I was talking with a friend recently about the subject of industrial sewing machines. She's in the market for a flatbed straight stitch unit, something like a Juki DDL-8700, and just for the sake of curiosity I decided to check out what price they're going for on the used market, be that eBay, Craigstlist or the like.
As it happens, they're going for around the $500 mark, at least locally on CL, which is a mighty attractive price given their capabilities.
What also had a mighty attractive price, so I discovered, was a Juki LS-321, a cylinder bed needle-feed machine.
And, well, I guess it's no surprise that this happened, given that I'm writing a blog post about it.
The machine itself seems to be in pretty good shape. The only major deficiency I can see so far is that it's missing the bobbin cover plate.
The oil wick also got pulled out of place, but I stuffed that back down after I took the photos.
The machine is a bit dirty, and hasn't been properly cleaned in some time. This was pretty obvious from the oil build-up in places, as well as the caked-on glitter filling many crevices. Oh dear.
It came set up with a clutch motor which isn't really ideal for the type of sewing I intend to do with it, but I'll give it a shot and see how well I get on with it. It doesn't cost much to swap it out for a servo motor though, so that's always an option. I do need to clean up the wiring a little though, as there's some live wires intended for a lamp just sort of sticking out of the motor and wrapped loosely with electrical tape, which isn't ideal. I'll probably just completely remove those wires, then install a power strip on the underside or something like that for everything to plug into (and by 'everything' I mean the motor, plus a couple of sewing lights I'll be adding soon).
The table frame is in pretty good condition, about the only fault I can find is that the feet on one end are a little bit bent and out of sorts, plus it's a bit grimy here and there.
Really, the only thing that desperately needs attention is the table top, which is somehow peeling in two. It's also sagging in the middle, despite being made out of 1-1/2 inches of plywood. I'll probably remake the top from scratch at some point, as I'd also like to put in a removable section in the middle so that I can get larger items around the cylinder arm a little bit easier.
In all I got a pretty good deal. I haven't really put the machine through its paces, but from what I can tell so far it's in decently good shape. The table is a bit of a disappointment but given that I got the whole thing for about the price I might expect to pay for just the head alone, I'd say I'm pretty happy.
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