Yamato Z833 4-Thread Overlock Machine

When I first began collecting, several industrial machines caught my eye as did their prices -- wow!  They're expensive and take up a lot of space.  And because many industrials are designed to accomplish very specific tasks, they often require specialized knowledge and technical skills to operate, maintain, and (if necessary) repair.  I didn't bother to look for these machines seriously because I had wrongly concluded they're 1) out of my price range; 2) for very experienced -- usually professional -- sewers; 3) technically difficult; 4) big; 5) overkill.

While some of the above is more or less true for the novice, industrials can be found at rock bottom prices.  I think one of the reasons for this is that their owners know that they're getting rid of something few will likely be interested in purchasing.  Not many outside the commercial sewing community want a large industrial power stand in their sewing studio; industrials are big and scary and how many rug binding machines can a person possibly need?  (Don't answer that.)  They're usually very heavy and some are filled with oil that must be siphoned prior to transport.  Not everyone has a truck, friends to help them, enough muscle themselves, or is willing to make the necessary space.

Now that I'm an experienced buyer of sewing machines, I've found that not only are industrials not as scary or expensive as I had originally thought, they're entirely within the purview of the hobby sewer, as some (if not many) non-professional or semi-professional folks sew regularly with leather and upholstery fabrics and the like with industrial machines of their own, their tables only slightly larger than the typical vintage sewing table with its leaves extended (although you can't fold an industrial down into its table and serve appetizers for a sit-down party of 8).

Over the last few years I've been acquiring machines, I've made a list of the industrials that make up a basic studio.  I've finally acquired one of the last machines on that list and so the present machine is something of a milestone: a 4-thread overlock that can basically handle most fabrics.

Why a 4-thread?  I decided that a 3-thread is simply not versatile enough nor is a 3-thread overlock as secure or as aesthetically pleasing and a 5-thread (or more) is unnecessary -- although this Yamato Z833 can be converted into a 5-thread with some extra parts.  Many overlock machines can be modified to do other tasks such as edge binding, blind hemming, tacking, tucking, rolled hemming, etc.  That these tasks can be accomplished including cutting in one pass makes an overlock machine (and in particular a 4-thread or more) a very versatile machine indeed.  Add to this the speed and power of an industrial machine to these tasks and like an industrial straight or zig-zag standard sewing machine, it becomes even more useful, particularly if there are long seams to sew.  As you can imagine, any good home decor business would have to have such a machine.

Due to the seller's communication mix-up with another buyer of other items at an estate sale, I thought this machine had been sold.  Apparently he wasn't interested in it and so in order to get me to buy it (and the seller felt bad about her mistake, although I told her it was not a problem at all), she lowered the price to $50.  Not bad for a really nice Yamato (Kondo) machine made in Japan with a .5 clutch in a table with all the accessories except a manual.  I had assumed I'd be buying a Juki, Rimoldi, Singer, or Union Special and hadn't considered Yamato but I'm very impressed with this machine's quality. 

The machine is whisper quiet and very, very fast.  A self-oiler, this thing is SMOOTH -- probably one of the smoothest machines I own and considering this is an overlock machine, that's saying something.  I'm very pleased with it.  It needs some adjusting but everything works perfectly and although it's an older model, parts and service are still very much available.

And as a bonus, it's green.