Singer 306W24 Treadle
Since there’s still ice unloading from trees and powerlines north of us (where our power comes from), I’ve been staying off of the computer most of the time to avoid having too many sudden shut-downs. I’ve been passing the time watching old 1970s Western VCR movies (collected at yardsales over time) and doing a little mending with my Singer 306W treadle.
I discovered that I had never figured out a fix for the bobbin winder after changing to a Singer spoked handwheel on the 306W. I had switched wheels to give more hand control while treadling during a bout of windsock making a while back, since the 306W is very unforgiving if you turn the machine backwards. It makes a heck of a tangle to get cut loose. I used a new aftermarket wheel that the center hole has been drilled so far off that I was too embarrassed to sell it to anyone, so I used it on this machine. It wobbles like crazy, but the drive belt maintains good enough contact to keep it going.
To adapt the bobbin winder, I used a strip of tooling leather to make a band to fit around the hub of the wheel to build it out far enough to allow contact by the rubber BW tire. I connected the ends of the leather strip together using a small nail (sometimes called a brad), and then forced the strip onto the hub for a fairly tight fit. I have to hold the BW against the hub to wind a bobbin, and between the tire going over the nail and the wheel being out-of-round, there’s some noise and vibration, but it works. LOL!
CD in Oklahoma