What about this machine?

[WoodysWorkshop]

Seen this on Ebay, the seller has a few different ones. Looks like it sews pretty heavy stuff, but I know nothing about sewing machines of any kind.

It seams like a decent price to me, but like I said, I know nothing about machines.

Not really in the market for a machine at the moment, but one never knows what tomorrow will bring.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/201994142319?ul_noapp=true

[mikesc]

Domestic old iron singer sewing machine, not heavy duty, "industrial strength "means nothing, it is either a domestic machine ' which this one is ) or an industrial ( which this one is most definitely not ) being sold by a scammer..it would just about sew 1 or 2 oz garment leather and the leather would be slipping all over the place while it was doing it..when ever you see a pile of coins next to the needle.. run.the "powerful motor" will be a 80 or 90 watt "pot" motor stuck on the back of the machine, about as big as a tea cup..Industrials have the motor ( usually clutch type unless it has been replaced by a servo motor ) under the table, the clutch motor alone weighs more than this guys domestic singer 15 series machine.

ps..Most of us here have a domestic singer 15 series ( I have a 15 88 with a treadle ) around somewhere along with our  industrial machines..they are less than half the size and less than 20% of the power of even our medium strength industrial machines.

this thread will explain what machine you need to sew leather.

 

Edited September 25, 2017 by mikesc

[Wizcrafts]

Photos can be deceiving. In the case of the eBay domestic sewing machines shown sewing leather, what you don't know is that the maximum thread size is #69 bonded. That thread has about 11 pounds breaking strength. The largest needle for these machines is a #18, which is perfect for #69 thread.

Like all domestic sewing machines, this one has bottom feed and a fixed presser foot. All the motion comes from the bottom. The foot's job is to hold down the leather as the stitches are formed. But, leather can be sticky on top, or very dense. If this is the case, the foot pressure needs to be cranked all the way down. This impedes the transporting of the bottom feed dogs, which were designed to feed cloth.

As a side note to the tiny built in motors on the 15-91. They emit an awesome plume of smoke when the blow up from straining to sew hard or thick leather! The smell fills the house or shop with wondrous odors of burnt wiring.

[DJole]

31 minutes ago, Wizcrafts said:

As a side note to the tiny built in motors on the 15-91. They emit an awesome plume of smoke when the blow up from straining to sew hard or thick leather! The smell fills the house or shop with wondrous odors of burnt wiring.

heh! I can just picture this happening (and I bet you were there to see it happen!)

[Constabulary]

 

[dikman]

Just as well you asked first, or you would have been very disappointed if you'd bought it. The little motor on the back is a dead giveaway, it's a domestic. I notice that the seller doesn't actually mention the model number anywhere.

Many will advertise them as "industrial quality", "semi-industrial" or "light industrial", all of which are meaningless terms when it comes to sewing machines. As Mike said, they are either domestic or industrial. Full stop.

Wiz, we used to refer to that smell as a "dark brown smell", it always seemed apt when something electrical cooked itself.

[trash treasure]

NOT a Singer - It's a Japanese 15 class clone.

OK domestic machine, but as other's say, not even remotely close to industrial.

[Cascabel]

   Always bear in mind that there is no such thing as an "Industrial Strength" machine, and just because it is made of cast iron, and painted black does not make it a real industrial machine.  Many of them are Grandma's old sewing machine that showed up at a yard sale.   EBAY and Craigslist sellers lie !!   The old domestic machines are excellent within their limitations, but none of them are real "Leather" or "Industrial" machines.    A simple way to tell is that if the motor is the size of a man's fist, and attached to the back of the machine, it is a domestic machine.  Real industrial machines have a motor the about the size of your head mounted underneath the table. And real industrial machines are NEVER designed to fold down into the cabinet like a domestic.   They are much too heavy !!

 

    Another consideration is that the thickness a machine can handle is dictated by the fact that MOST, but NOT ALL machines release the thread tension as the foot rises either by the thickness of the material being sewn, or when climbing over a thick section like a seam.   This can cause skipped stitches and a host of other problems, such as tangles on the back side.  This applies to both domestic and industrial models.   This is a feature of the design of most machines, allowing easy removal of the work from under the foot when raising the foot manually when done sewing.   Some machines, like my Singer 42-5 can sew as much thickness as you can jam under the foot, as it does not have this tension release feature.

[Northmount]

On 9/25/2017 at 4:33 AM, dikman said:

Wiz, we used to refer to that smell as a "dark brown smell", it always seemed apt when something electrical cooked itself.

When you let the smoke out, it quits working! 

And off topic, electronics are nothing but smoke and mirrors.  So when you let the smoke out ...

Tom

[Darren Brosowski]

"Industrial Strength" or "Semi Industrial" are the sign that it it is a scammer. These are great little machines and I often suggest that they are a great starting point to learn the basics of sewing and how a machine works. They can even be useful for wallet liners and such but they are not worth a great deal of money.

Stay away from the 15-91 with the built in motor. Buy a machine from an op-shop for $20 and replace the motor with a 180W version.