I finally got around to trying one of my combination feed machines in my industrial treadle today. I’ve got a little project in the works (sewing a leather western belt to billboard vinyl) that is probably more than JR (Singer 31-15) will want to handle. So, since Ol’ Dirty (Singer 111W153) was setting on the airtable out of his power stand, I stuck him into my MUTTIN to see how things looked.
I had to adjust the knee lift stops to get the lift finger out of the way under the machine. The lift won’t work for the larger machines anyway, since it’s a different setup. I walked the leather drive belt on and it’s tighter than on JR, so I’ve probably stretched it out of shape for JR now, but I can shorten it easily.
I could treadle Ol’ Dirty fairly easily with nothing under the needle but air, but when I put some leather scraps about the thickness of the belt (hand tooled on Oak Tanned leather) under the feet, it takes too much effort to keep the treadle going. I was pushing hard enough that I became concerned about breaking the pitman rod ear off, so I quit. I might be able to treadle Ol’ Dirty for sewing vinyl, but not dense leather. That was what I wanted to find out. The too-tight belting could have a little to do with it, but it’s probably better than a too-loose one for leather.
CD in Oklahoma