Advice on juki 1541 vs 1541S

[idyllwildpatrick]

Hello leatherworkers,

I have used leather a few times in projects, but I don't consider myself a leatherworker. I do, however, sew and I know there's a ton of experience and info here. 

For years I've been wanting/needing an industrial machine. After much research, I thought I had settled on a juki dnu-1541s. 

I have since found a few people who say the "S" version is more headache than it is worth, and I'm all about keeping things simple. And that timing one of these machines is quick and easy. If I have never had an industrial machine, but am more than willing to learn to work on them myself, should I stick to the regular 1541?

The other thing is that I live in a small mountain town and having to bring this somewhere to be serviced will require kind of a lot from me and I'd rather do anything I possibly can, myself. 

So is there a general consensus? Should I stick with the regular 1541 or is it worth it to get the "s" model? Thank you for any input. 

 

 

Edited to add; I want to make bags, like backpacks primarily and I have used a 1541s for this purpose, and it gave me issues. I was able to then switch to a juki lu2810-7 for the remainder of that project and it was a much more capable and highly controllable machine, but I can't spend that kind of scratch on a machine right now, nor do I want something that has to be connected to compressed air. But I knew the 1541 could handle everything inwas asking of it, but it wasn't my machine and the owner didn't want me tinkering with it, he just called a service tech. He said it just needed to be adjusted and that it had something to do with the safety clutch. 

 

Edited December 7, 2023 by idyllwildpatrick

[kgg]

6 hours ago, idyllwildpatrick said:

Should I stick with the regular 1541 or is it worth it to get the "s" model?

Think of the "S" version as cheap insurance. The cost difference between the 1541 and the 1541"S" is about $100. The safety clutch when it kicks in protects a lot of internal parts from getting damaged. Depending on how badly you fool up usually it is just a matter of resetting the safety and you are sewing again. Without the safety clutch timing issues could be the least of your worries should a problem occur.

As a side note my Juki DNU -1541"S" hates items less then 5mm thick and much prefers thicker items with V92 thread as a minimum top and bobbin thread size.

Since you are doing bags have you considered looking at a Class 341/ 1341 machine like a Juki LS-1341 or clone coupled with a table top attachment? 

kgg

 

[nylonRigging]

7 hours ago, idyllwildpatrick said:

So is there a general consensus? Should I stick with the regular 1541 or is it worth it to get the "s" model? Thank you for any input. 

what kgg  said . Big Yes, on 1541S w/safety clutch. Cheap insurance if using heavier thread and catch and you get jammed. Threads heavier than the lighter #69/t70 are not so forgiving.
1541 is one of the best daily workhorse machines out there .

-

1 hour ago, kgg said:

As a side note my Juki DNU -1541"S" hates items less then 5mm thick and much prefers thicker items with V92 thread as a minimum top and bobbin thread size.

Mine seems to have no problem with using the lighter bonded 69 thread .

-

[idyllwildpatrick]

Thanks so much for the input so far.

Ok so I suppose I will go with the S model.

My next question is about where to purchase. Like I said, I live kind of far away from anything in a little mountain town. but I regularly visit my mother, who lives in a bigger city 1.5 hours away. Near her is a sewingmachinesplus, a store that isn't the most well regarded but who do have the 1541 with table and servo for 1750. They would be the closest place to me if I were to have to bring the machine in anywhere. They are not an industrial machine place, more sell quilting stuff, but they do have a few industrial machines there.

The other option would be international design supply, in los angeles, a highly regarded store that supplies students with materials as well as the public and some small businesses use them as a supplier for all kinds of stuff. I've been told I should buy my machine here, but it would be at least 2 hours each way for me if I need to go back and forth (If I were to have a problem with the machine) and would have to dedicate a day of sitting in traffic any time i would have to go there. However, I fell like they'll have more useful knowledge and know how when it comes down to it. Their price is similar, or close enough to sewingmachinesplus.

Should I just go to the closer store that is more convenient, or should I go with a more reputable shop that will be a pain if I ever have to go in? I assume that either way, I'll have to bring this thing in somewhere if it ever needs work, I doubt anyone will want to come out to where I am for anything affordable.

Thanks in advance for any help or input, really appreciate it.

[MtlBiker]

@idyllwildpatrick - Can't help with your question about where to buy, but wanted to second @kgg 's suggestion above, that you also consider a cylinder arm machine.

My first industrial machine was a flatbed Consew (similar to the Juki with safety clutch you were considering) and I love it dearly.  But I added a cylinder arm machine because I also do quite a few bags and the cylinder arm is a tremendous help for that.  I added an after market aluminum flatbed table attachment that goes on and off in about a minute and that really gives me the best of both worlds.  If I'd didn't already have the flatbed machine I probably would have been very happy with just the cylinder arm with flatbed attachment and I wouldn't have had to buy a second machine.

[idyllwildpatrick]

10 minutes ago, MtlBiker said:

@idyllwildpatrick - Can't help with your question about where to buy, but wanted to second @kgg 's suggestion above, that you also consider a cylinder arm machine.

My first industrial machine was a flatbed Consew (similar to the Juki with safety clutch you were considering) and I love it dearly.  But I added a cylinder arm machine because I also do quite a few bags and the cylinder arm is a tremendous help for that.  I added an after market aluminum flatbed table attachment that goes on and off in about a minute and that really gives me the best of both worlds.  If I'd didn't already have the flatbed machine I probably would have been very happy with just the cylinder arm with flatbed attachment and I wouldn't have had to buy a second machine.

Well now you guys have me reconsidering what I think I want or need. I had the opportunity to spend some time in a production facility, where they were mostly making backpacks, but also duffel bags, fanny packs, totes, etc. They did most of this on 1541s', but also had lu2810-7 and I think 1508 for doing binding with nylon webbing and zippers, and a few other machines for specialty things, etc. But most of what they were doing was with the 1541s and I know everything they were doing there could have all been handled on just the 1541s. I had never thought of a cylinder bed, but I do find that my home machines that allow me to fit something over the throat plate do offer some versatility. And I did not realize that you could convert a cylinder bed into a flatbed, that's kind of awesome. Is it really worth that much more money? Or what about the clones? I really liked the lu 2810-7 that I used, but I can't run compressed air or spend that much right now, and I need the machine to be a little smaller and quieter like the 1541.

Again, I'm not really using leather (I will every once in a while) but more like - usually multiple layers of-  ballistic nylon, cordura, canvas, taurpalin, nylon webbing, ability to make straps and bind edges with webbing, etc.

Now that I'm thinking about it, I like the idea of a cylinder arm. I'm imagining how much easier it would have been to turn certain things or how it would be useful in making smaller items. But I also need a one trick pony, and need to be able to do binding on the same machine, will there be a problem with that on a cylinder bed?

Do the speedway and yamata clones use the same parts as the jukis? Are these clones worthwhile?

[Quade]

Quote

Mine seems to have no problem with using the lighter bonded 69 thread .

Same. There are YT video's showing how to "detune" a 1541 to work with thinner material. 

I use a 1541S for making bags mostly.  It'll sew through everything I've needed it to sew through. It's hard to beat that machine.  

I got mine from "Goldstar Tools".   My only complaint was the table and the servo were the cheapest you can find.  They work, they just aren't as good as my other machine table and servo I got from Amazon. 

The 1508 is the next step up in heavy duty I believe from the 1541.  I looked at them both and the 1541 seemed like the best machine for me.  I don't particularly like horizontal hook the 1508 uses. 

[kgg]

6 hours ago, idyllwildpatrick said:

But I also need a one trick pony, and need to be able to do binding on the same machine, will there be a problem with that on a cylinder bed?

I think the cylinder arm Juki Ls-1341 or a clone is probably as close to a "one trick pony" as you are going to get. Add a table attachment and you sort of got a flatbed machine. I turned my Kobe LS-1341 into a binding machine. I do a fair bit of binding. When it comes to binding you can use the expensive 90 degree style of binding attachments and they well allow for doing binding around tighter corners. For my situation as I had flatbed machines before I got a cylinder I wanted to be able to use the same binding attachments that I use on the Juki 1181N or the 1541S and use them on the LS-1341 clone or the TSC-441 clone. So to that end I designed up some attachments and printed them to allow for this. There is also quite a bit of difference cost wise between the standard inline and the 90 degree binding attachments, $100 versus $20 per tape size.

If you are planning on visiting a vendor call them a couple of days before hand to set up a time and tell them what machines you are interested in so they can set one up for you to test drive. If they don't or can't set a machine up for you then they maybe they are just selling you an untested "fresh off the boat machine". If they are selling "fresh off the boat machines" you probably can get the same / similar machine with that same level of service from a lot of online vendors.

Here is some photo's of older versions of what I came up for binding using standard inline binding attachments for my LS-1341 (first three photo's) and TSC-441 clones.

kgg 

[kgg]

14 hours ago, Quade said:

The 1508 is the next step up in heavy duty I believe from the 1541.

The Juki LU-1508 is a different series of machine with 7 variants then the Juki DNU-1541 series which has 3 variants. Both series look very similar but the main visual difference is the bed size and weight.

Bed size : 

LU-1508 series bed is 517mm long versus the 1541 series being 477mm long

Weight:

LU-1508 series weights vary depending on the variant between 42.5 kg (~94 lbs) and 48kg(~106 lbs) while the DNU-1541 series eights depending on the variant between 36.5 kg (~79 lbs) to 42.5 (~94 lbs)

kgg