BoatBanter.com - View Single Post - Sewing Machine ,, Sailing,,, Repair ,, cloth,, etc question

In article ,
says...

Hi Thomas,

My wife and I bought a new chinese industrial machine off of
EBAY for ~$300. We were doing a couple of covers out of
Sunbrella, and her hi-end Pfaff machine was not cutting it.
Fifteen years ago we completely reupholstered our old boat
using her Singer machine, and it was not as good as the Pfaff.

The industrial machine will sew practically anything you can
feed through it. When we got it we experimented and were up
to over 8 layers of heavy Sunbrella without even making it
breathe hard. BTW, we are using Tenara thread which is a
heavy Teflon thread (impervious to UV). We could never get
the Pfaff tension set right for this thread, and finally
gave up and bought the industrial machine. Believe me, it
was not for lack of trying. Also, the Pfaff motor was
really working hard punching through four layers of
Sunbrella, and pulling the heavy thread.

The chinese machine is not nearly as nice as the Pfaff in
terms of fit and finish, but it sure can sew.

YMMV

Is that a Yamata? We bought a new Yamata industrial machine from Harbor
Freight Tools. Despite the name it is a Chinese machine. With the table, which
is essential. it all cost some $500. 'Tis indeed a mighty brute. The motor
alone weighs 75 pounds. It is rated at 5,500 stitches a minute. Scares the
hell out of us and we have yet to use it. Can't find a user's manual. But we
look forward to doing a lot of uphosltery, biminis, dodgers, etc.