I stand corrected. Thanks for the info, Grant! :-)
Greetings from Germany!

How to enjoy, restore, use Richmond Treadle?
 

What a neat place this is! I just bought a Richmond treadle. It works, and has a tin full of attachments. I just bought a new belt, but won't replace the old one until I sort of get the feel of the machine, and clean it up a little. Does anyone know where I can get a diagram, or information on how to thread the machine correctly, and wind the bobbin. I have been sewing all my life (well, since I was 2, on floor by my grandmother's knee), but have never had the opportunity to sew on a treadle. There is a place for the spool, then a flat area with a screw thing on it. It was threaded when I bought it, and the nice lady at the antique store let me play with it before I bought it. The machine and cabinet are in good/acceptable shape, but need cleaning, and possibly some restoring. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

http://www.sil.si.edu/DigitalCollect...f/sil10-37.pdf
see if this is similar enough

Thanks! That looks like a great place to start. The bobbin looks just like the one in my machine.

Question time! (I know, I know... I'm never in here)
I have a Copenhagen singer desk thingy for my 500. I'm considering taking out the 500 and putting my 201 in there. I have one of those black metal side support things (124449) from a destroyed 40 cabinet. Has anyone ever done this?

yes I think I have one here somewhere stuck in a cabinet for the 201.

I've been away, so it's great to read a bunch of comments. I keep learning different brands/badges of machines; there are hundreds of them. And from my reading here and elsewhere, I just might buy a treadle, take my shoes off, and boogie.

Here's a rather familiar, uninteresting machine, one of those "Everyone else has one and so should I" recent purchases:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]475898[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]475899[/ATTACH]

And here is one where the seller couldn't get rid of it fast enough and I was only too happy to oblige:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]475900[/ATTACH]

Both are very nice machines but the Pfaff was a terrible cleaning job. It was covered in thick grimy film about whose origins I don't want to even guess. It was on that machine like glue or paint. I couldn't get all of it off but I got close. To give you an idea, it took me 3 weeks to get it to this point. I haven't tried sewing with it and at this point I don't give a rip. I hear these 130s are used by sailors to sew sails and that comes as no surprise because cleaning it certainly made me sound like one.

The Kenmore is excellent -- but you all knew that already, right? :thumbup:

The #42 cabinet my 201 is in has one.

I just saw my first Pfaff 130 in person this week. Very sturdy looking machine. If it's as durable as it looks it was well worth the time spent to clean it.
The one I saw was just the head and frankly I have enough projects to keep me busy right now(plus I'm broke). It was tempting though.

Rodney

From what I understand, the 130 is considered 'semi-industrial' and is good for garment leather and heavy denim. It has 1.3 amps (then again, so do a couple of Whites I own) so it's got power but it's dissipated over a zig-zag mechanism; I would imagine the semi-industrial capacity comes from the gauges of the shaft, needle bar, etc. as well as using an appropriate needle. (Mine needs a new belt as you can see in the pic.) There is an attachment called the 'coffee grinder', an embroidery stitch assembly with an internal cam stack that mounts to the back of the machine and is operated with levers. I'm not sure if it works in tandem with the front zig-zag controls or overrides them when active but I've read it doesn't work well and sounds, well, like a coffee grinder. This was Pfaff's way of trying to keep the 130's sales up while they retooled. I've seen 130s for sale with this attachment and they're very expensive.

There's a video on YT comparing the 130 with the BU Mira and the guy in the video went through the pros and cons of each. The Mira won hands down. Both stitched beautifully, though. And his 130 is in excellent shape. He's a big Singer guy, though, especially the 201-2.

I've seen plain 130s in the Seattle area for as low as $60 (but that one needed serious work). I almost bought one in Bellingham for $85 but this one showed up on CL for $75 and in the original cabinet, too. No attachments and no manual, though. And I got to carry it down three flights of stairs by myself (machine in cabinet), out of their backyard, and load it into my car. The seller is a fireman and walked beside me, chatting away while I huffed and puffed.