Sewing machine needed !

[33trippindaisy]

The answer is really simple.......how much money do you want to spend? What i did was listen to my wife's mom, who was a professional seamstress for over forty years. According to her any machine from the 50's and 60's with "ALL" steel gears and parts is a must. Then you need a minimum of a 3/4 HP belt drive externally mounted motor. 1HP is better. I went out and found me an old "White" and an old "Singer" that fit those requirements. The old white at an Estate sale for $40.00, the Singer I paid $35.00 for at the Goodwill Store. Then my mom in law went through and did her magic. They don't call them machines for nothing. They must be correctly set up and tuned to operate flawlessly. Then I personally had her and my wife who does sew to teach me a few things and off I went. The first few pieces did not go too well, but soon I was making small little items. Then came the big ones, seat covers, windsheild canvas, upper deck surrounds on the flybridge, grill covers, etc. Get quality needles, and quality threads. Ten years and going, and I did the whole boat and bought the machines for less than $500.00 bucks and still have supplies left over. You can view several pics of the stuff I made on my link below. Is it top notch professional level stuff? Nope, but darn good, it looks better than I could have hoped for and the near $4000.00 quote from a local pro convinced me that my "good, old boat" could and would look a lot better for a dime instead of a dollar! Thanks!

[bottomscraper]

If you don't need Zig-Zag the Juki DNU-1541S is a great machine. It's available for about $1800 complete shipped to your door. It's not portable so don't expect to keep it onboard unless you have a huge boat.

If you need Zig-Zag the Sailrite Ultrafeed LSZ-1 is ok but it has limited room under the arm. Sailrite provides wonderful customer service. They have all the parts and videos available for installing parts and doing adjustments. The Sailrite LSZ-1 is a bit "needy", expect to learn more than you care to know about how sewing machines work ;-). These machines fill a niche, low priced, portable, walking foot and heavy duty. Finding a better quality heavy duty walking foot Zig-Zag machine pushes you into the $3000+ range.

The most difficult thing we have done dodgers. We have built dodgers with both machines. The Juki DNU-1541S sure made the job easier. We have also done a sail-pack, 2 sets of cockpit cushions, interior cushions, bimini...

We have had both machines, we ended up selling the LSZ-1 since Zig-Zag turned out to be less important for us. You really only need Zig-Zag for working on sails which we leave to the professionals.

[SuW]

Originally Posted by sailah

Thanks! If I wanted to make you more jealous, I'd tell you I bought 2 and sold 1 within the day for what I paid for both...

It really is an awesome machine and I do love it for heavy duty sewing. I've done about 6 layers of Sunbrella and a patch of leather and it does not even blink.

These less exnpensive zigzag machines have my interest though like the Barracuda. I just need it to be a 1 trick pony and do just that, I'll use the Juki for everything else.

This is the worst of the repairs I need to do and it's a backup sail anyways. Was a castoff from a J109 that I paid $75 and was in good shape until it ripped on the spreader. I bought a bunch of 7oz Dacron, Dacron Insignia stickyback and laminate sailcloth from Sailrite and planned to fix the leech and do a large area repair with the spreader patch. I have no issues doing multiple stitches I just thought that it created an ideal tear seam where all holes are in the same line. Well, for a cheap throwaway sail, I'll just see what happens

I'd be interested to see the result! When I repair things I basically try to make things better than they were...there's no question you'll be doing that!

As for zig zag, I thought a bit more about it. I don't have an overlocking machine so when I sew stretchy material I use zig zag because it yields a little to stretch. Perhaps Dacron or nylon sails are more subject to stretch - the panels are often bias cut in spinnakers, for instance. Hence using zig zag stitching. You could talk to a sailmaker, perhaps.

However, for a spreader patch, you want strength and wear resistance so I think straight stitch will be fine.

It would also be interesting to try one of these machines. Basically as long as you can get the assembly under the foot, it looks like your machine will sew it!

[sailah]

Originally Posted by SuW

I'd be interested to see the result! When I repair things I basically try to make things better than they were...there's no question you'll be doing that!

As for zig zag, I thought a bit more about it. I don't have an overlocking machine so when I sew stretchy material I use zig zag because it yields a little to stretch. Perhaps Dacron or nylon sails are more subject to stretch - the panels are often bias cut in spinnakers, for instance. Hence using zig zag stitching. You could talk to a sailmaker, perhaps.

However, for a spreader patch, you want strength and wear resistance so I think straight stitch will be fine.

It would also be interesting to try one of these machines. Basically as long as you can get the assembly under the foot, it looks like your machine will sew it!

Thanks, I hope I can patch this race sail back together. I use it for 1 race a year and really beat it up last season by not having spreader patches. I have a lot of good material so I think I can do a good job.

The Juki is an absolute unit, I've only managed to stall it once but I was hiding under the desk!! Def a machine that requires respect as it will just hammer through almost anything.

I'm leaning towards finding a "heavy duty" vintage machine from the 50-60s that is all metal. My sail repairs I would like to do zig zag on are usually simple to get to and near the luff/leech anyways. Seems that should easily be able to be handled by that class of machine. Keep the Juki for the heavy stuff like my dodger.

[SuW]

Originally Posted by sailah

Thanks, I hope I can patch this race sail back together. I use it for 1 race a year and really beat it up last season by not having spreader patches. I have a lot of good material so I think I can do a good job.
The Juki is an absolute unit, I've only managed to stall it once but I was hiding under the desk!! Def a machine that requires respect as it will just hammer through almost anything.
I'm leaning towards finding a "heavy duty" vintage machine from the 50-60s that is all metal. My sail repairs I would like to do zig zag on are usually simple to get to and near the luff/leech anyways. Seems that should easily be able to be handled by that class of machine. Keep the Juki for the heavy stuff like my dodger.

Yes, those heavy domestic machines come up quite often used. There must be many thousands around, as someone said they will last practically forever.

I've found with planning where to roll a sail, you can get at most parts. Especially if you use clamps or staples and have a friend to help hold and guide the fabric roll.

As someone else suggested, there isn't anything wrong with hand sewing either. I use one of those sewing awls with a spool and you can get quite fast with it. I use a pencil to draw dots where I want to stitch.

Let's hope you win with your repaired sail, or you'll want to buy new!

[mlspadaro]

Oh yes, 33Trippindaisy reminds me, I had my Pfaff 130 fitted with a handcrank too. A 3/4 HP motor would be awesome to have but i was hitchhiking and carrying my machine from boat to boat - including walking the plank on the quay of Papeete with this 40 pounder cradled in my arms!

[sailah]

Sail repair day. I have no idea what I am doing but this seems right. Added some spreader patches to fix some rips and prevent new ones. Mainly used Dacron Insignia stickyback then stitched over it. Total pain in the neck getting that sail through the sewing machine throat.

Def out of practice working this much material on my machine but it feels pretty tough after I am done. Have a few more genoas to spruce up.

On the darker laminate, I made a patch for each side then added a piece to cover the leech. On the lighter kevlar sail I made one long piece and tightly folded it before removing adhesive paper. I think the continuous piece feels better and smoother esp where spreaders would be.

The Insignia cloth is pretty heavy, should have gotten some lighter fabric.

Any suggestions on ways to improve I'm all ears.

[SuW]

Originally Posted by sailah

Sail repair day. I have no idea what I am doing but this seems right. Added some spreader patches to fix some rips and prevent new ones. Mainly used Dacron Insignia stickyback then stitched over it. Total pain in the neck getting that sail through the sewing machine throat.
Def out of practice working this much material on my machine but it feels pretty tough after I am done. Have a few more genoas to spruce up.
On the darker laminate, I made a patch for each side then added a piece to cover the leech. On the lighter kevlar sail I made one long piece and tightly folded it before removing adhesive paper. I think the continuous piece feels better and smoother esp where spreaders would be.
The Insignia cloth is pretty heavy, should have gotten some lighter fabric.
Any suggestions on ways to improve I'm all ears.

That looks like the way I would have done it. You've covered the areas likely to get damaged (and quite a bit more, I'd say).

I don't think lighter fabric would do as well in use. The damage you showed before was pretty bad, not just a worn area, but a hole.

The idea of wrapping a continuous piece around the edge of the sail is interesting - I would have thought it would be harder to get it to stick down smoothly, especially if the edge was at angle.

What thread/needle did you use?

[sailah]

Originally Posted by SuW

That looks like the way I would have done it. You've covered the areas likely to get damaged (and quite a bit more, I'd say).

I don't think lighter fabric would do as well in use. The damage you showed before was pretty bad, not just a worn area, but a hole.

The idea of wrapping a continuous piece around the edge of the sail is interesting - I would have thought it would be harder to get it to stick down smoothly, especially if the edge was at angle.

What thread/needle did you use?

The reason for the large patches was to cover some weaker areas in the leech that were looking suspect. These sails are castoffs from a J109 and I use them sparingly for a couple races every summer. My main genoa is a heavy dacon. I blew out the gold aramid North in 30kts of wind as it wasn't furled correctly and I was pounding into a head sea for 8 hours. Where it wasn't tightly furled near the top it was beat up.

I used a #20 needle and V92 UV thread. The repair material was 7oz Dacron, seemed to take a fold pretty well. For sure it is much stiffer than the surrounding material, I hope this doesn't create a hinge for the sail to just rip there. Oh well, the sails were cheap.

I did spend an hour on YouTube watching videos on how to adjust my particular machine and it made a big difference. I had no idea what the spring pickup tension arm did before but managed to get that to what seems like a good setting. I can only manage to get good stitching when the upper tension is set much higher than the bobbin. Still need to play with it.

I also added some oil to the reservoir and lubed all the oil points, runs so smooth, it's really an extremely well made tool. I think I would have regretted selling it.