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Every machine leaves here sewing

Domestic, overlocker and industrial, sold serviced and repaired on Central Road in Fordsburg since 1994.

See the machines

The bench on Central Road

We have been on Central Road in Fordsburg since 1994: one long bench under a row of lamps, and a wall of machines standing in the queue behind it. Most of what comes through the door arrives in someone’s arms — a domestic that has skipped stitches since Easter, a factory head off a floor in Crown Mines, a treadle out of a back room in Brixton. The shelf along the far wall is the trade-in shelf: machines we took in against a new one, stripped, re-timed and priced again. Whatever you buy, new or off that shelf, we sew a sample on it in front of you first — straight, zigzag, over a seam and back. If the stitch is not right on both sides of the cloth, it does not leave the shop.

On the floor this week

What a service is, and what it costs

A service here is a strip and clean, fresh oil through every bearing, the hook cleaned out and reset for clearance, the timing checked against the needle bar, and both tensions balanced until the knot sits inside the cloth instead of on top of it. A domestic is R450 and goes back the same week. An overlocker is R650, because there are four tensions, two knives and a differential to set instead of one of each. Industrial heads are R850 on our bench, or R1 200 if we come to your floor — worth it once you have more than three machines standing. A swap to a quiet servo motor is R1 850 fitted, and a new belt is R180. A full strip and rebuild, meaning bushes, hook, feed dog, wiring and the lot, starts at R2 400 on a domestic and R4 500 on an industrial, and takes about two weeks. Bring the foot pedal and the bobbin case in with the machine. Half of what comes in for skipped stitches leaves with a new needle and no charge at all, and we would rather tell you that than take your money.

A machine worth rebuilding is worth keeping

Strip, re-bush, new hook, new wiring, re-timed and repainted where it needs it. From R2 400 on a domestic, about two weeks on the bench, and it goes home sewing better than most new ones.

Book a rebuild

Bring it in

118 Central Road, Fordsburg. 082 447 6013, bench@klos.co.za. Most services back in four working days. For a trade-in price, send a photo of the head and the serial number under the bed.