Reddit mentions: The best industrial machines

Long rambling post warning...

I work in an industrial shop that makes medium-weight to heavy-weight products (dust filters to giant truck tarps, basically). I don't know the home machines much, but I can share a little knowledge on industrial machines if you're at that point (the price point is substantially higher, expect to spend $1000-$1600, although you'd probably get 60%-90% back in resale value). It's not for everyone. People do amazing things with Singer Heavy Duty home machines, and they're much more affordable and practical.

The biggest difference with industrials is that they're designed to run all day, at high speeds, and last for a very long long time. But the best difference is that you can buy a specialized machine for exactly what you want to sew.

For gear stuff, the reason you'd want to upgrade to an industrial is to get a medium-weight single-needle walking foot that can walk over and sew through anything you'll have to deal with: Tacky fabric coatings, slick fabrics, thick fabrics, thick seams or binding, multiple layers of webbing, zippers, foam up to 1/2" thick. It will feed and stitch exactly the same whether it's just two layers of 200 denier nylon, or 3 layers of webbing plus two overlapped hemmed seams. And it's smooth over the transitions.

Don't bother with an industrial drop-feed garment machine like a Juki DDL-8100, it'll just do what a home machine does, but faster.

The type of industrial you'd want is something like a Consew 206RB or a Juki DNU-1541. The downside is that they are only straight-stitch... The zig-zag capable versions cost literally twice as much. I made this bag with a 206RB, and it handled foam, 1000D nylon, and heavy bound seams without blinking. Just walks right over it, with perfect stitches.

Both of those machines have a bunch of affordable accessories too: Zipper feet, cording feet, edge guides, edge binding attachments, etc. You can also use heavy thread (92, easily).

New vs. Used: It's totally fine to buy a used industrial, as long as it's in good working order. Worn paint is fine, rust is not. Bad maintenance/tinkering is a red flag, things like random screws jammed where they don't belong, filed-down hook tips, ground-down feed dog holes, sagging tabletops, sunken-in machine heads, anything that looks overly "rigged" without a good explanation. Do NOT buy a "project machine", only buy one that runs great as it sits. Anything with a clutch motor, subtract $250 from your offer and throw that thing in the nearest dumpster and buy a servo motor (a positioning motor is 100% worth the extra $$).

You absolutely don't need an industrial machine. It's expensive. It's heavy. It takes up a lot of space, and is definitely not portable. It will not magically make you better at sewing. It has less overall functionality than a home machine with 15 stitch patterns, that can zig-zag, fake an overlock stitch, or make decorative stitches. But they're really pleasant to work with when you get used to them, because you don't have to worry about the machine limits, you can just sew whatever you want to sew.

Don't be so sure! I love my Brother cs6000i which I bought on a flash sale for ~$130, but I have my eye on this Nex machine for ~$45 which I don't need. It's just half sized and I think it would be cute for travel (I don't travel that much).

If you're serious about not spending that much, check Craigslist and thrift stores! Happy sewing!

You're going to need industrial machines to do anything worthwhile, and those aren't exactly "budget-friendly". I'm not sure what your budget is, but I'm assuming it's small since you put that line in there.

The Juki machine that u/Yost888 recommended actually starts at around $800USD, not sure where he got $350 from, maybe for a used one?