Which leather sewing machine?

[sulla]

My work centers around turn shoes both historical and modern.  While I'be been hand sewing them for years, I'd like to get a machine to do some of the more modern designs I've been working with.  I was hoping you all might have suggestions?

I'd like to sew my uppers through the insole to the sole and maybe have a welt in there sometimes.  I work in mostly veg tan cow hide soles (8-10oz) with 4-6 oz uppers in veg tan cow hide, buffalo, oil tanned hides, and sometimes kangaroo. 

I've looked at the Tipman hand crank machine, the stuff on Amazon, Cobra... I have about $1-$3K budget.  Should I just get a solid old metal singer or a $3,000 harness stitcher?

 

[sulla]

Better yet, Instead of which machine I should buy, What should I stay away from?  What are some criteria I should keep in mind while shopping around?  Solid metal construction, brand names, manufacture location, needle type, walking foot?

[sulla]

Duh:

 

 

[TinkerTailor]

The two thoughts that came to me, but may be contradictory, are

1: The tipman can be brought into that teepee and you can make shoes there.

2: Most shoe people i have talked to prefer a post style machine to a cylinder arm.  Never made a pair of shoes, but from what I understand it allows them to stitch with nice side out in more circumstances, not having to work inside out like on a flatbed.

[tnhomestead]

I have a Boss, it takes some fine tuning, but works nice when set up. I like mine since it is portable and goes anywhere.

[sulla]

This machine will live in my home shop and be used for non-period turn shoes and projects.  Vikings didn't have sewing machines so it will not come with me to camp. 

[TinkerTailor]

Then skip the boss and get an electric if you can. There are plenty of situations where having both hands free to start a stitch is advantageous and after a while with the boss, you may end up feeling like leatherwork is like training for the world series of slot machines.

You have a bit of an issue and that is that the machines that are nice for doing shoe uppers are generally not tough enough to sew a welted sole on. The big heavy machines are just too cumbersome for delicate topstitching. Price wise, for your 3000 upper budget, you may be able to get 2 machines  to each do a particular job. For instance, a techsew 810 roller foot post bed machine will do the upper work and is 1500 US new with table and servo. Then get a used tougher machine to sew the uppers to the soles. These types of machines that do heavy work are known for marking the leather unless you open your wallet and get the desirable and more expensive compound feed ones with non marking feet. When sewing on the soles, marking is not nearly the issue as when topstitching an upper. Shoe makers have all sorts of fudge wheels and things to hide the marks on the shoes from heavy stitchers. A used heavier duty stitcher can be had with a table for under 1500 easily with some looking. Even less than a grand if you are lucky, which leaves 500 bucks for thread, servo if needed, needles and beer (or mead if it is more viking..)

[TrooperChuck]

I know lots of folks have had good success with the Tippmann Boss, but my personal experience with that machine was horrible.  When I first opened up my saddle shop I wanted to do all my stitching  by hand.  It wasn't long before I realized that hand-stitching wasn't going to allow me to keep up with the number of orders coming into my shop.  So, I bought a Tippmann Boss in the hopes it would speed up my production.

That turned out to be a $1500.00 mistake! 

The Boss I bought NEVER worked consistently.  I spent hours reading and re-reading owners manuals, watching how-to videos, and calling the Tippmann technical support guys.  NOTHING helped.  Within two months of purchasing the thing I stopped using it.  It's been sitting on a shelf, collecting dust, ever since. 

I subsequently bought a Cobra 4 stitching machine and I love that thing!  Works great, every time.