Sewing machine

[RobertArthur]

@ Hotrodder, last year I gave it to a friend mine in the Morvan, still in working order, a HP 400 D ac millivoltmeter.
In 1956 it was brandnew. I bought it already second hand, probably US Army surplus from Germany. A respectable age now of 69 years, indeed, good old engineering. Very useful for my audio projects, amplifiers and 1970's mixing desks.

[widge]

My wife bought a brother second hand, hardly used, machine a couple of years ago its fine for day to day stuff, but stuggles on anything a bit heavy, but ignoring the extra features, it not a patch on her old machine, a New Home she got as a wedding present in 1976, she was going to sell it, but I stopped her as I can see it still working well after the brother has packed up. Also we looked on the internet, and they are in demand and get snapped up very quickly being very good machines. New Home was made by Janome, who are apparently a very good Japanese commercial machine maker.

[Spectrum]

The only reason I suggested an ex-industrial machine is that the OP said she needs to sew "Heavy Canvas" depending on the weight of the fabric, a domestic machine will not hold a thick enough needle and have the power to sew it, agree about only the one type of stich, but the DW has made everything on a commercial scale starting with Shrouds aged 16 to Wedding dresses and most things in between on just two machines, she has a small "Brother" all the fancy stiches they will never get used, shes now 70 and still does a small amount of lightweight adjustment etc.

[Liz]

Thank you all, some helpful food for thought.
I am keeping an eye on the local English language FB buy'n'sell group. With so many peeps clearing stuff before moving back to the UK all sorts of things turn up.
Meanwhile I'll be using the hand-held battery-powered Pfaff machine I bought for about 10€ in Lidl (other sellers and makes available ) to replace the front door zips in the trailer tent, a job I last did in the 1990s. You can't use a normal sewing machine there unless you completely dismantle the thing, detaching the material from frame and trailer.

[Hotrodder]

I could have done with that little gadget. I recently had to replace the door zip on our polytunnel. The ones they come with are garbage. Very fine vinyl plastic and they are lucky to last more than one season before the sun makes the zip too brittle. I remembered I have a bag of long HD tent zips that have been to numerous vide greniers but not sold. Installing one by hand took three days. Such is the difficulty pushing a strong needle through two zip borders and two layers of vinyl. (Very sore fingers)

[Liz]

It's not perfect but should do the job, with just a hand-sew to secure the ends of the runs of stitches. You get a straight-stitch finish on top and a chain stitch effect underneath.
Youtube 'the seamster', a hilarious US guy, was helpful.