and throat plate, or the flat slotted plate, as you prefer. You may want to back off the foot pressure as these narrow feet definitely leave an impressions (that can be rubbed out later).

NOTE: The new inline presser feet are for the Cowboy CB3200, 3500, 4500 and 5500 machines. They will also fit on a Cobra Class 4 and a Techsew 5100.

I do a lot of repairs to leather goods of all kinds, including replacing zippers, shortening sleeves, hemming chaps, fixing pockets, repairing purse straps,sewing patches onto vests and jackets, and resewing belts, holsters and saddles. Recently, a customer dropped off a dog collar that needs to be resewn with heavy bonded nylon thread. Because it is filled with dog spikes and round spots, I will have to change over my Cowboy CB4500 to use the inline presser foot set. I plan to do that next week and will shoot a video of the process and the resewing of the collar. That will be my next post on this blog.

In case you haven't seen it yet, I am embedding my original video showing the inline feet in action. Feel free to leave questions about the conversion process in the comments area.

When it comes to sewing leather the best results are achieved with an industrial, compound feed walking foot sewing machine (e.g., upholstery sewing machines). The thicker the leather and heavier the thread, the bigger the machine must be. The largest leather sewing machines are called harness stitchers. These beasts are much heavier than standard upholstery sewing machines, having much stronger take-up cranks and levers and heavier tension and pressure springs.

Most people who buy the large harness stitchers, often called 441 clones (after the Juki TSC-441), use them to sew handgun holsters, knife sheathes, saddles, harnesses and saddle bags. These machines are able to sew at least 3/4 inch of veg-tan leather. They normally come preloaded with #277 bonded nylon thread, on top and in the bobbin and are adjusted and sewn off with this thread, with the test piece under the feet. Leatherworker.net has a forum dedicated to discussions about leather sewing machines. The most common brands and models discussed on Leatherworker.net include the Cowboy CB4500, the Cobra Class 4, and the Techsew 5100.

Nowadays, it seems that every leathercrafter who has worn out their hands with hand sewing their goods wants to buy that one sewing machine that does it all. They want it to sew wallet interiors, chaps, knife sheathes, tow straps, harnesses and extra thick gun holsters. I see them posting questions about which machine should I buy (to do all this), or similar wording. Respondents usually point out the fact that the typical upholstery grade walking foot sewing machines cannot sew thick holsters or use heavier thread than medium weight #138. The buyer will have to look at a more substantial machine, like a Cowboy, Cobra or Techsew, etc.

Most advice given is to buy more machine than you think you will need. So, the newbie to machine sewing shells out between $2000 to $3000 for a 441 clone (or $6000 for an actual Juki 441) expecting it to sew everything from wallet interiors to hand gun holsters. It sews the holsters just fine, but not the wallets or other thin projects. The knots are too big to hide between the thin leather layers. Pretty soon, they begin posting requests for help getting their (insert brand name and model) 441 super heavy duty stitcher to sew thin stuff. That's when they are told that they need to buy a lesser machine for thin work. Say what? I thought y'all said to buy more machine than I needed!

Some folks can and some can't afford to buy a second industrial sewing machine and table for thin work. Their other half (or they themselves) may own a domestic sewing machine, but they found it horrible at feeding and sewing leather, even wallets. They can't justify spending another thousand dollars for a lesser walking foot machine right now. What can they do if all they own is a 441 type machine? In these cases it is possible to "dumb down your machine" to get it to sew thin leather with thinner thread than it was built for. Here's how.

I'll use my Cowboy CB4500 as the reference, since that's what I currently own. Let's see how to dumb it down to sew thin stuff with thin thread.