[C38] Monster II Balance Wheel. Sailrite sewing machine

Fri Jan 21 10:07:19 EST 2011

The Monster balace wheel seem to be a "must have" for the Sairite, no
doubt!

I'm following the one on ebay right know, but just to have a refernece of
the average price of a unsed one...that one is no bargain anymore, as there
are three days left and is already at $550....We'll see hoe it goes....

Thenks,

Max

2011/1/21 Craig Steinkraus <Navion at charter.net>

>  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 <drstrong at ucdavis.edu>
> *To:* Catalina 38 Listserve <listserve at catalina38.org>
> *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
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Listserve mailing list
>> Listserve at catalina38.org
>> http://catalina38.org/mailman/listinfo/listserve_catalina38.org
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Max Soto
> C38 #198 ESTANCIA
> Puntarenas, Costa Rica
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Listserve mailing listListserve at catalina38.orghttp://catalina38.org/mailman/listinfo/listserve_catalina38.org
>
>
> --
> Donald R. Strong
> Professor
> Dept. of Evolution and Ecology
> University of California, Davis 95616
>
>  ------------------------------
>
> _______________________________________________
> Listserve mailing list
> Listserve at catalina38.org
> http://catalina38.org/mailman/listinfo/listserve_catalina38.org
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Listserve mailing list
> Listserve at catalina38.org
> http://catalina38.org/mailman/listinfo/listserve_catalina38.org
>
>

-- 
Max Soto
C38 #198 ESTANCIA
Puntarenas, Costa Rica
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://catalina38.org/pipermail/listserve_catalina38.org/attachments/20110121/38916c91/attachment-0001.htm>