patria Report post Posted February 21, 2017 (edited) Another newb questions Is there any consequences (function/mechanical) short term or on the long run if we use zig zag or double needle sewing machine to primarily sewing straight single stitch on a daily basis ? I was eye ing on juki lzh-1290 on my father's warehouse yesterday Its not that i dont have a single needle machine to do the work but Im just curious if anybody here have the experience before on this particular matter Patria Indonesia Edited February 21, 2017 by patria Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
cdthayer Report post Posted February 21, 2017 Your stitches may look different between the SS and the ZZ machines. I don’t have any experience with your zigzag machine brand, but I have run into that using a Singer 20U zigzag machine for straight stitching. It’s an older 1960s machine (doesn’t have the second knee-operated cam for varying the zz width) that is equipped with a zz needle plate, zz feed dog, and a zz foot. We tried to use it for hemming jeans using Tex80 jean thread in a size 18 needle, but the stitches underneath all come out slanted. The way that we sew our hems, the underneath stitches are what end up showing to the outside, so we need them to look nice. It was a good excuse for me to substitute a Singer 95-40 straight stitch machine for the jeans hemming, and absconding with the 20U for my treadle zigzag machine for other sewing. It’s interesting that we have a newer 1990s Singer 20U33 zigzag machine at a second location that has been used for jean hems for several years, and they come out great. Besides the ages of the machines, the newer machine came with optional ss needle plate, ss feed dog, and ss foot. The other difference, that may have made the most difference come to think of it, is that we’ve always used a size 20 needle in that newer machine. Anyway, keep in mind that we’re sewing a woven fabric and not a dense material like leather, so our needle holes heal themselves if they’re too big. I don’t know what our stitches would look like in leather, but it seems that even most household zigzag machines have a slight slant to the stitches instead of nice straight stitches that a straight stitch only machine can produce. I don’t think that using a zz machine all of the time for ss will hurt the machine, although the zz mechanism probably won’t work as well if you ever try to use it later. The worst thing for a zz machine is lack of exercise for the zz linkage, and they tend to not respond well after a long period of non-use. I don’t have any experience with a double-needle machine. CD in Oklahoma Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
patria Report post Posted February 22, 2017 (edited) Thx for your sharing @cdthayer The juki lzh 1290 i mentioned before apparently is in such a bad shape, had some sloppy feel while turining the wheel by hand and weird clicking sound from the inside But i just found a "little" zig-zag sewing machine that looks like doesn't through many miles on the right wing section, its a brother tz1 b652, through further googling this particular brother much known as a sailrite sailmaker model My wife wants it to learn to make patchworks cushion covers, but i think she wants it mainly because she think its a cute little sewing machine unlike my previous juki bartacker that she counts it as a bahemoth that occupies our tiny livingroom Upon brief initial trial the machine have no trouble making good stitches on 2 plies of 2mm garment leather straight or zig-zag She will use this brother tz1 b652 a while, and i will keep an eye to see if its up to the task for making more straight stitches than a zig-zag I will post tje pict as soon as the machine cleaned and installed to the table Edited February 22, 2017 by patria Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
