Newbie High Lift ,walking Foot Sewing Machine Recommendations Needed

[carolem]

Hi, I am new to the board and heavier weight sewing, but have been sewing light weight projects since Home Economics class way back when you had to take shop or home ec in HS.

I have been studying the messages on this board for about a year now. I have been very grateful for all of the tips on tools and places to buy them reasonably.

I have come to a point in my projects that I need to upgrade my sewing machine to a machine that is capable of also doing more heavy duty (thicker) sewing. I have been using a Sailrite LSZ-1 for about 4 years. I love it. It is small, easy to use if you are familiar with sewing with a home sewing machine. It is easy to maintain, easy to get repair parts for and lots of information so that you can easily repair it yourself. Thankfully beyond oiling , replacing a shuttle, feed dog and strike plate, everything has been good. Not to mention that it looks ok setup in the bedroom.

I sew horse tack made out of synthetic webbing with a light weight trim on top for bling. The machine I have ,has been great when working with the lighter weight materials, but I am very limited to the thickness of material I can sew with it. I need a machine that can use V69-V139 thread with needle sizes 18-22. Any size needle greater than 20 punches too big of a hole in the decorative trim. I need it to be able to handle ¾” thickness of material and be able to go slow enough to enable the precision sewing that needs to happen on a narrow length of trim. I Really NEED a flat table attachment because most of my sewing needs the support versus a cylinder. I change top colors of thread often so I need something that does not take 30+ minutes to try and thread it through the needle and get the tension setup . I would prefer something very easy to maintenance versus having to practically take something apart to everytime I have to oil it. I am short, with lots of old age arthritis in knees and back so need to sit while sewing. Needle strikes happen, so it would be nice if I have to debur the shuttle it can be easily done and replacement parts are easy to buy and not $$$ to buy. I need a detail manual with pictures to show threading, maintenance etc.

It seems from what I have been reading on the forum board, I need to be looking at a Techsew 5100 SE, Cobra 4p or Cowboy CB3500. I live in Dallas/Ft Worth, Texas. I went to the local industrial sewing machine stores. None of them had any of these brands, but had their own style clones. I was shocked at how HUGE the clone of the Cowboy CB3500 was even with the shorter arm. Even the sales person thought it was too big for me, but the table top Juki did not have the lift needed to go through the material when it was folded over in a 3 layer. If the 9 inch arm machine is that huge, I can only imagine how big the 16.5 arm is going to be. This is going in my house, not the garage. It would be so much better if it did not look like I have something that should go out in the very cold or very hot shop instead of my comfortable bedroom. I would so prefer to buy local because of the horror stories I have read concerning people getting bad reducers or taking days trying to get something setup and the tension right to sew something, not to mention getting repairs done without having to pay an arm and a leg for shipping. I think the Techsew 5100 is the very top of what I am going to be able to pay.

Any recommendations for machines that can do what I need and places to buy would be appreciated. Thank you so much!