Monty was a CL find, and necessitated both an hour's drive through evening traffic and a meetup in the Bass Pro parking lot for the handover. (Bass Pro, so that Husband, who drove, could be suitably rewarded for the driving
)
Anyway. Monty is a Montgomery Ward Supreme Reversible Rotary, circa mid-40's, I think. Other than the Imperial Kenmore, this is the coolest ugly sewing machine I think I've ever seen. As soon as I know they existed, I had to have one. It took awhile, but I finally found one!
Monty is a friction drive, something I seem to have a growing herd of. Not especially strong sewers, but really cool mechanically. He was in desperate need of a rewire, and he had to be retimed, but other than that, he was amazingly clean inside and out.
About the retiming... Everything I know about Monty comes from this guy (
http://www.doubleveil.net/zssmp/streamliner.htm). He says it was meant to take a 20x1 needle. I don't buy it. I tried one and with the needle all the way down, the eye was still well above the hook-never went down to it, let alone past it. And that was the factory setting-the needle bar is pinned in place. (I had to take the pin screw out to reset it for 15x1.) All the manual says is be sure to specify Eldredge needle, and use a size suitable for the weight of fabric, etc. Nothing that would translate to an actual, modern size. So, anyone got any ideas about what size needle this would take, if not 20x1?
It's got some other cool things, too. As you can see, the face plate is completely shrouded by the needle bar cover. (Husband calls it the nose cone.) The little bare contact points above the light *are* the light switch; open and and the light is off, close it and it comes on. It's got a nifty little hoobie on the spool pin to keep the spool in place-it just clicks back and forth. Also, the entire spool pin barrel screws out for access to the innards. The threading is the weirdest I've ever seen. And the thread doesn't go around the tension, just down through the edge of it!
And it came with a gorgeous table. The pedal was on about 8" of wire and meant to be used as a knee controller, but when I rewired it, I made it into a foot controller. It also came with the manual, six bobbins, a top-clamp zipper foot and a pack of old needles that don't fit. I'd sort of be interested to find more accessories to go with it, but no luck so far. I'd also like to find a bentwood drawer to replace the one that's broken.
eta: Funny the things you only notice in pictures-Monty needs a bobbin winding tire. Oops!