Texasguy
Contributor
So, I am into a phase of making my own lightweight sidemount harnesses. And there is a certain way I like them and it requires stitching webbing together in some parts. Same goes about making my own scooter harness and etc.
I tried doing it by hand with a hand sewing awl. It is a manual heavy duty needle. Let me just say, the needle is too thick and it is hard to keep proper thread tension throughout. Basically, it comes out looking like **** and I have doubts about its holding together strength. Gluing webbing together is a horrible option, pass.
I thought, perhaps, I'll ask my dry-cleaning place that does adjustments to garments, if they could do it. But it seems outrageously expensive and the person who does it does not seem to have a good grasp of English to communicate what I want in detail, specifically at these asked prices.
So, I was left kinda hanging with my sewing needs. I looked at electric sewing machines with a heavy heart. The leather sewing machines (approximation of torque needed to go through heavy duty nylon webbing) are expensive. Starting with $1.5K and up. In addition, say, paying 2K, you get no guarantee that it will penetrate double webbing with enough force to keep sewing. Plastic webbing might be harder to sew than thin leather. From description it is almost impossible to understand how heavy duty the machine is, they seem to have no standard and one seems already needs to have an advance knowledge of how a machine will perform..
Here a guy explains the dilemma:
And, still, spending even close to $1K is simply out of the question. It is a hobby but not like I can make money on it, right? I'd rather buy more scuba gear.
So, searching for a solution I found some junky looking manual sewing machines. I seen them before but they look like crap, seriously. I have discarded them before from consideration due to their outrageously unconvincing look.
And one day I just decided to see if there would be a youtube video review to kind of gloat at its deficiencies. To my surprise there were like 50+ videos, some are long and in detail.
Here is a very simple example:
We are talking not just some surface reviews but in depth, from unboxing, assembly, general use, hints & tips, to full disassembly/assembly, point of improvements, and more. These chinese manual sewing machines seem to have quite a following. But the best thing is that this machine can penetrate anything you can fit under the stitching mechanism. And it costs like $100-$130. Another plus is that you can go as fast or as slow as you want, sewing in less than 2" strides can be challenging on a electric machine but this one can go with the pace you set. Additionally, you can set the stitch length and it has a walking foot, it moves the material for you as you sew. You can use even fishing line as a thread! There is a plenty of nylon thread in different sizes, just saying, it is very universal and will do the webbing just fine. Some people even added motors to the hand cranking part to make it electric.
One downside is that it will sew only forward, sewing in reverse is not supported, someone said it can break a needle. But the sewing foot rotates and you can reposition the material 180 degrees.
https://smile.amazon.com/s?k=cobbler+sewing+machine&i=arts-crafts&crid=C1MXFOP8858M&sprefix=cobbler,arts-crafts,168
So, on amazon or ebay you can search for "cobbler machine" adding "leather" and "shoe" to get more results. On Amazon they have some with prime delivery. It seems each seller is giving them a made up brand but they are all generic. I have not seen the evidence that those priced more are any different than those priced $30 less. They might be coming from different factories but there is no way to know which one is made with more love, so to say.
See youtube reviews, if you have time, without owing one, you can learn everything about the machine, I mean, everything.
Here are two playlists from a guy who has done a very in depth series: Mainely Acres - YouTube
There are also much, much more expensive ones out there like:
Or say: https://smile.amazon.com/YEQIN-Leather-Patcher-Industrial-Machine/dp/B07BBKR6GQ
They all seem to be made on the base of 29K Singer machine, which is like from 1860's.
The original machine:
I tried doing it by hand with a hand sewing awl. It is a manual heavy duty needle. Let me just say, the needle is too thick and it is hard to keep proper thread tension throughout. Basically, it comes out looking like **** and I have doubts about its holding together strength. Gluing webbing together is a horrible option, pass.
I thought, perhaps, I'll ask my dry-cleaning place that does adjustments to garments, if they could do it. But it seems outrageously expensive and the person who does it does not seem to have a good grasp of English to communicate what I want in detail, specifically at these asked prices.
So, I was left kinda hanging with my sewing needs. I looked at electric sewing machines with a heavy heart. The leather sewing machines (approximation of torque needed to go through heavy duty nylon webbing) are expensive. Starting with $1.5K and up. In addition, say, paying 2K, you get no guarantee that it will penetrate double webbing with enough force to keep sewing. Plastic webbing might be harder to sew than thin leather. From description it is almost impossible to understand how heavy duty the machine is, they seem to have no standard and one seems already needs to have an advance knowledge of how a machine will perform..
Here a guy explains the dilemma:
And, still, spending even close to $1K is simply out of the question. It is a hobby but not like I can make money on it, right? I'd rather buy more scuba gear.
So, searching for a solution I found some junky looking manual sewing machines. I seen them before but they look like crap, seriously. I have discarded them before from consideration due to their outrageously unconvincing look.
And one day I just decided to see if there would be a youtube video review to kind of gloat at its deficiencies. To my surprise there were like 50+ videos, some are long and in detail.
Here is a very simple example:
We are talking not just some surface reviews but in depth, from unboxing, assembly, general use, hints & tips, to full disassembly/assembly, point of improvements, and more. These chinese manual sewing machines seem to have quite a following. But the best thing is that this machine can penetrate anything you can fit under the stitching mechanism. And it costs like $100-$130. Another plus is that you can go as fast or as slow as you want, sewing in less than 2" strides can be challenging on a electric machine but this one can go with the pace you set. Additionally, you can set the stitch length and it has a walking foot, it moves the material for you as you sew. You can use even fishing line as a thread! There is a plenty of nylon thread in different sizes, just saying, it is very universal and will do the webbing just fine. Some people even added motors to the hand cranking part to make it electric.
One downside is that it will sew only forward, sewing in reverse is not supported, someone said it can break a needle. But the sewing foot rotates and you can reposition the material 180 degrees.
https://smile.amazon.com/s?k=cobbler+sewing+machine&i=arts-crafts&crid=C1MXFOP8858M&sprefix=cobbler,arts-crafts,168
So, on amazon or ebay you can search for "cobbler machine" adding "leather" and "shoe" to get more results. On Amazon they have some with prime delivery. It seems each seller is giving them a made up brand but they are all generic. I have not seen the evidence that those priced more are any different than those priced $30 less. They might be coming from different factories but there is no way to know which one is made with more love, so to say.
See youtube reviews, if you have time, without owing one, you can learn everything about the machine, I mean, everything.
Here are two playlists from a guy who has done a very in depth series: Mainely Acres - YouTube
There are also much, much more expensive ones out there like:
Or say: https://smile.amazon.com/YEQIN-Leather-Patcher-Industrial-Machine/dp/B07BBKR6GQ
They all seem to be made on the base of 29K Singer machine, which is like from 1860's.
The original machine:
