Chain Stitching Sewing Machines and Where to Get Them

[jake431]

I want to sell my brown Union Special 43200G bottom leg hem sewing machine which is used on old Levi's jeans.

Why? You have a falling out?

[Paul T]

It might sound vulture like but.... did anyone try contacting Taylor Togs? THey closed down over the summer and presumably someone is selling off their equipment?

Sad as their closure might be, it would be sadder still if the machinery was scrapped.

[jake431]

That's a good point, Paul. I wouldn't be surprised if a lot of those machines have already found homes with various companies already.

-Jake

[andewhall]

I read somewhere on here or over at style forum that a denim brand bought up the machines. Don't know if its true and can't remember what brand was mentioned.

[Paul T]

I read somewhere on here or over at style forum that a denim brand bought up the machines. Don't know if its true and can't remember what brand was mentioned.

makes sense. What factory produces Rag & Bone now? They were Taylor Togs' main customer I recall .

[fre-co]

Cottonclub:

send a PM to the user Demonito..... he will buy it for sure.

[Largo]

If memory serves (based on those models), the 43200G (not sure which gen) is the machine they had at MBK in Bangkok. I've got pictures of it somewhere (which was a fun conversation. "You want to take a picture of what now?)

[andewhall]

makes sense. What factory produces Rag & Bone now? They were Taylor Togs' main customer I recall .

Hey Paul. It may well have been R&B. I tried looking on Style Forum for the old posts but alas came up short.

[Begåvningsreserven]

ending in 6 hours.

14500, bag closing head

[raWorkshop]

I found some geeky cool Union Special graphics in an otherwise horribly boring pdf about the history of Union Special bag closers. No mention of the 43200. My sewing machine dealer actually kinda mocked me for wanting such an out dated hunk of junk.

[andewhall]

Begz, thats cool. Imagine having that whole bag set-up thing...if only there was baggin' to be done.

Ra, cool pic's.

A dude e-mailed me about a 43200, 5K for the body. Sheeesh, a bit rich for my blood.

[raWorkshop]

Info courtesy of our dear friends at Juki.

[The Clerk]

Ok,

I've spent a long time over the past year or so looking for a Union Special to chainstitch jeans.

I managed to track one down after a little searching around. However getting it working or at least getting the parts to get it working proved a little more tricky.

Still I now have it and have it working so I figured it was time to share. Here's some initial photos of it

[Paulo]

So is that fully working now and can you use it? Wouldnt mind seeing the results of it working. I take it that its in london are you going to provide the service to anyone?

[The Clerk]

Yeah it is working and I'm getting used to using it. I need to get a little more practice in and look at adjusting the stitch length too. I'm also looking into different threads to use. This all seams to take a little time.....

I'll post of some photos of the results.

[The Clerk]

Oh, and yeah both it and I are in London.

[Hendodo]

+ rep for getting it

btw how much was it??

[juan_bernado]

when you are practised enough, i would gladly get some pairs hemmed. either i stop by or mail them you.

cheers jan

[fre-co]

Chain stitching in London? finally!

[The Clerk]

So I've been taking some pictures of the different stitch lengths of the hems I've been playing with - I've hemmed my way up both legs of a pair of Thai levis.

However they're gonna have to wait till tomorrow as I'm off to have me wisdom teeth out this afternoon

[Sympathy-For-The-Denim]

btw. does anyone know someone with a chainstitch mashine around berlin? or cologne?

[The Clerk]

So as I said I've been making nice chainstitched loops out of a pair of Thai levis. Like this one:

This loop has two different stitch lengths. The orange at the bottom is quite a long stitch and the golden brown at the top is fairly short. About the sort of length of the stitching on my LVC 33's.

[The Clerk]

The stitch length is adjusted by moving a bolt on the left hand side of the machine backwards and forwards. You can see the bolt in this photo with the outer casing plate removed.- it's the black one not the steel one:

When we first tried to do this it wouldn't budge at all. Tony, who's the guy I got the chainstitcher from was worried that it would break and then the whole sewing machine would be redundant. Finding a replacement that had the ball bearing on the end would have been nearly impossible.

But it had to be moved so we stuck a load of wd40 on it, hit it with a hammed and it moved. A nerve racking moment I can tell you.

[The Clerk]

Back to the stitch lengths. Here you can see the difference from the outside. Orange fairly long, golden brown about as short as I can get it:

[The Clerk]

And from the inside:

[Busted Seam]

Have you managed to 'pull' the hem along - so you get more roping?

I guess you will need to pull it in one direction for l/h denim, and the other direction for r/h denim, opposite the twill line in both cases.

I think there's an illustrtion of how it's done in mizanation's thread.

[The Clerk]

Well the whole reason for using a 43200G is that it does that for you. I've read Miz's thread with particular interest to the hemming aspect. The only bit I didn't quite get was how he unpicked and then tied off the stitch.

If you look at the picture below you'll see the inseam vears off at an angle where the folder has given the material a twist:

And this is a piece that I gave a quick soak. You can see the amount of roping on it:

[Hendodo]

looks good ^^. soo.. are you gonna be making/selling jeans to the public??

[Paulo]

looks good ^^. soo.. are you gonna be making/selling jeans to the public??

No hes going to PM me his address so i can stalk him into doing my skulls so i can wear them. (Yes i have a fresh pair of skulls that i wont wear because i want them chainstiched. Yes im anal about stupid things like this).

[The Clerk]

Ok sorry for the delay answering some of the questions - I've been holed up gobbling pain killers having been butchered by a dentist. I look quite a lot like a hamster.

So, how much was the machine? Not cheap, but not the thousands of £/$ that people have mentioned earlier in this thread. Hundreds rather than thousands.

Where did I get it? Well I could reveal my sources but then I'd be forced to kill you. To be honest it was so difficult to get all the bits to get it working I think you'll struggle to find another easily. (This is just of course in the UK, I couldn't say about elsewhere.)

Now, I also know that a lot of people are gonna want to get their jeans hemmed, myself included and it's about tie this service was available. That's the reason I got the chain stitcher in the first place.

Before I can happily go ahead and do this I still need to get the correct thread. The pictures I've posted so far have been using upholstery thread. Once I have so polycore thread I'll post some more pictures. And I'll try and get a good range of colours and shades to match as many brands as I can.

Hope all of this helps. I'll be starting a dedicated thread to this as soon as I've got some more to add. I feel a little like I've hijacked this one...

In the meantime please don't hesitate to ask any questions.