Hot Rod Forum banner

What are you using for sewing machines?

24K views 27 replies 13 participants last post by  Coodeville 
#1 ·
Hey guys, I'm wanting to do some upholstery on the side (yes, I do know how to sew...LoL) and wondering what machines you guys are using so I can get a good idea of what to look for. I'm not looking for the pnumatic machines that run off of air...just a nice Juki or Consew or something. Thanks for the help in advance!
 
#2 ·
Do you know how to sew with an industrial machine? The difference between a home machine and an industrial machine is like the difference between a ferrari and a motor scooter. You are looking for an industrial compound walking foot machine with reverse. Compound feed is a combination of needle feed (the needle moves perpendicular to the bed of the machine pushing the work forward) and drop feed (employing feed dogs to also push the work forward). Most of the machines like that are copies of the original Singer 111W. Newer Consews are made by Seiko in China, and are not as good as they used to be, so if you're looking for a Consew, find an older one. I have a Consew 226 and a Consew 255RB-3. Consew also makes a 206, but it has a vertical bobbin that loads from the left side of the needle, and I don't care for that configuration. I like a horizontal bobbin that loads from the right of the needle, but that's just my personal preference. Juki makes a good machine, as does Pfaff. The Pfaff 1245 is a great workhorse of a machine.

Whichever machine you decide to get, if it still has a clutch motor, replace it with a servo motor. Clutch motors are either on or off at full speed, and the only way to slow the machine down is by slipping the clutch which requires a lot of experience. Servos are much easier to control because they are true variable speed constant torque devices. The less you push on the pedal, the slower the machine sews, and most servos have a rheostat to adjust the speed range even further.
 
#3 ·
I just bought one. Been using it for about a month. All i can say is wow. What a difference from my old Pfaff and Singer. Very happy with it so far. I did put an under drive pulley on. Because it was way to fast for my skill level. Bought off of ebay. With servo motor. Its a seiko. It does say made in Japan on it. The table did come from Chine. Great machine though. Model # STH-8BLD-3. Good people to deal with. Machine is very heavy. Like 80LBs worth. Altogether i probably have 1500 in it with gearing it down and all of the feet i needed. But it will sew anything you put under it and do a nice job. http://cgi.ebay.com/SEIKO-Walking-F...5|66:2|65:12|39:1|240:1318|301:1|293:1|294:50
 
#5 ·
Yes, I do know how to use an industrial sewing machine...that's all I've ever used. I do work at an upholstery shop, but my boss is super busy lately with other stuff and doesn't have time to help me buy a machine. I don't remember the model numbers we use at work, but they are all industrial Jukis and Consews with a few Brothers, but the Brothers are not walking foot machines...smooth as hell though!
 
#6 ·
That's what i heard. Never have even seen one till i bought mine. Dan you know more about these machines then i ever will. If i had it to do over. I wouldn't buy the servo motor i have. I'd get one like yours Dan. A Little more money. But i hear its much better motor. Only about 20 to 30 bucks more. They charged me 99 dollars extra for this one. My machine does have bobbin to the left and is a pain to load a times. Is a pretty cool toy. :)
 
#7 ·
I have a singer 251-12 which was "ok" and I managed to get my seat covers for the front buckets sewn with it but wasn't easy. Not to mention getting used to it vs a home machine and I never really did much on a home machine either. I'm waiting on a 111W155 to get here so I can figure it out.

I can't afford a servo motor at the moment but somewhere read that some foam stuck under the back of the foot pedal helps and it sure did. I had a hard time starting and sometimes would go too far and be like stomping the gas on a jet or something! The foam gives me a little more resistance to keep it under control better. Should be interesting getting used to a whole different style of machine but sure should make things easier when sewing vinyl once I do a bit of practicing.

Deb
 
#8 ·
I know its not an industrial machine - but I just picked up a Singer 66-16 that works great on my leather vest. The vest is thicker than automotive leather. I converted it to a handcrank. the motor was too touchy/feely for me. I have more control with the hand crank. What a nice tight stitch!
 
#9 ·
Any sewing machine, even the smallest home type machine, will sew two pieces of upholstery leather together. You run into problems when you try to sew two pieces of leather with 1/2" sew foam attached to them together.

The thicker the fabric you sew together, the tighter the stitch will be if you don't adjust the machine to what you are sewing. That's not necessarily a good thing in most cases. Too tight a stitch can cut into what you are sewing and damage it.
 
#10 ·
In my case, I had picked up my machine before I found this board so I had gone with the recommendation of a local store - the machine I've got is Sailrite's LS-1 Ultrafeed. A little bigger than a home machine, a lot heavier duty, and easy to stow away in a closet when not in use. So far, anything I've stuck under the foot (it's a walking foot, but not compound feed) has not slowed it down - 2 pieces of 4 oz leather (with a standard needle as an experiment), 10 layers of heavy vinyl/canvas, vinyl & sewfoam, etc. Haven't tried plywood yet but I'd imagine it wouldn't even notice.

You can see it behind the shifter boot I made for a friend of mine (black marine vinyl with #92 blue poly thread). This is just after I added the 7 lb balance wheel with handcrank upgrade (vs the original plastic wheel).
 

Attachments

#13 ·
Brimstone said:
In my case, I had picked up my machine before I found this board so I had gone with the recommendation of a local store - the machine I've got is Sailrite's LS-1 Ultrafeed. A little bigger than a home machine, a lot heavier duty, and easy to stow away in a closet when not in use. So far, anything I've stuck under the foot (it's a walking foot, but not compound feed) has not slowed it down - 2 pieces of 4 oz leather (with a standard needle as an experiment), 10 layers of heavy vinyl/canvas, vinyl & sewfoam, etc. Haven't tried plywood yet but I'd imagine it wouldn't even notice.

You can see it behind the shifter boot I made for a friend of mine (black marine vinyl with #92 blue poly thread). This is just after I added the 7 lb balance wheel with handcrank upgrade (vs the original plastic wheel).
This looks like a very well built machine, and would do well for furniture upholstery. The problem with this machine is that it only has 7 1/2" space to the right of the needle, and for auto upholstery, that would be tough to use. It only has 5/16" of lift, and only has a 1/10th HP motor. It costs around $700.00. If anyone is really serious about doing auto upholstery, I would suggest spending a few hundred dollars more for a larger industrial machine that has 2 1/2" more space to the right of the needle, 1/2 HP motor, and 7/16" of lift to allow you to get more thicknesses of fabric under the foot. I'm also wondering if there are very many different feet available for this machine. That can make a huge difference for many different things that need to be sewed for a car's interior.
 
#14 ·
Yea, I kinda have to agree with ya on your points - I had attempted my first seat cover (90-ish Cavalier bucket) last weekend and the limited space on the right really made things interesting. I will say that I was able to cram 3 layers of 1/2" sewfoam/gripstitch and vinyl assemblies under the foot, but ya had to watch and make sure it fed correctly and didn't get hung up. I will say that the smaller HP motor was perfectly adequate for what I've done so far. There's 2 sets of belts/pullies so it's geared down quite a bit for the increased torque - don't know how the speed compares to a real industrial machine except that it's plenty fast for my skill level.

As for feet, its got the standard, left-zipper, right-zipper, and leather foot - mainly the basics. The leather foot doesn't have the sharp teeth that the standard one does, and both the leather & standard have channels for piping.

It works good for shifter boots, though :D
 
#15 ·
Brimstone said:
There's 2 sets of belts/pullies so it's geared down quite a bit for the increased torque - don't know how the speed compares to a real industrial machine except that it's plenty fast for my skill level.
The Sailrite has a max speed of 600 stitches per inch, and a regular industrial sewing machine will do 3000 stitches per inch. Not that the speed makes a difference, no one can sew at the max speed for very long. Your machine is geared down so that you are getting 1.5 ft. lbs of torque out of it, which is the same as a 1/2 hp motor with no gear reduction.
 
#17 ·
If it's a Rex 11-155R or a Nakajima DBU-180L, it is like a Consew 205RB, which would make it a compound feed walking foot machine. That would work fine for auto upholstery.
 
#20 ·
Sewing machine

As you can see, sewing machine preference is about the same as do you drive a ford or Chevy. If you work in a shop that uses Juki, you may be more comfortable using a Juki.

I worked for 40 years and my choice was always Pfaff. Everyone says parts are expensive, but many are available as generic parts, including presser feet. I started on a Pfaff 145, but as soon as the 545 came out with a 50% larger bobbin, that was a no brainer. The initial 1245 had automatic oiling for the bobbin. They eventually moved away from that.

With the Pfaff's there are H3's and H4's. The H3 doesn't lift as high as an H4 and they take different needles. I prefer the H4. The newest 1245 has reverted back to the H3 lift height.

The key is it makes life easier if the machine is a walking foot, whether it is a Pfaff, Juki, Consew or Singer.

Hope the helps.

Steve M
 
#21 ·
Yes, the Pfaff parts are more expensive, but not ridiculously expensive. A welt foot for a Consew, Singer, or Juki is $18.95, and the same thing for Pfaff is $29.95. The Pfaff machines are great machines, and that is what I learned on. All of these machines are basically copies of the original Singer 111W, which has been the workhorse of the industrial sewing machine world for a long, long time. Any of them will work well for you, especially if you are only using the machine for your own use, and not making a living with it.
 
#22 ·
I bought the Tacsew T111-155 pictured below to do my first interior. I selected this machine based on a number of recommendations by members here on HR.Com.

It is a walking foot, compound feed machine with 1/2" clearance under the presser foot. I also got the optional 3/4 hp servo motor. The total cost, with server, shipped to my door was just a hair under $950 and I got it from SewingGold.com

As a totally rookie the servo motor was really a life saver. But even with a servo, I still fabricated an adjustable stop (shown in second photo below) to limit the maximum speed I could run the machine. It takes some practice to get used to the touch of the servo and I would occasionally give it way too much gas and things would sort of get away from me. So the adjustable stop has been really helpful.

I've had a great time sewing with this machine and it handled everything I threw at it with ease. Any and all flubs on my interior were totally due to the operator...not the machine.



 
#24 ·
Sewing machines

AS one of the subscribers mentioned, many machines are copies of various Singers. Just by the model number of yours, I would say that was the case.

I have heard that Tacksew was a nice machine. In 40 years, I have never worked with a servi motor. We had machines that would do auto back tack, thread trimming, needle positioning, etc, but no servo motors.

I have 2 Pfaff 545's, a Pfaff 1245 and a Pfaff 138 in my garage right now, but haven't done much sewing for some time.

Steve M
Tampa
 
#25 ·
ronbo said:
I recently purchased a Tacsew 111-155W. My plans are to sew my interior and perhaps a couple more. Mostly figuring and practicing so far!

Your machine is a lot like the Consew 205 and 206 which has the bobbin on the left of the needle. If you ever try a servo motor, you will never go back to a clutch motor.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top