Dennis Pogson wrote:
Mark wrote:

Glenn Ashmore wrote:

I need a machine for making cockpit cushions, canvas items
around the boat and minor sail repairs. I know I need zigzag,
enough power to make it through 5 or 6 layers of Sunbrella and maybe
a walking foot but that's about it.

Might be worth looking into an ancient home machine. I bought a used
all metal 1950-60s ziz-zag two speed no walking foot Viking-Husqvarna
21E home machine for $80 15 years ago for a cabin cushion project,
figuring if it blows up I'm still ahead of the game. It was over
$1000 new in 1960 dollars. Many sail repair, canvas, flagmaking,
camping gear and clothing repair projects later the thing is still
chugging along, needing only light bulbs (hard to find) every five
years or so.

Five or six layers of Sunbrella in low gear is doable, multiple cloth
+ leather-foam-adhesive-plastic window type sewing requires "helping"
with the hand wheel, broken needles, swearing and lots of time but is
also doable. The key is the right "denim" or "ball point" type
needle, swedish are best, Singers suck.

The downsides:
- It's slow
- The stitch length and zig-zag width aren't as large as commercial
sail machine
- The small bobbin means you're endlessly refilling the bobbin on 30+
foot seams
- No walking foot means you're "helping" the cloth through on thick
stuff
- Thread tension controls weren't meant for big thread-thick cloth
jobs, touchy
- Small work surface means keeping things organized requires lots of
pins
- Small throat means creative stuffing on large things, middle of
sails being near impossible

Upsides:
- It's an $80 throw away
- Only 30 pounds or so
- Compact, easy to store
- Fairly low wattage, works fine on a 1000 watt inverter, because of
intermittant load
- No computerized crap or plastic, all mechanical, screwed together
fixable
- Has attachments that will do lots of non-manly sewing, double
needle, rolled, edge, flat felled seams, darning, buttons, fancy
zig-zagging, and I lot of stuff I don't understand. The ladies love
it; I've had SailRite equipped boats borrow mine so the better half
can make, repair and enhance delicate things.

Bought mine at a sewing machine repair store; Ebay might not be such a
good idea as you may get a clunker. Probably more than $80 now, but
the codger told me women turn in their 60's machines for the latest
feature laden Singer, even though the old machine still has a lot of
life in it and is a hell of a lot tougher.

P.S., sewing is a skill and there's a learning curve involved; I'm
just marginally competent and have a lot of respect for the experts.
Some things to key on a finished outside surface vs. inside
surface, lay, seam allowance, thread tension control and shrink. I
still rip out about 10% of my seams and redo because of goofups.
Worst stab is when you make a mirror image of the item you wanted to
make, you know, seams on the outside and such.


Automobile factories use lots of sewing machines, and replace them
regularly, long before they are worn out.

You need to find somone who knows someone who knows someone
else.......................

Dennis.



If you could work your way through the 'six degrees of separation' that
supposedly link everyone.. you'd find your connection.