industrial sewing machine
 

I am considering purchasing an industrial Juki sewing machine, either the Juki 8700 or 8700-7
Is anyone familiar with these machines that could offer me some advise?
I mainly make bags and quilts, some bags use decorator fabric which is heavier wt than cotton.
Does anyone have any opinion one way or the other home model vs industrial model?
Thanks

If you run a search, I asked a similar question a while ago. Hope someone responds .... I'll be watching this thread too since I never did make a decision.

Suzy

I was looking at these a while back and went with an antique singer 15-91 lol.When I have the money I would like to get an industrial machine though.

I have a Juki TL-98Q a few years ago and love it. It only does straight stitch and perfect for quilting. I do my own FMQ. I purchased as a result of taking a FMQ class from Sharon Schamber and tried her machine as I was having problems doing FMQ.

I have three or four machines that will sew through just about anything...a Janome6600, a Singer Confidence Quilter, a Husqvarna-Viking and a couple of older Singers. I have sew a lot of home dec fabrics on all of them and they all handle it just fine...the only one I wouldn't try this with is my Featherweight. Hope this helps...

Can you FMQ with the feed dogs up? from my understanding they do not lower but you can takem out completely

I'm not sure from your description if you would really want an industrial machine. As others have mentioned, there are heavy-duty domestic machines that would seem to fill your needs. Some of the drawbacks of industrial machines include: more difficult to re-sell, heavier and therefore less portable, probably less widely serviceable and more expensive to service (ideally, of course, you would never need servicing, but....), less versatile (a one-job type of machine). Some industrial machines are more complicated to thread, although this might not be the case for a straight-stitch machine. I think the main reason for purchasing an industrial machine is if you want to do lots of very fast production stitching. Sewing through heavier materials doesn't seem like a sufficient reason, since there are so many domestic machine options that will handle heavier materials just fine (including some of the old Singers, such as the 201).

I have 2 industrial machines. I get asked to do some really odd sewing at times and I wanted to have a machine that would handle pretty much whatever I threw at it. My 'Go to' machine is a Pfaff 138-6. It is a Zigzag and straight stitch machine. I like it other than the limited feet available for it. It will sew light cotton up to garment weight leather. I have put 10 layers of Sunbrella under the foot and it sewed it.

My other machine is a Singer 31-15. I removed the feed dogs to free motion quilt with it. It does a great job of it. If I ever had to decide on which machine to keep I would probably keep it because of the availability of feet. I can put a walking foot on it, where I can't on the Pfaff. I paid less than 400.00 for both of them combined. If someone offered me the money I'd seriously think about letting them both go.

If you are looking for speed, industrial is the way to go. If you are looking for the ability to sew heavy weight fabrics with larger thread than a home machine will handle then you might want to consider a dedicated industrial.

If you are not going to go for speed or heavy thread and fabrics on a constant basis, I would buy a Singer 15-91 and a good selection of needles in larger sizes and styles and save the money for fabrics. A Singer 15-91 will serve you very well for a very long time.

Any of the Juki industrials are the cream of the crop...they are the smoothest and quietest of the industrials...
Some of the drawbacks are...you can onlly do 1 thing with an industrial...if it is set up to do st. st. on light duty fabrics, the feed dogs are fine teeth-feed dogs. They can be switched out to be used with heavy things, too...but you will have to purchase new feed dogs and needle plate. I think the cost for the switch is around $40...and it is only a couple of screws.
Industrials machines take a good amount of space...not portable at all. Plus you may have a problem with vibration in the floor, due to the heavy duty motor.
They take a special needle...can't just go to Walmart to get more needles.
Pretty easy to thread...most come pre-threaded...I would recommend the pull thru method, until familiar with machine. Make sure the pressure foot is up and knot the new thead close to the spool...pull thru to the needle, cut and thread the needle. Never try to pull knot thru the needle.
Hope this info will help you make your decision....

I am getting a Juki Du 1181 with dual walking feet etc. It will sew anything especially bags. The industrial machines are for serious sewing. I can't wait!