What's the best sewing machine?

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Thanks Graham. Yes, That would have prevented it. Long wooden oars in those big oarlocks would make it perfect. I don't know who designs dinghy oars but they are a bit useless. Mine (a Zodiac 3.1 M with an inflatable floor) has rowlocks which will only take the original Zodiac oars or similar all ones. Unreliable in the smallest amount of tide.
 
I have a Singer 201K too. Those old machines were made for lasting - no programmed obsolescence.
It just misses zig-zag stitch but the simpler the tougher.

I think a walking foot would be useful for multilayer sewing but I wonder how can the (fixed?) feed rate (stitch lenght) of the foot harmonize with the variable stitch length of the machine.
 
Gunfleet said:
Thanks. Yours must get more sunshine than mine :-(
Abrasion I can understand - mine tore a piece of its rubbing strake against a jetty once and I can't imagine how it might be repaired.
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Yep, thats me as well.

The chaps usually attach to the strake using special hooks designed for the purpose. Works great.

Unfortunately that means the stake isnt protected and more or less than with chaps.

A short section of mine has torn away from, not from the side of the RIB, but off the strake itself. I can see you can buy replacement strake, and perhaps I will, but I can imagine its quite a job removing and replacing so its sort of on the list. I have been thinking of a new RIB so this might just come first. Unfortunately Ribeye no longer make the 3.3 but I have found another make that seems as good.

As to the weather, yep, not much chance of much UV damage here - mine are for the planned escape to where there is more UV!
 
Sandro said:
I have a Singer 201K too. Those old machines were made for lasting - no programmed obsolescence.
It just misses zig-zag stitch but the simpler the tougher.

I think a walking foot would be useful for multilayer sewing but I wonder how can the (fixed?) feed rate (stitch lenght) of the foot harmonize with the variable stitch length of the machine.
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I don’t know how the foot works on the Singer - I just know the foot exists. On the Bernina (I have one) it just screws on - presumably there’s enough slack in the slot length that you can set the stitch any length and it still works. I’ve never had a problem with it. I’m not a machine collector, just ended up with these two. For choice between the two I think I’d have had the Singer
 
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Sandro said:
I have a Singer 201K too. Those old machines were made for lasting - no programmed obsolescence.
It just misses zig-zag stitch but the simpler the tougher.

I think a walking foot would be useful for multilayer sewing but I wonder how can the (fixed?) feed rate (stitch lenght) of the foot harmonize with the variable stitch length of the machine.
Click to expand...

I have the 196K Singer, of similar vintage. Very cheep to buy, solid and mine will sew through 9 layers of canvas (I use Topgun fabric for boat/sail covers)

Www.solocoastalsailing.co.uk
 
ip485 said:
The chaps usually attach to the strake using special hooks designed for the purpose. Works great.

Unfortunately that means the stake isnt protected and more or less than with chaps.
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The alternative is to sew Velcro to the chaps and on to pieces of pvc and glue them to the tube just above the strake. The bottom of the chaps can then hang over. I've found Velcro glued direct to PVC comes unstuck after a few months.
 
The special hooks on elastic cord work very well (I didnt know they existed until spending some time researching how people did it) and to be fair I think the damage to my strake occurred before. The answer I think for any tender is to have some small fenders around the sides as it seems to me the tender inevitably suffers all sort of abuse when wedged into between other tenders and the pontoon. It probably needs all the protection it can get.
 
Gunfleet said:
I don’t know how the foot works on the Singer - I just know the foot exists. On the Bernina (I have one) it just screws on - presumably there’s enough slack in the slot length that you can set the stitch any length and it still works. I’ve never had a problem with it./QUOTE]
Thank you. I suspected it was like that. For once slack is not a mechanical evil.
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Just in case anybody interested hadn't realised, there's an interesting Sailrite thread on the Mobo forum currently with lots of photo's of projects.
 
We have recently purchased a singer 4411 Heavy duty machine , cost new are about £170 . So far we have found it to be very good ,no computer controls but is easy to use . It has been used to make all new curtains for our boat and new upholstry covers to replace the seat covers which it managed with ease .
next project make some new dodgers
 
Sailrights are made in china so certainly not "the best" but they do work and for the average diy,er will probably last, but they have a limited life before they wear out.
Whats the best? Possibly a bernina (swiss) .
Any industrial machine should be good with the advantage they can take much bigger thread and needle sizes than a domestic and sew at crazy fast speeds.
For those that dont need zig zag then i would presume you wont ever sew a sail. Sails are never sewn with straight stitch (think perforations on a postage stamp) so zig zag is a must ?
I bought a industrial pfaff. There is nothing this machine wont sew through as long as it fits under the foot.
Walking foot is nice on large heavy materials as non walking sometimes struggles to pull material through, leading huge birdsnest of stitching and snapped needles.
Industrials come with heavy large motors and speed control often seems to be zero or flat out in milliseconds and can be hard to control.
A chinese digital motor is tiny but extremely powerfull and you can dial in a max speed before starting leading to perfect speed control.
You can often lift the industrial machine out of its table and manually wind it while doing small jobs on your boat.
 
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Yes, Sailrite come in 2 colors........... RED >>> Basic.......................BLUE....advanced, with walking foot & reverse ! Yes I had that one !
 
My genoa came off a rival bowman 42 back in 1983. It is a very powerful sail on my 10m boat.
My last channel crossing was where most the stitching decided to give up?
Over the years I must have paid a fair few £ for various bits of stitching to be redone.
Found a serviced industrial machine cheap and proceeded to put on a new uv strip and oversew every seam. Got a great sail again.
I hand sewn around 40mm of sail some years back.it took a few hrs,lots of sweat, mole grips and hammer. Hell that sail was tough. By machine it's only a few minutes!
I bow my hat to you guys making spray hoods and stack packs and reupholstering your interior. takes skill. ?
 
We bought a Reliable Barracuda walking foot machine as it was considerably cheaper than a Sailrite......it looks very similar to the Sailrite although I suspect the quality of engineering isn’t as good. Nevertheless after some initial tweaking and setting up it does the job; we made a new cockpit awning from scratch and use it to repair 8.5oz sailcloth. I think they are available in the UK, we bought ours from Canada.

I have a Reed’s Sailmaker zig zag machine surplus to requirements, the pedal operated switch is a little temperamental but otherwise it works ok. It has been in a locker on board for the last six years but these machines are well built and I can’t see why it shouldn’t do someone a turn.......pm me if you are interested.
 
Rappey said:
Whats the best? Possibly a bernina (swiss) .
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I figured in the 60s people would be more likely doing their own curtains and heavier sewing than today so getting older made sense. So I bought a 1960s Bernina 730 Record which weighs a ton, is beautifully engineered but has a weak spot having some nylon cogs inside, likely to make it quieter than an all metal one. One cog broke and I managed to replace it myself which was a fun job but point being they aren't really up to heavy duty either because it never was or the nylon cogs have weakened with age.
 
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