I'm fairly convinced the old Singer 111w155 would do most of what I want. Upholstery, not so much heavy leather work. I'm looking at one of those, & a Juki LU562 which is a clone.
Does your post signify that the "clone" is actually a better choice (condition & all being equivalent?) The Juki is a lot closer and a lot cheaper.
Do you think the 261- series Singer was a big enough improvement over the 111w155 to consider one of those at the same price, though both are considerably more than the Juki? I'm confused about how the 261 differs, despite online searches. People seem to be less familiar with them.
(Edit - Typo on that last Singer, should be 251- , see below. Stet so a follow-up reply makes sense)
smt
I was a Structures Tech in the Canadian Air Force, or at least, a part of what was left of it. Part of my job was to sew straps and aircraft upholstery and the like.
The CF replaced almost all their Singer straight stitch machines with Juki models, as the Juki used a toothed belt between the upper and lower rigging to keep it all in synch., while the Singer used a bevel gear on a shaft arrangement. When they were working correctly and well, there was no functional difference between them, when the Singer had a jam it tended to become a longer process to get it to work properly again. Almost every joint in the drive line of the Singer was held with a set screw and you pretty much needed to start at one end and time it from the one to the other to get it to run again. The Juki used a snap clutch that would pop off, and was quickly reset, and did not have near as many joints to go fubar.
I regret that I cannot tell you what model Juki or Singer we were using mostly, just that were I to run out looking, and were to find similarly set up machines for similar money, I would have the Juki and never look back.
Further to that, we were beginning to have issues with access to parts for the Singer machines. Normal problems with durable goods lasting longer than the company support for them.
I looked around and that Juki you were looking at looks a lot like the ones we had, while I think we were using a machine similar to the Singer 211, they were a single stitch with reverse and not much else other than an adjustable stitch length, both.
Now, as an aside, related, does anyone know of a good book that covers the industrial side of sewing? I regret not cadging a copy of the military school manual that was used for the sewing course, as I have not been able to find a similar resource elsewhere. Thousands of 'housewife' or 'fashion' type sewing books, but almost nothing that relates to heavy duty stuff like lifting straps, heavy duty kit bags, and the like.
Cheers
Trev
Gotta check more frequently.