[C320-list] Sewing Machine Recommendations

[Jeffrey Hare]

Hi Frank, 

  I found an old Pfaff 130 in our attic.  Built like a locomotive and purrs
like a top.  Lattitude 38 or some such magazine had a write involving
sailmaking with this machine several years back.  There's no plastic in this
beast anywhere.  I took it in to a sewing machine shop to see if it would be
up to the job and they said it'll do fine and outlive me...  ...thanks
buddy.. :)

I was modifying my boat cover with it and it had no issues at all with heavy
nylon thread, 4 layers of 10oz duck canvas a zipper and one layer of seat
belt webbing in one pass.  Didn't even slow down.  It doesn't have a walking
foot, but that was no issue as it pulled the material right through.  

The only upgrade we did to the machine is buy an electronic foot speed
control for best control under load.  We also had to buy extra heavy needles
from sailrite to handle the thick UV thread.

I've seen them on ebay for $150 range.  We were looking at a sailrite
(zig-zag model), but after using this, we decided that it works pretty darn
good for a lot less money and scrapped the Sailrite idea for now.

We used the online sailmaking training videos from sailrite to understand
put in zippers/windows, etc...

-JeffH



At 12:07 PM 11/17/2006, you wrote:
>My wife has been wanting a sewing machine to make repairs to the canvas 
>and sails on our boat as well as possibly making a few bucks making 
>repairs for others in the marina.
>
>Does any one have any recommendations for what sewing machine is 
>"best".  She likes the Sailrite, but the cost for a new one is more 
>than my wallet can handle for something I see only using occassionally.....
>
>Any thoughts, comments, and recommendations are appreciated.
>
>
>Frank "Belles & Whistles" #98
>
>