How can i get my expensive shoe to shrink without ruining the leather or the boot itself?

It depends on what you are sewing. If it's boots, shoes ,saddles, purses or heavy duty stuff like that I doubt it. But you could ask the manufacturer. On the other hand if you are sewing light weight skirts etc or using pleather, its not so much the machine but the needle which should be an 18 with heavy duty thread and a longer stitch.
Hope this helps .

try this site and see if any of them can help you

Leatherworker net

I am not familiar with Crocs boots, but if they are the same material as Crocs shoes, this is what I have been advised: Turn on your oven to a low setting - no higher than 200 degrees. Put the shoes / boots in the oven for about 5 minutes. Take them out of the oven and put them on. The heat will have caused the material (a kind of rubber, I think) to stretch. This has worked well for my Crocs shoes. You might have to do this each time you wear the boots. Good luck, and let us know if this works for you.

check with leatherworker.net,, go to the forum and ask them

go to Leatherworker.net & ask them about a manual & the stitch settings

You have an electrical short somewhere, check the pins that go into the machine in case one has been pushed in or broken, check the plug on the lead that goes into the machine, if there is any disolouration you will need a new harness, failing that it will be a shop test.

visit this website and see if the manual is available,
http://www.singerco.com/accessories/instruction-manuals

you need to type in the model number only and click search.

Most toploading drop in bobbins are similar though so even if you can't find the exact singer manual, try looking at a few others and see if they are similar to your machine.

Generally, the bobbin will need to go into the bobbin holder and the thread needs to be clicked into a tension spring, then the thread reverses direction in a "V' shape and goes out to the side to be caught by the top thread.

Other good info site is sewusa.com, they have many threading diagrams available http://www.sewusa.com/Sewing_Machine_Threading_Diagrams.htm so you can click through some Singer ones there and hopefully recognise a similar machine to yours.

Mine was doing the same today. Took the foot pedal screw out and ran some nail polish remover over the contacts (where the pedal slides when it's in use) bingo. Sorted it with no expense spared.

As to your question about leather, the 6460 has a special stitch for sewing leather. Select Colormatic cam C and install in the cam hole at the back of the machine. To remove/add a cam turn the upper left hand dial on the front of the machine to the small dot. This disengages the cam. Gently remove the cam by pulling straight out from the back of the machine. Install cam C straight in, ever so slightly twisting it back and forth into the hole to find the sweet spot. You'll hear a click when it's all the way in.

To use Viking's leather stitch, turn the upper left dial to the color yellow. (Note: The slash line on the upper left dial is a stop. You can't turn past that point. Go in the other direction to get to the icon or color you want.) Turn the upper right and bottom right dial to yellow also. The upper left dial is what selects the particular stitch on the cam, the leather stitch in this case. The upper right dial selects stitch length, and the lower right dial selects stitch width. You can move the right dials within the color range. Experiment on a scrap of cloth to get the stitch size the way you want it. The leather stitch looks like a straight stitch with a block style edging to the right of the straight stitch. This is supposed to give a stronger stitch to the leather rather than a straight stitch by itself.
If you don't have the manual for your machine: Select which of the eight cams you want to use. All the cams are removed/installed by turning the upper left dial on machine front to the small dot. At the rear of the machine, pull/insert cam straight in or out and twist slightly as you push in or remove to find the sweet spot. Move the dial away from the small dot to lock the cam in.
Turn upper left dial to stitch type you want and match the other dials to that same color. Upper right controls stitch length, lower right controls width. Bobbin tension is controlled by the dial at front left of the machine, above the needle.
Cams A-C are the workhorse cams and the rest are embroidery stitches.Straight stitch, button and stitched zig-zag will work on any cam. These stitches do not rely on matching a color code. To use those three: To select straight stitch, on the upper left dial, choose the icon that looks like a buttonhole with a zig that trails off to the right. Select stitch length on upper right dial and turn the lower right dial to zero, going by number rather than color.
To select stitched zig zag, turn upper left dial to the broken zig zag icon (to the right of the straight stitch icon). Select stitch length and width.
To move the needle to the side for buttonhole stitching or other times when you want the needle off center, turn the upper left dial to the button icon. If stitching a button hole, set stitch length to zero and lower right dial to desired stitch width. Push in the small white button that's beneath the lower right dial in order to prevent the feed dogs from moving the fabric forward. Pushing that button in is also handy for putting cloth under the foot before sewing as it prevents snagging and is used for tacking.

The WEDGE POINT NEEDLE, which is designed for leather and vinyl, easily pierces these fabrics to make a hole that will close back upon itself. This eliminates unattractive holes in the garment, and also reduces the risk of the stitches tearing the fabric. The wedge point needle comes in sizes 11 to 18. The size 11 needle is designed for soft pliable leathers,while size 18 is designed for heavy or multiple layers of leather or vinyl.