Slnger 20U

[john11139]

Is a Singer 20U powerful enough to make wallets on.  What is the heaviest material you could sew on it?  I have found several tow and truckers cargo straps over the years along the road.  Most are chewed up on the ends.  I have been taking them to a local upholstery shop to have a loop  sewed in them but is sort of expensive.  I use them on the farm .  They are handy for tying down brush,  wrapping around small trees and shrubs and pulling them out.   Some of them need the ratchet sewed back on.  I have had a few tow truck drivers ask me if I could patch up theirs.  I ran on to a Singer 20U. (waiting for some needles to arrive) and just wondering if I could make a couple dollars with it sewing up things like that.  It has the zig zag. Or would an old Thompson (about same as Sail Rite)  be better. (no zig zag.) I know you don 't like multipliable questions on here but I am going to throw one more at you.  I really admire the handy work and talent of many of you fellows on here and the time it takes to make an item.   But my question is, how can you make any money on that when you can go to a flea market or Facebook and buy a nice wallet or belt for $7. How do you market your product?  I am 81, self employed for 50 years, owned my own business but a few months ago I sold it on Doctor advice, as I was just too old to be doing manual labor.  So I am just looking for something I can do till they plant me on boot hill.  

[kgg]

23 minutes ago, john11139 said:

I have had a few tow truck drivers ask me if I could patch up theirs.

Patching a strap for yourself is at your own risk but doing it for someone else to be used in a commercial application like for a tow truck driver you could very well open yourself up to being liable should anything happen to a strap that you fixed up. The Singer 20U is a high speed drop feed machine made for light weight fabric and isn't really suited for much more. The machine was made to handle light weight threads and maxing out at V69 and a #18 needle much like your domestic sewing machines.

kgg

[CowboyBob]

6 minutes ago, kgg said:

Patching a strap for yourself is at your own risk but doing it for someone else to be used in a commercial application like for a tow truck driver you could very well open yourself up to being liable should anything happen to a strap that you fixed up. The Singer 20U is a high speed drop feed machine made for light weight fabric and isn't really suited for much more. The machine was made to handle light weight threads and maxing out at V69 and a #18 needle much like your domestic sewing machines.

kgg

He's right you need a way bigger machine than a 20U which is made for sewing clothes.Look for a big Singer 7 class ,you need to use a large size #346 thread to be sure your stitching will hold on these straps.On real light duty rachet straps rated for 3-600 lbs 69 "might" work in a pinch as long as you had alot of lines 4-5" long ,close together the width of the strap probably like a 2" wide one,but the wider HD type of strap needs thicker thread.