Advice on purchasing an Adler 069-373 (used)

[Aetolian]

Hi everyone,

This is my first time posting here and I need some expert's advice on this matter.

I found an Adler 069-373 cylinder arm industrial sewing machine on eBay and the seller is not far from where I stay - Edinburgh, UK (about 15' drive)

The seller is offering to install a silent motor on (instead of the clutch motor) and change the binding attachment you see on the photo for a normal one. His offer is £900 with free delivery and 6 months warranty. 

This will be my first cylinder arm machine, my only experience with sewing machines is my very old singer 99k.

I want to use this machine for waxed canvas and some leatherwork where canvas meets the leather and maybe use it more often for leather straps and/or belts.

So I can get this machine or go for the Tysew TY-3600C-1 for £1.300+ (new). They say Adler parts are available in the UK same as for the Tysew, since Tysew is based in UK. I will avoid the good and trusted American brands since I cannot get much support from where I stay, neither parts as far as I am aware.

Any expert to help me with this please? Is this a good deal? The seller said he bought it 2 years ago from London and fixed it, but he didn't tell me what he fixed. This is his side hustle he added, buying old machines, fixes them and sells them for some extra money.

Shall I go for this deal or go for something else?

Thank you

 

Edited September 22 by Aetolian
Added photos

[shoepatcher]

That one set up for a binder.  Feet, throat plate, feed dog.  You need that set up?

glenn

[dikman]

I don't know about this model but the Pfaff binding models have a back-and-forth motion for the (smooth) feed dog, not the normal reciprocating motion with a toothed dog. Changing the feet and needle plate is easy, the feed dog motion not so easy, IF it can be altered. My advice would be to get a machine that is set up to do what you want to sew. That Tysew looks like a reasonable machine, you just need to make sure it will handle the thread size you want to use and has the clearance under the feet.

[Aetolian]

I visited the seller on Monday the 23rd and he changed the motor to a silent motor and the binding setup to a normal one for me.

I tried the machine and the stitching wasn't that good to be honest, he used a tex 70 thread which, as far as I know, is what this machine usually gets and he tried it on some 1-1.5mm chrome tan leather (I want to use it on veg tan 2mm+2mm so about 4-5mm thick) The result was some skipped stitches, probably a problem with timing, he said it's the leather (ok, it can be fixed I suppose), then the tension seemed too loose underneath. I started getting red flags, so I phoned all the suppliers for industrial sewing machines I could find in the UK. One of them laughed at me basically, when he heard the price and in general most if not all of them told me the price is too stiff for such an old machine.

So I gave up on this one and hopefully I'll get a better deal somewhere else. A guy from this forum offered me a better Adler, same model but modified. Same price as the Tysew though, so I'm a bit sceptical on that.

 

Edited September 25 by Aetolian

[dikman]

I think you're wise to give this a miss. If this is basically going to be your main machine then my advice is to buy a "proper" walking foot set up to do what you want. Don't get fixated on having a "brand" name, there's nothing wrong with buying a clone from a reputable dealer. Buying used is fine IF you have some idea what you're doing - I didn't but I bought them cheap and learned a lot!

[kgg]

2 hours ago, dikman said:

I think you're wise to give this a miss. If this is basically going to be your main machine then my advice is to buy a "proper" walking foot set up to do what you want. Don't get fixated on having a "brand" name, there's nothing wrong with buying a clone from a reputable dealer. Buying used is fine IF you have some idea what you're doing - I didn't but I bought them cheap and learned a lot!

Good advice.

kgg