[wsmurdoch]

You might want to look at the Sailrite Forum. Something like Sail Sewing Machine - Sailrite Forum , but there are other threads there.

There is a social group at cruisers Forum that is not particularly active but worth a look. Cruisers & Sailing Forums - Sewing Group. Boat canvas projects .

 

[Lazerbrains]

It's a Euro-Pro model 605D, which I believe has been replaced by the Shark model since I purchased mine. Euro Pro Shark 60 Stitch Sewing Machine - Overstock Shopping - Big Discounts on Shark Sewing Machines[/url]

Good luck on whatever you decide upon,

Gary

That model will not last long repairing sails or canvas work. Sure it may work good for the moment, but those plastic gears will wear out quickly. Furthermore, the extremely narrow throat and low lift means you will have trouble when you get to the radial patches and other thicker parts of your sails.

I sew canvas and upholstery professionally. An industrial machine is absolutely the best, but impractical on a sailboat. The next best thing is the Sailrite portable zigzag machine - takes commercial needles, has a high lift with a walking foot, and will handle just about anything a commercial can - just not as fast a sewer, and not as much room under the arm. The Pfaff 130 and some of the 50s-60s Japanese machines (Morse are great) will do the job also - much much better than the plastic machines of today, but really the Sailrite is the best for a portable.

 

[MastUndSchotbruch]

... The Pfaff 130 and some of the 50s-60s Japanese machines (Morse are great) will do the job also - much much better than the plastic machines of today, but really the Sailrite is the best for a portable.

Interesting! I have a Morse machine, bought about 10 years ago, and I always thought it was a re-branded Thompson Mini-walker. As you know, the Sailrite is another version of this, though with many proprietary improvements (but also a lot more expensive than my Morse). But what you are saying is that Morse is not some kind of a fake-brand but an actual Japanese brand from the past?

(I believe my machine is not made in Japan but in Taiwan)

 

[Lazerbrains]

Interesting! I have a Morse machine, bought about 10 years ago, and I always thought it was a re-branded Thompson Mini-walker. As you know, the Sailrite is another version of this, though with many proprietary improvements (but also a lot more expensive than my Morse). But what you are saying is that Morse is not some kind of a fake-brand but an actual Japanese brand from the past?

(I believe my machine is not made in Japan but in Taiwan)

No, I'm talking about the old Morse machines - not the current rebranded ones. Look for the "Morse MZZ" - those were made by Toyota, and are built like an industrial machine - overbuilt metal parts everywhere.

 

[MastUndSchotbruch]

No, I'm talking about the old Morse machines - not the current rebranded ones. Look for the "Morse MZZ" - those were made by Toyota, and are built like an industrial machine - overbuilt metal parts everywhere.

Yeah, I was afraid so.

To be fair, the machine I have is 100% metal inside. The only plastic part on it is the knob to adjust tension. And I mean strictly the knob itself that you put your fingers on, everything from there inside is metal.

 

[dody]

I agree with most of what has been said, and, after not beeing happy enough with my Singer CG 590, bought myself a sailrite LZS-1 about 1 1/2 years ago. Needless to say I'm very happy with this machine!

There is 4 things I would like to add to what was said before:

1. Walking-Foot: certainly, it helps to handle more layers. But, and this I find even more important: with large stiff pieces of canvas, like Sails for example, you've got so much more control over what you are doing and how your results turn out. Many things you still can do without a walking-foot, but it's getting very hard on you and stressful. With the proper walking-foot you are able to get a straight line where you want it and stay relaxed while you're on the job.

2. Doublesided Tape: for everything heavy and big I nowadays always use doublesided tape. I can set up the material how I want it, and it will stay there till the seam is done.

3. Zigzag: triple-step zigzag might look nice, but 2 rows of normal zigzag are a lot stronger. For everything heavy duty you really only need straight-stitch and zigzag.

4. Size of the arm: certainly, I would love to have a longer arm, but there are limits in what I can carry and limits to where I can stow the machine. So this one has to do. And, surprisingly, it does!
There does not exist a sailmaker around here, but often people come in and have a tear or whatever they would love to have repaired. They come and ask, and of course I help them out. I insist we do it together, so they have to help. After spreading out the sail and sticking on the patches from both sides (with doublesided tape) we roll the sail up very tight on the side where we have to feed it through the machine, carry it over, and feed it through together. The largest sails so far I have repaired was an 80 m2 Genoa where the seams were gone in several places across, new sail-battens on a 55 m2 mainsail and a tear in a large squaresail of a squarerigger with 6 layers of 12 oz cloth. As I said, we were with 2 people and the cloth had to be rolled up really tight, but we managed and everybody was happy.

The Singer I'm gonna keep for tiny things like getting a patch on one of my jeans or replacing a zip in a pair of trousers as the machine is less clumsy for things like that. But for the real stuff my beloved Sailrite is the one to go!

Cheers & happy sewing Dody

 

[travlin-easy]

Lazerbrains, I'm not really sure how long those nylon gears will hold up, however, they are still going strong after 8 years and the machine gets used by everyone in my family of 4, so it gets lots of use and abuse. Nylon gears are used on a lot of things these days, and for the most part, they tend to hold up very well. I think the reason behind this is that very little pressure is placed upon the gears because the motors are high speed, and the gear ratio is low, thereby providing lots of torque with little pressure applied to the gears. I even have an electric drill that has nylon gears and I beat the Hell out of it and it has been on two boats for 10 years and still works great.

I thing that most folks that repair sails don't do it very often. Same goes for the canvas - so the sewing machine, in reality, gets very little use. As for punching through the sail material, it was a lot easier than repairing my blue jeans last night when a belt loop pulled free.

Good luck,

Gary

 

[Lazerbrains]

Yeah, I was afraid so.

To be fair, the machine I have is 100% metal inside. The only plastic part on it is the knob to adjust tension. And I mean strictly the knob itself that you put your fingers on, everything from there inside is metal.

That should be a good machine - it's the same as the Sailrite.

 

[dody]

I thing that most folks that repair sails don't do it very often. Same goes for the canvas - so the sewing machine, in reality, gets very little use. As for punching through the sail material, it was a lot easier than repairing my blue jeans last night when a belt loop pulled free.

Good luck,

Gary

Gary, I'm really surprised it went so well with your sail compared to the repair of the belt-loop of your blue-jeans.

A friend and I wanted to replace the UV-strip on her genoa. Sure, not a brand-new one but used for many years. Extra for this purpose she's bought herself a second-hand industrial machine. We were not capable to get the needle to even penetrate the material! I didn't have the sailrite then, but my Singer CG590. She did manage where there was maximum 2 layers of material, no way for the rest. By hand, with a sharp needle and a hammer, it wouldn't go through unless after many minutes of beating the crap out of it. I got myself some glue-on wheelbalancing-lead and added around 6 KG around my flywheel. This did a big trick, but still, the machine was absolutely unhappy with it. For the last bits Sue chucked the sail in the boot of the car and drove 300 KM to the next sailmaker to get the rest fixed.

I wanted to be able to repair my own sails no matter what the situation, and this was certainly not what I wanted. That's when I ordered the sailrite. Her sail just came back from the sailmaker when my new sailrite arrived. I had to try it out - and she had no problem at all!

Now, with forces like this on nylon bearings and gears, I doubt my Singer (which has them in nylon) would survive for very long.

Fair winds
Dody

 

[MarkSF]

Recently I was sewing a zip onto some covers with the LSZ-1, and I hit the thick nylon bit of the zip dead on with the needle. I should have been doing that bit by hand cranking, making sure that the needle went through gaps, not nylon, but I was impatient. The machine stopped dead, with a loud bang, and the entire machine jumped into the air about 6". I thought, "what did I break?". The answer : nothing. I didn't even have to adjust the timing.

I mention this as an example of when having all metal construction, not nylon, might make a difference.

 

[guitarguy56]

Dody makes sense about the all metal construction... nylon gears under heavy use would degrade and put the machine out of service.

Took some photos of my Necchi and Whites machines to show the metal gear construction. The Japanese Necchi is solid and never skipped a stitch. They were inexpensive too!

 

[MastUndSchotbruch]

That should be a good machine - it's the same as the Sailrite.

Good to hear that from you.

Indeed, my understanding is that it is the same machine when it comes out of the factory as those that Sailrite sells. Still, I do realize that Sailrite does not just slap their name on it and double the selling price. They do make modifications and improvements to it. And of course they have great customer service. So they definitely earn the money they charge on top of the 'raw' machine which is what I have.

I just did not have the money for all these niceties, and so far the machine does everything I need. This includes making all the canvas on my boat, adding third reef in my mainsail, a full winter cover, covers for all settees including V-berth mattresses, and many other things.

 

[dody]

For those folks who really have to count their money: a friend of mine got himself a "sew strong" machine. From the looks she seems to be very similar to the Sailrite and even offers something similar like the "Monster-Flywheel". He actually wanted to make his new sails for his squarerigger with it, but I don't know yet how it was going.

Fair winds
Dody

 

[Lazerbrains]

For those folks who really have to count their money: a friend of mine got himself a "sew strong" machine. From the looks she seems to be very similar to the Sailrite and even offers something similar like the "Monster-Flywheel". He actually wanted to make his new sails for his squarerigger with it, but I don't know yet how it was going.

Fair winds
Dody

Those actually look nicer than the Sailrite to me, as they have a larger working space under the arm. I'm interested to hear how the machine is working out.

 

[Lazerbrains]

Dody makes sense about the all metal construction... nylon gears under heavy use would degrade and put the machine out of service.

Took some photos of my Necchi and Whites machines to show the metal gear construction. The Japanese Necchi is solid and never skipped a stitch. They were inexpensive too!

Both great machines that will last forever. If they stop working, it is because the motor burned or they went out of time, but not because the machine broke. The old Pfaffs are fantastic as well.

 

[dody]

Those actually look nicer than the Sailrite to me, as they have a larger working space under the arm. I'm interested to hear how the machine is working out.

He's somewhere out there on the Ocean at the moment sailing south, will let you know as soon as I know more. Just sent him a message.

Cheers
Dody

 

[dody]

Alright, this is the reply from my friend (www.atylaship.com) about the sew strong machine:

..."About sewing machine, we used it in summer a lot. It works really good. Yours is stronger because of the smaller things for the belt from the engine. And easy to use by Hands. But still really nice. I did not make any sail yet. But we repair a lot of sails. And its really nice ..."...

Cheers and happy sewing
Dody

PS: not sure, but I think with "the smaller things for the belt" he might talk about the handcrank.

 

[wsmurdoch]

Indeed, my understanding is that it is the same machine when it comes out of the factory as those that Sailrite sells.

Sailrite talks a little about that in their history. Ultrafeed Sewing Machine History

 

[MastUndSchotbruch]

Sailrite talks a little about that in their history. Ultrafeed Sewing Machine History

Interesting, thanks.

 

[rdw]

FYI sailrite has machines on sale now/
I have one and it has done well
rdw