There are three kinds of "heavyweight" sewing involved in gear making. One is the use of heavyweight fabric such as ballistic nylon. For the UL gear maker this is not usually an issue. However, if you are using canvas, or canvas weight nylons it will crop up from time to time. Another kind of heavyweight stitching is using webbing. For hammocker this is usually confined to suspensions and is marked by fairly short runs of stitching through two or more layers of webbing. (I sometimes have three layers to prevent ends from raveling.) An exception to this would be the use of webbing on a bridge hammock as part of the suspension arc. The third type might surprise you unless you have run into the problem before. Seams can reach some very serious numbers of layers. For example a rolled hem over a flat felled seam can amount to 7 layers of fabric. That's a lot of fabric compressed very densely. Once again, it is a short stretch of stitching and then back to the normal stuff.
It is important to remember the purpose of the motor is to turn the flywheel. Nothing more, nor less than that. Even on an electronic machine all the motor does is turn the flywheel so you don't have to do it by hand. When you are doing work that exceeds the capacity of your motor and you hear it start to labor, stop stitching. Right away. Don't think about it. Don't decide you can make the next half inch and all will be well. Cheap motors on cheap machines can burn out very easily. Then you have a major problem because to replace the motor will probably run you more money than buying another cheap machine. But do you really want to buy another cheap machine.
Instead, turn the flywheel by hand. The pressure on the needle is where you are going to run into the most problems. The slower the needle penetrates the fabric the less stress is transmitted to the innards. But running a cheap motor at slow speeds is a recipe for disaster. Turning the flywheel by hand is the optimal solution for those occasions where you have just a short bit of heavyweight stitching to do. It does not add much time to the project. It certainly helps keep your machine running smoother, longer. And it does no harm to any of the internal components.
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Originally Posted by packeagle
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