Sewing Machine Advice

[Mus]

Hello all, i have been looking at purchasing a sewing machine that can sew light to medium leather as well as 1000D cordura. A college in my area is closing down and they are auctioning off all their equipment, the sewing machines that are to be auctioned off are as follows.

Consew 290 Industrial Sewing Machine

Consew 291R Industrial Sewing Machine

Juki DDL-555-4 Industrial Sewing Machine

Mitsubishi DY-350 Industrial Sew Machine

Singer 211 Industrial Sewing Machine

Sunstar KM-137A Industrial Sew Machine

Sunstar KM-235A Industrial Sew Machine

I personally don't know much about sewing machines other than the information that i have read while trying to figure out what machine will be most suitable to my needs, i am not limited to the above machines. I have set a budget of $300, i expect most of those machines to go above this with a brief search of ebay but it may be possible that there is less demand for them as they are being auctioned off during the week meaning less people to bid on them.

What advice can you give me in regards to which machine is fairly versatile and adaptable? I know prices vary greatly so it would be difficult to ascertain what is a reasonable price to pay for each machine but any help is greatly appreciated.

Thank you all and i hope to be posting fairly regularly soon regardless of if i get a machine or not i will be undertaking some leather projects using the most versatile piece of equipment of them all, my hands haha.

Edit: Is it a good idea to start off by doing things by hand then move on to using machines?

Edited December 5, 2014 by Mus

[Wizcrafts]

The Singer 211 might do for you, as long as it has a triple feed walking foot system. Otherwise, the Mitsubishi 350 might work on your stuff. Note, it only has top and bottom feed, with a fixed needle and inside foot. The other machines look like bottom feeders only.

Edited December 6, 2014 by Wizcrafts

[TwinOaks]

The running advice is "get more machine than you think you'll need". IMO, you should either bid on the two Wiz suggested, but put away every penny you can to save up for "enough machine", and budget at least $1000. Or, just take your budgeted $$ and put towards more machine. Call Steve Taryrian (Cobra Sewing machines) or Bob Kovar (Toledo industrial sewing) and see what they have in used machines. Trying to get a machine to do more than it's supposed to is just going to be a loooooong headace. Until then, start putting a % of what you're earning into a jar or box, and get a machine that comes with incredible customer service, and that is set up correctly when you get it...instead of picking up a second hand machine that you don't know it's maint. history. But, that's just my $0.02.