SINGER 29-4 OWNERS PLEASE RESPOND

[billybopp]

A couple of years ago, I came across a 29-4 at a good price($350 IIRC) and thought about buying it.  In the end, after reading up on here,  I decided against it mostly because I don't have much space.  It seems that patchers are specialized machines - but for what they do they are THE tool for the job.  If I had the space, I'd love to have one for those special jobs - but not as my primary sewing machine.  

There are a huge number of 29-4s out there, they had a fairly long production run and were an indispensable tool in ever cobblers shop.  The disadvantage of the 29-4 compared to other later machines is that they are over 100 years old and most of them are pretty worn out at this point.   They have difficult to replace parts, and as they wear stitch length gets shorter and shorter.  Later versions were designed to be much more easily repairable, and would be a better choice for that reason. 

All that said, if I came across a -4 in really good shape and had the space I'd probably go for it!

Bill 

[Gunnarsson]

I might as well begin with saying I don't have a 29K or any other machine capable of sewing leather, but I have done the research and if I find one for the right price locally there's a good chance I'll buy it.

As the others have already said, the 29 is a handicapped machine, at least if you compare it to what lots of people ASSUME it can do just because it's built for sewing leather. The 29-series was designed for making repairs in hard to reach areas in relatively thin leather, they started making the 29 (UFA?) some time around 1870 (I'm sure someone else knows more specific) and while I believe Singer pulled the plug on the 29 sometime around the 1970s Adler has kept going with the Adler 30-series that is still in production. Sure, there has been alot of changes through the years, but the fact that a machine made in 2017 still carries the basic design and function from almost 150 years ago says alot about how good the machine is at doing what it was built to do. But that's just it, people see it doing a great job on patching things and thinks it'll do a thick gun holster, saddle, belt or whatever equally good -  it's a machine made for sewing leather so why wouldn't it be able to sew any kind of leather?

As R8R said, with industrial machines the tendency is that every machine is specialized to perform one task. It does just that, but it does it wonderfully well. When another task has to be done, you walk over to another machine made for that task - or rather, you send the work piece to the next worker sitting at the machine designed for doing the next task. The industry has little interest in machines that can do alot of diffrent tasks, they don't fit very well in modern manufacturing, so almost only the domestic market has interest in one single machine that can do as much as possible. Unfortunately, (as far as I know) there are no such domestic machines for sewing leather, so we have to compromize. That usually means buying old industrial machines, and limiting the kind of work we do to what the machine is able to do well enough.

I'd love to have a compound feed machine able to sew thick leather. Some day I might get one, but today I don't have the money and not really the space either. I don't really have the money even for a 29K at market value (space is easier, it doesn't have to sit on the treadle to be usable) but those come up for very little money occasionally, so I keep my eyes open just in case. It really is a limited machine in so many ways, but I might have fallen in love with it while I did the research. It can do some of the jobs I want to do so at the right price I think it still can be a good buy. And even if I find out I don't like it the market value for them is suprisingly high (possibly in part due to lots of people think they are way more capable than they in reality are) so if I buy at the right price I should be able to sell it on and even make a profit.

$200.00 is more than I'd pay, but it sounds low compared to most of the prices I've seen (especially in the US). If it's a working machine in descent condition it might still be a good idea to buy it. Try it out, see what it does, think about if you can use it to make money, if you decide you don't like it you should be able to move it along to someone else without losing money, possibly even making some. Assuming it's a complete and working machine, not too worn, and the value in your area is as high as I'm guessing.