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The surprising genius of sewing machines [video]
- Waterluvian 3y agoSewing machines are one of those things where I learn how they work then promptly forget and they go back to feeling like magic. I think this video has really made it stick. It’s more like a knitting machine than something that does “sewing” like how I was taught by hand. The thread never goes through to complete any knots. It’s just tangles. I also finally understand how the bobbin inside the base can be so small: it supplies much less thread to the tangle.
- mikey_p 3y agoActually most modern sewing machines use the same amount of thread from the bobbin and from the spool on top. The reason the bobbin is usually so small is that the thread from the top makes a loop and passes it around the bobbin, which must be small enough to fit through the loop.
- MilStdJunkie 3y agoThe "knitting" revelation is what made it stick for me as well, long ago. I don't remember the name of the person who took the the time to explain it to me, but he did so with kelp.
- hypercube33 3y agoWhat'll really get your noodle going is looking up how a square hay bailer knotter works. My grandpa joked that whoever engineered it was a mad insane guy.
- georgesimon 3y agoI watched Tim Hunkin explain sewing machines when I was about 8 and have never lost my fascination with them (or mechanical engineering) since then. https://youtu.be/8lwI4TSKM3Y https://youtu.be/8lwI4TSKM3Y
- eigenvalue 3y agoHe’s so great. Secret Life of Machines is one of the greatest television programs to ever exist in terms of explaining household technology in simple terms. Highly recommend it to anyone with kids. I plan to check out his arcade the next time I’m in London.
- georgesimon 3y agoA visit to one of his arcades would be almost like a pilgrimage for me. I'd have to make it the centerpiece of a trip to London, if I ever get to go. His breadth and volume of work amazes me.
- iancmceachern 3y agoYes, bless him for what he did for engineers, macninists, and tinkerers !
- aksss 3y agoJust a friendly recco for the Technology Connections YouTube channel. Really liked his exploration of the Coffee Machine and other vids. Not affiliated in any way. https://youtu.be/Sp9H0MO-qS8?si=PHB0_LqfD5AArdJO https://youtu.be/Sp9H0MO-qS8?si=PHB0_LqfD5AArdJO
- hotpotamus 3y agoI showed that episode to my mother (who is a fairly avid seamstress) and she commented that he really needed to clean his fingernails. In the afterword he's added to his modern uploads of those episodes (which was fabulous of him to take on) he mentions that he received many letters telling him the same back when it originally aired.
- georgesimon 3y agoLike he says, the sewing machine was the first machine that entered the home. It was at the forefront of a changing world. It probably changed his viewership in new and unexpected ways too!
- foobarian 3y agoThe epiphany for me was realizing that there are two separate sources of thread. The bobbins are out of sight so I was puzzled for a long while as to how the magic works.
- jjnoakes 3y agoFor me the realization that the top thread's loop goes AROUND the bottom thread's entire spool is what made it click for me originally.
- dhosek 3y agoAahhh, didn’t watch the video, but that makes sense. I’ve always felt like sewing machines were some sort of dark evil magic that couldn’t possibly work.
- drfuchs 3y agoYes, elementary topology clearly shows that sewing machines don’t exist in three dimensions.
- ssgodderidge 3y agoThe most remarkable aspect of sewing machines to me are their durability. Those things last forever. No annual release hype cycles. No purposeful obscurity. The good ones are a “buy it once” investment.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- whythre 3y agoIn a former life I repaired sewing machines. Singer built a reputation for durability, and their old machines still perform much as you describe. Modern Singers, however, are bottom-of-the-market plastic chunks of crap, their reputation running off the fumes of a bygone century. Janome and Brother machines are pretty OK, a decent balance of lower cost with reasonable durability (some plastic wear parts meant to be replaced over time). Bernina mechanical parts are incredibly solid but their electronics are as vulnerable to failure as everything else nowadays.
- HarHarVeryFunny 3y agoMy mother used to have an old hand-cranked Singer with mother-of-pearl inlay. Not as fancy as the really old ones, but still a very nice machine! As a boy I was fascinated by it, and proud to be able to thread it and use it! It always felt as if there was a slight element of danger (needle thru finger) to using it!
- jcgrillo 3y agoDo you have any experience with or opinions of Sailrite machines?
- mauvehaus 3y agoNot the person you're asking, but I've got a little time on one. If you aren't pushing it and don't need a zigzag stitch and/or walking foot, you'll likely find you'll be as happy with an old cast-iron Singer. If you don't already have one, pick up a 15 -90 or 15-91 or one of the numerous clones (which in my limited experience with them are also decent). I ran an old Singer 127 through a pile of fabric a Sailrite was struggling with. The old domestic Singers aren't industrial, but if you can't do it once, slowly on a 15, it's even odds whether it can be done at all[0]. The 15 (or 66) is a much, much more refined machine. Parts (bobbins, notably) are readily available, and if you find you do need more, you can sell it for what you paid for it. The Sailrite, IME is a clunky, value engineered version of what you really need when you hit a problem an old Singer can't solve. Once you get to that point, you'll know what you need and how a machine should run. If you've already hit this point, I'd suggest looking for an old industrial machine on your local Craigslist or Facebook marketplace equivalent. The Sailrite is likely to piss you off with how crudely it runs and handles. I'm told by my upholsterer colleague that an import servo motor is a huge upgrade from a clutch motor. Especially if you're coming from a domestic machine with a variable speed control. On the rare occasion that I've used a machine with a clutch motor, it's a grab hold and hang on for the ride kind of experience. [0] I'm explicitly not including things that require a serger, blind-hemmer, cylinder bed or other specialized garment/leather machines. The Sailrite won't do those either.
- jtwaleson 3y agoI picked up sewing recently to put on the scout badges for my kids. After doing a couple by hand the machine is a real treat to work with! It’s also quite fun, highly recommended if you’re into making things.
- TheJoeMan 3y agoI really enjoyed learning to sew on my Boy Scout Merit Badges with a sewing machine. I do think my parents helped sew the Cub Scout patches.
- aksss 3y agoI never recall sewing my own patches (thanks mom!) but I like sewing today, mostly to repair clothing, which gives me an absurd amount of satisfaction. It occurs to me that it should have been one of the very first merit badges a scout earned: sew ur own patches.
- rekttrader 3y agoMy pop was a sewing machine mechanic and my first gig was digitizing parts catalogs. Being a mechanic having serviced many machines, he knew which competing brands have the same internal parts for key functions. Sewing machines are magical things and Singer who had the novel idea of a better up and down and Wilson had the clever idea of the rotary bobbin. Before that a shuttle would be used, it flew laterally and could produce a consistent mechanical stitch. The mechanics on these early machines is insane... it was a great way for me to get into computing. Also part reuse happens all over... Lamborghini’s have used Mazda headlamps.
- fein 3y agoAnd Nissan. The Diablo had 300ZX Z32 headlight clusters. There was an "eyelash" on the lambo to cover the nissan mfg logos.
- orthecreedence 3y agoAnd for a period, Ford Rangers and Mazda B4000s were effectively the exact same verhicle with a slightly different body.
- doubled112 3y agoFord and Mazda shared a ton of parts and vehicles over the years.
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- codebrrr 3y agoThe computerized flat knitting machines are even more genius. I like to call them clothes printers.
- tired_star_nrg 3y agoIs a there a similar sort of video on how cloth for clothing is made/woven?
- zokier 3y agoAs far as I know, the basic operating principles behind power looms are quite similar to those of traditional manual looms. There is also far more wider range of automation and tech available
- dmckeon 3y agoThere is an excellent book that covers the topic: The Fabric of Civilization, by Virginia Postrel. The part most amazing to me was the pyramid effect of fabric production in the days before mechanization - 20 spinners per weaver producing thread, 80,000 spinners near Manchester alone, thousands of weavers turning thread into fabric, etc., and as the spinning jenny and later the power loom came along, employment and economic patterns changed drastically, giving us the Luddites and similar movements. One wonders what programming will look like after 10 or 20 years of AI.
- oblib 3y agoYears ago I bought an old Singer sewing machine on Ebay. Those are still an amazing, heavy duty, machine. You can stitch thick belt leather with those.
- beezle 3y agoMy mom was quite the seamstress back in the day. Clothes, drapes, slipcovers, whatevers. She had a Pfaff circa 1960. That thing was a tank and it stored in its own furniture cabinet when not in use.
- atentaten 3y agoThis sounds familiar at the 18:42 mark: "In 1814, Joseph Madersperger was granted a patent in Vienna. It took him a decade to build the machine, but he never commercialized it. He spent the rest of his life trying to perfect the design."
- blindstitch 3y agoIn art school I owned an industrial sewing machine. It could sew through virtually anything and was great for repairs and modifications of heavy garments and bags. It had a "walking foot" that moved the needle in sync with the feed mechanism on the bottom which let it pull through almost endless layers without issue. I think the most it took before choking was about 15 layers of denim. You could lift the foot with a knee-operated lever too which made moving the material while you worked effortless. Of all the crap I've sold over the years to buy other stuff it's the only one I really regret letting go of.
- RCitronsBroker 3y agosame here. I got it in the process of sewing my own skydiving parachute, still working on that.
- ThePowerOfFuet 3y ago>sewing my own skydiving parachute How do you walk properly with such sizable cojones?
- RCitronsBroker 3y agoI manage lol, being circumcised had a much worse impact on my gait for considerable time, oh, and i got my median sized nuts crushed by my leg straps once after deploying my parachute, that sucked
- huytersd 3y agoWhy? There’s no way you can do as much rigorous testing on it as the large manufacturers especially when your life is on the line.
- kragen 3y agobut you can have a lot more confidence that a nonzero amount of testing was done on it, and you know what kind of testing
- yawboakye 3y agogreat explanation. one wonders how many attempts were made at mechanizing the exact manual sequence of passing the whole needle through, rotating, and passing it back up. because for everyone, that was sewing. it’s understated but worth the greatest emphasis: when trying to improve on a process or mechanize/automate, how it’s currently done may not be your best guide. if anything, it may be the worst. concerning that, gordon glegg had this to say in his book, the design of design[0]: If you are concerned in making the production of some article quicker, better or cheaper, you will naturally study how it is being done at the moment. It may seem paradoxical but the man least likely to help you is the operator in charge of the machine. The more 'down-to-earth' and 'practical' he considers himself the more 'unpractical' and 'up-in-the-air' he is likely to be from your point of view. He is too near the machine to know why it works. He only knows how it works. He will have learnt what handwheels to turn or what controls to adjust to keep the line running efficiently, and will be able to use that knowledge most skilfully and responsibly. [0]: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/aeronautical-journal/article/abs/design-of-design-g-l-glegg-cambridge-university-press-1969-93-pp-illustrated-30s/52A5E5488C0A46B0FEE913F9AA2F3D06 https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/aeronautical-journal...
- mtreis86 3y agoLockstitch is commonly used in leather work, even when done by hand. Given the simplicity of the tools involved and how long humans have been at leatherwork for, I'd be willing to bet lockstitch already existed when the sewing machine was invented.
- midtake 3y agoI have always had a respect for these machines. Interestingly enough, Brother (the printer company) started out as a sewing machine company, and somehow it makes sense to me.
- RoyalHenOil 3y agoHusqvarna sewing machines and Toyota sewing machines have been made since the early days, too.
- userbinator 3y agoLook at a 3-thread overlock machine for a even more complex series of coordinated movements: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMrsT6jPR7s https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KMrsT6jPR7s There are also 4, 5, and 6-thread overlockers but a quick search didn't find any videos showing how they operate in detail.
- rahilarious 3y agoThat's really cool channel to stumble upon. Thanks for sharing
- timonoko 3y agoGerman kite sewing community recommended vintage Singer 404G Slant-O-Matic. When the needle is slanted it prevents wrinkling of thin fabric. Better than Walking Foot even, which I also have as on add-on. Also it has the super-zigzag, when means that it makes extra stitches between zigs and zags. Very durable stitch for stretchable fabrics. It seems to be crazy expensive on Ebay: €250. Good reputation I guess.