OK - In for a penny, in for a pound. Or in this case, about 1600 pounds...
After digesting all the great advice here, doing a bunch more research, and shopping both the new and used markets, I pulled the trigger on this:
https://www.sailrite.com/Sailrite-Ultrafeed-LSZ-Walking-Foot-Sewing-Machine-110V
The main drivers of the decision where that I wanted a walking foot machine, enough power to deal with most anything I'd want to do - including possibly windows, plastic inserts and maybe some light leather - and I generally look at tools and machines as lifetime purchases.
I spent a lot of time searching the used market, focusing on the brands and models mentioned in the thread, but did not find anything that would work for me.
On the new side, the Sailrite machines seemed to be middle of the line in terms of cost. I did find cheaper walking foot models from Consew, but in my research I found many examples of folks having problems and not getting adequate support from the seller or the manufacturer - often with one pointing the finger at the other. Although as with others, I did take these reviews with a grain of salt.
@MaximusLJR06, I did take your advice to heart, and spent a lot of time looking at reviews on the Sailrite, and there are many bad experiences out there, but Sailrite does seem to support their product - and you deal directly with them if you have a problem.
Finally, and of the most weight, was the direct positive personal feedback from several folks here. I'll take a few personal recommendations over bad reviews any day.
I also took Jeff's (
@jscherb) advice and added the speed reduction upgrade, and Fulton's (
@Fulton_Hogan) advice and picked up Sailrite's hot knife and basking tape. I also took
@Vulture's advice and went for the LSZ model, which has the zig-zag option.
And just by coincidence, if you follow my build thread you know I've just replaced my soft top (among other things over the last few weeks
). I actually had the old top in the garbage can for pickup pick-up today and it dawned on me that it would make great (read: cheap
) material to use for practice. So I yanked it out of the trash and cut it down to useable pieces.
So off we go with both feet. I'm looking forward to learning a new skill.