If you can find it, get a Juki, with a walking foot of course. They are hard to find used, but they are the best to use if you are going to be working with heavy material. Good luck to you.

walking foot makes a big difference in your control of the fabric. I would try canvas without it.

JUKI, I would suggest to get one that someone went through it and made sure it working good and timed right. You don't want to mess with a used one that is screwed up.
The latest one we got was a Husqvarna thru Viking.

Sold the old Consew and bought a Pfaff . . . this one goes through seat belts easy

ive got a blue sailrite and its great for working at home

Another vote for the Juki LU 563. We used to do about 40 million in sales to the Department of Defense. Most of it was heavy nylon (1,000 Denier nylon and webbing.) Entrenching tool covers, Grenade pouches, barrel cases, etc. We used mostly Juki's. Consews are also good but the Juki's were a tad more reliable. Buy refurbished not used. Repairing sewing machines can be a pain in the a** if you have not done it before!

Padraig

When I worked in the boat upholstery shop we used Mitsubishi sewing machines. Don't know if thats good or bad. That's just what we used.

I believe the one i have is a Mitsubishi It's an old one that my family used in their sewing plantFor automotive soft trim

I have had a couple sailrite walking foot machines, a consew, and a husquavarnia. I will say for most light duty stuff I grab the husquavarnia, but probably not for marine upholstery. I'd look at the new sailrites if I was starting from scratch. The sailrites seem a lot easier to repair for me than others.

https://www.sailrite.com/Sewing-Machines

We picked up an old school Consew 206RB. Heavy duty industrial machine about 10 years ago. It can sew through anything, it has a walking foot. No Frills, Forward Reverse and like the Energizer Bunny. Just keeps going.

This is an example picture, it came mounted to table with Motor, "Hot Foot Throttle"...lol.