Specialty equipment: leather buttonhole machines

[regius]

In the coat/jacket making world, to own a button hole machines seems to mean a great deal, that you are at the ultimate level of equipmentation. 
The well known Reece buttonhole machine seems to be getting old and is finicky and hard to find part, although the same company seems to be still making modern versions out of Europe. In Texas, there's a Demstron brand, machines are made in China but some jacket makers love their teardrop buttonholer, also it's the cheapest.

I want to hear if anyone uses the Dematron machine, or other keyhole/teardrop/jean button hole machines. I mean, these machinese are highly complex and not like a seing machine you can service (of course, it's possible to learn one day), but they seem to offer remote/video conference service helps.

https://www.demasewingautomation.com/products/industrial-sewing-machine/industrial-sewing-machine/keyhole-buttonhole

[Kwaaked]

Not for leather, but I looked into them for my regular clothing shop and for denim work.  In the end I opted not to buy one.  For one, I have a dedicated domestic 99 for buttonholes for regular clothing and set it up all the time, and a 201 that I can change out for denim and light leather since both are short shank machines.  I can also put it on a treadle class 15 or a Davis even feed if I need more precision/finer material.  For another, none of these machines do a button hole as well as the Singer cams do, IMO.

If I take my time and use the right needle and thread, I can get my 201 to do holes on 18-24 oz denim and can do eyelets on 2-3 oz soft leather (or garment weights).  And there are tricks you can utilize, like grading seams, will help.

As far as it being a status symbol...it depends on the shop/person.  I was more interested in a press for rivets, buttons and grommets then I was a stand alone button hole machine, but the nature of my work is more in line with adding buttons to jeans (repair and my own brand), grommets to corsets and corset back for gowns, drapery and adding rhinestones than button holes.  In the end, my shop makes a lot more money off the press (even buying dies) then I do with buttonholes.

If you can afford it and you'll get a great deal of use out of the machine, the demo I saw was wonderful for the Dematron and if money wasn't an object and I didn't have to have machines pay for themselves in the long run, I'd get one.  As it stands, I don't do the business to justify one.

 

[ButtonLady]

11 hours ago, Kwaaked said:

I was more interested in a press for rivets, buttons and grommets then I was a stand alone button hole machine...

Which press did you end up buying?

[Kwaaked]

One from Gold Star Tool, foot press with stand.  And yeah, I know there is a huge price difference between the press and the buttonhole machine. 

[ButtonLady]

One of these days... (maybe) I'll convert my Fasnap hand machine into a foot press:

https://kamsnaps.com/blogs/news/how-to-mount-your-kam-table-press-to-a-foot-kick

[Kwaaked]

The amount of grommets I use, and what I use them on the majority of the time (large items) made more sense for a stand alone foot press so I could use both hands to hold the fabric.

The dies will eat you though regardless of what brand you use. 

[ButtonLady]

4 hours ago, Kwaaked said:

The dies will eat you though regardless of what brand you use.

I see you are familiar with my addiction...

My apologies for derailing the thread.  My mother's Kenmore buttonholer made perfect gorgeous buttonholes, and I destroyed it by using a too-long needle (modern "standard" needles are too long... who knew...).  At least the repair guy said it couldn't be salvaged, but he had huge stack of work to get to and I'm not sure it's true.

[Kwaaked]

I don't know.  I use modern Organs in a 1888, 1911, 1921 treadle, a 1938 featherweight, a 1950 201...and several other machines up to the 70s and never had a problem and my attachments are everything from Singer, Greist, Ruby and Kenmore and nothing ever got damaged from use.

[ButtonLady]

9 hours ago, Kwaaked said:

I use modern Organs in a 1888, 1911, 1921 treadle, a 1938 featherweight, a 1950 201...and several other machines up to the 70s and never had a problem...

1962 Kenmore straight-stitch, probably made by White.  Unfortunately, I remember the needles were short and the last one was on the machine when it went to the (first) repair shop.  Then to the second shop to repair the damage done by the first (seriously)... and there's more but that's enough.

[chrisash]

Intrigued to find out how you get a 99 or 201 to sew buttonholes, Prey tell