New to sewing leather

[Uwe]

I know little about the TuffSew brand and they may actually be of poor quality. At the same time I'm suspicious of a discussion forum on the Sailrite company website where somebody just happens to ask about the quality of a direct competitor brand. It's like logging into a die-hard Chevrolet forum and asking about the latest Ford truck. Nothing good will be said.

[Art]

Jane,

Now putting aside a mountain of animosity between Jerry and I, it looks like he might have his act together now, and has recovered from some health problems that really got him down in the past.  He has a portable machine he calls the  335 B BT Transportable which looks like son of Pfaff 335 and if it comes from where I think it does, will be a very good machine.  I like his transportable/luggable setup for this machine if you have a limited space.  Good strong motors too, shouldn't need the speed reducer.

Art

[Uwe]

Hey, that looks oddly familiar!

 

Edited May 9, 2016 by Uwe

[Tejas]

21 hours ago, Uwe said:

I know little about the TuffSew brand and they may actually be of poor quality. At the same time I'm suspicious of a discussion forum on the Sailrite company website where somebody just happens to ask about the quality of a direct competitor brand.

I agree in principal, but I've followed the Sailrite forum for a long time. There are many branded machines similar to Sailrite machines from the same factory at lower prices, but do not seem to have as bad a reputation -- Barracuda for example. Try the following in google and result is not as pejorative as for TuffSew:

barracuda site:forum.sailrite.com

 

Try others, I haven't.

I buy supplies from Sailrite, but not sewing machines. Given the right situation, I might.

 

 

[Uwe]

I got my FamilySew clone of the Sailrite to work and it's okay, but compared to a Juki class machine it just seems crude, weak, and noisy. I think I'm going to make a NYC-apartment-sized portable tabletop setup for my Juki class machines, similar to this concept mock-up pictured below. Weight will be a few pounds higher (just invite that friendly bodybuilding neighbor over for a protein shake), cost will be similar to a new high-end Sailrite, but machine and stitch quality will be significantly better. You'd loose the knee-lift, but then the Sailrite type machines don't have that, either. 

 

[SARK9]

I remember this one, which in its black carrying case, certainly has to be the *anti-featherweight*.

 

-DC

 

 

http://leatherworker.net/forum/topic/18245-rare-portable-full-industrial-juki-lu-562-with-dayton-gearmotor/#comment-118457

 

[Uwe]

That Juki-In-A-Box is indeed a nice and compact setup! I hadn't seen that one before. 

[Coeta]

Uwe...what motor is set up with this Juki? This looks like a very nice compact portable system.

[Uwe]

The motor in the mock-up picture is actually a stepper motor that I had used in another project. I used it for the mock-up because it's similar in size and weight to modular servo motor setups like the Consew CMS1000, which I had used on the Adler 69 setup shown earlier in the thread.

Here's the project I used the stepper motor in: