OT: This ought to make you chuckle

[mel]

The kids at church need a puppet stage built out of PVC that they can tear down and transport so I got volunteered. I wanted to make a canvas skirt to go around the bottom and a back drop with sleeves the pipe can just slip into so I asked my friend who owns an upholstery shop if I could use his industrial size sewing machine....

"Have you ever used a sewing machine like this one?" he asked.

"No," I answered.

"I'll do it for you. That's a 2hp motor on that sewing machine and it'll eat you alive," he said to me.

I just looked at him and smiled and said ok but I was thinking to myself.... "Are you really serious? I'm sure that machine is worthy of the proper respect but c'mon... you want to talk about the ability to be eaten alive come play with my stuff."

[Dave Hinz]

Oh, I'm chuckling, but not for the reason you are. Years ago, my mom did interiors for the Excalibur Autos company (high-end, nice looking nearly-custom cars). One day, things got a bit out of control, and she ended up with a few stitches in her thumb. From the machine. Lock-stitched through the bone.

The ER doc was actually pretty impressed at how neat the stitches were. An industrial sewing machine, designed to sew through 1/2" plywood, can do a number on you, especially when it has a mechanism whose main purpose is to pull the workpiece into the sharp bits.

[patriarch]

"mel" wrote in news:vudkc.2792$ [e-mail]:

That is very much the answer I give when my friends need something done in my shop. I'd rather take the time, do it right, and not have to explain to their spouse why they are at the emergency room.

And I sleep better at night.

I'm not paranoid. But almost ANYTHING, in anyone's shop, can reach out and bite an inexperienced user of THAT machine.

God bless you for your service. And let you keep the parts with which you came originally equipped.

Patriarch

[Swingman]

Accch ... I don't know, maybe it's the needles, but my toes curl up and my skin crawls just thinking about what can happen with that sewing machine ... I'll take my chances with a table saw or router table any day.

AAMOF, I still recall having an unreasonable, but healthy respect for mom's old Singer.

[TeamCasa]

OUCH!!!!

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[Morris Dovey]

I'll never forget the day my grandmother ran the web between thumb and forefinger into her machine. She (fairly cooly) stopped treadling, reversed the feed, and treadled at full speed to free her hand...

[Charlie Self]

Argh! I'm with Swingman here. The needles, the needles!

As I've aged, I've gotten used to more sharp things being stuck into my hide, but needles that have to be backed out or that carry thread....no. Makes my skin crawl to think of it, especially if I had to treadle the damned machine to get the needle out.

Charlie Self "I am confident that the Republican Party will pick a nominee that will beat Bill Clinton." Dan Quayle

[GTO69RA4]

I wouldn't chuckle. Those things move fast and with loads of power. My father when he was a kid in the '40s had a quarter stitched full of seams by a cobbler's machine.

GTO(John)

[S R]

I've never heard of a machine designed to sew through plywood...

Now that is scary...

Stephen R.

[GTO69RA4]

Years ago,

Wasn't that the company in the early '80s that made those antique-style pimpmobiles?

GTO(John)

[Dave Hinz]

I seem to recall pliers were involved in this case - a sewing needle is, after all, longer than the space between the plate and the shaft it's mounted to; normally one has lots of vertical movement available, not so much when it's lodged in a metacarpal.

Dave "or is that philanges..." Hinz

[Dave Hinz]

"Juki Industrial" at

is where this one was from. Of course the models have changed, but think of a machine with a 24" reach, that can exert that much downard force. Lots of metal there.

Dave "...and all of it trying to bite you..." Hinz

[Dave Hinz]

Dunno, are you thinking these:

off-the-shelf GM parts, except of course for the body and interior. Never drove one, and I saw the other day that they've torn down the old factory.

[Charlie Self]

Phew. Juki made my second computer printer. Long time ago.

Charlie Self "I am confident that the Republican Party will pick a nominee that will beat Bill Clinton." Dan Quayle

[Charlie Self]

I needed to know that.

Charlie Self "I am confident that the Republican Party will pick a nominee that will beat Bill Clinton." Dan Quayle

[Nova]

Especially when reversing the feed and running the treadle would make a nice double stitch on the web of your hand

-- Jack Novak Buffalo, NY - USA (Remove "SPAM" from email address to reply)

[Lazarus Long]

Which happens to be across the street from a Woodcraft. That area's been getting revitalized a bit.

[Dave Hinz]

Ah, see, so we _are_ on-topic after all. I'm so relieved.

Anywhere other than Woodcraft or Rockler in the area to get interesting lumber, by any chance? There used to be that place out on highway J, smoky hollow or something, but they're not there anymore.

Dave Hinz

[Swingman]

LOL ... but no mas, as of right now this thread is plonked! aaccch!

[CW]

I have one of those. He's not kidding.