My Sailrite Alternative!

[Linguini]

The topic comes up again and again and is usually driven by the desire for a Sailrite.
We had now also thoroughly considered, my wife sews quite a lot but mainly clothings. Her machine park is pretty neat but then too delicate for the rough.
So either a Sailrite, a Sailrite Clone or maybe something else?

We then came across the Singer Heavy Duty. There are three or maybe even more versions. For our purpose, the 6335M Denim seemed ideal. 50% more motor power sounds good. And so we ordered it.

The machine is relatively light but stable. Has everything we think we need and crap, I can not sew at all :-)

So I let my wife show me and started to sew a drift anchor with it. The must be stable and not win a beauty prize. However, with the diameter of 1.5 yards comes together quite a bit of seam. This was very good to familiarize myself with. But that's just by the way.

Before I dared to do the more difficult things (see my blog), I tried to bring the machine to its load limit.

The following list should speak for itself and I sewed at least about 10-14 meters each in zig zag and straight stitch to get a first impression. The machine was never at its limit, only the presser foot height limited the test. For test C. I sprayed the needle with a lubricant (Caramba), which really makes a difference. As a needle was used in each case a jeans needle and Solbond 30 sewing thread.

A. 12! Layers of Sunbrella Plus (320 gr.)
B. 6 layers of Sunbrella Plus (320 gr.) plus one layer of nylon webbing
C. 3 layers of nylon webbing plus 2 layers of 600 gr. fabric (NoName)
D. 4 layers of Dacron sail (no idea how strong but quite sturdy cloth)

Between trials I made minimal adjustments to the thread tension as well as the presser foot pressure. But had to be to get a clean result.

For us the perfect deal for 1/6 of the sailrite price.

Maybe this will help one or the other with his decision! Let the needles glow :-)

[Island Time O25]

I've had very similar results with 40 year old Kenmore heavy duty machine picked up at a yard sale for $25 some years ago. Did 8 ply dacron clew corners without a glitch. And resized two sails while at it. Just had to find the right size needles. Which was not easy as most regular stores stock a size or two smaller.

[JBP]

The topic comes up again and again and is usually driven by the desire for a Sailrite.

After a bout of LSZ-1 coveting, last week I picked up an old Kenmore 1760 off craigslist for $50 plus $24 for a new foot controller. It punched through 7 layers of dacron in the tack corner when I was recutting my main sail, but not without a glitch, it needed persuasion. 6 layers was OK. I used el-cheapo #18 needles off Amazon and V-92 thread. 6 layers of sunbrella worked fine too.
Basting tape was definitely necessary without a walking foot. I did have to modify the thread tension knob to remove the stop, allowing more tension.