DAMAUK

Our newest acquisition is a Consew 166R. I found this listed on Facebook Marketplace, we were looking for a "spare" machine in case our main Singer XXX machines go down or if we want to set this machine up for Leather or Denim/Canvas. The person we bought it from was using it to sew leather. They had just recently upgraded to a new machine and were no longer needing this one.

I couldn't find much information about this machine online, so I figured we should make a simple review to help others who might be looking at it. I also cleaned up the manual that was with the machine and will make that available for others who might need a copy.

The TL;DR

Instead of the usual review where I go over all of the details eventually getting to the point, let's just get down to it.

Overall Rating 12/20 - This machine is a good buy if you can find it for around $500 - $700 and ensure it sews the material you will be sewing. It can sew a wide range of materials, strong enough to sew leather but still fast and versatile enough to sew lighter-weight materials like cotton or denim. While not well suited to veg tan leather, it should be able to sew relatively light and soft leathers in products like bags or garments, but not well suited to sewing veg tan or other incompressible materials. If you are looking at something much above $700, you would be much better served with a Juki/JIN NA-11, currently for around $1000 - $1200. Additionally, in this price range, you will find more options at industrial sewing machine suppliers, who should also be able to service the machine if you have trouble.

Faux Fur - 5/5 Sews up to 4 layers of 2" pile faux fur in a simulated sandwich. The first two layers are sewn, and then two more layers are added, creating a sandwich and simulating sewing something like a plushie.

Cotton/Denim - 5/5 Sews up to 15 Layers of Denim with adjustable pressure for both the presser foot and walking foot. I can sew a wide range of materials with minimal adjustment, from weight quilting cotton to thick fabrics like denim and canvas. I could sew over 24 layers of quilting-weight fabric (I gave up counting at 24 layers; I can't imagine I would ever need to sew more than 24 together.)

Leather - 1/5 With this machine, I can sew around four layers of 3/4 oz chap split leather or other soft/compressible leather. However, it is not well suited to sewing "stiffer" leathers like vegetable tan leather. If the sandwich you are sewing is too thick, the upper tension assembly will disengage and not sew properly. I could only successfully sew the equivalent of one layer of 6/7 oz veg tan leather and maintain proper tension (greater detail below on leather.)

Resources - 1/5 I was fortunate to get a machine with an operator's manual since only a few resources are available online. The lack of resources is partly why I am writing this review to help others looking at the same machines. Consew makes a parts manual available on its site, which helps see the specific assembly order. Looking for parts using the part numbers on the parts list doesn't yield any results. I don't know if Consew has them available, but I don't think I it will be likely that I will need repair parts so I am not too concerned.

Specs

Results

Leather

Leather is out of this machine's comfort zone. If sewing leather is your primary goal, this machine may not be the best choice. It is possible to adjust the machine to sew thicker vegetable tan materials, most likely into the 12 oz range, but you won't be able to sew thinner materials easily.

Cotton/Denim/Canvas

Faux Fur