Sewing a new boom bag, thread choices

[BruceS]

Matt have you tried HHolt?
I have bought webbing etc from him & good, quick service.
You could pop in & pick it up?
Give him a ring?

Upholstery Adelaide, South Australia - H. Holt & Sons Upholsterers
He also has an "Ebay Store".

[GILow]

Originally Posted by BruceS

Matt have you tried HHolt?
I have bought webbing etc from him & good, quick service.
You could pop in & pick it up?
Give him a ring?

Upholstery Adelaide, South Australia - H. Holt & Sons Upholsterers
He also has an "Ebay Store".

You read my mind. (short book )

I just spoke to them. They have a tape they reckon will work, just about to jump in the van.

Now... if I can figure out how to pinch your low speed motor I will be set.

[BruceS]

I'd gladly give you a lend of it Matt but it does take a bit to install it. I had to drill 3 new holes for the bolts. But still worth every bit of it!
I have several days until the new roll of cloth arrives. 27metres @ 3.2m width.
Also got a single fold hemmer coming & already have the hot rope/cloth cutter.
The hemmer I bought actually fixes to the base not the foot. We'll see?

[GILow]

Hemmed sounds interesting, let us know how it turns out.

Meanwhile, I’ve had a bit of assistance by realising there are three settings on the clutch lever. I’ve chose. The L plater setting, it was on the Ps. Goodness knows what is like on the fully-licensed setting.

[JPA Cate]

Well, have you finished, yet?

Are you pleased?

Ann

[GILow]

Oh ha ha!

About half way, I think.

[JPA Cate]

Good, maybe finished by tonight and all cleaned up after. Good.

Ann

[BruceS]

Either that or he's secretly having HHolt & Sons stitching it up for him!!!
How did you find that tape Matt?

[GILow]

Originally Posted by BruceS

Either that or he's secretly having HHolt & Sons stitching it up for him!!!
How did you find that tape Matt?

The tape was bl---y useless. Must be some other sort people are using.

Anyway, past that stage. At the point of discovering that when you sew through two layers of acrylic webbing, plus two layers of belt webbing and a layer of sunbrella.... the thread keeps snapping.

But only two more of those lazy-jack loops to attach, eight done. Decided I really should have lunch and check CF.

As for the H.Holt guys... um... what can I say? Really nice guys... but they'd have to spend at least two hours cleaning up to sew anything larger than a hankie.

[GILow]

Originally Posted by JPA Cate

Good, maybe finished by tonight and all cleaned up after. Good.

Ann

Wow, talk about putting the pressure on.

In my defence, I've just been generously gifted a cold from my delightful son. First one I've had in years.

It's not helping with the concentration.

[GILow]

Well, spurred on by the relentless flogging from Ann, I am done. Ready for the first test fit.

However, given it is a 50km return journey to the boat, and given the price of petrol and the amount of CO2 already in the atmosphere, I'm going to wait until tomorrow to try fitting it.

Then at least I can get a full day's work on board.

[JPA Cate]

Okay, then show us a pic with it installed....please.

Breaking the thread is a tension problem, or possibly speed. You mentioned that the machine has seen many years' service, perhaps something in its timing is worn enough that it slips when sewing that thickness of fabrics. Were you using the right size needles? a 110? Sometimes you can go one size smaller with ptfe thread, but --well, I don't know, but good on ya for finishing in time to put in a good day today.

Ann

[BruceS]

I went through the broken thread issue as well.
Things to check...
Needle in wrong way? Groove out?

Needle worn? Some threads 'eat' needles & leave sharp edges.
Sewing too fast melts some threads. Hard to believe !!
Tension 'looks' OK but try having less on top & bottom.
Fluff in between your tension discs. Tell me how I found out!
Try swapping your bobbin winder tension discs?
Give up & go sailing!

[GILow]

Yeah, it was simply a speed issue. As I mentioned, it is REALLY hard to keep the speed down with this machine. It would sew fine if I managed to keep it to something under the speed of sound.

The brief fast moments didn't matter so much on the long runs on just two layers of sunbrella or one of webbing and one of sunbrella, apart from the speed wobbles, but if I hit the lazy jack webbing at speed the thread just turned to liquid. The lazy jack webbing is VERY course, and the two combined layers, plus the two layers of belt webbing AND the sunbrella made for too much friction.

As for timing etc, the joy of buying the machine from the bloke I bought it from is that he'd maintained it for the previous people and gave it a checkover before I bought it. Although the machine looks old, it is in a superb state of repair. This is why I was more than happy to spend 25% more than buying an unknown from Gumtree. Oh, and to reassure you Ann, he gave me a pack of new needles, I did change needles to see if it made a difference, nope. Just my lack of finesse on the throttle.

[senormechanico]

Another cause of thread breakage/shredding is pulling the fabric to "help" the feed dogs. This is a big no-no because it causes the needle to imperceptibly wear away the edge of the needle plate. The crashes break needles, and cause sharp edges on the plate. The needle deflects very slightly toward the hook and the resulting crash causes burrs on whatever it hits, usually the hook. This can cause thread breakages and shredding over and over after the crash.


I see these symptoms all the time on home sewing machines. Usually with one quick look at a machine, I can tell if the sewer is talented or sloppy.
We know the guys at Schattauer Sails in Seattle. Their high speed machines have compressed air nozzles added which are aimed straight at the needle to keep it cool.