Are You Reliable?

In the past I have ranted about people who are no-shows so I bet you think this is going to be another post where I jump up on my soap box and complain about this type of behavior. Nope! This is about an industrial sewing machine with the brand "Reliable" so let's just hope it is.

Since I'm still deep into industrial sewing machines and they haven't grown old (yet), I spied a portable industrial that I had never heard of before, the Reliable. Some quick research showed me this was a decent machine, not as good as a Sailrite, but not bad either, especially if I knew what I was doing. It further interested me because it not only was an industrial walking foot but a zigzag model. Walking foot zigzag? Now they had me: I had to go check it out. And it came home with me:

Reliable Barracuda 200ZW industrial walking foot

It runs but I think they send them out with a bit of test fabric and absolutely no oil. I have been oiling and oiling it ever since and finally got out a can of TriFlow oil just to get in all those space I could not see. It worked! It is running smoother and quieter so, hopefully, I just need to keep it oiled now for peak performance. Here's a closer look at this baby:

Walking foot

Walking foot side view

Walking foot mechanism on back

This type of walking foot is quite the marvel with feed dogs on the top with the foot and feed dogs underneath coming up from the bed of the machine. They work together for that even feed of the fabric. This is so crucial when I'm making my hot mitts pot holders so the sandwich of the fabric, Insulbright, and cotton batting stay together instead of sliding off. Beats me why all machines don't have this feature! Here's more photos of under the hood:

Reliable Barracuda 200ZW bird's eye view with top cover removed

Under side plate

It only looks scary inside but you need to respect the power a sewing machine like this has. So how does it sew? I had some skipped stitches in the beginning so I adjusted the turn of the needle. This uses a DP-17 with a round shank so it is very easy to be just a tad rotated too far and cause the eye of the needle to be off for the hook to pick up the thread loop. Here's the stitches I made:

Straight, zigzag, skips, correct

I love the ability to have zigzag for binding edges and even making buttonholes. There was a time when I made buttonholes just using different widths of the zigzag stitch so I know it can be done! The portable case for this model is way too overpriced and, thankfully, out of stock so I'm not tempted to buy one. It does fit it into one of my wood boxes and think this is pretty decent:

Reliable Barracuda 200ZW in wood base

 The motor hangs off the back so that precludes putting a cover on it anyway but just gave it a bit more stability. I need smaller needles than the size 21 that came with it so I can try it out on my hot mitts. Here's hoping it can replace the Consew CP206R that needs a hack to lift the presser foot higher. I keep sewing and trying out new-to-me ideas for making these things work better, smarter, faster or with less ripping out of seams, as well as just a better product. Who knows? This might just be a more reliable sewing machine.