Has anyone used a "home" sewing machine to repair sails. I would like to install reef points in my Typhoon main usine the Sailrite kit and wondered if it can be done without buying a comercial machine.
rdins@rof.net
Sail repair
Moderator: Jim Walsh
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Olli Wendelin
Re: Sail repair
Rocky,
I have done quite a bit of sail and canvas work with my "home" sewing machine. This includes building 2 new bimini tops.
There is a large range of home machines. I use a zigzag Singer built in the 50's which uses a belt drive to a small motor attached to it. I have also used a straight Singer from the 60's with an internal motor. These machines have cast iron bodies and brass gears. Many of the newer machines use plastic gears to make them quiet. These will easily strip if used with multiple layers of heavy fabric.
I bought my machine at a thrift store for $10.00. Before you use your wife's $350.00 zigzag, I would check around for a heavier duty old machine.
Olli Wendelin
BLUE MOON
Charleston, SC
wendelin@spawar.navy.mil
I have done quite a bit of sail and canvas work with my "home" sewing machine. This includes building 2 new bimini tops.
There is a large range of home machines. I use a zigzag Singer built in the 50's which uses a belt drive to a small motor attached to it. I have also used a straight Singer from the 60's with an internal motor. These machines have cast iron bodies and brass gears. Many of the newer machines use plastic gears to make them quiet. These will easily strip if used with multiple layers of heavy fabric.
I bought my machine at a thrift store for $10.00. Before you use your wife's $350.00 zigzag, I would check around for a heavier duty old machine.
Olli Wendelin
BLUE MOON
Charleston, SC
wendelin@spawar.navy.mil
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Matt Cawthorne
Re: Sail repair
Rocky,
It depends on the home machine that you have. I have used a Singer model 237 to make storm sails for my CD-36. In addition I have used it to replace the clew and leach on the yankee and re-sew and do patching on my main and staysail. There were only a few models made in the late 50's which had the class 15 mechanism with the zigzag capability. I believe that the going price for a model 237 in good shape is about $60. You will want to modify it with an extra heavy presser foot spring.
The biggest problem that I have had is when you get to very thick stacks of cloth (like two pieces of webbing and 6 layers of 9 ounce Dacron) the machine will miss stiches often. The cause of this is that the tension in the thread is high at the top of stroke and bends the needle. Normally the tension is off by the time it re-enters the cloth, but with a thick stack the tension is still on at that point. The needle is then misguided and misses the point where the finger on the bobbin carrier passes and the stich is missed. For heavy stacks of material you need to hand crank the machine through and wherever a stich is missed you need to back it up and let the machine pick that stich up.
Matt
mcawthor@bellatlantic.net
It depends on the home machine that you have. I have used a Singer model 237 to make storm sails for my CD-36. In addition I have used it to replace the clew and leach on the yankee and re-sew and do patching on my main and staysail. There were only a few models made in the late 50's which had the class 15 mechanism with the zigzag capability. I believe that the going price for a model 237 in good shape is about $60. You will want to modify it with an extra heavy presser foot spring.
The biggest problem that I have had is when you get to very thick stacks of cloth (like two pieces of webbing and 6 layers of 9 ounce Dacron) the machine will miss stiches often. The cause of this is that the tension in the thread is high at the top of stroke and bends the needle. Normally the tension is off by the time it re-enters the cloth, but with a thick stack the tension is still on at that point. The needle is then misguided and misses the point where the finger on the bobbin carrier passes and the stich is missed. For heavy stacks of material you need to hand crank the machine through and wherever a stich is missed you need to back it up and let the machine pick that stich up.
Matt
mcawthor@bellatlantic.net