do you carry as sewing machine? if so which one?

[contessaman]

hi folks,
was just wondering....do any of you carry a sewing machine on board and if so what one?

cant see any point in having one at all unless it can take dacron or acrylic covers... which points towards an industrial or at least semi industrial. But most of the latter are loarge and weigh a ton.

does such a beast exist that compares to the weight of a modern portable machine but can handle thick material?

cheers

 

[GrahamM376]

Sailrite lsz - http://www.solentsew.co.uk/products/SAILRITE-ULTRAFEED-LSZ%2d1-PLUS-220V.html

 

[ip485]

Another Sailrite with the big wheel.

Love it, does the job very well. So far made the cabin tent as the biggest project, just about to start on some chaps.

 

[sailaboutvic]

And another sailrite .

 

[sarabande]

Gotta proper Reeds at home - more than adequate for heavy canvas and multi-layer terylene - elec and manual. I don't think
I'd take it on a 32ftr unless it was a serious voyage.

Also have an industrial Husqvarna; very similar in size, if possible even tougher than the Reeds.


Sailrite seem to have purpose-built yotty models, but unless you are resewing a storm mainsail clew, you only need a tough domestic one with zig-zag, though a moving foot is nice. That will deal with ordinary spinnakers and genoas, but you would be finishing off by hand in any case.

 

[Hadenough]

I can turn my hands to most things competently but I hate sewing. Despite, or possibly because, I used to help my mum sew all sorts of things in the days before mass consumerism. To the extent now that if I get someone in to do canvas work I end up advising them! I would say that if you are able and prepared to sew things then get a machine, if not it will just sit there.

 

[ip485]

If there is a "fault" I do find there are limits with the Sailrite both in terms of material thickness and toughness. I cant get through heavy webbing for example - but made a need to change the type of point on the needle?

 

[Heckler]

hi folks,
was just wondering....do any of you carry a sewing machine on board and if so what one?

cant see any point in having one at all unless it can take dacron or acrylic covers... which points towards an industrial or at least semi industrial. But most of the latter are loarge and weigh a ton.

does such a beast exist that compares to the weight of a modern portable machine but can handle thick material?

cheers

Ancient Singer Electric, and we use it, boat in Portugal, swmbo just made some chaps for the dink. Will sew windows, 4 thickness of material etc
S

 

[duncan99210]

We have an ancient domestic Pfaff on the boat, which has coped with making Bimini covers, sail bags, dinghy chaps etc. Easily copes with up to four thicknesses of acrylic canvas, webbing straps and the like. We use V62 (I think) thread as its UV resistant and usually something like a 110 needle. We struggled with smaller needles, for ever bending and failing to go through but eventually followed the advice on the Point North website about needle sizes.
We also have an equally ancient Singer in the UK that we use for projects there. The important thing about both of them is that they have a strong steel/cast metal frame which keeps them rigid enough to cope with the heavy fabric. The downside of both of them is that they have a somewhat restricted arch, so you have to think the order of fabrication through carefully so that you don't have to feed the widest piece of fabric through the arch...... Took us a bit of time to work that one out.
Love to have a Sailrite or Jones machine but the ones we have do well enough to stop us paying out for yet another one.

 

[temptress]

we have a sailrite - used to repair sails, make new canvas stuff and occasionally SWMBO makes some clothes,

 

[KellysEye]

Sailrite and Dabond UV resistant thread.

 

[sailaboutvic]

If there is a "fault" I do find there are limits with the Sailrite both in terms of material thickness and toughness. I cant get through heavy webbing for example - but made a need to change the type of point on the needle?

I think it may just be the needle you are useing ,
We had some crappy stuff made by so called proffeaional , these day we made everything our self as well as repairing other people stuff , I say we , I should say my better half .

 

[sarabande]

ip485

Try using "jeans" point needles. They are slightly rounded and don't cut through the sailcloth threads, and bcs they are slightly thicker, they don't get deflected if multiple layers of cloth are at an angle to each other.

 

[macd]

We don't carry a sewing machine. The pirates are bound to have bigger, better ones with more stitches per inch.

I'll get my coat...

 

[sailaboutvic]

We don't carry a sewing machine. The pirates are bound to have bigger, better ones with more stitches per inch.

I'll get my coat...

NO Mac A sewing machine , not a shooting machine

 

[macd]

NO Mac A sewing machine , not a shooting machine

You wouldn't take it so lightly if you'd ever been stitched up on a boat, Vic.
(I can hear the reply even before you've written it...)

 

[NornaBiron]

We have a Sailrite on board and have used it to make a complete set of sails for Norna and for numerous repairs and replacement of sacrificial strips for others.

 

[Gerry]

Yes. An ancient hand operated Singer. Love it. It uses no power and is capable of all but the heaviest of sewing jobs. It has made a new sprayhood, curtains, upholstery and sail repairs.
Using denim or leather nedles it will stitch through five layers comfortably. As it's hand operated the control is excellent. Paid £20 on ebay and consider it has been an excellent purchase...

 

[Mistroma]

We have an ancient Singer model at home, built into its own worktable. Zero chance of putting that on the boat as it is built like a tank. However, we also have a tiny Elna Lotus-TSP and I took that to Spain as hand baggage in a small rucksack. It is a Swiss made vintage machine and looks as if it is made from a solid casting. However, the drive gear is plastic and the motor is only about 100W. It does run like a Swiss sewing machine (er. that's exactly what it is).

It looks similar to the one shown in YouTube below, though ours is the TSP version with bells and whistles.

It was really intended to handle very light jobs and runs happily on a very small inverter. It has been used to repair our sprayhood as well as general work on clothes. About the least suitable machine imaginable for heavy work but we put Sunbrella dinghy chaps together last year and it did manage to finish the job.

I would not advise buying one of these for sail repair (or making dinghy covers with 5 layers of Sunbrella in places). However, it is a lovely piece of kit, folds up into a tiny space and only cost £50 on eBay.

 

[srm]

Reeds Sailmaker, 1970's vintage and still going strong. Took the electric kit off years ago though as hand wheel gives far greater control. All stainless steel innards so just needs a drop of light oil when I remember. Gets used at the start of each season to add more patches to the spray hood - will have to make a new one some time soon. Made a bimini cover a couple of years back, and have done innumerable sail repairs over the years. Put luff and leech patches on my mainsail for the normal first reef when I got the boat. (Previous owner did not think he needed it). Went through multi layers of heavy dacron and webbing without problem, just use a new needle.