Originally Posted by
LilaKay
My husband is looking for an older Singer that is capable of sewing through several layers...like belting. He wants to make custom dog collars and leashes to sell at craft shows. We have a chance to buy a green 319 that is in good condition....sews but needs some tlc...do you think this machine would handle the heavy sewing?
You will need an old walking foot machine or an old harness machine if you are going to do production. If you are just doing a few an old Singer 15 with the larger hand wheel on a hand crank might do the job but I haven't seen one with a motor boss. I rigged one up once for sewing leather but I had to use a spinner knob. Very slow way to sew but it did work. I compared sewing leather on that to everything else in the shop. A Singer 27 has the big hand wheel and may do the job just fine, too. Then you have the issue of heavy thread. The 15 and the 27 are limited by what size thread you can make do with. The industrials will use a thicker thread and larger needle but there are limits how thick you can put through. There are older harness machines & patchers out there and this might be what you want for production. The 319 is not a good choice for that.