[C38] Monster II Balance Wheel. Sailrite sewing machine

Fri Jan 21 09:30:42 EST 2011

Max;  The cockpit table on the boat works well to sew from, and the dock is a good place to lay out the larger peices. The operator is sitting down closer to the fabric level and the material feeds well from the dock area. It is our plan (2012) to do small sewing projects and canvas repairs on the boat to help with crusing expences. A 2000 WATT PSW inverter does the job very well. From talking to other cruisers, it's a service that is in demand on the cruising circuit. Add that to the fact that I married a VERY talanted lady. When fresh out of college and had no money, she made my business suites and even silk dress shirts.

Craig
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Don Strong 
  To: Catalina 38 Listserve 
  Sent: Friday, January 21, 2011 7:46 AM
  Subject: Re: [C38] Monster II Balance Wheel. Sailrite sewing machine

  Max: Peggy has a hugely important suggestion, to avail yourself of the Monster Balance wheel from Sailright. It will empower you to penetrate additional layers of fabric. 
  Next, consider upgrading an industrial sewing table (Google it) with a large, low geared pulley; even more layers to penetrate with the low gear. You mount your Sailrite machine on the table. Then you can consider the larger motor. My pal has one of these rigs in his garage, buried under other cool stuff. He gets it out to help me with difficult sewing; we once did several layers of Sunbrella hitched to clear plastic windows and a trim strip. With the table, the low gear, and the big motor you will be talking 9 layers of Sunbrella! The problem that my pal and I have is the lack of a Peggy. Our seams wander all over the place, like a GPS course in a shifting tide.
  Regards, Don

  On 1/20/11 7:09 PM, Max Soto wrote: 
    Thanks a lot for all the comments! 

    It might not be an industrial machine, and suitable for heavy work, but as George stated, "it might work for personal work", this is exactly what I need it for... Just for the kind of projects that Don, Craig and Peggy use it....
    Also, the options, the bunch of online "how to" videos that they have will help a lot ,  and the best thing is that I have heard that they have great support over their products....
    Old Singers are a very good machines, they will be a lot cheaper and I'll be able to find one and the  spares here in Costa Rica, but I'm not sure if they have walking foot, or if I'll be able to handle it because they do require some experience and are not as user friendly as the Sailrite machines... If I buy one here, I'll save around $200 in shipping and taxes, but I'll never find a Sailrite here.......
    so I'm going to give it some thoughts and check if I can get a good deal somewhere for a Sailrite...

    Thank again,
    Max

    2011/1/20 Peggy Droesch <saintpeg at earthlink.net>

      Max,

      As a recent (3 yrs) owner of a C38 I don't usually have much to contribute
      in the way of technical info -- but as a lifelong sewer I can confidently
      chime in on this one!!

      I bought a Sailrite machine (the LSZ-1, the one that does straight & zigzag
      stitches) -- an older version that Sailrite has since made a number of
      technical improvements to. Got it used from a dock friend, another home
      sewer, who hated it & was happy to unload it. Her problem with it was its
      fussiness, it is a machine that demands careful adjustment of the thread
      tension before it will sew properly. I put a little time into fiddling with
      it during a 'test drive', learned its quirks & figured out how to work with
      it. I think I got a deal & would gladly recommend it.

      It works well with up to nine layers of Sunbrella (though it needs a little
      manual assistance getting through that much fabric -- more below). You
      definitely need the walking foot for the kind of sewing we do for our boats
      -- my German home machine could manage most of the canvaswork except for
      the fact that it doesn't have a walking foot. When I finally get around to
      ordering a cruising spinnaker kit, I know this machine will have no problem
      helping me crank it out. Rory & I are still chewing over the idea of a
      stackpack, but it won't have any problem sewing that either.

      One upgrade that I plan to buy for my machine is the 'Monster Wheel' - a
      heavyweight balance wheel that helps drive the needle through multiple
      layers of fabric, or through heavy material like sailcloth (it also helps
      you sew when you can't plug in to shore power). I have to help my machine
      along with manual turning of the original-equipment balance wheel when I
      try to sew through many layers of canvas. I made an anchor riding sail from
      one of Sailrite's kits, easy project, the LSZ-1 breezed right through it.
      But when I tried a bit of repair work on our genoa it gagged on the heavy
      Dacron sailcloth, couldn't put a needle through it. So you do need the
      extra weight behind the drive mechanism if you plan to do your own
      sailwork.

      Good luck --

      Peggy
      No Name Yet, #231
      San Francisc

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    -- 
    Max Soto
    C38 #198 ESTANCIA
    Puntarenas, Costa Rica

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-- 
Donald R. Strong
Professor
Dept. of Evolution and Ecology
University of California, Davis 95616

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