graywolf

You asked that we not speculate, but one point seems to require that. If a SV machine later acquired a regular number, I would speculate that it had become a production machine and was assigned a production number. Not speculative, I used to have a list that I can not find, the letter is the City where the factory that manufactured the machine was. Not the country as many think, except in the fact that the city is in that country. The ones I remember is W is Westport Connecticut, A is Albemarle North Carolina. K is a city in Scotland, G is a city in Germany, and U is a city in Japan. There were others, but those are the ones that were exported all over, the others seemed to produce machines for regional use only. Note that none of those are big cities. I believe that at one time there were over 100 factories worldwide. The history of Singer Sewing Machines is a vast and interesting story.

See if you can get it palletized, If you can offer to palletize it for customer's pick up. That gives you a wider customer base, the problem with having it picked up is that it is very hard to arrange for palletizing it from a distance. It is not that difficult for the buyer to arrange shipping from anywhere in the US if it is on a pallet.

$800? I would like to know where. I know of several places that will sell you one for $1000-$1200. I guess you could get a "head only" for $800, but he needs a whole working sewing machine. Also Hawaii is sea or air freight, I doubt he is going to get it there for less than $400, but I could be wrong on that. Also, if he has a problem with the machine it is going to cost him an insane amount just to have it replaced, so he ought to consider it as being without warrantee. But people in Alaska have about the same kind of problems. One of the things he should think about is that he probably would have no problem selling it for big bucks when he leaves, if he finds a buyer in advance.

On a pallet you ought to be able to ship it coast to coast (USA) for about $250, but you will have to shop around to get that price. There are websites where you can get bids on the shipping. Sometimes, rather than run empty, someone will bid pretty much for the cost of fuel. Palletizing can cost you nothing to a couple of hundred bucks. Depending, of course if, you do it yourself on a used wood pallet (if you are in a big city you an often get one for free), or have someone come in and do it on a new pallet. If it is going to be hauled in a pickup truck or something like that, I would remove the head, wrap the head thoroughly, turn the table upside down put the head next to the motor and strap it down real well. Commercial freight, you can do it like Eric described. I recent checked on renting a forklift to avoid a lift gate fee, Not worth it unless you are shipping or receiving a whole bunch of stuff ($70 v $400 for a 1/2 day). If you are buying new, ask if they will setup the head on one of their tables, and ship everything knocked down. Funny thing about shipping something like a sewing machine is that do to the vibration and stuff it is going to need to be tweaked anyway when you get it. If you can not do that you need to buy locally where they will bring it out and set it up on your floor. Which is to say if you can not put a table together and mount the motor and head (knocked down), you probably should not have one shipped to you in the first place. One of the reasons many of the guys here suggest that you have the machine checked by a local tech when you get it.

And, you can get all you need to do that for $50 or so. And it can be shipped Priority Mail, except maybe the stitching pony. If you have a wood working hobby shop on base, you easily could make your own pony,

I used to be on the bleeding edge of technology. In the last 20 years I have become more and more retro, heck I do not even own a pair of jeans. 90% due to lack of funds, 10% due to lack of motivation. Good old stuff, I have found, is just fun. While I have a smart phone, and a tv, I cannot afford the monthly fees to use them. On the other hand I have a more powerful computer than 99% of the people out there... I am reading this particular forum, trying to decide if I could make a few bucks doing leatherwork part time. So far, I have not seen anything posted that answers that question. Maybe I need to do a specific search rather than just reading from top to bottom as I usually do.

One thing you have to know about patents. To protect them you have to use the laws. That means legal fees. And in my experience who wins is the guy with the most money. e.g. Telsa v Edison, Armstrong v RCA, as an example. Both Telsa and Armstorng had the patents, both lost. When you get involved with the law, the only winner really is the lawyers. Also, when they work, patents usually only pay off in royalties, typically 1% or 2%. The best way to use patents is to invent something then lobby to get a law pasted requiring its use, like that third brake light on the back of you car. For that to work, you obviously need a patent. On the other hand, if you just sell something and spend the money as it comes in, it does not really matter if someone has a patent on it, they cannot get money that isn't there. So basically all they can do is get a cease and desist order on you. Current tax law keeps you from warehousing a large stockpile for them to confiscate, anyway. This of course applies in both directions. Once again, the law favors those with money. Or, "Money talks, others walk". Disclaimer: The above is personal opinion, I am not licensed to practice law.

Main reason I posted the info that the White (somewhat heavier duty than most so-called industrial strenght machines as it has a 1.3amp motor) would not even penetrate a mere 6 ounze of leather. Which I guess proves Wiz's often made assursion about such machine. However, just to make full disclosure: the leather I tried is salvaged from an old thrift store purse and may be tougher than new leather. Still I would have expected it to sew two layer of 3oz (1/8th inch) of the stuff. It would not do it even without thread in the machine. Organ 15x1 LL #16 needle, #69 thread,..

And a follow up. Just got in some leather needles for the little White. Tried 2 layers of 3oz, Machine stalled. Will go through 1 layer with a bit of help from my hand. So it looks like my current project will have to be hand sewn. Remember, from my first post that this machine goes through upholstery vinyl like it is nothing. This is sad, because my car has been eating money, and I hoped that the White would do for my purely, and not real heavy duty, hobby needs for awhile. SIGH!

I am a long way from an expert, but it looks like you used a strait piece of leather for the surround. I think it needs to be cut out as a horseshoe shape. And most I have seen would have used 3 pieces as well, top and two sides. Then you need to fit the curves together, most sewing books will tell you how to do that. As to trade secrets, there are a couple of Hot Rod sites out their where you will find friendly helpful people. There is also an introductory book out there on auto upholstery, the name and author escape me at the moment, but you can find it at most public libraries. Found it on Amazon: Auto Upholstery Handbook

Oil can probably looked like this one:

Mike's question answered part of my own questions about these swing down edge guides. But on bed edge guides are usually either magnetic or held in place by thumb screws, very easy to remove. But, I guess, that the swing down can be lifted without having to reset it when it is again swung down. Is that correct? The other "but" is that there are edge guide feet. Why not just us those? Now on home machines you only seem to be able to get a 1/4" one for quilts, but I see them available in several sizes from 1/8" on up for 206RB and similar machines. Now Mr McClain's guide was $50, and seems reasonable. However, see them for $100 most places and that does not seem reasonable to me.

Looks like this is very general so think this it the place to post it, if not feel free to move it. Needing a small bit of leather to make a clip pouch, I picked up a leather purse at the local Goodwill store because it was the right color and had some biggish flat areas. Yesterday I deconstructed that thing. It was a fairly simple purse, but I counted 24 pieces of leather, and just tossed the cloth parts without counting. I now have a lot of respect for you guys who make those kinds of things. I have made several simple cases over the years, but nothing as complicated as that purse. As I said, a simple one, just two pockets with a flap over them (and a small zipper pocket in the fabric lining), a handle and a strap. Some of the construction details were interesting, and maybe worth learning for my own use. Is there "how to" information about that kind of stuff?

Internet is an interesting place, isn't it? I was actually agreeing with you, Gregg, not criticizing you. I tend to be, especially on the web, terse. Maybe I should take the time to make sure what I type is clear. I took no offense at anything you said. Comment about facts was address to the apparently false information reported earlier in the thread, and I took it that he was just repeating something he had gotten off the web. My suggestion was based upon the experience that many things you hear or read are just repeated by some one who is repeating someone who just made it up because they thought it sounded good. Sort of like "Eskimos have 63 words for snow", the author of that actually admitted that he had just made that fact up out of thin air, although many repeat it as if it was "gospel". I myself have found that stuff I have read in several books by "experts" just did not work when I tried it myself, thus my point that one should check things out themselves before accepting them as "gospel". And since I used it twice, maybe I should define "gospel". "Gospel", as I used it, means "the truly true truth" (GRIN). As I remember it the original poster on this thread, asked when Consew started having their machines made in China. He did not indicate anything about good or bad, just curiousity. I also do not seem to recall that he ever got an actual factual answer to that question, but I may have missed it. I hope this clarifies my point, and I am sorry I wrote in such a way that you, Gregg, took it as an insult.

This is the internet, facts are made up on the spot. You are in the business. You piss off your suppliers, you are out of business. You piss off your customers, you are out of business. On the other hand, I have known people who's who purpose in life seemed to be pissing off as many people as they could. I suggest that people take what they read as a suggestion, only fully believe what you have found out by trying it to be true. Even honest caring people make mistakes.