What I used to do

[MikeS]

Hi All.

I was watching some videos on YouTube earlier in the day, and stumbled across videos made by the company my family used to own (the videos were made by the new owners, not us). After not seeing or hearing one of our stitchers in action it was kind of neat watching the videos, and seeing the small changes the new owner has made to the machines. I have to agree with their statement that even after 125 years their machine is still the best machine out there for making heavy leather items (saddles, holsters, belts, etc.).

Watching the videos (I watched some of their other videos too) made me wish I was 20 years younger, healthy, and still involved in the machinery business.

If anyone's interested in checking out the video that caught my attention, here it is:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIR5WE9MVx4

[EMC45]

That's a bad machine that'll stitch through a penny!!

[runfiverun]

some slight modifications and that would be quite similar to the auto-luber put out by magma engineering.

[MikeS]

Yes, that machine is awesome! Semifunny story about it: the bar that holds the awl in place (the upper bar, the needle is on bottom) has a setscrew that holds in the awl, but it didn't always. Originally the machine had a collet that held in the awl, and the wrench supplied with the machine was a closed ended wrench. One day a customer called up, and wanted to buy an awl bar, and he wanted to make sure he would get one that held it in with a setscrew. When I asked him why he wanted that style in particular he said "WHEN my operators sew their hands to the leather they're stitching it's easier to remove the awl from the machine with it still in the man's hand, rather than having to remove the hand from the awl while it was still in the machine" What amazed me was that he said WHEN, not IF! I've sewed my hand using a heavy leather stitcher (it wasn't one of ours, it was a competitors that worked via air pressure, rather than an electric motor), and let me tell you, that hurts!

[dragonrider]

Love machinery vids, and I am sure it's a good one but I won't see till I get home from work, video are not allowed on our coputers here at work.

[lead-1]

We used these stitchers where I used to work to staple cardboard headers to floor mats. Sometimes the operator would reset the staple length to a new mat set and then runs several staples in machine gun fashion to make sure it ran to the new adjustment. Sometimes the operator would run their fingers under the head to wipe away the staples they just ran and not let off the pedal yet, yep, more than one operator went to the hospital to have their fingers seperated.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wp7NgZrNhU0&NR=1&feature=endscreen

Our sewing machines, actually embroidery machines were much smaller than MikeS's but there was 144 of them, 12 machines with 12 heads each equals a lot of noise in a 60' x 100' room.
Imagine 12 of these running in the same room.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lkmwrBtSX8Q&feature=related

[bootsnthejeep]

Good lord. I was impressed enough with the thickness of the leather. The penny was just showboating. MAN. Want to keep your fingers away from THAT.

[MikeS]

Many years ago, when OSHA was first getting started, we got a frantic call from one of our customers that an inspector was in his factory, and had issues with our machine. My father went over there (luckily they were in NYC like we were), and the inspector pulled my father over to the machine where an operator was sewing gun holsters, and so had his hands very close to where the needle & awl were going up and down. He said that we had to put a guard on the machine so the operator couldn't touch either, and said he was going to come back in a week to make sure the guard was on the machine. Well, we didn't want to put a guard on the machine, first it would make it very difficult to operate the machine when making something like a holster, or other item that required lots of turns, etc. and we also didn't want to put a guard on the machine as we had something like 800 machines out on lease (back when we had the company most of the machines were leased from us, now they mostly sell them), and it would be an expensive proposition to add guards to all the machines. So, on the day the inspector was due to make his visit to assure compliance we hired a Pinkerton armed guard to sit next to the machine. When the inspector came in, he asked where the guard was, my father pointed to the armed guard sitting next to the machine. He said "But I don't want anyone to be able to touch the needle" (he didn't understand the concept of a needle/awl stitcher, so to him they were both 'needles') and my father says "they can't touch the needle, can they?" (saying the last to the guard) guard says "No sir, not while I'm here" the inspector says "but but but..." my father says "You asked for a guard, and there he is" the inspector says "You're crazy!" and leaves. That was the last we heard from OSHA.

[x101airborne]

Hey, were you in Yoakum?
I am from Yoakum and my folks live there still.
What does that machine retail for? Bout 6 grand?
Wish I had one.

[MikeS]

We used these stitchers where I used to work to staple cardboard headers to floor mats. Sometimes the operator would reset the staple length to a new mat set and then runs several staples in machine gun fashion to make sure it ran to the new adjustment. Sometimes the operator would run their fingers under the head to wipe away the staples they just ran and not let off the pedal yet, yep, more than one operator went to the hospital to have their fingers seperated.

We used to sell a similar machine, called the Pioneer Wire Stitcher. I see that the company that bought our company also bought Pioneer, so they now make wire stitchers as well as leather stitchers.


Our sewing machines, actually embroidery machines were much smaller than MikeS's but there was 144 of them, 12 machines with 12 heads each equals a lot of noise in a 60' x 100' room.
Imagine 12 of these running in the same room.

That's a lot of machines making lots of noise! Back in 1980 we had a computerized embroidery machine made by Brother, but it still needed some more work to make it a good working machine, and it was also out of our line, we sold leather working machinery, and while interesting, that machine was one we couldn't really sell, so after a few months we sent it back to Brother.

Most factories are pretty loud. In a holster making factory (not a small maker that worked mostly by himself, but rather a real factory) can get pretty loud, as they have cutting machines to die cut the shape of the holster, and big presses to impress the basketweave many holsters have, and also presses to mould the holster to the gun it's being made for (they use aluminum copies of the guns made just for the purpose, they usually have the trigger guard filled in, along with any other portion of the gun you don't want to get moulded into the holster), and strap cutting machines for making belts, our stitchers, along with lots of other machines that make noise!

[MikeS]

Hey, were you in Yoakum?
I am from Yoakum and my folks live there still.
What does that machine retail for? Bout 6 grand?
Wish I had one.

Nope, I've never been to Yoakum. We sold the company to folks from Yoakum, and they came to Fort Lauderdale to pack up the business and move it there. We used to have an agent in Yoakum, Bogle-Greenwell Machinery that sold our stuff before we sold it to the current owners.

My family owned 2 companies Campbell Bosworth Machinery Co. and Randall Leather Machinery Corp. and back in 1982 we split up, my parents & I moved to Fort Lauderdale with Campbell, and 2 of my cousins kept Randall in NY. Since then first we sold our company to the folks in Yoakum, then a few years later they also bought Randall from my cousins. They've also bought some other companies, such as the Pioneer Wire Stitcher Co. and I think they also bought Landis Machine Co. (they make the stitchers used in most shoe repair shops), and it looks like they're doing pretty good with them.