Serger, Juki mo-655, good for my use cases?
I am experienced in sewing, rehabbing, maintaining and timing industrial triple feed machines. Juki Lu-563 and co sew 206rb-4. Make mostly outdoor gear and packs/bags. Using T70, T90 and T135 thread sewing into cordura and straps and other heavy material.
I have a few domestic sewing machines (Kenmore 158’s) and all the kit for cutting and sewing (and just set up and calibrated a projector so I can cut from projected patterns onto cutting mat). I rehabbed the Kenmores and all are running well.
My next evolution in my fiber fabrication is to create rugged men’s “tactical” clothes. I am looking to making pants and shirts that are similar to the 5.11 line of tactical clothes. Pretty much any items found on their site (with my personal customizations),
I see some tactical clothes have what appears to be serged seam with safety stitch. I have been looking at domestic sergers that can handle heavier duty serging. I feel confident in maintaining the serger and manually adjusting tension. Further, I do not require air threading. Nice, yes, required by me, no.
I visited a “ sew and vac” place that has tons of sewing equipment for sale. I was head strong on getting a juki mo-655; however, the sales guy said it would take him forever to get a juki serger in. He tried selling me on a baby lock. He even told me the baby lock is more robust than the mo-655. Something about the needles being vertical instead of at an angle. And his shop services baby lock (and no ability for me to get a service manual for a baby lock) and does not service Juki sergers.
The mo-655 is the only domestic serger I see that has safety stitch. Everything I read served seam with safety stitch is that is for wovens with high stress seams. And that 4 thread serged is for stretchy materials.
I really think the sales guy is feeding me crap trying to sell me a baby lock. But, I do not know what I do not know.
People with experience with serging heavier woven clothing, please share your wisdom on using a serger with a safety stitch versus without a safety stitch. Also, please provide input into which machine would be optimal based on my use cases.
Much thanks in advance!