I Finally Bought Me Some Unobtainium
You’ve perhaps heard of some vintage sewing machine parts that were made of some mystical material referred to as “unobtainium”? It’s a play on words indicating that a part is virtually not obtainable. Can’t find it, or can’t afford it even if you did.
Well, I am now the proud owner of an unobtainium part called a “Pitman Coupling Nut”, Singer part #46660! And at what I think was a very good price, considering that I made an offer for it and the Seller accepted my offer. Can’t get unobtainium any cheaper than that.
It is a special coupling nut that joins the somewhat uncommon two-piece pitman rod on Singer Industrial “Convertible” Power Stands. There were at least three different models that I know of, but they all used the same coupling nut. These particular stands were designed to be easily convertible between treadle power and electric motor power by changing the drive belt and switching the foot peddle from the flywheel pitman rod to the motor actuator rod, accomplished by unscrewing the rods from the coupling nut.
As electrification came about in the early years, these bases provided a much needed option for machine owners to switch quickly between manual and electrical power, depending on the conditions. And if they thought electrification was coming to their shop in the future, they could purchase and operate the machine manually until the electrical service was in place. Eventually, when electrification became fairly wide-spread, the need for convertible power stands faded away and they quit making them. The existing stands were stripped of their flywheel as foot power was no longer needed as an option. It seems that in many cases, the coupling nut either went with the flywheel or becomes loose and lost by the time the stands get to us collectors.
I was in such a hurry to get it into my lock box that I forgot to take a photo of it, but it’s about one inch long, and about 3/8 inch in diameter, and looks about like any other coupling nut. The only thing about this coupling nut is that it was made by Singer with one of Singer’s unusual thread size/pitch/number of threads combinations, and coupling nuts made since standardization of fitting sizes won’t interchange with it.
If you’re still looking for some “unobtainium” for one of your machines, keep looking. It just might be out there somewhere. I didn’t think I’d ever find mine.....
CD in Oklahoma