Thanks for the advice, it's all well received!
Wizcrafts, that's a great write-up on dumbing down the 4500, thank you. I'm going to keep reading some of your other articles as well.
Dikman, you hit the nail on the head. Right now time is more valuable than money because I lose both messing around. I am sitting on an 8 month backlog currently with Blade Show staring me in the face, so I don't want to take a bunch of time tinkering. The small accessories are something I can work on during down time and sell quick, so I want to get up an running. I have seen some of the conversions being done and like that idea but it goes back to the amount of time spent sourcing the machine and doing the work.
RockyAussie, I've thought about selling my 3500 but frankly it's a bit sentimental, I know, I need to get past that. I also lost a few weeks of work last year when another piece of equipment failed (long story) and had to be replaced, so I have since committed to having redundancy in essential equipment. We are thinking about buying a new home soon and my "in the home" shop would be much larger. I have a 2000 sf work shop but it's detached from the house and since I work all hours of the day and night doing leather when my wife or 6 year old daughter are away or asleep I want to keep leather inside.
I only live 35 minutes from Cowboy's main location and have developed a good relationship with Ryan at Neel's Saddlery over the years. Hightex has the 74400 which is identical to the Cobra Class 20 and if I had the space I'd probably be having him prep one for me. My thought on the Sailrite is that it's a low investment and when I get to a point where I can justify the cost I will figure out a way to make the space work for the 74400 and can flip the Sailrite to help pay for it.
Is the Sailrite with the heavy wheel really that bad?
Thanks again