Bell Skiver or Sewing machine?

* Also: in case you decide to buy a sewing machine I would avoid Van Dam industrie BV (vadana.nl). I placed my first order there and had to cancel it due to a lot of issues and broken promises. It was never delivered and I later heard they were not an official durkopp adler dealer.

Hi congrats on the business deal! I am from the Netherlands too and I have bought my bell skiver for around €999,-. It is from Global and does a great job if you maintain it well. I bought it at Wim Vinken service. They were great with delivery and explanation in the way it works or needs maintenance. I believe I got a small discount because I could pay the full invoice within a week. Maybe this is helpful. Whichever machine is best to choose really depends on the products you make. I know Andrevo sells some secondhand bell skivers and sewing machines as well, but I never bought there.

In general, I would say Skiving machine first.

But this is not a general question, this is a specific one.

For me, it comes down to "which one will help reduce the time spent crafting"? I a pretty confident, that in the case of dope kits, a sewing machine would reduce the crafting time way more than a bell skiver.

Also, do you have a pic for the dopp kits you make? Is there a way to redesign/tweak the design to be able to do it without skiving (or too much skiving)?

I understand, but if it was up to me.. I would have a bell skiver over a sewing machine 100%! If I find any other brands that ship to NL cheap, I will send them over!

Good Luck!

First of all I'd like to say congratulations on the business.

Secondly, I have both a bell skiver and a state of the art cylinder arm machine.

Now I don't know who you're buying from but I bought BOTH of my Bell skiver and Sewing Machine from a company called tysew and they are both brilliant quality, They do everything perfectly. Now for the beautiful part. Together they both cost me £1700.

I was cheeky enough to say I am a college student, I have barely any money (which was true) and I am looking for a bell skiver even if it is second hand. Anyway they came back and said we have a brand new skiving machine (with an extra presser foot, bur sticks and all the other bit and bobs) if you would like to buy it, and They offered me it for £800. I was astonished and they even delivered it to me on pallets and everything.

The second time I wanted to buy just a cheap flat bed, so i contacted them again saying do they have any cylinder arm machines that I could have at a discount but if not could you send me a message when one comes through. Then a couple days went by and I decided to buy a brand new flat bed for £800 with delivery. I was happy with that decision.

I got a phone call saying "we have a cylinder arm machine available with a built in state of the art servo motor, It was for Tom Ford but they said they didn't need it anymore, we see you have shopped with us before and just bought a flat bed and you are on a budget, we had discussions and decided we could offer it you instead of the flat bed but would cost an extra £100"

So in total that came to £900 for a £1800 cylinder arm? + delivery?. BARGAIN

I know you probably don't have the time because of the business, but what i'm basically saying I would be cheeky and ask companies for both and don't be afraid to tell them you are struggling. (If you don't ask. You don't get)

Thanks

(Sorry for the long story)