CharlesC

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    Full disclosure: I'm sewing canvas and catamaran sails, not parachutes, HOWEVER I did get me an awesome Consew 199RB-3A from a larger-than-life smoke jumper, turned manufacturer of drone chutes.  I need to modify it to sew through thicker material with control with about V-92/V-138 and Tenara thread. The original owner is now out of business/retired and enjoying the fruits of his labor now with great stories.  He did me a HUGE solid by near gifting me the machine with the price he gave me.  It sat unused for a while, but in great shape; just had to scrape all the black, molten nylon thread deposit off the machine and give it a good oiling, timing, etc.  Easy (ish); AWESOME machine, BTW (Japanese version before manufacturing was sent to China).  This is my 3rd, "real machine" ("Singer" 93U; really a Zoje and Pfaff 238 were the others).

    My issue: there is near to nothing out there about these machines, except for what I found here.  I'm seeing a lot of expertise with modifying industrial machines and REALLY appreciate the inventiveness.  So far, I've upgraded to a servo motor and slapped on a smaller pulley to slow it down/make it more controllable and give me more torque. 

    Now I'm interested in modifications referenced here about getting more than 6mm under the foot and feeding it evenly through the machine.  Likely the even feed will be handled through basting tape, but what about used seam pullers?  How did you modify the needle bar?  Actually need to be replaced as referenced?  I did recognize the change to a 135x17 needle elsewhere, though that's what I have and use now - so...??  My results so far are really good; I can easily get 8 layers of Sunbrella under the foot and it doesn't break a sweat.  I need to get some nylon strapping and some 7 or 8 layers of Dacron under the foot as a reference.  Advice?  I can do some minor machining in my garage, am very comfortable with these things etc.

    p.s. - sorry for the length of the post, but I wanted to give you my background/level of expertise up-front and appreciate any tips I can get.