Equipment/Tools: Industrial patcher for shoe and boot repair/construction
I have just received delivery of hands-down the best new-to-me piece of equipment i could ask for: an industrial patcher machine, aka a shoe and boot repair machine.
Beautiful, isn't it?
I'm teaching a post-graduate independent study course this spring in shoe topics--repair, alteration, and construction. We'll be using this machine in tandem with these:
The item on the left is a boot iron with several interchangable lasts. "Last" is the term for that foot-shaped thing. A last can also be made of plaster or wood--it's the equivalent of a dress form in draping or a dolly-head form in millinery. You use it to represent the body part in the construction process. Iron lasts like this go down in the shoe when you are doing something heavy-duty like nailing on a heel from the outside, or pounding shoe rubber onto a sole.
The patcher operates both manually and with an electric motor driving it. It has a normal foot pedal for motor-driven operation, and this hand crank lever for careful manual operation:
It moves like a walking-foot machine, without feed dogs under the foot. It's not a chain-stitcher, it does have little tiny bobbins--you can't sew a bunch of long seams with it, but it's not designed for that. (How long a seam can you get on a boot, really? Maybe like, 36" max down the back of some thigh-high bucket boots or something.) You can actually "drive" the presser foot around a curve without moving the garment or shoe you are sewing:
One position of the presser foot, note the little "handlebars."
See how I've turned it to an oblique angle.
Here's a boot with visible repairs for reference:
See all that grey stitching there at the top, where the yellow arrow is pointing? This boot was torn open there. I slapped a patch of leather onto the back with Leather Weld (a flexible white glue for adhering leather) and patched it using a regular walking-foot industrial machine. This is fine for stitching up at the top of a boot, but what about if one of the dotted-yellow seams popped open? With the long thin arm of the patcher and its steerable presser foot, i could get down in there and fix it easily!
I'd like to publically thank Mr. Richard Sanabia, who sold me the patcher and generously delivered it to my facility in-person, Mark A. and Eugenea C. Pollock, who underwrote the purchase of the patcher, and Leslie M. Compton, who took me antiquing in Jonesborough, TN, over the holidays, where i found that awesome multi-lasted boot iron. Hooray for excellent benefactors!
Beautiful, isn't it?
I'm teaching a post-graduate independent study course this spring in shoe topics--repair, alteration, and construction. We'll be using this machine in tandem with these:
The item on the left is a boot iron with several interchangable lasts. "Last" is the term for that foot-shaped thing. A last can also be made of plaster or wood--it's the equivalent of a dress form in draping or a dolly-head form in millinery. You use it to represent the body part in the construction process. Iron lasts like this go down in the shoe when you are doing something heavy-duty like nailing on a heel from the outside, or pounding shoe rubber onto a sole.
The patcher operates both manually and with an electric motor driving it. It has a normal foot pedal for motor-driven operation, and this hand crank lever for careful manual operation:
It moves like a walking-foot machine, without feed dogs under the foot. It's not a chain-stitcher, it does have little tiny bobbins--you can't sew a bunch of long seams with it, but it's not designed for that. (How long a seam can you get on a boot, really? Maybe like, 36" max down the back of some thigh-high bucket boots or something.) You can actually "drive" the presser foot around a curve without moving the garment or shoe you are sewing:
One position of the presser foot, note the little "handlebars."
See how I've turned it to an oblique angle.
Here's a boot with visible repairs for reference:
See all that grey stitching there at the top, where the yellow arrow is pointing? This boot was torn open there. I slapped a patch of leather onto the back with Leather Weld (a flexible white glue for adhering leather) and patched it using a regular walking-foot industrial machine. This is fine for stitching up at the top of a boot, but what about if one of the dotted-yellow seams popped open? With the long thin arm of the patcher and its steerable presser foot, i could get down in there and fix it easily!
I'd like to publically thank Mr. Richard Sanabia, who sold me the patcher and generously delivered it to my facility in-person, Mark A. and Eugenea C. Pollock, who underwrote the purchase of the patcher, and Leslie M. Compton, who took me antiquing in Jonesborough, TN, over the holidays, where i found that awesome multi-lasted boot iron. Hooray for excellent benefactors!