Not a very skilled seamstress (or seamster? what do you call a guy that sews?) if a machine throws a better stitch than you can by hand.
And it really doesn't take that much of a machine to punch through thick stuff. I've been making 'thick stuff' for almost 20yrs. It takes a big motor, but all you really need is a $10 garage sale Kenmore machine from the 70's or earlier with an all metal drive. If your motor won't hack it, then just bolt up a hand crank to the drive wheel and you can crank out a can cover in a matter of minutes (the hand crank isn't necessary for torque, just helps your fingers and wrist not get so worn out twisting the drive by hand). Now that I'm older and have a bit more disposable income, I have a couple nice industrial machines to do my heavy work (two cobra digital's, an unlabeled industrial canvas cabinet machine I got at an estate auction, a 19th century singer Treadle, and a Tipman Boss), but I've sewn miles of seams through codura, impregnated canvas, Kevlar, all sorts of leathers, foam rubber backed saddle seats, neoprene, spectra, etc etc with nothing more than hand-me-down old consumer grade 'hobby machines'. Only a matter of going at a reasonable pace, feeding the material properly and give your needle time to cut instead of ram.
Edited by Varminterror (10/01/14 11:42 PM)
_________________________
Conservationalist? I thought you said conversationalist!?!?!