Originally Posted by
crafty pat
My 401A bought new in 1958 has been my main machine all these years. It has sewn leather, jeans and every kind of very thick fabrics and never had that problem with it. She sews as beautiful today as when she was new.
My previous post was mostly just musings...and talking to some engineering-types since, I've been convinced that likely a home user wouldn't notice a difference in a slant shank vs straight needle machine. If you need to sew industrial things you're gonna get an industrial machine, but I'm betting most things you can fit into a home machine for sewing would be addressed equally by slant vs. straight.