Off Grid Machine

[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.