Members SeminaryLeather Posted August 31, 2016 Members Report Posted August 31, 2016 (edited) Hey everyone, I've been doing leatherwork off and on for about a year now and have gotten pretty good at hand stitching. I'm looking towards making some Dopp kits and other items as gifts and saleable items and after crunching the numbers and the time I've discovered it's not really cost effective to do everything with hand stitching. However, I'm in that age old conundrum of wanting to buy a sewing machine, but needing to justify the cost to my wife. I'm asking for your recommendations not for a machine that will do the job well for decades, but for something that will do the job for a year or so that can help me build some capital for buying a dedicated leather sewing machine. Some examples of what I'm looking for are, some really sturdy straight stitch vintage Singers that your grandma had, off brand walking foot or pseudo walking foot machines like the Mercury 337, trashed machines that need some TLC but might run ok for a while. Do you guys and gals have any recommendations or cautions? Am I looking at this all wrong? Edited August 31, 2016 by SeminaryLeather Changed a word.
Members brmax Posted September 1, 2016 Members Report Posted September 1, 2016 Even in just cool looking big thread that's not strength needed, it takes a big machine no matter what. So above 138 thread period your in a big machine class as in X HD. In the same relation but other terms 1/4" above material thickness more than 40 % of the time your in the xhd needs. With either hd or xhd your going to need a speed reducer that actually is really needed for the power boost / low end torque. If you take a look at the sew machine forum area there is a great "sticky" at the top with a machine needs topic, its a pretty good read for study and some better choices to keep you from wasting your time and funds. good day there Floyd
MADMAX22 Posted September 2, 2016 Report Posted September 2, 2016 Well before you jump into needing a big ol saddle stitcher type machine, what is it that you are making? What weight leather and type? Big difference between 4 layers of 10oz vegtan and 3 layers of 2-3oz upholstery leather. How far you willing to drive and how much you willing to spend.
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