ArchaicArcane

There's something about timing the zig zag and something else about cam timing. I would say check both of those,... It seems like you've checked all the usual suspects.

miriam

yup - getting deep - I had a shop visitor come over and test drive a few machines. I'm wondering if it would work to do a test sew day somewhere. I don't have a lot of room here.

I checked the zig zag timing and it looks just fine. I'll have to check to cam timing after I find some info on that.

ThayerRags

I’ve had a couple of interesting (to me, at least) tasks at using vintage treadle sewing machines instead of working on them. First of all, I put a back patch on my first motorcycle coat that has all of the armor pockets in it with my 1944 Singer 29K70 treadle machine. It had a pocket in the lining centered between the shoulder blades that either holds armor or a cool pack (it was empty) right inside where the patch had to go. We ended up opening a side seam in the lining a few inches and going in that way. With the 360-degree feed on the boot patcher, only a small hole was needed.

Then I had to save a young lady’s “bling jeans” that got a blow-out at the corner of one hip pocket. With no way of finding a replacement corner rivet to match the existing one, I saved the old one by re-enforcing the damage with new denim and using thread tacks to reattach the pocket and flap. I usually cut the old rivet out and install a new one at the end, but my rivets don’t have much “Bling”.

I discovered that I could put the regular zigzag foot of my 1950s Singer 319 treadle on top of the rivet and make straight tacks along three sides of it. I used a short-length straight stitch and ran back and forth with my needle just missing the rivet, going as far as I could without falling off of the rivet, then turning 90 degrees and making another thread tack, and then the third. We’ll see if three thread tacks hold as well as a rivet.

The only problem that I had was remembering to drop my presser foot while riding on top of the rivet. The rivet lifted my foot to about the upper limit of my lift without disengaging the upper tension, so whether my lift lever was up or down, it looked about the same. I thought that I had already dropped it a couple of times when I hadn’t, and ended up with small thread nest locks to cut loose.

CD in Oklahoma

SteveH

NICE! well done! Wait, what? no pics of the patcher in use! hurumph! lol

Vridar

CD, Metoo! Never get enough patcher pictures. Good tutorial. Would a zipper foot have gotten close to the rivet without having to ride on top of it? I'm sure the zz foot was used for a reason. I'm still learning.

ThayerRags

I figured I was going to get called on no patcher photos, and really wish that I had some, but cameras sometimes get forgotten when going into something new for the first time. Besides that, both my wife and I had our hands full of coat, and no hands left for a camera. I had the bulk of the coat on a support table at the end of the machine, but we had to be extra careful to make sure that the soft leather of the coat didn’t get either stretched or be allowed to fold over or pucker while sewing. We also had to keep an eye on the mesh lining underneath to keep it from sneaking up onto the needle plate and getting into the stitch line.

I was seated at the treadle and she was standing behind the machine. I ran the foot pedal and hand-wheeled the machine, and steered the head while the sewing direction was coming toward me or otherwise easy for me to see. But when it was going away from me where it was hard for me to see, she steered the head. We went slow and easy. Team work at its finest!

CD in Oklahoma

ThayerRags

I had originally planned to use a zipper foot next to the rivet, but when I stitched the flap back onto the jeans across the top, I intentionally made sure that I was stitching through the wide silver thread of the original top stitch. I was using regular-sized blue thread that matched the denim as close as possible. I had removed the large white thread that held the silver thread in place beneath in order to lay the flap and pocket back. I was intending to sew both stitch lines up to the rivet, and then change to a zipper foot for my corner tacks.

As I approached the rivet, the toe of my zz foot crawled right up onto the rivet with no effort, so once I got to the end of the old stitch line and along one side of the rivet, I reversed feed and backtacked past the rivet, then stitched forward and back expecting to fall off of the rivet, but I didn’t. I figured that once I fell off of the rivet, I would put my zipper foot on, but I never fell off while doing tacks on three sides of the rivet.

CD in Oklahoma

Vridar

Makes sense to me. If it works why change. Good work. Gotta' inform my daughters to not throw their damaged jeans away.

jlhmnj

Early Sears Davis Minnesota I've been tinkering with. One of the first made by Davis for Sears around 1899-1900.

ThayerRags

Nice old machine. Is that a Minnesota Model "A", or prior to letters?

CD in Oklahoma