I’m curious to hear what folks think about the speed on the Juki? I find at the slowest speed setting it’s still too fast to control on leather. Are people ok with the speed? Maybe we could slow it down a little with a smaller motor pulley (it says clutch motor but this would also work on a servo according to Youtube)
The smaller motor pulley (45mm) would be <$10 and a quick swapout of the existing one (75mm) and I’ve heard it could take the minimum speed from 500rpm to 200rpm. Adding a speed reducer would mean disassembling the bobbin winder and maybe drilling new holes for the larger belt. And it would be $200. So maybe start with the smaller motor pulley and go from there? I could purchase it and try it out and leave the old pulley in case anyone wants to change it back. Thanks for your input!
I can’t make a contribution here but agree that if there was slower speed it would be more managable sewing leather - an interest of mine. OR have someone do my sewing.
Sounds fine by me, I’m all for making things more accessible.
At what point do we decide we’re sinking money into a difficult machine vs upgrading to a newer model for ~$2.5-3k? I’m honestly asking, and it may be worth it to continue working on this one for a while. I know we discussed getting a professional straight stitch machine in the space too.
Any changes we potentially make I would want to discuss with the tech who is out occasionally to do our service. I don’t want to start disassembling without some expertise to validate this would work for our specific machine
As someone not really familiar with the market, I’d be interested in some suggestions on what upgrades we might consider and how much they’d cost.
A quick Google for walking-foot sewing machines returns options ranging from $550 to almost $8000; it’s not really clear to me where our Juki falls on that scale or what the benefits of an upgrade or refresh might be.
Thanks for your input. I’ll give it a try when I get the part and let you know how it goes. I would also like to meet the tech the next time they’re around
Giovani is only someone I call out when we are having problems with the machine, since they charge a fee to come and a fee for any fixes they make. Let’s discuss strategy when we’re both in the shop next
I tried out this left toe walking foot and smooth center foot with a slot so that you can see where the needle is going and don’t mar the top of the leather. It worked well and I left them in the notions drawer if anyone else would like to try it.
The 45mm pulley is in there too, but I’m happy to talk through the operation before going ahead. Hopefully the belt that’s already on there will still fit.
