After reading some positive comments here as well as receiving a suggestion from a local acquaintance who sews a lot of costumes and quilts, I purchased a walking foot on Friday...a universal $15 version. I haven't used it much but from what I've experienced thus far with silnylon and regular nylon, I'm disappointed. I switched back and forth between the walking foot and regular foot and could detect nothing but disadvantages. The walking foot makes it more of a challenge to get the material under the foot and it takes more power from the machine to get the machine going and keep it going. It felt as though I was riding the brakes all the time....or was dragging an anchor.

Were my expectations too high or does the walking foot shine in applications I have yet to test (fleece for instance)? Or, perhaps they work better on more powerful machines...or maybe the walking foot I got is of poor quality and or design? Or maybe a walking foot works best for things outside the realm of the typical MYOGer such as quilting?

methinks you are expecting Too Much. it is not a great help with sil-nylons, we know that. you'd think it ought'a help. but it don't.
i suspect that since the stuff is so silppery, that in the event that the lower foot (metal grippers) can;t get a hold on it, why should the new top foot (much cheaper a unit and kind of sleazy plastic grips) work any better.
that's my spin on it.

but dang, they're hella fun ! (easily 15 bucks worth)
you can watch them do their .. whatever they do... and that's cool.

i further suspect that a real walking foot machine would be a much nicer animal, being as it's built to do what it does.
as far as power goes, maybe you can get under your machine and clean and lube as necessary to reduce friction, which might sort of boost rpm's and feel like more oomph. a new drive belt can work wonders in that regard.

i have had more good'r luck with either a teflon foot (nice) or a roller foot (better, but hard to thread)
i simply rubber cement my sil-nylon for the time it takes to run it thru the machine and that works fine.

cheers,

v.

A real walking foot machine has two separate presser feet that literally walk on top of the fabric in time with the feed dog underneath. They are made for pretty heavy fabrics and really not suitable for lightweight stuff. I have an industrial Pfaff 145 walking foot and it really doesn't even like 70d stuff. A regular presser foot machine is great for stuff that is 200d or lighter and no more than 2 layers of 200d. Start stacking up the layers, add some webbing or mesh, then the walking foot really shines.

i just got a sailrite ultra feed and i can sew donuts backwards on sil so a good walking foot is awesome but a cheap on no

Thanks, guys. You confirmed my suspicions. I've done a fair bit of sewing since posting and did not use the walking foot. $15 mistake.

William,
Congratulations on your new sailrite machine my dream sewing machine for making packs.
Keep your home machine to use a as a bar tacking machine.
Terry