Sewing

 My biggest problem has been getting a decent leather sewing machine. The top machine I bought here in Bogota. It had a clutch motor that was too fast. The needle size was too small and the timing was off. I ended up having it customized to slow the motor down and fix the timing and needle length..

The speed got better but I finally ended up getting rid of the motor and hand cranking it.I put a huge flywheel on it which makes the hand cranking really easy. This machine is finiky and I'm limited to what I can sew on it.

After searching for a while and not finding anything local I purchased the green Machine on Amazon. This is a Chinese machine which is extremely cheap a $100 and a $100 for shipping to my door. This machine I'm familiar with. It comes in really rough shape and needs a lot of work, but once you do the modifications it works well. My only gripe I haven't been able to find thick leather needles for it.

  I came across a used industrial machine a PFAFF 463 for less than $100 bucks so I took a chance. I had my technician service it and it looks like it may be a good machine for sewing belts and wallets.

I guess I was a little spoiled because stateside I had some great machines- a Cobra 4, a Tippmann Boss, An Adler patcher and a Cobra patcher.

I have never seen as many sewing machines as I have here in Colombia. The problem is there aren't a lot of machines for sewing the heavy leather. The big advantage is there are a lot of sewing machine technicians so just about anything can be fixed.