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Hi All, I am on the market for a new sewing machine and I am pretty certain that I am going to go with the Cobra Class 3. The one thing I am hung up on is the threading options. All of my work has been hand stitched. I am a big fan of Tiger Polyester Braided Thread Waxed (Ritza 25) sold by Abbey England supplier. Question: Can waxed braided polyester thread be feed through these machines? - What nylon thread is similar to the braided polyester? - Should I just spend the extra $700 dollars and get the Cobra class 4, or can I get away with the class 3? I make rifle scabbards, knife sheaths, belts, bags. I think that the CAMPBELL Lock-Stitch and UNION Lock-Stitch can run other types of thread, but I have read that they have a steep learning curve, in limited supply and pretty pricey - so those machines are not currently an option. I have no experience with these machines so it will be an adventure, but I want make the right choice. Thanks!

If you're looking to order from Abbey England via their web site, there's currently an issue. They just updated their payment processor software to the 3.0 version, and we know how that stuff goes. Just ask anyone with an older computer upgrading to Windows 10.0. The issue I just ran into was that my account has the correct address info, but when you get to SagePay, the billing address country is silently changed to GB. I say silently because it's not until you get to the very last page after entering your CC# that two addresses show up at the bottom of the page, hidden behind collapsed +'s that need to be clicked to see the address in the first place. Poor design if you ask me. But needless to say, credit card companies don't like it much when you don't seem to know what country you live in. So.. after two days of back-and-forth, I just finally got off the phone with Abbey England. The only resolutions until they fix their site is a phone call from someone over there to take a CC number over the phone, or do a bank-to-bank transfer which can take up to three days. So here is the trick... If you use Visa, it won't let you finish the checkout process. It just fails. If you use AMEX, however, it will fail AFTER the site says the order went through, and they'll contact you when it finally does fail. Then they can call you and take payment over the phone. Or you can just call them and do the whole order and payment over the phone. On your dime. International rates apply. Ugh. Cheers, as they say over there. -Sean