"high Speed" Yamata Fy5318: Internally Geared Or Same As Others?

[AlizabethThomas]

I have been looking around for walking foot sewing machines in central NC and found a liquidating company that has several used Yamata FY5318 machines. They say "High speed lockstitch sewing machine" right on a badge on the front. I wanted to know if some machines have faster internal gearing than others, if anyone knows. Now I'm going to go into detail...

Let it be noted that in the past I've used: (all were someone else's or are not available to me at this time and place)

-Econosew 2060 with consew servo motor. Horizontal axis bobbin. It allowed me to have amazing needle control, and allowed me to do very fine detail work.

-Consew ____? double needle walking foot machine converted to single needle, clutch motor. Vertical axis bobbin. Horrible needle control ability, would run-on and always felt too fast even when I changed to the smallest available pulley on the motor. I got the feeling it was internally geared too fast or something, although I might have tried switching to a servo motor, had it not been the wrong tool for the job being double needle and all it's wear and tear. It also seemed it wanted so stair-step stitches. I started questioning the vertical axis bobbin's possible contribution to this. Have seen stitches look like this but this machine also wanted to steer to the side.

-Consew 206-RB_? A rugged single needle walking foot machine that came with a clutch motor and had a more manageable speed than the previously mentioned Consew. Started using a servo motor. This helped the speed and needle control a lot, but I still couldn't quite walk it one stitch at a time like I could the Econosew. It still wanted to run on one stitch further or start another stroke when I wanted to stop it. It didn't seem too fast, but that this was just a feature of it's mechanics. Also getting enough tension at times was difficult, I figured being an older used machine, it could probably have used new tension discs and spring, feed dogs, etc. The vertical axis bobbin axle seemed to have some play in it as well, not sure if this affected performance.

Now back to the current situation. The Yamata FY5318 walking foot machine seems to be in the duty range I need for what I do with canvas to thin decorative leather accent pieces, double layer cordura to leather and double layer seatbelt webbing. Nothing in the extra heavy duty range will be needed, but I am a stickler for needle control.

This Yamata had a clutch motor so I was sure it could be improved. It was way too fast and hard to stop and start so unsuitable for the small details I need to do in its current setup. The warehouse guy had me sew on a drop feed Yamata with a servo motor. That just about had acceptable needle control and speed at the low end, but was an apparel machine. The walking foot model, however had a badge on it saying "high speed lockstitch machine". This had me wondering if it is actually geared to run higher speed INTERNALLY in the head of the machine. Why, if the speed only depended on the motor type and pulley size, would you label the machine as high speed? The warehouse guy still says that the speed really only depends upon the speed or type of motor and pulley, but the badge seems to indicate differently.

I'm just afraid that even if I get the 3/4 hp $150 servo motor he can order and says is more geared towards walking foot machines, that it will still be too fast compared to that econosew I once used with perfect needle control, if it is geared faster internally. He won't or can't set the machine up this way without a guarantee I'll buy it, and I wouldn't want to buy it without reassurance about the gearing. So I decided not to buy it until I do some more homework.

Of course, the surest way to get the performance I remember would be to go find an econosew 2060, but I can't find it. I know there is a lot of machine cloning between brands, but not sure what make/model the econo' copies. You all seem really knowledgeable on machines here, so I'm looking forward to any replies!