Bell mini?
 

Does anyone know about this machine?

http://newfoundland.kijiji.ca/c-buy-...AdIdZ480636049

Cute little machines. Mine has a manufacture date of 1952 stamped on the underside. It uses tiny bobbins. The bobbins and bobbin case are interchangeable with the Huge Singer 29-4 boot patcher. In the picture the knob on the top left (as seen from the rear of the machine) is the hand wheel. It takes forever to turn the 'hand wheel' enough to move the needle through one cycle. It makes very nice stitches.

Cathy

Well Isis get it, really cute!

NL quilter, So glad you posted photos as I just clicked the link and it said that item was gone. Good to know that you got it. What a cutie! I never heard of these before. Hope it sews well for you also.

I recently purchased one of these from e-bay. anybody else having tension problems? Big tangles of thread on the bottom.

I'm intrigued. Using a 29 bobbin, geared low, indicates it's a niche machine. What is its niche - Leather patching such as the 29-4?

I'm intrigued, too... apparently it was just a portable machine. One page I found http://www.doubleveil.net/zssmp/bell.htm has a Consumer's Reports article on it - very portable (lighter than the Featherweight!), but stitched slowly. There should be a Good Housekeeping report on it somewhere, since it has the GH seal of approval.

A couple other pages: http://www.singersewinginfo.co.uk/toys/bellmb102/
http://www.sewnuts.com/bell/bell.htm

Oh, and to answer the original question - sorry, Jean, I don't know anything about their tension system. Big tangles on the bottom generally mean the top tension isn't set tight enough - try twiddling the top tension knob to fix? I can't tell if it's numbered, but you would want to try higher numbers if it is, or likely turn clockwise if it isn't.