path49

QUOTE: (And Joe, several 158 series Kenmores will also do a chainstitch...the ones that have the little needle plate insert that you turn around for straight or zigzag like this http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEEDLE-PLATE...3b77b8538...or this http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEEDLE-PLATE...item43b77b840c & all of these have metal gears. My 158.17550 does a gorgeous chain stitch. It came with a chain stitch needle plate insert & you take out the bobbin case & put in the chain stitch looper.)


Miriam, The chain stitch plate & looper for mine....158.17550 are parts 12 & 13 here http://c.searspartsdirect.com/lis_pn...6093-00007.png Mine uses the needle plate insert in the 1st link of the previous post.

If your machine uses the needle plate insert in the 2nd link, this is the chain stitch set you need http://www.bonanza.com/listings/Sear...nsert/88531177

The only difference is the slots for the feed dogs. Pat

J Miller

Well, it seems that I have a set of the chain stitch parts for the 158-17550 too. Cool. I wondered what those things were for.

Joe

path49

Joe, The straight stitch/zigzag needle plate insert for the 158.1755 also fits the other machines in listed in the link for the needle plate inserts so, I'm assuming that the chain stitch set will work with those machines, too.

miriam

I have several machines that have the throat plate that takes that part - I have not seen that part though. Maybe I should dig around.

J Miller

Pat,

Good to know. Thanks.

Joe

BarbaraSue

Joe,

I have a 252; and a 457. They are ZigZag and have metal and plastic in them. Interestingly, when I purchased a manual for them, except for their numbers and a few words, the manuals for the 252 and 457 are the same. My 778 needs more loving care than I am able to give it. It is a Touch and Sew. I have the cams and some other parts.
I really like the 252 for a ZigZag.

Reba'squilts

I had a Singer Golden Touch and Sew. I loved it until the nylon gears started wearing. I traded it in for my first Viking in the 70's. I don't remember what the model number was on the singer. My mother in law had the same machine. She did not use it much. It is at my daughters and still works pretty good. I think I bought the golden in 1972.

Friday1961

I have a Golden T&S 750, which, from what I've read, I suspect has plastic gears. A gift from my DH about 1976. Has the cams which I've seldom used but have always worked fine when I did. I've made countless clothes on it--everything I wore for years--sofa slipcovers, pillows, curtains, hemmed a lot of boys' pants, all kinds of sewing, and have pieced every quilt I've made since I began quiltmaking (about 3 years ago). It's been a workhorse--I kept it oiled and clean--and I never had to have anything done to it until this past year; broken gear, I think.

Doesn't help you much since you want one with metal gears, but I've loved this machine and have used the heck out of it. I didn't even know, until recently, that T&S's were badly regarded. I wouldn't give mine up, anyway, because it was a gift from my DH, but it's served me extremely well. So, if it does have plastic gears, they've lasted a long long time!

J Miller

I suspect the plastic gears suffer more from heavy use than normal use. My wife has a 538 she got in 78 or so. We got married in 83 and she broke the first set of feed dog gears not long after that. She was making teddy bears, and other sewn crafts as well as wedding gowns and even a seat reupholster for my old Chevy. Since then she's had two other sets of those gears replaced.
Those were the old straight cut gears and they now have spiral cut gears as replacements that are supposed to be better and more durable. We are going to replace all the gears in her 538 as soon as she allots the funds to get the parts. Hopefully that will give her original machine back to her and she can use it again.

Joe

jojo47

I have my mom's Golden Touch'n'Sew...was purchased for her by my dad before 1972. She sewed A LOT with it,and so did I, before I moved away. Haven't had a lot of time to spend sewing lately, but she (the machine) always sewedlike a dream.