Hey fellow hide tamers. I've been making do for a few years now with an older Consew 255B. Nope, no reverse so I'm looking to replace it with a cylinder arm. I've found a Pfaff 335 that has a good maintenance record. Guy says he sews up to 8oz with it. The best I can tell the lift is 7mm on the 335 so that seems to be about the upper limit there. I'm hoping I'll be able to get him drop some from the 1500 he's asking (I hope so, its a 4 hour drive one way) and that seems reasonable for others I've seen listed.
I do a lot of bags, belts, holster, harnesses, collars. I use a lot of Tony See's patterns and will stitch them on the machine when I'm in need of speed. Given that my holsters are usually 9 0z, I imagine I'm still gonna be doing a lot of hand stitching. All the rest will certainly be within the limits of the lift. My primary goal is to increase my output of bags, guitar straps, belts collars and the like. This as my wife retired a couple of months ago and we'll be setting her up to go to fairs and festivals next year. Need some inventory rather than just the steady individual commissions.
My questions are, maximum needle and thread size? Looking at specs I couldn't really decipher what the upper and lower stitch lengths are, so what am I looking at there? Known issues from others that have had or do have and are leather folks? Finally aside from the fact that I took up this art about a decade ago, does looking at this as an option fully land me into the crazy column?
I'm also looking at a vintage Singer 29K-71. To me it seems it would be limited in how I can use it to increase production. Thoughts on comparing that apple and orange?
Thanks,
Leo
