Technical Question about doing upholstery

My cousin called me this morning and he is getting ready to make a move and wanted to know if I knew anyone that may be interested in a industrial sewing machine,seems his wife bought it several years ago and had thoughts of re-upholstering furniture and Ron says she did a couple of chairs with leather.

I don't know anything about industrial sewing machines but ladyhrp expressed interest in it and the price seems fair.

She has expressed interest about wanting to try her hand at car upholstery and my old black deuce could be a blank canvas. . HRP

 

Got a brand and model# ?
Should be a machine with a walking foot. I say she should have a go with it!
It really is like anything, practice.

 

Buy it, I am a little jealous, my wife hates working in fabric, she likes metal better

 

Go for it. you know the more work you can do on your own, the more costs go down. not to mention the satisfaction of doing it yourself.

 

Danny, get it. It's fun to learn new things. It can be a mess on your first test scraps, no wait, it will be a mess on your first door panel you try to get straight lines through foam.

I use a Singer industrial that must be 70-80 years old. It can't do what a modern one can do with inexperienced hands, but I like trying. It will sew 10 layers of vinyl or jeans like it was not there.

the old time retiring upholsterer I got it from, was only using this age of machines to do great work. A modern one is much more friendly to an unskilled beginner

if your wife already knows how to sew thin cloth on a home unit, it's easy to grasp. (I had only very little time on a home unit years ago)

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I don't know the model number but it's a singer,tried calling him but no one answered the phone.

 

I would say go for it! Walking foot machines are preferred. My wife and I have done a few seats and door panels. she can sew straight and make great patterns. I know how the stuff goes together and have strong fingers for stretching and hog ringing. Between the two of us we do an ok job. Its all practice. I wish we did more interiors. I consider myself a jack of all trades master of none. It shows with my body work, painting, fabrication and upholstery. However, I am very proud to say we did almost everything on my car. This winter MrsBinger and I are going to put the interior into my coupe. I will post progress on my build thread when we get started on that step.

 

The older "walking foot" design differs from the modern ones. Older is not a compound foot.

Compound foot does two things: The gripper teeth in the bed move the cloth through, The old ones, the upper "foot" does walk with those teeth, but only if it makes a good compressed material grip over the bed teeth.

the newer compound walking foot, the foot is powered too. It will move forward on it's own without needing the help of the lower teeth through the compressed fabric/foam.

Compound helps step up over deep foamed panels. If foam is too thick on an older one, the foot mushes into the "pillow" of foam mass.

Motor differences: The older industrials were all manual clutch driven; the motor runs all the time, then your knee pushes gently on the clutch to start the needle. Think of trying to let the car clutch out with no throttle, no torque...it stalls. The motor running already, has the torque needed to start the needle in tough materials.

Newer tech has an electronic-sensing variable torque motor that does not run when you stop stitching.

If you have Jo-Ann's stores there, go get a yard of their inexpensive marine vinyl to practice...any color you would want. And then fill out their mailing list form, and wait for their frequent sales when you want to do the whole car.

Simple pleated door panels are done by placing thin "sew foam" under the vinyl. All that is, is cheap foam with cloth glued to backside. The cloth is mandatory to keep the foam from getting cut in two, as the machine tightens each stitch. I made my own sew-foam from cheap thin foam you get there, and used a free roll of leftover dress cloth. 3M spray glue it on the foam. Thick foam will fight back for newbies like me.

here is the first test panel I sewed up after not touching even a home machine since mid 80s. It was not perfect straight stiches, but I figured the next would be the same...so I used it. Flaws will be forgotten when car is done...especially black vs. white. (these panels were left off the car for two years...the professional glue let go where it gets wrapped around to the back). That is why you see wrinkles and smeared glue at bottom. Glue cleans right off with mineral spirits.

To prevent that glue letting go before the panel goes on which will help hold it, hambers say to tape that overlap on back with strong tape. wish I knew that earlier.

 

It looks like a nice heavy machine and has a reversing bar. If it's a walking foot, I'd pull the trigger.
As mentioned by others, a servo motor is quite nice and yours could be retrofitted with one.

 

Interesting thread Danny and timely for me as I have been poring over the sewing machine ad's for a while now as I want to finish the interior of the RPU.

I'm going to invest in a walking foot machine andI want to learn for future projects and maybe even a little bit of work on the side later when I retire.

The machine I'm most interested in so far is a Juki LU 563.

 

I would say go for it as well. My husband bought me an older walking foot machine and I've done a few passable upholstery jobs on our cars (after lots of practice on scraps!) I would also recommend changing the industrial motor for a servo motor. They are plentiful on ebay and easy to change, and made a big difference on controlling the machine for me. Also, be sure to find out what needle system the machine takes, and don't forget to use uv stabilized thread, etc.

 

Actually Ron has 2 other machines,one does hems I think and not sure what is the purpose of the other. HRP



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The second is an overlock machine for serging fabric edges. Strengthens the edge and stops fraying.

 

He, he. the older commercials were made for piece-meal employees:"you get paid for the amount of pants you make in a day". Those things are a rocket when the clutch hooks all the way in.

I geared mine down a lot, it helps. Ok, so how the heck can he say he geared down a clutch motor if the clutch is attached to the motor? Well, it was a $20 3-phase industrial clutch motor that would not work with my inverter as it is made for bigger HP units. So, in hotrod hack fashion, I extended the shaft on the other side of clutch so I could run v-belt pulleys from a 110 motor. Works slick

 

How can I tell if the sewing machine has a walking foot? and what does that do? HRP

 

A walking foot is pretty much essential for upholstery work as far as I understand it. The foot walks to pull the fabric through the process of sewing and makes thick materials easier to handle.
Go to you tube Danny and watch some videos and you will quickly see the difference.
You can get walking foot attachments for a few machines that don't have one but they are a compromise and don't work that well.

 

I would love to get a servo motor for my Juki machine. Maybe MrsBinger will get one for Christmas. We have already geared down the machine and runs slower than stock (which is still fast with my sewing skills.)

 

Juki is the sewing machine my pal Dave used to do our wagon,I took this photo when he was doing Randy ( Deuce Roadster)'s coupe. HRP

 

A friend of mine put the DC motor from a treadmill on his Pfaff machine. He used all of the control electronics from the treadmill as well. It's pretty nice because it has a controlled slow start.

I have an older Juki with the constant speed motor and treadle clutch. It's a bugger to get used to, but it will sew at 1000 miles an hour. I definitely need to slow it down somehow, as I can't think as fast as it runs.

 

post 18^^That's a clutch motor, you can see the can where the belt is, very far from the motor itself. That looks like a big clutch/motor

another couple of differences: Home machine you have to use your hand to lift the foot if you need to. Commercial is foot pedal lift setup, so you can keep both hands on materials when doing complicated things.

ancient commercial units don't have a reverse stitch capability, which is faster when locking the end of sewn stitch. Locking, means going back/forward, prevents unravel

also comparing home use, commercial guys buy pre-wound bobbins for the lower thread of stitches. It's faster, but you can wind your own if the box quantity of pre wound bobbins is too much to ever use, or a less popular color. Many shops seem to use neutral color thread on cloth fabrics around here in CT.

 

The machine I have has different size pulleys on the motor to slow it down. I am not sure of the sizes. My Dad had the Juki Dealer in KC put them on when he bought the machine. Dad loved telling the story about how the sales man sewed through a sheet of 1/4" plywood. Makes me worried about sewing through my finger.

 

Hopefully, I'm going to go check it out tomorrow. HRP

 

My wife is a very good at sewing . She thought she would have a crack at upholstery too, we try to do it all in house , but we bought a machine without the walking foot ,so dresses and upholstery are way different . We sold the machine to someone who was making horse gear or something.
The walking foot is essential .
Still use my upholstery guru "the hippy" to do all our cars.

 

Like you I have been playing with cars and bikes my whole life and I can do everything but upholstery. A few years ago I was nursing a sore back and decided to check out sewing machines. Go to Google and type in Industrial Sewing Machines and it will have tons of them for sale as well as parts. I asked a few of the local shops about what they used and bought a few books on how to do Hot Rod interiors.
You need a machine that has a walking foot and also reverse. Some old pros say you don't but you do. The old machines had a motor drive and clutch assembly like another poster described but the one I bought had the newer digital motor that has a dial that you can set the speed limits. You can set the speed low enough that it won't outrun you or fast enough that you can't keep up. Either way it is way better than the old style. The machine I bought is a Consew 206RB-1 that was made in the 1960s. The same model is still in production but made in China instead of Japan. Houston is a big city and there are several supply places that sell the different materials but you can also order from internet vendors. I filled up several trash cans learning how and you only get better with practice. Some people will tell you that a so called heavy duty home machine will work but don't waste your money. My Consew will sew through six layers of leather or two layers of fabric.

 

I realize the walking foot is essential for doing upholstery.

Regardless if I purchase the sewing machine or not my pal Dave will always be my go to guy,he did the interior on the wagon because I wanted it nice,the olk sedan doesn't have any interior so anything would be a improvement. HRP

 

A servo motor will make a machine 100 times easier to use if it has a clutch. I got one of these for mine and it makes a world of difference. It is so much easier to control for someone trying to learn.
http://www.reliablecorporation.com/Products/Motors/SewQuiet-6000SM-Servomotor?whence=

 

There is 2 feet, an inner and an outer that basically "walk" or take alternating steps.
If you lift the foot [feet] , underneath there are "feed dogs" that come up and walk with the outer foot

on a normal "flat sewer" they use "feed dogs" underneath and the upper foot is basically a ski.

If it is a "flat sewer" they are selling, don't waste your time or money. You need to learn upholsterery on a machine that is capable of doing the Job [ like trying to weld Aluminium with a soldering iron ]


If you can find one.......Get an Adler [you'll always get your money back later when you sell]

 

I called my pal Dave and he agreed to go with me to look at the sewing machine this coming weekend,he knows what to look for and can test it to make sure it's in good working and has the features I will need. HRP

 

Hope you won't be disappointed Danny, I am not sure but looking at the picture you posted I don't think that Singer is a walking foot machine. If not then it's probably better suited for dress making and maybe drapes and things like that.

 

I tend to agree in doing a google image search of Singer machines it looks like it is a 591 which I don't believe is a walking foot machine.