Singer 292 Or Walking Foot Machine?

[sproggy]

A new wrinkle: I'm seeing now that a cylinder bed machine is recommended for sewing bags which is what I'm planning to do. So is that what I need to be looking for, a cylinder bed?

[Wizcrafts]

A new wrinkle: I'm seeing now that a cylinder bed machine is recommended for sewing bags which is what I'm planning to do. So is that what I need to be looking for, a cylinder bed?

That would be the best type of walking foot machine for sewing bags, purses, pouches and cases, or arm holes on vests and heavy garments.

[Techsew Ron]

A new wrinkle: I'm seeing now that a cylinder bed machine is recommended for sewing bags which is what I'm planning to do. So is that what I need to be looking for, a cylinder bed?

our most popular machines for sewing bags are light/medium leather machines that can sew up to about 3/8" thickness, with a 10.5" cylinder arm, reverse, servo motor, with or without large bobbin. You can use up to #24 needles with #210 thread, which is more than enough for most types of leather bags.

[sproggy]

Well that was a long and interesting day, yesterday. I ended up buying the Singer 292 and adding a JACK servo motor which is Chinese made. The machine cost about $270 and the motor $130... It's a 550W motor but seems so small compared to the huge clutch motor that it replaced, which worries me a bit. However, it didn't have any trouble going through the leather I put under it and that's before having the pulley changed to a 2-incher (comes with what looked like a 3 inch pulley, to my eyes). It was also the only servo motor he made available to me. For what it's worth, I didn't feel the slowest setting was slow enough. It felt comfortable stitching on an open piece of cloth and leather but I tried to think about detailed stitching around curves and corners and how slow I might want to go. I also had in the back of my mind your comment Wiz, about your National doing a stitch a second or whatever it was...and I wanted to have that option. The best I could do to slow it down more was change the pulley which he will do for me. I didn't get a chance to try it with the smaller pulley...

The Panasonic servo I had been shown previously, according to the owner who wasn't there last week, is a dog and he didn't recommend it.

I don't have the machine yet as it needs to be shipped to me, probably on Thursday.

I spent a lot of time playing with a Pfaff 335 and really wanted to buy it. However, the price was just under $800 and then I would have added the servo motor; I was afraid to spend that money without shopping around some more though my inexperienced mind was pretty impressed with the machine. It sewed together some 3mm veggie, 1.8mm chrome, and 2 layers or padding with ease (you can actually see this packet of stuff on the left side of the Pfaff photo, in the background). The hardest part was fitting this thick wad under the walking foot.

I am also worried about spare parts being expensive and the ability to have anything fixed (I'm 750 km from this shop). I asked about Seiko and Consew and Mitsubishi but he didn't have any cylinder arm machines at the time...or at least not in the shop, and was pushing me to buy the Pfaff. He actually had two 335s in there so I'm not sure they're running out the door. He did have a Seiko post bed but I didn't look at it. He also had some flatbed walking machines, including a Dorkupp Adler but I was focused on the Pfaff. Strangely, to me, though it had a big clutch motor with a two-inch pulley, much like the Singer before I changed it, it was a lot easier to control and ran much slower than the Singer...

My thoughts are I will play around with the Singer and improve my skills and see what I can and cannot do with it. Also, I'll become familiar with the JACK servo. With more knowledge, I'll reconsider the Pfaff and whatever else he might have. I was also unsure of the price of this machine and the motor so I'll inform myself on that front. I asked about a JUKI 543 which I've read about on this forum but he rather brushed of my inquiry. Thailand is full of JUKIs so I thought I might get a lower price.

Thanks WIZ for your help, and Ron also. I'll do an update when I have more info.

Cheers, Sproggy