Sewing Machines At Auction - Advice?

[Dan Miller]

Hi all,

I've only just started to think about acquiring a sewing machine, and have been trying to digest Wizcrafts's excellent series of posts. In the meantime, there has just been a local auction posted that is advertising "70 Singer heavy duty industrial sewing machines-dbl. & single needles" and "Consew Industrial sewing machines-dbl. & single needles."

For current projects, I am interested in being able to sew two layers of 9-10oz latigo and also to make heavy canvas carrying sacks with leather features for the campaign chairs I am making. Who knows where this will lead in the future.

Here is the link: http://brzostek.com/auctions/121715-ridgeline-industries-7173/ - can anyone look at the photos and let me know if any of the machines appear to be of the appropriate model, or alternatively, let me know which models I should be looking for during the preview?

Thank you very much!
Dan

[gottaknow]

They have a pretty good array of equipment there, a lot of the machines I have in my factory. The enormous red flag that I see is that a lot of the sewing machines, (in particular the Singer 300W chainstitchers, and the Singer 269 bartacks are in various stages of having been taken apart and left that way. Makes me believe whomever was in charge of their repair wasn't qualified. It appears their expertise was more geared to the frame construction and these are the machines I'd be interested in if I had an awning or tent business. For what you want to sew, I didn't see any cylinder machines, which you'd need for doing bags. The Singer and Consews I saw are worth no more than $300-$400, tops in good working order. You may want to check out a section or two of their cutting tables. They make great work stations. Sand them down a bit, treat with lemon oil and they'll last forever. They come apart in 4' sections.

Regards, Eric

[SARK9]

One of the pictures I have time to check, the one which has the link "ryan86" looks like a Singer 211G**6 walking foot model with reverse...it would be good for 3/8" total thickness with at least T135 thread. The one labelled "ryan93" is probably a Singer 107 zig-zag machine for fabric. Ryan83 shows several walking foot type machines from the back view (which you can't easily identify)....3 of them appear to also be Singer 211's of unknown version, the nearest in the foreground is a specialized machine for some proprietary or custom op. The Consew on ryan97&100 are double needles..ryan96 is a bar tacker....there are quite a few useful machines shown, but several specialized ones as well.

-DC

[gottaknow]

Hey DC,

That machine in the foreground of #83 is a Singer 300W. It's a multineedle chainstitch and we still use them in the factory for several operations. They are very versatile.

Most of the Consews I saw were the 327 class. These are Japanese clones of the Singer 212 double needles. They are ok machines, but not close to the durability of the Singers. They are needle feed machines.

I'd really like to look at some of their seam sealing equipment. Those have a lot of value and will likely sell for a fraction of their value.

Regards, Eric

[SARK9]

Eric- Yeah, no way could I ID that machine!

Its really pretty sad to see any of these guys go down hard like that.

If I took my checkbook inside that building, I'd probably join them in bankruptcy.

-DC

[Uwe]

I often visit Miami Sewing for a nice alphabetized sampling of upholstery/leather machines with a brief description and a ballpark figure to go with it. At least you can tell if something is in the hundreds or thousands value wise.That big white one stands out to me but I'm not sure how practical these monsters really are for our kind of leather work.

For leather work, a proper walking foot and cylinder arm is desirable, a chain stitch machine not so much (unless it's a precious Puritan, haha!).

At theses kind of auctions, it may be good to get three identical machines and then frankenstein one good one. The other two you can put on Craigslist and say "Sews Everything!" and "Works!", just like all the others do.

Edited December 5, 2015 by Uwe

[Darren Brosowski]

Often the machines at auction are the dead rubbish that the factory is finished with

[Dan Miller]

Thanks for all the replies.

Unfortunately, something has come up that will force me to miss the auction. :-(

Dan

[TinkerTailor]

Often the machines at auction are the dead rubbish that the factory is finished with

For sure. Any player as big as this would have had connections in the industry that for sure would have been offered equipment before the auction. There was a lot more stuff than is listed in this auction in that huge space. I bet an industrial sewing machine place has also picked over and bought all the machines worth refurbishing and re-selling. It may have been one of them that was grabbing extra parts off other machines for the machines they bought, hence the disarray of the machines that are left.

As GottaKnow has stated, those cutting tables do look nice however..... what is that end grain butcher-block table......Than thing is cool. I may have to build one similar out of 4x4's to replace the thumpin stump.

[TinkerTailor]

I often visit Miami Sewing for a nice alphabetized sampling of upholstery/leather machines with a brief description and a ballpark figure to go with it. At least you can tell if something is in the hundreds or thousands value wise.That big white one stands out to me but I'm not sure how practical these monsters really are for our kind of leather work.

Ever notice how many of the machines at miami sewing have the bottom half repainted and come without the table? I bet they are selling a bunch of machines that have flood damage. Garment districts are frequently near waterfronts and in flood areas and the southern US has had some nasty floods in the 15 years....

You also may have noticed they have 2 puritans, one at $1990 and one at $2450. Marked down from $11000 and $8500 respectively

Edited December 5, 2015 by TinkerTailor