Just thought I'd let anyone who is thinking of making a tonneau or roof that Singer sewing machines (hand cranked or treadle) will certainly do the job.....

I bought a little hand-cranked Singer on Ebay for £16.50(!)


Singer sewing machine

Works fine on even 4 layers of webbing (thick polyester stuff like used on rucksack straps for those unfamiliar with haberdashery).... which is about 1 layer more than my design needs.....

which when you consider my bro broke our mothers £200 sewing machine sewing 3 layers of fleece says it all really!!! (to be fair the modern machines fail because they have gearboxes in them to allow them to do all kind of silly stitches that you'll never need whereas the Singer just does one type!!).
Its a lovely machine (built in 1901!) and the machine oil used on the gears etc makes it smell gorgeous!!!!

As a bloke, though, you tend to get funny looks in the Haberdashery department of John Lewis buying webbing, haberdashery chalk and dressmakers pins though...... bloody sexist....

tell me about it!! but it's a good place to eye up the milfs

Good call ben, making the boot cover with mrs bobs modern toshiba sewing m/c was a bit painfull.

I'm sure someone in the family has one of those old singers kicking around, i think i'll have a go with one for my flinstone roof like surrey daves.

[Edited on 12/5/07 by bob]

Ive used mine to sew a leather set of seats and all the soft bits for the seven.
The reason the are better than the new crap is these machines have steel gearboxes. The local sewing machine repair guy showed me the pile of plastic cogs that he replaces in the new machines. He said all the singers need is the electrical wiring sorted and a little lube with a good oil.
Best was the price £12 on Ebay postage was more.
Rescued attachment sing.jpeg

quote:

---

Originally posted by BenB
Just thought I'd let anyone who is thinking of making a tonneau or roof that Singer sewing machines (hand cranked or treadle) will certainly do the job.....

I bought a little hand-cranked Singer on Ebay for £16.50(!)


Singer sewing machine

Works fine on even 4 layers of webbing (thick polyester stuff like used on rucksack straps for those unfamiliar with haberdashery).... which is about 1 layer more than my design needs.....

which when you consider my bro broke our mothers £200 sewing machine sewing 3 layers of fleece says it all really!!! (to be fair the modern machines fail because they have gearboxes in them to allow them to do all kind of silly stitches that you'll never need whereas the Singer just does one type!!).
Its a lovely machine (built in 1901!) and the machine oil used on the gears etc makes it smell gorgeous!!!!

As a bloke, though, you tend to get funny looks in the Haberdashery department of John Lewis buying webbing, haberdashery chalk and dressmakers pins though...... bloody sexist....

---

We have three treadle machines, my wife collects them. The last one was £20 and it has all its tools and the receipt book for all the payments on tick (1/11d a week). I bought an electric machine on the flea market for £5 which will sew vinyl and canvas but I've not tried it on leather yet though.

Do the electric ones handle webbing okay? I was a bit wary- hence going for the hand cranked one- most of the time I just manually spin the shiny fly wheel rather than using the crank....

It will do two layers of seatbelt type webbing. The electric machine make is Newhome, it sews everything I've thrown at it so far with a .110 needle. You can turn the flywheel manually to start it on thick stuff