Affordable Leather Sewing Machine

[MegKel]

Hey all, I might be looking for a unicorn but looking for recs on a leather sewing machine until I can afford something better

 

- $500ish budget

- need compact size due to living in an apartment

- looking to sew some wallets and bags but also belts with liners so 3/4oz all the way up to 12 oz 

[NotACowboy]

I feel like a Reliable Barracuda matches your requirements. 

[Dwight]

8 minutes ago, NotACowboy said:

I feel like a Reliable Barracuda matches your requirements. 

You can do wallets and some purses with this . . . forget belts and holsters.  

It only takes a 17 needle . . . and 92 thread . . . holsters need a minimum of 207 thread . . . and that is the BARE minimum . . . I do 346 on both belts and holsters . . . as do others.

You need a Tippmann Boss or whatever the Tandy Leather equivalent is for that . . . and you are basically looking at 1000 bucks new . . . and whatever used.

They are both hand machines . . . one pull on the handle and the push back . . . gets you one stitch.  A 40 inch belt at 6 stitches per inch will cost you 500 pulls and 500 pushes . . . and about 1/2 hour.  10 minutes per side with a 10 minute break at the tip of the belt.  I did a bunch of em.

The single most important question you need to ask whoever is selling you a machine is the maximum thread size . . . if your thread ain't big enough to do the job . . . you will just waste leather and time . . . get frustrated . . . and quit.

Oh . . . both of these machines can come with a littl horse looking mount . . . takes up about the space of an end table . . . and none of your apartment neighbors would probably even know you have a machine in the place.

May God bless,

Dwight

[Garyak]

Hold tight on that 500$ and go on a search, and find the used machine of your liking. You can find just about any machine out there for 500$. I have 12 machines running daily, I haven’t paid 500$ for any of them. Gotta look everywhere, daily, search like it’s your job. Estate sales are your friend. If a seller tells you it’s vintage, rare, any crap like that, they know absolutely nothing about the machine they’re selling. Gotta be able to talk.. 

Edited January 31, 2024 by Garyak

[kgg]

10 minutes ago, NotACowboy said:

I feel like a Reliable Barracuda matches your requirements. 

I have to disagree. The Reliable Barracuda is just another clone of the Sailrite LSZ and made probably in China with poorer quality internal components then the Sailrite's. The OP indicates she wants to sew up 12 oz leather. The thickness of 12 oz leather is approximately 1/4" and the portable walking foot sewing machines can only handle about 1/8" thickness with a max thread size of V92. Also as the thickness of the item being sewn increase the stitch length will decrease so it can be difficult to maintain a constant stitch. These little machines were intended for sewing sail fabric. Besides using a Singer Class 15 bobbin another problem is the presser foot and feet dog are very aggressive and will imprint the leather.

On 1/28/2024 at 5:15 AM, MegKel said:

$500ish budget

Since this is going to be your main machine you will need to increase your budget even for a used one in most locations. As far as space goes most industrial sewing machine tables take up a space about 2' x 3'-6" and noise isn't a consideration as with a servo motor they are almost silent.

kgg

[MegKel]

On 1/30/2024 at 6:54 PM, NotACowboy said:

I feel like a Reliable Barracuda matches your requirements. 

Thanks!

On 1/30/2024 at 7:13 PM, Dwight said:

You can do wallets and some purses with this . . . forget belts and holsters.  

It only takes a 17 needle . . . and 92 thread . . . holsters need a minimum of 207 thread . . . and that is the BARE minimum . . . I do 346 on both belts and holsters . . . as do others.

You need a Tippmann Boss or whatever the Tandy Leather equivalent is for that . . . and you are basically looking at 1000 bucks new . . . and whatever used.

They are both hand machines . . . one pull on the handle and the push back . . . gets you one stitch.  A 40 inch belt at 6 stitches per inch will cost you 500 pulls and 500 pushes . . . and about 1/2 hour.  10 minutes per side with a 10 minute break at the tip of the belt.  I did a bunch of em.

The single most important question you need to ask whoever is selling you a machine is the maximum thread size . . . if your thread ain't big enough to do the job . . . you will just waste leather and time . . . get frustrated . . . and quit.

Oh . . . both of these machines can come with a littl horse looking mount . . . takes up about the space of an end table . . . and none of your apartment neighbors would probably even know you have a machine in the place.

May God bless,

Dwight

Thank you! The time parameters on the belt making really helps put some stuff into perspective!

On 1/30/2024 at 7:22 PM, Garyak said:

Hold tight on that 500$ and go on a search, and find the used machine of your liking. You can find just about any machine out there for 500$. I have 12 machines running daily, I haven’t paid 500$ for any of them. Gotta look everywhere, daily, search like it’s your job. Estate sales are your friend. If a seller tells you it’s vintage, rare, any crap like that, they know absolutely nothing about the machine they’re selling. Gotta be able to talk.. 

Estate sales are a good idea!

[MegKel]

On 1/30/2024 at 7:26 PM, kgg said:

I have to disagree. The Reliable Barracuda is just another clone of the Sailrite LSZ and made probably in China with poorer quality internal components then the Sailrite's. The OP indicates she wants to sew up 12 oz leather. The thickness of 12 oz leather is approximately 1/4" and the portable walking foot sewing machines can only handle about 1/8" thickness with a max thread size of V92. Also as the thickness of the item being sewn increase the stitch length will decrease so it can be difficult to maintain a constant stitch. These little machines were intended for sewing sail fabric. Besides using a Singer Class 15 bobbin another problem is the presser foot and feet dog are very aggressive and will imprint the leather.

Since this is going to be your main machine you will need to increase your budget even for a used one in most locations. As far as space goes most industrial sewing machine tables take up a space about 2' x 3'-6" and noise isn't a consideration as with a servo motor they are almost silent.

kgg

Thanks for the table dimensions, that helps! And appreciate the feedback on the barracuda