Off Grid Machine

[joecool911]

I'm looking for an income while living off grid. Decent solar system, but it would be nice to sew without electricity. Would be for holsters and other items, but they'd be the toughest and thickest items I'd sew. Considering the short amount of sewing time, makes sense to me to get a non electric machine. The Tippman Boss comes to mind, but this leaves only one hand to manipulate the leather. So I'm wondering about a treadle machine recommendation. Hope you guys have some good ideas. Have some other leather items which may be good to market as built in the USA with zero carbon impact.

[electrathon]

I think your only valid options are going to be the tip an or hand sewing. With a low end level of production, hand sewing is likely your best choice.

[joecool911]

Are there any electric machines with notably low amp draws?

[Uwe]

I can imagine a pedal driven setup similar to a kids pedal car or a regular bicycle that powers a regular sewing machine via belt pulleys. With the right size belt pulley or gear ratios you can sew nice and slow with plenty of torque and punching power. Most treadle machines will not have the right pulley gearing ratio to provide enough torque for sewing holsters. Of course pedaling while sewing may take a little practice. With the right (i.e. 1:1) gearing it may actually offer a nice synchronicity and needle positioning - pedal down = needle down, or something like that.

Servo motors only use noticeable electricity when you press the pedal. Even a 200W weakling of a motor can drive a sewing machine with a speed reducer.

Post some pictures of your solution before you totally disconnect from the grid!

BTW, I have a 7KW solar system with 55 megawatt-hours produced to date. I feel reasonably guilt-free driving my electric car around town. We're almost net zero, but not quite. Another 10 solar panels should do it, although I'm not planning to live off the grid.

Edited September 28, 2015 by Uwe

[coryleif]

Cf: http://leatherworker.net/forum/index.php?showtopic=42141

& Windham Cub: http://www.windhamcub.com/?page_id=16

And, then, there's always water power...

[penguineer]

I'm another vote for hand sewing. No power required.

For small projects like holsters and sheaths you would have less setup each time you go to work, the stitching is more secure and better stitch placement.

.....and I find it relaxing.....

Cheers!

[Colt W Knight]

I absolutely hate hand stitching, so I would go with the Tippman Boss. I think most of the machines you can find that already have a treadle and can sew leather would not come close to sewing a holster, and retrofitting an industrial leather machine to a treadle would probably work fine but be uneconomical.

[oltoot]

The Landis 3 was originaly set up with a treadle stand and once you get it figured out you can sew right along, there is a guy who regularly advertises in the Leather Crafters and Saddlers Journal who specializes in old Landis machines and I have heard that he even makes treadle stands. I believe that he is an Amish gentleman and off grid is nothing strange to him.

[Uwe]

That's the kind of pedaling setup I was thinking of, very cool!

[leecopp]

Dont forget our treadle sewing machine roots. I find that singer industrial sewing treadles can often be retrofit with a singer domestic band wheel yielding higher torque and slower speeds. The White Sit Straight (wide body) treadle is also suitable for standard Singer Industrial size machine and comes with the domestic band wheel. I have Singer 31-15, 42-5, 78-1 and 21W180 all running well under treadle power.

[Colt W Knight]

Dont forget our treadle sewing machine roots. I find that singer industrial sewing treadles can often be retrofit with a singer domestic band wheel yielding higher torque and slower speeds. The White Sit Straight (wide body) treadle is also suitable for standard Singer Industrial size machine and comes with the domestic band wheel. I have Singer 31-15, 42-5, 78-1 and 21W180 all running well under treadle power.

Are those big enought to sew holster welts?

[Ken Nelson]

Landis 1, is also a pedal machine and pretty reasonably priced if you find one that is not wore out. I have had a couple of Luberto Classics that worked good with a hand crank wheel or motor either one. without a motor dragging on it, it was really easy to turn and did a beautiful job of sewing. HTH Ken

[joecool911]

I am getting some good options here. Thanks!

Getting a sense of how hard the hand crank machines would be to operate is difficult without seeing one and operating one in person. I like the idea of a wheel that lends to adding a motor too.

Sounds like a servo motor would not draw all that much power. If I'm doing my old electronic math correctly about 700 watts. Not bad for the time you are actually sewing. Using a stand alone solar system and batteries might not be that extensive. We are considering moving to a property that is off grid. 3 mile driveway from county road.

[Uwe]

Oh dear, I didn't even realize I needed a pedal-driven Landis 1 or 3. This seems like a great option for a machine if you're gonna sew very thick leather without electricity, and they're reasonably priced to boot: This fellow has (or had) a Landis 1 for sale in Oregon ($900) I need a bigger basement.

Edited September 30, 2015 by Uwe

[tnhomestead]

I went with a Tippmann Boss just because I got a good deal on it, still havent used it -- need a needle, bobbin winder and thread. That said a lot of the local plain folks here by me either use treadle machines(just saw a nice Adler) or they use a driveshaft system and power from a gas or diesel motor.

We will be completely off grid when the new house is done.But only have about 1800 watts of panels to start with. Would probably have stayed on the grid, but the 6k to get electricity was too steep for me! Rather sink that ibnto the solar, and get some tax credits back.

I will say the converted machines do take some power to run, visited a local harness maker and when he started sewing you could hear the gas motor slow down for a second or 2!

[Itch]

I have a bunch of Amish friends that do not use electricity and they sew on 441 machines. They use a set of peddles and one fella that I know has a manual 3 speed car transmission hooked to the sewing machine. During the summer I have seen them take a blade from an old box fan and attach it to the flywheel to move air across them as well.

[oltoot]

The Landis 1 was a workhorse in it's day but that day has passed, the 3 is a needle and awl machine and a lot more modern but as the fellow said, the Amish are experienced in off grid sewing

[DrmCa]

Power rating of a 550 Wt servo motor means how much it consumes at full speed.

If you are stitching around 1 sps, it consumes close to nothing. And how long do you stitch for when working on leather? Few seconds here, few seconds there.

I would not be worried about that, your fridge and freezer draw much more power than a sewing machine.

Edited September 30, 2015 by DrmCa

[joecool911]

Sounds good! What kind of machine uses a servo motor like that and would be good for thin to thick leather? Might sew some wallet thickness projects in addition to holsters.

If the leather business is anything like other kinds of businesses, products more in the $30-$50 range might sell better and crank out fast. Cheap to ship too.

Edited October 2, 2015 by joecool911

[Colt W Knight]

Sounds good! What kind of machine uses a servo motor like that and would be good for thin to thick leather? Might sew some wallet thickness projects in addition to holsters.

If the leather business is anything like other kinds of businesses, products more in the $30-$50 range might sell better and crank out fast. Cheap to ship too.

A machine that is good for thick material like holsters is probably not going to work real well on wallet.

[joecool911]

well, lighter stuff can be hand sewn.

[Uwe]

I decided to actually measure my machine's power usage while sewing leather with a Consew CSM 1000 (550W) servo motor. It used between 24-60 watts sewing about 10oz. of soft leather.

Here's the quick-and-shaky handheld video:

Edited October 2, 2015 by Uwe

[joecool911]

Thank you. That's awesome Not much power use at all.

[chrisash]

But what is the power for starting which is far more interesting. as with all machines once up and running its easy but getting that first stitch uses much more energy

[DonInReno]

I realize this post has a lot of dust on it, but it made me smile nonetheless - picturing Uwe and the Amish pedaling a 441 was worth the cost of admission!  

I’ve been involved in a number of off the grid houses - in some very rural places in the Rocky Mountains and Alaska it’s correct to simply say “houses” since the “off the grid” is normal.  What comes to mind right away is that self produced electricity is becoming less expensive every year as the solar industry expands, improves, and second hand equipment is becoming readily available for pennies on the dollar.  

Unlike many things we’ve built into houses that have a known lifespan, it’s a crapshoot to know how long the solar panels and converters are going to hold up and much of the used stuff has many years left in them.  An Electrican friend has some 10 and 20 year old panels that he says are undistinquishable from each other in performance or reliability.  His big 110 volt inverters were sold with a 10 year expected lifespan - zero downtime in the 20 years he’s used them.

For recreational, off the grid, and the sailing crowd I predict we’ll see similar lithium ion technology like that available in the professional grade hand-held brushless hand drills and other tools....a “universal” integrated removable battery/brushless motor with a very compact variable speed input adaptable to all sorts of power tools, lights and other things that have motors and traditionally were hard wired.  Within construction, individual carpenters are collecting increasing numbers of cordless tools and even more batteries.  You’d think since lithium ion batteries have so much more capacity we’d need less of them, but since they are used more often large battery collections are becoming the norm.