I did a test-sew by hand-wheeling Randy with the small roller foot feed system on it using Tex92 thread, size 18 needle, and sewing recycled billboard vinyl. The thread struggles to slip around the bobbin case, so I must still have the tensions off, or need to buff things more, but I got a fairly encouraging stitch.
I decided to add a piece of 4-6 ounce oak-tanned leather along with the vinyl, and on the first stitch, the leather pulled the needle down out of the needle clamp. LOL! I bent my new needle when that happened, but I have more.
The needle clamp that was on Randy is not the original clamp, but I thought that it might have been working for the previous owner, so I tried it. Maybe it did work for what they were sewing, but it’s not going to work for me. Now I’ve been scrounging through my parts bins for needle clamp parts.
CD in Oklahoma