How to Maintain Your Portable Walking Foot Straight Stitch Sewing Machine by TuffSew

So you just purchased a walking foot sewing machine, maybe even our TuffSew Straight Stitch. Congratulations!!  If you did in fact order our TuffSew Straight Stitch, you will notice that your machine will be all stitched in, ready to go upon arrival. 

The tension is set, the needle is placed, and a sample material has been sewn already. So you crank out all your initial sewing projects- but now might be wondering “how do I maintain this machine now?”

The first item we’d like to discuss is oiling the machine. This TuffSew Straight Stitch machine is a portable walking foot sewing machine. It does not sit in a bed of oil like full sized industrial sewing machines do. 

Therefore the Straight Stitch needs to be manually oiled every month. Just like in the YouTube video below, simply tilt the machine on its back (careful it’s heavy) and oil all the moving joints. You can use the oiling tube that came with the machine. As you turn the hand wheel you can see all of these moving joints-simple as that.

Tension is another issue we combat. You’ll see the circular tension knob on the machine with numbers on it. Before we shipped your new TuffSew machine out to you-we calibrated the machine and set the tension to 5. 

Always make sure you have the tension set to 5. If you are deciding to sew light-weight materials on our Straight Stitch machine-feel free to lower the tension a little bit. However, when you are done sewing the light weight materials make sure and reset the tension knob to 5.

We also get a lot of questions on needle insertion. So you want to change the needle or take it out-no problem. Simply loosen the black set screw on the side needle mechanism 1/2 turn. Then you can drop the needle down and take it out. Make sure when you replace the needle that you notice there are 2 sides to our needles. 

One side has a long 1” groove on the side of the needle. The other side of the needle has a little scarf on it. When you put the needle in the machine you ALWAYS want to make sure the long 1” groove is facing the left side of the machine.

 You can feel the groove with your fingernail. Remember if you put the needle in backwards-the machine won’t sew L.

If you have any further questions on maintaining your sewing machine, feel free to email us at [email protected]

If you are still on the fence about ordering a TuffSew Straight Stitch, see our TuffSew Reviews page.

 

What is a Built-In Walking Foot Sewing Machine

Tuffsew here, your Heavy Duty Sewing Machine supplier. So your passion for sewing plus some newfound free time got you thinking. “I’m going to start a business sewing up some cowhide to make cases for the new iPad.” 

Or “I love animals-so why don’t I make some unique dog collars.” Then I’m going to sell three of these a day on my website. So you went down to the leather shop and picked out the material. You arrived back home, took out your household sewing machine and started your dream-home business.

However you immediately run into a huge problem! You kept bending and breaking the needle and the stitch quality just wasn’t creating what you imagined. Darn! What do you do now? You start asking your friends who also sew…..and they say you need a portable walking foot sewing machine. 

So you do some research online and you figure out the details of the machine your friends told you to look for. The light bulb goes off in your head!
 
TuffSew Straight Stitch Sewing Machine
 
A sewing machine with a built-in walking foot mechanism helps feed your thick fabric through the sewing zone. This mechanism is a 2 piece foot which appears to actually “walk.” 

The inner side of the walking foot stay put on the fabric, while the outside part of the walking foot helps feed the thick fabric through the sewing zone. There is very little slippage due to the grips on the bottom of the walking foot. 

So not only the feed dogs, but now this special walking foot mechanism has a GRIP to grab your thick material and pull it through with absolutely no slippage. Here is an image of a walking foot in action:
 
Portable Walking Foot Sewing Machine
 

Two benefits of using portable industrial walking foot sewing machine: you can sew more thicknesses and your materials feed evenly with the highest quality stitches. 

If you are going to be sewing canvas, leather, boating materials, bags, luggage, handbags, camping equipment, etc-look into purchasing an industrial strength built in WF sewing machine. Here is a YouTube video so you can see this walking foot in action: 


 
One more idea we want to touch on is:
It’s important that you understand a household sewing machine with a walking foot attachment is not going to provide the same results as an industrial strength sewing machine with a built-in walking foot. 

Most domestic household sewing machines come with a walking foot attachment-just remember this will not duplicate the motion of a true built-in walking foot thus will not sew as many layers or thicknesses.

Will these household machines sew leather? Do you really need to invest in another machine? The answer is yes these household machines will sew leather, but a minimum amount of layers. 

If you plan on sewing over 1/8″ thickness of the materials listed above-you are going to want to look into an industrial strength built in WF sewing machine. For more details on built in walking foot sewing machines, feel free to browse through our website at http://www.tuffsew.com