miriam

I only know from buying them I got feed dogs and a plate at the same time to be sure they matched. Years ago, the old guy I got them from spent a lot of time digging through his drawers looking for matching sets to do my canvas. My education began right there... You are right they are not all that expensive. It was amazing to me how many options you can have when you buy them. I could have gotten a set to do quilt cotton on the same machine since the big teeth would chew it up. Industrial machines are very often set up to do one task - therefore you just change out the dogs, adjust the height and plate. Chain stitch may be some industry term. It is a different realm some times. There are days when I wish I could put big tooth feed dogs on a Japanese machine.... If you look you will see that some of the cheap Japanese zzer from the 70s have big teeth compared to a ss - I don't mean side to side I mean bigger teeth. Some have kind of fine teeth. Teeth on home sewing machines are all over the map. I think it is something to test and play around with. What difference does it make when you sew with wide teeth vs narrow. Small grid looking teeth compared to deeper cut teeth? How does it feel? I think feed dogs and plates are something we take for granted. I've also worked over a few sets that were burred and no matches were easily found. I have an odd pair on a White I'm hoping work out ok. In industry you throw the starred plate away when it gets too bad. They so often interchange - by that I mean the feed dogs and plate sets can work on different machines. Not so easy with home machines. If you get into some of the Touch & Sew machines they won't go from one machine to another at all. Not even plate and feet. You have to have it exact.