My Sewing machine restoration

JTknives

JTknives

Joined
Jun 11, 2006
Messages
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In case some people did not see the other thread, I have picked up an old Champion Leather sewing Machine. It was in bad shape or looked that way so i got it for 200 bucks. here are the pictures of it before any work was done to it. so i thought i would give you an update and keep you posted on the project. i have just the sewing machine at my house so i can work on it at night. When i got it it was all bound up and would not turn over at all. so i coated everything with WD-40 after i dusted everything off with the air hose. then like every hr i would give it another spray of the WD-40. i then started to work the wheel and to my surprise it freed up and started to move. so i tunned my attention to the front movement of the needle and all. I have got most of that cleaned and having gotten most of the tension arms and what not cleaned up. i got all the old wax out of the wax pot but I'm still working on getting it out of the hole that the thread goes through. so now that its front movements are kinda cleaned up and i can kinda string it i though what the heck lets see what happens. i did not have any thread for it so i found some old beading cord i had laying around. its really just stainless steel wire with a plastic sheath. its real thin and very flexible so i thought it would work. so i removed the bobbin and wound some on and popped it back in. i then ran some through the tension arms and back through the tension disks. i pulled out my tales and stuck some leather in. it was 1/4" leather folded over to make a total thickness of 1/2". i then proceeded to turn the wheel by hand. everything seemed to be working. the needle was going up and down, the cord was not being tangled up in the bobbin area. i ran out of thread and pulled it out and low and behold i had about a 1.5" line of stitches, now thy weren't all perfect as the tension was not right and i was using a thread that was not meant to be used in it or any machine for that matter. but it worked and it did nice even stitches. so in the morning i will take some pictures of what i have gotten done so far so you can see. man I'm happy

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Those sorts of machines are so mechanical that it is mesmerizing to watch all the wheels etc. moving around.
 
ya i counted like 70 something patents. that will be a wealth of knowledge for working on it.
 
I've been known to tackle some projects but wow - that is a project for sure. I hope you have good luck with it and I'm glad you are doing it and not me.
 
ok here are some pictures of what i have done. not much as of yet but i have gotten it working and it seames to be sewing ok. i need to work on the tenson but this was just a test with some real thread. it was around 1/2" of stacked leather.

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You are really quite a talented and industrious fellow. It's a pleasure to follow your posts.
 
I would not have attempted it. Good on you. That will cut sheath stitching from three hours to 15 minutes and a more uniform job.

Best Regards
 
Frank Barron said:
I would not have attempted it. Good on you. That will cut sheath stitching from three hours to 15 minutes and a more uniform job.

Best Regards
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ya, now i won't dread doing a sheath. I like leather working but the hand stitching was killing me, my fingers just could not handle it. i am doing a sheath on it tonight so i will let you know how it goes. its actually quite nice to run by hand.
 
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