All projects require a commitment of time, money, and effort. I have spent most of my life without much money so I learned how to apply effort and time to make up the difference. hehe

I learned a long time ago that ANY project can be dealt with if broken into small enough pieces to make each part manageable. That and I am willing (prefer) to take on projects that most think are "beyond hope".

so, anyone with "hopeless" old rusty machines (emphasis on the OLD) feel free to send them my way! lol

Ok, so much for the weird posts... I hope.

Tonight is Armor Night. That is the night I host a training workshop from 7-10pm. I did not plan to get much done on the Ej. (Elias Jr) However, tonight the students needed a lot of "personal time with the tools" type practice, so I got to play.:)

I decided to go ahead and assemble the lower portion. Then I decided to Tri-Flow it (lol the machine didn't know what hit it) It is still noisy. Kinda cool. Eventually i'll get a video up of it moving with sound. Then I decided to thread it as far as i could....

It drives the opposite of a Singer.... the belt pully rotates top away.
The main driveline on the unit
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A bed level view of the front
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bed level view of the face
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Underside. Really captures the whole motion mechanism
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The is the back side of the famous "four-motion feed" or "step feed" the two cams run the show with the (broken for now) stitch length control rod (with brass spring attached) in place.
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Here it is from the outside. The black arm coming in from the top to about 7 o'clock is the stitch length regulator. when i manually hold this arm to the right in this picture, the stitch is longer, when it is to the left in this picture, it is shorter.
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Threaded as much as it can be with a broken take-up and no needle (or shuttle or bobbin)
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Just cool...
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oh, and a couple of fun tools to share.

looks like I got a new leg vice.. almost.
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and a scale reference
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It is actually a turn of the century blacksmith forged handvice

and the OLDEST tool that I have ever used. It was found on my Grandparents property in the late 60's. My Grandmother thought it was an "Indian hachet head" but she was wrong. It is a "pre-cloth" garment tool....

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It is an early american (pre "indian") hide scrapping tool. you can still see the stains of the leather/rawhide cording that would have formed a figure 8 around your wrist to add leverage. I had an opportunity to tan an Elk hid in a traditional salt based process and we used this to prep the hide. still sharp enough to cut the hide if handled "sloppy". the wrist support made all of the difference.

Again, humbled in the face of my ancestors as a human. I showed this to a retired master mason, and asked if he could make one, he said, "not with their tools"...

I can't believe how far you've come with this! Amazing!!!

Have you seen this gorgeous custom made case for a Howe handcrank conversion? http://clkquilt.wordpress.com/2011/0...es-do-you-own/

my design was strongly inspired by this one.

What a thoroughly engrossing and enchanting thread! Oh, to have all that ability and know-how! Really enjoying the progress on this machine. :)

there is a howe treadle machine for sale at the harvey clar auction in oakland ca tomorrow sat, approx 1870 or earlier, looks like the one you have. I was fascinated by it. it is going cheap,n 20-50$ and you can bid by phone or whatever. I dont know if it had a bobbin but it did have the cover box. just saying. love sara

Thank you I'll see if I can look that up!

I have been all over that site and cannot find anything like this... No Sewing machines of any kind...