Shoe Patcher Enhancemets

 

I've made little use of the leather sewing machine I bought from China a couple of years ago, but enough to be able to identify some areas where it needs improvement.

I mounted it on a wooden base a while ago, and now I've shellacked it so it's all smooth and shiny. 

I added a wire thread guide to the spool stand — at the moment it's just held in place with superglue, and at some stage it will probably need some support at its base to keep it from twisting. Maybe not though; it's not as if it's ever under much strain.

I added a base to the small spool stand; just a nut and washer, again stuck in place with superglue. Without those, the cotton spool would just fall wonkily on to the cast frame, and would not turn freely as the thread is drawn out.

Finally (so far) I replaced the fairly terrible little plastic crank handle with a more substantial one that I turned down from a scrap of pine. Hopefully that should make turning the crank a bit easier.

The manufacturing quality of these machines is not high, but it does work. No doubt there's a lot more fettling that could be done, but we shall just have to see.