BuckeyeLeatherworks

Is Bob from Toledo?

I can drive a couple hours away, that's no problem. Cleveland's west side is only about 30-40 mins or so away. I am kind of worried if I buy something from Craigslist it won't work right since I know almost nothing about any of these machines... Is the Consew CP206R Portable type way too light duty for this type of thing? (I have been using some generic $30 Brother Black Friday purchased home sewing machine to pre-punch the holes in the leather when I hand sew it and it goes thru no problem...scary right? It surprisingly has not caught on fire or blown up...yet...)

Thank you for your input!

Hi everyone! Thank you for taking the time to read this. I am looking into buying a sewing machine, and I have read a bunch of posts on here and now I am more confused and overwhelmed on what I should actually try to buy, lol. I have around $500 maybe $600 to spend and am solely using the machine to make leather fire helmet shields. They are made from a single piece of roughly 1/8"-3/16" thick veg tanned hand tooled leather. (I included a photo.) Up until now I have been hand stitching them with an awl and #207 thread. I could probably get away with using either #138 or #96, as I know my budget will have some restrictions on thread size. I would really appreciate any help/advice/suggestions you guys have to offer. Thanks again! Jill