- Joined
- Dec 8, 2017
- Messages
- 16
Hey folks 
I do some leather work as another hobby, but don't have an industrial sewing machine (just a little cheapo introductory model). So I mainly hand-stitch, or pray the little sewing machine can get through the leather without binding.
I recently picked up a "Leather Patcher" machine, also sometimes called cobbler's machines. Often just referred to as "chinese patcher" online. These are super cheap and crude manual, hand-crank sewing machines designed to patch boots, bags, etc. They are knockoffs of old Singer 29k models, and designed to be used by street vendors. I picked one up and am tuning up the fit and finish (it's a really rough casting, covered in cosmoline, needs deburring/greasing/lapping/etc).
But as a fun practice project, I decided to add a motor to the machine so that it could be operated by foot pedal instead of hand crank. I don't have a lathe (yet!), so had to mill out a custom v-belt pulley on a rotary table, which mostly worked but isn't something I'd want to do again
The vbelt is attached to a small pulley adapter that's bolted onto a "hoverboard" hub motor. These are cheap ($30 new, $15 used) brushless motors that have crazy high torque relative to their price (7-12Nm). They are designed to direct-drive humans around at low RPM, so they are perfect for something like driving a slow speed leather machine.
All in all, the project was fun and a good practice project. Learned a lot along the way, and everything even mostly works Some issues like terrible runout on the motor pulley, but all unimportant given the application, so I'm happy with how it turned out.
I do some leather work as another hobby, but don't have an industrial sewing machine (just a little cheapo introductory model). So I mainly hand-stitch, or pray the little sewing machine can get through the leather without binding.I recently picked up a "Leather Patcher" machine, also sometimes called cobbler's machines. Often just referred to as "chinese patcher" online. These are super cheap and crude manual, hand-crank sewing machines designed to patch boots, bags, etc. They are knockoffs of old Singer 29k models, and designed to be used by street vendors. I picked one up and am tuning up the fit and finish (it's a really rough casting, covered in cosmoline, needs deburring/greasing/lapping/etc).
But as a fun practice project, I decided to add a motor to the machine so that it could be operated by foot pedal instead of hand crank. I don't have a lathe (yet!), so had to mill out a custom v-belt pulley on a rotary table, which mostly worked but isn't something I'd want to do again
The vbelt is attached to a small pulley adapter that's bolted onto a "hoverboard" hub motor. These are cheap ($30 new, $15 used) brushless motors that have crazy high torque relative to their price (7-12Nm). They are designed to direct-drive humans around at low RPM, so they are perfect for something like driving a slow speed leather machine.
All in all, the project was fun and a good practice project. Learned a lot along the way, and everything even mostly works
Some issues like terrible runout on the motor pulley, but all unimportant given the application, so I'm happy with how it turned out.
