Thank you all. The price isn’t so much the issue, I’m only home 4 days a month and it’s just hard to justify spending $2k on a proper machine with that work-life balance. I have a Singer 15-91 so the thinner leather is taken care of and the Chinese shoe patcher that works fine if I want to sew thicker leather, or repair harnesses and such, but it isn’t motorized and I would like to be able to do larger projects a little quicker. Of course hand sewing is an option when I’m on the road (truck driver) but to make something a little larger like a backpack it becomes a challenge to keep everything straight for a large project like that on the lap desk I have in my truck! Much easier to work on my 6 foot work bench at home, but 4 days just isn’t much time to sew a large project by hand.
Is there anything worth getting in the $600-$750 range? That’s the price I don’t feel bad about having something sitting at the house that isn’t used much. I know at about the $1,000 mark there are the sailrite machines and I could possibly bring that with me on the truck even.