Glenn Ashmore wrote:
Unfortunately here in Georgia all the rag shops packed up and moved to
Central America or China years ago. Virtually no surplus industrial
machines left around here.

The Singer shop let me bring a demo 550 and a few #18 needles home
for the weekend to try out. Last night I made, or more correctly,
butchered, a small box cushion out of some Sunbrella and V-92 thread.
To tell the truth, anything more powerful would scare the hell out of
me! :-)

The hardest part was closing up the last seam where it had to go
through 5 layers of Sunbrella and some Velcro and it didn't seem to
notice. I do see that at very low speeds it has trouble starting
through more than 5 layers.

Snip

The difference with industrial motors is that they are powerful enough not
to stall when using them to punch thru many plies of heavy fabric at slow
speeds, but such a motor would cost the earth and would be very heavy.

If the machine you are trying has a handwheel, (don't they all?), just help
the motor's torque by using your right hand. I know, you need 2 hands to
guide the fabric, but your left hand will soon get used to holding the stuff
under the needle, and always stop with the needle right thru the fabric so
that when you take away your right hand to turn the wheel the fabric plies
don't slip apart.

Industrial machines usually have Stopright motors which stop in the
needle-down position automatically to enable the operator to turn the fabric
with both hands.

Sounds like the 550 is your best bet, but how long will it take to recover
the cost, or does that not really matter?


Dennis.