Older Industrial Cylinder Machine Recommendations

[abosely]

Hey all, could I get some help narrowing down what models to look at of older cylinder, compound feed with reverse machines?

For sewing heavy canvas duffel bags and such things. Max foot height of 3/8" would be fine, don't really need 1/2" if that makes a difference.

There's a lot of variations to try and figure out which models or sub-models have what.

I've been trying to do my own research, but still pretty clueless.

After reading some more I thought I should mention that if an older sewing machine isn't going to have reverse, can I use the hand crank to reverse sew enough to lock the stitch?

Cheers, Allen

Edited May 15, 2015 by abosely

[Constabulary]

Pfaff 335, 345 and Adler 69, 169, have all reverse. Consew 227 came with and without reverse (the ones marked with "R" have reverse). The Singer 153 is the only one (afaik) that never came with reverse. Then SEIKO, JUKI and so forth also made a similar model (don´t know all the model names). These are the most common ones you´ll find in used condition. Most machines have subclasses the subclass describes features that certain machines have.

There are of course many other brands (most are Chinese made clones of the Consew 227R) like Techsew 2700, Cowboy CB227R, Artisan...

Generally spoken non of the above machines are bad - it of course depends on their condition and how the machine is set up. Buying a used machine can be a gamble but you also can have a lot of luck.

I have bought all my machines used and all are working very well but they all needed some TLC

After reading some more I thought I should mention that if an older sewing machine isn't going to have reverse, can I use the hand crank to reverse sew enough to lock the stitch?

Well, there is a "Poor Mans Reverse" for machine w/o reverse sewing function. Just turn the work around and sew backwards. Or lift the foot and pull the work forward one or two stitches lower the needle into a hole one or two stitches back and sew forward again. But a machine with reverse is much more comfortable. Keep in mind that you sometimes have sewing situations where you can´t turn around the work f.i. when sewing close to hardware or so.

[Wizcrafts]

The older the machine, the less likely it is to have reverse. And no, you cannot reverse wheel the machine to sew backwards.

If you want a cylinder arm machine with reverse, buy something more recent (last five years or so). A Consew 227R, or clone, is exactly what you are looking for.

[Darren Brosowski]

It really comes down to the condition of the machine. If we were talking about an old school Singer or ADLER then they will probably run for another 100 years but newer machines were set up for higher speeds and have much higher wear rates.

Unless you are buying a machine from a dealer you trust and will warrant a second hand machine then it is probably cheaper to buy a new version fully set up with a servo motor.