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Treadle On Bulletin Board

Hay! I'm TOBE, your Official Monday Morning Nag! I'm here to ask you not to say "Neigh" to helping support Treadle On.

Response to this year's February Fund Drive has been very good, but we're only a little more than half way through. There's still plenty of time to send in a donation to help keep Treadle On active through next February. You participate in Treadle On and probably love it, or you wouldn't have found my picture, so don't rein in your enthusiasm, gallop on over to your desk and send a donation by mail or Pay Pal.

Checks or money orders can be made out to "Captain Dick" and mailed to: Captain Dick, 10527 12th Ave. NW, Seattle WA 98177

Pay Pal donations can be sent to: rwightman@mindspring.com

Pictures from the Past

Because several of you asked....

Ann at 16

Early to mid 1960's

Husqvarna Industrial Treadle/Electric

The Story:

This story begins with a deal (yet another) between Catherine Eith and me. I bought a Pfaff 6 (beautiful)....

We talked about my industrial Singer treadle... which was mine, was sold to Catherine and then back to me. (You should be getting a feel for us by now.) Catherine also mentioned that there was another industrial available locally. I hunted it up and found this:

sew with the power off
* Location: greater seattle area

Please note that unless you were looking for it, you'd be very unlikely to notice the motor under the table. I took it for something to do with the knee lifter.

So, OK, I decide to try for it and send an email that states, very simply. " I would like to buy your treadle. Where are you in Seattle? If you could give me a call at --- --- ----,I'd appreciate it."

Got no response, so late in the evening I sent this: "I sent a previous email. I would really like to buy your sewing machine. Please call me at --- --- ----."

In reply, I get a highly html'ed email that simply says: "are you still interested in the machine... and have a great day!" in big colored letters.

I replied: "Yes, I am. If you could either call me (--- --- ----) or give me your phone number and I can call you. I need to know where you are so I can see about coming to see it/pick it up. Assuming it is in working order, I definitely want it .Dick Wightman"

After awhile, I got this reply: "are you still interested in the machine? And Have A Great Day !" Again, the big, colored letters...

I replied: "Yes, I want it. Where in Seattle are you?." (You can just assume the html from here...)

Got this response: "And Have A Great Day ! We are at (five digits-- rd). Granite Falls 98252
i looked at your web sites interesting have any pipe for sale ? do you make them, scott"

I replied: " No, I don't make pipes at this time, though I am planning to start doing so sometime this spring.
Wow, Granite Falls.... Not exactly Greater Seattle. I can't get out that far today, but will try tomorrow. May I please have your phone number so i can contact you to let you know when I'll get there or to get directions if I get lost? Is there a time that is best during the day?Dick Wightman" Note: Granite Falls is up in the mountains, a good 50 to 60 miles from Seattle. In fact, the designated/numbered highway ends at Granite Falls!)

Got this reply: "And Have A Great Day ! sure 360-691-6080"

This morning, I called, and got an answering machine, so I sent the following:"called this morning but got an answering service for "Mary Ann"? Anyway, I would like to arrange a time to come and get the machine. I don't want to drive up and find no one home. What is a good time. I'll try calling again during the day so we can arrange something definite.Dick Wightman"

Got this response: " And Have A Great Day ! You can now "

So I called again, again getting the answering machine for "Mary Ann" and said, rather shortly, that I had really hoped to get some specific directions, but that I was on my way. Then I went out and asked Ann if she would like to go on an adventure. She always does, so off we went to Granite Falls, with no specific directions and a phone number that apparently only got an answering machine.

We had a lovely drive up, got to Granite Falls and found that the city numbering system was all very low... like three digits. Obviously, the address was way out of town somewhere. So, I went into the City Hall and asked directions... and got very good ones that got us onto the right road, which went further and further and further out into the country. We finally started finding appropriately high numbers... then the numbers skipped the address we wanted. We drove around checking, but they really did. We finally discovered that a little side road (long driveway?) went off to the side and that there was a cul de sac there with five houses on it.... one big new one and several very run down ones. None of these houses had addresses posted, and the feeling was that they had no intentions of so doing. We did ask directions of a guy standing by one of the houses and got no help. In fact, the impression we were left with was, "We don't need no stinking adddresses!"

We drove around the area again, but ended up in the same cul de sac. There just wasn't anyplace else it could be. One of the five dwellings was a house trailer surrounded by trucks, old collapsed "stuff" and appliances, with a big "NO TRESPASSING" sign and a dog chain lying across the driveway... in case you didn't get the idea. We tried to work out which one would be the address we wanted... guess which one that was!

So, we go into the driveway, past the NO TRESPASSING" sign and I get out and go up and knock on the door... instant loud dog barking and a shout, "Shut up!", then stomping around footsteps... but no one answers the door. I wait awhile, then knock again... same result. I wait a bit longer and knock again... same result. I'm about ready to leave, but decide to give it one more try. This time, someone very slightly opens the door, keeping a dog back. I gave the address we were looking for and asked if this was it. I was told it was and asked if I was, "the man". I quickly mentioned the sewing machine and I got invited in, being told to be quick. I'm quickly shown the sewing machine, which was maybe ten paces from the door, but discover that it is both electric and treadle. I get the machine head out and go to pick it up by the top, only to discover that the top is not fastened down on the motor end. I figure fine, I'll take the belt off and we can take the top off to further reduce the weight we're handing. I ran into some difficulty with that and while he went to get pliers, I carried the head out to find, much to my relief, that Ann had backed the van right up to the porch. She had thought of coming in to help, but then realized from the vibes (mind you she still hasen't seen the guy!) that "the little woman had best stay in the car..." I get back inside and I am now informed that the guy has to call his wife to make sure there is nothing in the machine or accessory box she wants. He does this, and saves a bobbin and a needle (?).

He then grabs one end of the machine. to start out. At this point we discover that the top is in fact still screwed on on the other side and that the right hand treadle frame is not bolted to the back brace... the whole thing is loose as a goose! I ask about a larger screwdriver to finish taking the top of, but... "No time! Come on, she's on her way!", and he grabs his end of the frame and I grab the other end of the top and off we go. As we're getting out, he's telling me about the terrible fights they have whenever he gets rid of something... "Last night it was a berry bucket!" We get the to van and tilt the loose, constantly shifting treadle in, whereupon the frame pieces move and pinch his hand. We get that sorted out and its, "Go, go, go!" I get in the van, look and Ann and we do exactly that!

I've had some interesting experiences picking up old sewing machines, but never one quite like this.

So, now you've heard the story... here's the machine, bear in mind that the whole frame and top are loose. I had to bolt the frame back together as best I could with nuts and bolts from my supplies before I could even get it out of the van:

The Machine

Top is setting, loose, on the frame. Typical light industrial of the 1950's. Wheel is 15 1/2". Whole thing is in good shape, though a few steps from working order.	Here you can see the main problem. This set up, dual treadle electric, must have had some way for the pitman to stay in place while using electric, turning the pitman into a rigid arm that could pull down on the motore rheostat but also push up to operate the brake that the motor is equipped with. Somewhere along the way, the instructions for hooking it up apparently got lost, and someone simply disconnected the pitman and was running it electrically with a chain from the pedal to the rheostat... and no brake.
Above mentioned chain... obviously not connected to the motor. Tomorrow I'll study some on how the really ought to go together.	The big problem is that the bottom "cup nut" for fastening the pitman to the pedal is missing. If anyone has one, please get in touch with me. Meantime, I'll "borrow" one from one of my Singers. I'll probably need to use both parts of a Singer unit, as it's unlikely the threads inside this piece would match the ones on the screw in cup.
Here you can see the motor hanging under the back of the table. It's a small motor for an industrial, but looks to be in good condition.	Here it is from the back. This electrical installation is shown in the Sewdish language instruction manual I got with it (also a green Husqvarna attachment box). The manual shows only the electric machine, but the treadle parts are obviously original. It would make sense in 1950 (the date on the manual) for Husqvarna to offer the treadle unit as an extra in Sweden, where rural electricity would be intermittent of yet to be installed at that time.
The machine itself is an obvious late model clone of the Singer 31-20, just as my Pfaff 134 is.	Typical knee lift arrangement.

I think this is quite a find and I'm looking forward to getting it into full operation in both modes. Everything is in good shape, except the top could use refinishing.

Hope you enjoyed the story and are almost as excited about the machine as I am.

Captain Dick

Husqvarna Industrial Treadle/Electric

PART 2 - GETTING IT BACK IN SHAPE

Naturally, today was devoted to working on the new addition and seeing just what I had... and didn't have. It was a day of revelation, problems, and hard work. I told the story in stages via emails to the group as I would come upstairs for rest periods. Here are those emails:

12:56

"
I'm having a fun, if mind boggling, day with the new machine. It seems to be an interesting combination of almost no use and abuse. Also, of course, Husqvarna quite obviously made and supplied special tools for various assembly and adjustment jobs... which I don't have.

There were only two obvious problems with the head, both very minor. The nice blued slide plate was rusted... nothing else was, just that. I polished off the rust, but it was deep enough to have pitted. I polished and buffed it up on my knife grinder. It's still pitted, but smooth to the touch... or fabric. Of course, that removed the bluing and I'll have to get some gun blue and renew that. The spindle on top, one of those industrial ones with two holes for the thread, was badly bent, and for some reason, all taped up with Scotch tape. I got the tape off and straightened it with a soft hammer. There is provision for another on to hold the thread spool, and I'll have to pick up one of those.
The motor seup is much more standard than I thought. I just have to puzzle out how to work it in combination with the treadle, certainl not by the Mickey Mouse system that was being used.

I brought the machine upstairs (It's heavy!) and tried it in my Singer treadle. It fits but was horribly stiff, so back downstairs and gave it a good oiling. Someone had packed all the interior moving parts in really heavy grease. The machine has apparently not seen much use and I don't know if this could be original factory or not. I'm not a fan of grease in sewing machines, much preferring to oil lightly and frequently for easy treadling. Anyway, it freed up some, but I haven't taken it back upstairs.
I sorted out the drawer and the attachments box. Quite a few feet, most of which I don't recognize, bobbins and a ton of thread tangled junk. One obviously special made tool I can't figure out, but it's a nasty looking thing... pictures tonight.

Then I attacked the treadle. Nice treadle, but odd assembly. You have to take the frame apart to set the cone bearings. Worse, one of the bearing's first few threads are not just buggered up, but half of their depth has been broken off and the set nut won't take any bite. I have the whole bearing out and will try to clean up the treads a bit, but will probably end up screwing it in further so there are some good threads for the nut. This will move the pedal over about 1/4 to 1/2 inch, but I don't thing that's any problem. Pic of this situation tonight, too.

Bill has come up with a pitman and cup bearing for me, so at least as a treadle, this looks good. My one fear at this point is that it will prove to be too heavy a machine for practical treadling. This is an obvious more or less clone of a 31-20, but is actually quite a bit heavier built. The motion transfer rods under the deck are heavier, as are most of the parts in the pillar. Many parts have heavy counter balances that I don't recall being in Singers.
Some fun, huh?

Dick Wightman"

3:39

Whew! I'm having a well earned rest and pipe! Murphy has been lurking around my shop... or maybe Swedish dremls...

Let's see, I managed to chase out the damaged threads and get the cone bearings positioned such that the left lock nut had enough thread to work. Made a substitute temporary bolt for the missing tractor bolt and got the frame back together. Then it was time for the drive wheel bearing. There was at least 3/4" play in the drive wheel. Oops... again, Husqvarna much have issued special wrenches for this job. The adjustment washer very thin, and depressed inside the casting. (Heck, I was depressed at this point!) No way to get at it with a wrench. They must have had a special socket wrench for that spot. The lock nut was outside of the casting, but, of course, to set and lock bearing clearance, you have to have a grip on both nuts! On about the 50th try, I managed it with long needle nose pliers and a small wrench for the lock nut. All of this, plus lubing and working on the machine took all morning, much of it spent crawling around on the cement floor.

Next point of attack was the pitman. I got to craw around on carpet upstairs to "borrow" the pitman bearing cup from the straight leg 88. Swedish surprise time again! The threads on the cup do not match the threads on on the Husky piece. $%^&* OK, I'll use both Singer pieces! Can't put one over on this old man...

Back upstairs and take off the whole pitman arm. Dismantle that and take off the other half of the bearing unit, back downstairs. Disassemble the Husky pitman, slide the Singer top piece on, put the pitman back on, raise the pedal and fit the Singer piece into the casting.... Yeah, right... You didn't really think it was going to be that easy, did you? The hole in the casting is smaller than the diameter of the Singer piece! So I spent another hour reducing the diameter of the piece by filing and belt sanding the outside. Finally got it to fit in the hole. Paradise cannot be far away!

Fit all the pieces together, slip the reworked piece into the hole and screw the bottom of the bearing unit in. #$%^&* At least 1/4" of noisy play at its tightest! The pedal casting is much thicker than the Singer pedal and the two units will not come together as tightly as on the Singer, plus, I discovered the ball on the Husky pitman end is smaller than on the Singer pitman. "OK, I have another Singer pitman coming from Bill, I'll just use the Singer one.... NOT! Singer pitman is shorter and, again, turns out to have a different thread than Swedish top bearing unit it has to screw into. My first thought was, (after #$%&*), "I'll wait for Bill's pitman to arrive and have a welder cut the Husky's and join it the bottom end of the Singer." Then I said, "Wait minute... it's a ball and cup, if you get 'em tight enough, they have to work..." (I didn't take a minor in philosophy for nothing!) So, how to get them to screw together tightly enough to provide the right fit for the ball? Back on the cement floor with a file to reduce the thickness of the casting. I'll merely mention here, this was not fun!

However, after all that, I have a lovely Husqvarna treadle, complete and working well. When I get to my picture processing and posting, I'll post some pix of the nuts and bolts (literally) of this operation.

I was really running down at this point, but I hadn't even looked at the motor yet. I'd put the top up on a table. So, now I took a moment to study it.... Yikes! This is clearly an add on. No way did Husqvarna do this installation! The motor is nicely mounted with countersunk bolts, but the wire is attached to the underside of the top with bent nails! It apparently works, and I need to study it more, but I had to quit, at least for the moment. My inclination is to take it off. I'm not interested in using it as a powered machine (unless I can't get it to spin freely enough to treadle.)

I need to do some repair work to the underside of the top. The screws that attached it to the frame were apparently just ripped out of the wood from the strain of the machine being picked up too many times by the end of the table. Those screws were not intended to support carrying that motor. I'll have to either plug the screw holes and put in new screws, or possibly bore through and use countersunk bolts. The motor was mounted with countersunk bolts, so there are already some of these showing on the top, and the new ones wouldn't look too out of place. Kind of oddly, with everything else on the machine being oversized, the frame screws are rather small for top fastening, even with just the weight of the treadle frame. I would have to bore out the holes in the frame itself to use larger ones, so it will probably be the bolt approach.
With a little luck, and a lot more effort, tomorrow should see the treadle actually powering the machine. Then I'll know what I have.

Dick Wightman"

5:30

"Had to go down for one last session... to take the motor off. Definitely not original. The bolting on job wasn't too badly done, but the attachment of the switch box and wire looked like something a kid did in dad's shop when dad wasn't looking. I took everything off and I think the treadle now looks much happier. I'm looking forward to trying it out tomorrow. My only concern is the heavy treadling. Did I mention earlier that one other surprise I got when I went into the machine was that someone had heavily packed the moving parts in a very thick grease. Hmm... I think I do recall mentioning that. Anyway, if it doesn't loosen up with a little use, I'll have to go in there and get all that out.

I also learned something I didn't know about modern power stand motors with clutch and brake... apparently they don't have rheostats! Speed control seems to be entirely by the friction action of the clutch. I've never paid much attention to electrics, certainly not to industrials, though I've adjusted mine and Ann's a few times... just always assumed that the clutch/brake was one mechanism, and there was a rheostat somewhere up there. I wasn't concerned about that, so I never looked for one and its absence didn't register with me.

I'm processing the photos from today right now, and will post them this evening...

Dick Wightman

Here are the photos from today:

Goodies from the drawer... a lovely Husqvarna attachments case	With bobbins, bobbin case and other things in it. The attachments themselves were loose in the drawer, and everything was balled up in miles of scrap thread. I threw out the odd stuff... including the rifle ammunition!
Here are some feet... no idea what that second one is, or what the long pointy thing with a hole on top is. The black spike is weird! It was obviously cut out of raw steel with a power hacksaw and ground to shape, but what for, who knows? More on the pretty little box in a minute... The chalk block is a pattern marker.	Here's a closeup of the little box, obviously from Malmo, Sweden...
And inside is lifetime supply of needles and a big belt joining clip for the heavy motor belt.	OK, now we're at actual work and problems. This is the left side cone bearing. The lock nut was so loose it rattled on the bearing when the pedal was pumped. You can see why... only the cone itself and a few "threads" came out of the casting. The poor nut had nothing to grip.
This is the other side of the same piece. As noted above, I chased the threads out, very carefully. They still wouldn't give a full bite, of course, but at least I could screw the piece back into the frame, and by screwing it in further than it had been, I was able to get a few working threads out to where the nut could do its job.	This is great! The Husqvarna logo cast into the treadle brace.
I've mentioned tractor bolts. For anyone who doesn't know what they are, this is one. It fits into a cone shaped opening in the frame piece and when the nut is tightened, self locks purely from the tension of the cone shaped head in the opening... and I need to find one... though I made a temporary one by tapering the head of a regular nut.	This was quite a deal.The brown piece is the upper half of the pedal's bearing cup. The one in the pliers is a Singer, which proved to be too large for the hole in the pedal. I filed on the circumference and then used my knife belt grinder to smooth up the surface.
Here's the motor I took off. Nice motor, actually. One of the more unusual half speed industrial motors, perfect for a lighter industrial machine like this. I have the same type on my Pfaf 134's power stand. If you're unfamiliar with them, the mechanism at the right is a clutch and brake arrangement.	And here's Helga, looking more or less like she should. The top is still loose, but you can see I'm making progress.
Close up of the left cone bearing. You can see how I fed it out further than it would normally be. This moved the pedal to the right, and there is barely any clearance at the right frame, but just enough... Things were so tight I thought I was going to have to file some of the thickness off of this nut.	Here you see the Singer ball cup installed on the pedal, with the Husqvarna pitman. The bright metal is from where I filed between 1/8" and 1/4" of thickness off of the pedal. The bright metal and the black Singer piece will disappear with a little brown spray paint.
The final shot, celebrating a good day's work. I'm seriously thinking I may take a couple of days and refinish the top before I put it all back together permanently... make her a true Swedish blonde.

I hope you've been enjoying this adventure. I'll be adding finished pictures and some comment on using the machine when that's appropriate.

Captain Dick

Another day, a couple more pieces of progress...

I discovered I was still having trouble with the setting of the bearings in the drive wheel. I couldn't get the lock nut system tight enough and the drive wheel would gradually tighten itself up and freeze. I finally disassembled the whole thing and took the cone bearing nut into a bike shop and asked if they had any special tools for handling this problem. Apparently these thin nut cones are common to bikes because they had a complete set of metric wrenches to deal with it. One 14mm wrench later, the problem was solved in less than five minutes! There ain't no tool like the right tool!

I got the top back on, using screws. I found I had some that were just the right length to go deeper than the old ones, into new wood, but not through the top. They had a deeper, deck screw type, threads and took a good, solid bite.

Put a belt on it and then sat down to see what was what. Definitely different! This is the lowest geared machine I've ever had. Even with a large diameter wheel on it, it is obviously deliberately made to stitch slowly. That implies a design to handle heavy material, so I decided to see what it would do with leather. I didn't put a new needle in it, which I should have, but proceeded to try it on the thickest leather I had, really pretty heavy stuff that I used for a stiff side quiver for my arrows. It was definitely heavy treadling, but it stitched right through it and fed it OK. Alright, what happens if we double the leather over?(!) Nothing... it just stitches its way along. Note: I was just playing with the head to see what it was like, no thread involved. I'm sure that if I were to put a leather needle in, it would be fine for a lot of this kind of work.

As noted, and as expected, it was definitely heavy treadling. I ended up using two feet, which I don't normally do. I think the machine itself will free up some more, but it's not going to be a machine for piecing! I can see why someone who wasn't into treadling would put the motor on it, and I would imagine that motorized, it's one heck of heavy material machine.

I don't know what I'm going to do with it, as I don't have either the room or need for a third heavy industrial. I'd like to keep the Husky treadle and hook it up to a lighter machine, but I'm going to need to think a bit and figure it out. Sure has been a fun adventure and a neat repair and restoration experience... worth every bit of the trouble. 8^)

Dick Wightman

More progress... or the Return of Progress... or the Son of Progress... or something...

Did some more experiments today. First, I tried the Pfaff 134 in the Husky treadle... great! Heavier treadling than a home machine, but about the same as treadling it in the Singer industrial treadle. That got me thinking. I just couldn't believe that Huqvarna sold a treadle that treadled that hard. Either something was wrong with it, which didn't seem to be the case, or it was all that heavy grease in there, I mean this stuff is as heavy or heavier than Army cosmoline. So, I it and put it in the Pfaff's power stand, oiled it up copiously, then powered it up at full speed for about 5 full minutes. I figured that should accomplish two things... warm up and soften the grease and spread the oil I put on around, maybe thinning the grease. Then I took it back out to the treadle and, voila! You can treadle it. Of course, once it cooled down, the grease set again, not as bad as before, but... So, I'm going to have to get some degreaser and spray up there and get as much of that grease out as I can, then keep oiling it.

However, other tests have opening other possibilities. On a power stand, this machine is clearly more powerful than the Pfaff... almost as powerful as Ann's Juki, just without the built in walking foot. However, it will accept and operate the large Pro Model Singer walking foot attachment, just like the Pfaff does. I tried it on the doubled thick leather (without the walking foot), way thicker than the Pfaff will handle, and it sews it beautifully. It needs a slight boost to start the first stitch, but on really thick stuff, so does the Juki at times.

Here's the leather... as you can see, real thick stuff, and very stiff.

The rows of just holes are some tests I ran with no thread. The top white thread seam is bottom stitching, the two brown thread seams at the bottom are top thread stitching. This is with heavy thread. Very nice...

Ann wants a second power machine when her assistant gets back, and I'm thinking I may just leave the Husky in the power stand and the Pfaff in the treadle. Now I have to decide if I have the energy to refinish it... or the time. I really have to start archery practice again, the shooting season is coming up, and I need to get back on the railroad. Sheesh... I'm overbooked again!

Dick Wightman

My Conversion of a Necchi Esperia to Treadle

and

Simultaneous Conversion of Singer Industrial Treadle to Home Model Use

As many of you know, last summer I gave up my favorite treadle, a Singer industrial wide-stance frame with 14 1/2" wheel that I had fitted with a home model top so it could be used with standard models and provide quite high speed treadlng. I won't repeat how giving up this treasure came about, but at the time it had to be done and so be it. Late this past summer, the chance to get another very nice Singer industrial treadle, this one with a 16" wheel and a 31-20 in it, came up and I jumped on it. Nice 31-20, but I still wanted the ability to use a home machine in this kind of a setup. Today turned out not to be a productive quilting day, so I spent it plotting how to acctually accomplish this. For a little extra motivation, I had a Necchi Espiria I had never used that needed to have a motorotomy and find a home.

My first idea was to try to set a spare Singer top I had on the industrial top and see if that could be made to work. It can't without a lot of work. The whole top is simply too wide and, when the holes are centered on each other, the home machine top sticks out to the front. You'd have to saw it up so much making a new top would be as easy.

OK, new cup of coffee, reload the pipe and study further... Wait a minute, let's look at the easy way. If you can't adapt the top, why not adapt the hole? OK... that has promise. The width of the industrial opening is actually the same as the the home machine top. It's only the length that is different. My, and most industrial models, have a tin oil pan under them. As it develops, the distance between the bottom of the round housing of the bobbin race on a Model 15 or Model 15 clone just happens to be 3/4" above the bottom of that tin plate. That's going to vary a tiny bit depending on who installed the tin plate, but the idea works. I put a piece of 3/4" plywood on the bottom of the pan and set the Necchi into the hole. The right end of the bed fit perfectly onto the corner rests of the bed opening, and the bottom of the bobbin race housing sits on the piece of plywood, with the bed level. The routed edges of the hole keep the bed in place.

The only remaining problem was the large opening at the left hand of the bed. OK... White met this problem many years ago with the model that had the wooden filler plug instead of a slide plate. The two corner rests for the industrial bed were, of course, just sitting there unused at the left. I made a template of the opening, including fitting to the rounded corners of the bed, then went down to the basement and dug out a black plastic scrap and rough cut out a filler plug. It took several trips up and down stairs to grind and sand it into a nice fit. That was fine, but the edge that meets the machine bed had nothing to hold it up. A couple of quick marks from underneath to define the bottom edge of the new plug, then two finishing nails tapped in, and... Voila! It is good...

Here is the treadle with the 31-20 in it.

And here it is with the Necchi Esperia.

This was, in the end, very simple. The belt line up was fine. It was just a matter of dropping the head in and finding a way to support the left end. Making the plastic filler plug was a straight forward job, just a little finicky about those points on the corners.

Note that the receptor plates for the industrial hinge fingers are still in place, so the industrial can be droped in at any time. The are no pins/hinges holding the Necchi, nor does there appear to be any need for them, since the head doesn't raise and lower.

I thought I was going to have to splice a two piece belt for it, but I found three new belts and carefully stretched them out... one was several inches longer than the others and just fit. The machine runs nicely, as does the treadle. I haven't actually sewn with it yet. I need to put a new needle in and do the typical adjustment. Meantime, I can now slip any Singer Model 15 into this nice, wide frame, large surface, high speed treadle.

I'm pleased...

Captain Dick

This morning I decided this treadle needed a set of drawers. I had some kind of ratty looking old drawer stacks downstairs, but this thing looks nice and I wanted to keep it that way. A few years back, I bought 6 sets of birch drawers from Crate and Barrel for a book shelf. They weren't all fully used so I stole one for the treadle. Very easy installation. There is a 1/4" lip on the top, so I cut a piece of 1/4" plywood for that (not a perfect height fit, but good enough). With the drawers out, I drilled positioned and drilled two holes in the top. I took two 1 1/2" self-washer head screws and a portable drill upstairs, drew a straight line close to the front edge of the treadle, positioned the drawer frame and drilled two pilot holes, then drove in the screws. The hardest part of the whole deal was getting back up off the floor after lying on my back under the treadle!

Here's what the drawers look like as a set on the shelf... minus one.

Here's the one, installed under the treadle top.

Drawers open.

If you find yourself in the position of having to build or resurface an industrial treadle top, this is a very nice way to add a well built set of drawers to it.

Dick

New Development

While the Necchi ran perfectly on long test seams, it acted up when I tried to sew a quilt with it. It has a lever system below deck for raising and lowering the feed dogs, and it seems to be out of adjustment and not like stopping and starting on short seams. Rather than try to fix it as I was starting a new quilt project, I swapped it out of the treadle and replaced it with a Singer 191U I've had for a long time. It performed flawlessly. This is a Japanese made model, and one of, if not the very last of the Model 15's without an internal motor. I think the internal motor Model 125 was already in production here in the US, and this model, and a corresponding model that was made in Brazil, were the last of the 15's that can be treadled. I have another Japanese 191U that is anoriginal treadle, in a parlor cabinet.

Help Identify this Treadle

I got a lovely little 3/4 treadle from Catherin Eith this afternoon (also a terrific 31-20). This little treadle has a unique machine in it. You'd swear the decals are Singer at first glance, but then you realize not. It's a shuttle machine, like a Singer 28, but with reverse, which to me screams "English"!. In studying it carefully, what is left of the name decal appears to say "Ruby". Now, there are, according to my somewhat untrustworthy memory, several folks on this list who have machines they refer to as "Rubies". So, any information about Rubies, whether American or foreign, would be helpful. Here are some pictures:

Note the raised, arced section of the base next to the slide plates... and the reverse. The double spool pins plate is held in in a standard spool pin hole. There is not a big screwhead under the plate, as there woudl be on a Jones. That said, I have found pix of Jones with what appears to be this decal.	Better pic of that raised part of the base. You can also see the letters "Ruby" left in the decal. Obviously there was at least one other word in front of that. Sometimes, in the right light, I think I can see and initial "E" in front of Ruby, but just can't be sure.
Here is a closeup of the reverse/stitch length mechanism, and the serial number 643939	Side iron sports an oil can cup and what should be a fairly recognizable star pattern in the casting...
Treadle feet are unique in that they have wheels on the right end only, but also have screw hole tabs for screwing it to a floor, something usually found on industrials.	The treadle peddle has a distinctive raised line across it, kind of like it would fit in front of the heel of your shoe.
This has nothing to do with the machien above, but here' sthe 32-20 I got with it...

Captain Dick's Non-Spoked Wheel Hand Crank Converter

I got the chance, in the midst of a busy day, to gin up a working version of the hand crank converter I mentioned yesterday, and it does work. It's a lot easier to show than to describe, so here goes, in words and pictures:

Step One: I took a piece of aluminum strip, 1/8" thick and hacksawed off a length that is longer than what you see here. I positioned and drilled two holes large enough to accept an #8-32 bolt. I placed the strip on an old Singer clutch screw knob, centering it as well as I could by eye, and traced the position of the two holes onto the face of the knob. Next I drilled a smaller hole in the marked position where the bolt would go in the end of the strip... bottom of picture. Next I tapped that hole to 8-32 and screwed the bolt in. The bolt was way too long and once was it was tightened down I hacksawed off the extra on the inside of the knob. Next step was to trace the second hole on the knob, loosen the bolt a tad, twist the strip out the way and drill another of the smaller holes in the knob, then tapping it also to 8-32, screwing the second bolt through and again, sawing off the excess on the inside of the knob. I had deliberately made the strip too long. I now tried to install the modified clutch knob, which wouldn't fit because of the extra length of the strip. I marked a point on the strip where it would fit inside the depression in the hand wheel and cut it off there. In the picture, this end cut is still raw. I will, of course, dress it off with a file as I did the other end when I finish the job. The pictures is of the otherwise finished unit. Obviously, you could use the actual knob from your machine, but it seems wiser to use an old spare one. Then you can always put the original back on and keep the conversion unit if you sell the machine. Sheesh! It took almost as long to write that out as it did to do it!	Here is the inside of the knob. You can see the ends of the two bolts I installed in the drilled and threaded holes. I had to dress the rough ends off a bit with a file. Bear in mind that this was clearly a "quick and dirty" job. A true machinist would make a couple of jigs to make the strip, be sure it was centered perfectly on the knob and drill and tap the new bolt holes in the knob.
Here is the process of installing the conversion unit. Now that the strip is not too long to fit into the recessed area of the solid handwheel, you can screw the clutch knob back in. As always, you'll need to correctly position the three eared clutch washer that goes inside of it on the end of the shaft. In this photo, the washer pin screw is not present. As i said, I simply grabbed an old clutch knob out of the parts drawer.	The flip finger on the hand crank has to be in the "down" position to fit into the recessed area of the solid hand wheel. Set the hand crank in position and screw it on.
Here we are installed and in use... and it works slick!	Here is the only minor problem. There is motion slack behind the operatng "finger". In practice, it's hardly noticable, since you only crank in the one direction. You could install a wider strip, with a wide notch in the top to recieve the finger, but it would be harder to make and not necessary. A rubber band around the finger and the top of the strip should fix the problem just fine if it bothers you.

Some Comments and Thoughts:

Not everyone knows how to drill and tap a bolt hole... but it is easy and a nice skill to have if you work at fixing things. It can not only be used to make a new hole, but a tap is handy to "freshen" the threads on old holes where bolts don't quite want to work any more. It's nothing the average Onion can't do, though I realize most never have. However, the average active "Handy Andy" or "Handy Annie" probably wouldn't have much problem with it. It really did take me longer to write it out than it did to do it. You should have a drill press (can be a small bench top model) and a tap and die set. These are readily available at a tool outlet. The aluminum of the strip is obviously soft, and it turns out so is the metal of the clutch knob, so there's no real drilling problem.

The procedure is straightforward. Mark the holes as i described. Drill the holes in the strip just barely larger than the bolt. Then switch to a drill a size smaller than the bolt, as thick as the solid part of the bolt but excluding the threads. Holding the drill and bolt up to a light quickly shows you the size you want. Squirt oil in the hole in the clutch know, then put the tap (basically a bolt specially made of hard steel with "broken" threads) into the holder that comes with the tap and die set, and slowly screw it into the hole, going just a tiny bit, then backing out, then back in again, back out again. About a quarter turn or less each time. The tap gradually makes its own threads in the hole. Pretty neat.

However, that said, if you haven't done this and don't want to, find someone who can. it shouldn't be hard. I'm assuming that you want this badly and for some reason can't or won't buy a spoked hand wheel, which is obviously the easiest and best way to do a conversion.

I don't envision making these myself; my plate's full. However, is someone wants to make them in bulk and sell them, tacking on a bit extra to send to TO, that's cool. I do think it's a rather neat and effective approach.

As to the issue of it possibly tending to loosen the clutch nut. If it's tightened in well, I don't think it should be a problem, but if it was, cleaning the threads with alcohol and applying some Locktitebefore installing the knob should solve it.

Dick Wightman
Captain Dick

Captain Dick