Walking foot leather sewing machine w/ servomotor for $225 complete! 

I can't like this more than once, so I'm commenting to have the algorithm put this on someone else's suggestions page, too. I really appreciate all the info!

now that is a sweet total setup. i've got some cleaning and polishing ahead of me, then some practicing, and hopefully on the other side I will be ordering your kit! really great contribution to this community, thanks for sharing the expertise!

I've seen a few of these motorised upgrades, but this one is the one that I will do! Great mod and good video, thanks for sharing.

Thanks for the very informative video John. I have purchased one of your kits and once it arrives will install it. This video cleared up a few queries. Thanks for sharing.

John, motorized my machine today, as per your example!!! Thanks for the great kit and the videos!!

Your description was helpful in setting up mine. Thanks. She runs like a greyhound. Awesome.

I watched four or five videos of different people, a couple motorized, all of the folks did some minor clean up, smooth things, put things in place, and have all worked well. I've seen the bobbin carrier stoned to move smoothly, some minor adjustments for tension and such, but all worked well, and I bought one, arrived couple days later, and worked fine, out of the box, I've put a full day's work "cleaning it up, better" smoothing, making things fit better, and I am very pleased, I've stitched by hand fifty years, wish I'd found one of these, (original, U.S. made) in the junk yard, but this will be fine. I have a machine shop, threw the crank/flywheel/cam wheel on a lathe, faced off the chrome, and got it flat, flipped it, centered on the axis, faced about five thousandths off that side, for a very fine, no blowhole finish on the "cam side". made a stub arbor, mounted the wheel on the stub, and got the periphery concentric with the axis, so it turns very smoothly, evenly, no binding, and I've never liked the look of chrome on bare iron. The springs on the upper thread tensioner are kind of strong, I cut a loop off, but will replace them with springs about two thirds the wire thickness, so they are more adjustable on the light end. The bolt that stops the arm, determining the length of stitch by movement of the "walking foot", should be removed, the threaded end, rounded on a belt sander or filed, so it rests evenly on the arm, giving an even stitch, the thread just rolls off the end, so it's not flat at all. I didn't have to turn the crank/flywheel, but I wanted the smoother "roll" now, not when it's wore in, and needing new rollers replaced. It probably could've been done almost as well with a couple of medium to fine grit stones, taking off all the burrs in the cam milling, and smoothing a rather coarse cut across the backside, it was just faster on the lathe, less elbow grease. Thanks for a great video, reassuring me of my own purchase and work, hope you enjoy yours as much as I've already, a week in, have.

This is one of the best upgrades I’ve seen yet .. very impressed... thanks

Fantastic ideas with magnets, smooth machine. many thanks.

I’m pretty impressed with your entire west up ! I sew on a Walking Foot Industrial Chinese sewing machine looks like the Sailrite and your saw horse idea has got me thinking about changing mine over to something similar I mostly do boat and Automobile interior work for my personal vessels and Vintage cars

Great upgrades. I will be purchasing a belt kit as soon as they are available. Thank you. Tom

Thanks John received my pulley from you and can't wait to get it all setup. Thanks

Thank you so much. Mine is in the box . Very helpful and informative. IMPRESSIVE TOO .

I’m just a dad of 6. I want to get into leatherwork. You’ve inspired me. No fear! Thank you

Can't wait for you to have more ready. I would like to buy the kit as soon as possible.

Wow! Great info! Thanks for posting!

Great solution. I am looking at picking one of these up. My current Industrial machine is struggling with some of the leather I’m stitching. I love the stand and motor setup.

This is funny, I almost bought a sailrite LS1 earlier today and realized I saw these machines a couples years ago and I really think this is all I need.

When we started our leather business we bought two Techsews at $6,000 each and a TIPPMANN Boss at $1800 with all the goodies. They’re nice but you can perform similar work on much simpler machines (except the fur sewing). You put a great little machine there that with maintenance will last decades! You can mount the motor up to the bottom of your table and use your bar as a knee control like a professional machine!

Le quedo muy bien, gracias por su vídeo, intentaré hacer algo parecido

I would be interested in one of your kits for my stitcher best kit i have seen

you can add an oil bath for the tread, because of the speed of stitching , i mean slower by hand will not break the needle, but more than 1000 rpm this will make lot of friction, and you did a good job, thank you for the videos, take care .

Now that was a useful video. Thanks!

Nice! Got plans to do the same with mine for leather work! 👍

I'm getting one of these soon so I've been watching as many videos as I can find about them so I have an idea what to expect when I receive it. Definitely going to motorize mine, just in a different way and see if I like it. I might end up changing how I motorize it, but it will be whatever works nicely. Thank you for ideas.

Best design out there so far as I'm concerned. I'm thinking of using a car wiper motor, 2 Bicycle gears, and possibly a third traditional pully depending on the speed I get. Using a wiper motor you can make the machine stop on command like using a servo motor. Best to have the control and power at a slow speed I think. You use two solenoids and run the thing on a Power brick for a PC. If you are interested in wiper drives look at Halloween automation builds these guys are wizards with these motors I think they are easily overlooked for their uses. Thanks a lot, I learned some.

JUST ordered your kit!

John, You have the best solution to motorize the famous sewing machine. I got your kit and I am in the process of installing it to start a home leather venture. Thanks again Manny

Awesome video

I will purchasing the attachments soon… thank you!

Surely the best motorization scheme- better to have more power than not.

Great project thank you

Yes you were lucky. I had issues with my show patcher.. in short, i had to rip it all apart and polish all parts that were casuing excess binding and thread breaking. Good thing is now i know how it all works to the point that i now know how to set the timing. 😂

3D print a little thin bottom tube that your bobbin magnet slips into. It makes it easy to hold and pop out bobbins.

Like butta! Brilliant! Cheers mates!!

Thanks for posting. Let me when you get more kits in.

Excellent, thanks.

my works very well. now i have two walk foot on dc

Very Good!!!

Just messaged you about getting on the waitlist for a kit as there are none available in your Ebay store.

You da man John

Man you are a Genius!! I just ordered one of these machines to start putting patches on hats! I wanted to put a motor on it and watched a bunch of videos! Your setup is by far the best and good motor choice. I’m ordering your kit today. Thanks for the videos and making the parts.

Thanks my brother for sharing your time so I have a question about the sizes of tread and needle? Thanks

Great setup! I'll keep an eye out for your kits, looks like none available at the moment.

If the motor control box is mounted within easy reach, there is usually a one button setting referred to as needle position. Usually adjusted commercially to stop with the needle fully up, but for this setup Needle down and Foot lifted could be useful if navigating complex stitching runs.

When you get more kits up I’m going to have to get me one.

Bravo!!!!!!

Nice

Thank you so much for walking us through this set-up, very ingenious! Wondering if the gear kit will be available again? Thanks!

I love this setup and was wondering What did you use for the controller?

Great job. One thing to watch out for when sewing the really thick material is that the presser foot is lifted so high that the needle bar clamp hits it and the you can see the bottom arm bend down slightly under the pressure. Look at 8:20 . I think if you were doing that thickness a lot, you might try to see if you could raise the needle bar a tiny bit. If it skips stitches then you might have to go with a longer needle like an industrial needle. In that case you would have to raise the needle bar anyway to accommodate a longer needle. I love how you created a 3D printed solution. Practical problem solving with a 3D printer seems so much more interesting to me than printing pretty toys. B.T.W I have that same Consew motor on my Singer 112W139. I built my own needle position sensor by using two small magnets hot melt glued to the bottom hook shaft to pick up the up and down positions. I used two $5 hall sensors boards to as up and needle position pick ups fixed to the underside of the bed. The 4 wires: 5v, ground, sensor 1 and sensor 2 hook directly to the back of the Consew control unit using a standard molex style 4 pin connector that you can cut off an old ATX power supply or buy separately. I think it would be possible do something similar on your machine. You could mount the magnets on back side of your crank wheel so that the belt could be removed without a sensor in the way. This could be an option for your 3D printed kit. Actually, I don't think that needle positioning is necessary, as you machine seems to be very controllable, but.... it is not very costly to try out.

Do you know when you will have more kits available? I just got a new machine and want to upgrade it like you did asap. Thank you!!!

You got any more photos on how you mounted the machine to that saw horse?

The one that came with the servomotor

im from china，dalian。我收集了好几台这个补鞋机。这个机器有个bug，就是针板因为没有牙齿，所以缝2层皮料的时候，下层皮料跟上层皮料很容易就错开，不齐。所以本人的想法是。。。可否把薄的下板 改成带小小小small small small滚轮的，这样，上下层的皮料就不容易错开了。

Hello John, thank you for the video, very informative and what we were hoping to accomplish. Will you be making any more kits, currently sold out, as I am interested in purchasing one.

I've seen a few of your videos about these, not seen a price yet though. Whst do you charge for them, when they may possibly be available again?

Question, what number of needles do you use? I used 110/18 but they break

Thanks for the video. Help! I still can't get the bobbin thread to pull up. I sanded the whole bobbin shuttle down. I've watched several videos on how to thread the machine and bobbin. I finally figured that the bobbin thread goes behind the thread spring. Tried several tension options. The bobbin thread still won't pick up. If I hold the bobbin thread slightly then run a cycle through the machine, it brings thread on the other side of the needle. However, it still doesn't pick up the bobbin thread. Any ideas? Reply

Hey Christian, what you’ve done here is amazing. Obviously this kit is a hot commodity and is currently out of stock. Is there any way I could get notification when you have more kits for sale on eBay? Thanks

I keep rewatching the part where you hand crank and idk how it was so smooth and effortless. The one I have and many videos I watched it’s difficult. Is this because you used it so much that it’s smoothed out?

John, what size needle are you using with that T70 thread?

Dear John, Thank you very much for this wonderful tutorial and idea. I have been following the steps as you describe them to motorize my own (same machine, same servo-motor, etc) but when comes to the part of getting the 3D kit, I find imposible to find them, even searching as you suggest in your video description (maybe due to the fact that I live and Spain, and showed lists can differ). In any case I would be interested in creating / getting the kit to complete te motorizing project. Thank you very much in advance for your time and comments. Kind regards!

Hey John I really like your video. Was wondering if you are going to continue selling these kits? I saw it on eBay but it was out of stock. I’m interested in purchasing one. Thanks John great video.

Hi John, Great video. Don't have the sewing machine but was interested in your 3D printer setup. How about a video or details on that? Like E.G. commented before it's cool to see something useful being made and not chess pieces and toys.

nice! I just wish the bobbins were bigger.

Your video shows the motor running clockwise , ebay shows it counter clockwise. Is it reversible. Add shows arrows going counter close

Hi, John, Question about the idler. In your instructions you note that there is lateral movement. But I noticed there is vertical movement. I see it is a quarter inch bolt. I tried a 5/16 bolt and it is still loose but does not allow for as much vertical movement. Should this have come with a 5/16 bolt? Is there a reason why you chose the smaller 1/4 inch bolt? Should I switch it for a 5/16 bolt? Thanks. Noel Chartier

Hey John! Do you still love this setup? Is there anything we need to know now that you've had if for a few years? I'm thinking about buying the kit you offer. Thanks in advance.

Awesome! Do you know the thread pitch of the hand crank shaft and nut by chance?

I want to purchase the kit but can’t find it on eBay.

I’ve just purchased the leather sewing machine and while browsing videos on how to motorize it , I came across your video and I am very impressed. I would like to purchase your products but can’t find it on EBay. How would I find it?

John, I noticed your rack gear coming out of the end of the arm. I believe someone put your rack in on the wrong tooth if you install it right it will not come out when you sew. Mine doesn’t. Hope this info helps and I’m getting your mod great motor.

Does the tiny bobbin frustrate you like it does me with mine, especially with large thread sizes!

Do you have a recomendation on which vendor to buy one of these from? I see some now made with Aluminum and 4 axis, 8 axis and 10 axis. Just wondering what you have heard that most people have better luck getting a good one from one place or another.

Could you be so kind as to disclose the make and model of the servo motor you use here? lol, ok caught it at the end, never mind and thank you.

Great video! was looking at this machine online. have you tried wax 1mm thread on this guy? I'm assuming I just have to get a bigger needle. Planning to use it on leather products

at 10:03, ... that green sewing machine in the background on the left. Can you tell me more about it? There is a Modern sewing machine for sale in my area very similar in appearnace) and I have an eye on it but cannot really find much about the machine or company. The brand name "modern" messes up every online search I do. I think it is Japanese. What do you use it for? I am wondering if it would be a worthwhile purchase in addition to the manual leather sewing machine (which is why I am watching your video) and a regular domestic sewing machine?

Nice setup and a video. I wonder if 550W motor is not the overkill and perhaps 100W would be enough.

Hey John, I just got your 3D parts in the mail, is it possible you can send either pictures or another video of how you mounted the idler pulley,? My hand wheel slightly bigger, I just pulled out the grinder and did a little grinding and now it fits perfectly, I just need to glue it on. Thanks /Joe

John, When will more be available??? Thank you!

Just found you John. Currently I have a Rex ZIG Zag machine. I spend more time adjusting and fixing it than I do sewing with it, The machining and parts on it are pure junk. I know the Sailrite is much better but I didn't know about it when I got the Rex. Anyway, I'm thinking of getting a CLSM and if I do I'll get your parts kit and explore motorizing it for doing larger projects like tarps and tops and seats etc. It can't possibly be worse than the Rex. Have you tried sewing anything large, like an awning or boat tarp? If so, did you use any sort feed and delivery tables for the material?

Anyone who owns this machine, have yall ever done anything with it for car upholstery?

My Walking Foot uses a DC motor 12v to 36v With a speed controul I only put 12v DC in to it . Run 5 hours of a battary. Drill battary car battary Computer 12 v DC plug eg

Did you modify the bottom shaft? I see it protrudes when stitching.

Hi, what foot pedal are you using? Thank you!!

I need help I’m planning to buy a sewing machine for my sandal diy. What China made sewing machine model is best thanks good video

Hi. I just found this after picking one of these machines up. I saw down in the comments that you normally sell through eBay but couldn't find a listing. Any chance you've got one I could buy? Really smart setup

When do you think you would have some more kits up for sale? I am really interested in making my cheap machine more enjoyable to use.

When will you have more kits available?

Are you still using this setup how’s it doing I’m wanting something like this for going through a few pieces of webbing for making hunting tree saddles

Can you link the motor and needed things. Cause I am German so I can look after something similar.

I would like to buy your kit. Any chance they'll be available soon? Thanks Da

I bought a kit it is amazing. Mine doesn't run very smooth at 100 rpm any idea why?

Do you still sell the kit?

How can I purchase? I have the motor, but I saw that you were selling what you devised and I would like to use the application on mine. Thank you for your response.

Do you know when you might be listing more kits on ebay? Thanks!

I picked up a motor I set it up but it's going counter-clockwise how do I make it go clock wise?

will it sew 1/4 leather for pistol holster

Looks like your bobbin carrier rack is extending too far. I had that problem once and moved the gear rack back one tooth and been running like a well oiled machine ever since, good luck.