I didn’t really have a sewing project for my Singer 319W Treadle, but the last time that I used it with the original disc balance wheel on it, I had decided that before I used it again I wanted to switch to the spoked wheel that I had on my 306W that is now sort of side-lined due to getting the 319. I got it done yesterday.
The black spoked wheel is one of the new after-market wheels from China that I got a few years ago. The center bore is machined incorrectly, so the wheel rim wobbles badly when it is turned. I decided to use it on my 306 to see if it would work, and it did.
To make the bobbin winder work without modifying the winder, I cut a strip of vegetable-tanned tooling leather to make a collar for the BW tire to run on. I cut the leather strip about a quarter of an inch short of the distance around the balance wheel hub, connected the ends with a metal treadle belt connector, whacked the connector with a hammer on an anvil to flatten it into the leather as much as possible, and then forced the leather strip onto the hub of the wheel for a tight fit.
The collar works fine, if you don’t mind the bit of sound and vibration of the rubber tire going over the belt clip every revolution. On the treadle, that hasn’t been a problem for me, although the off-drilled bore of this particular wheel can trip the automatic release of the winder before it gets full enough sometimes. I just hold it with a finger to finish filling the bobbin. The benefit is that I can move the wheel from one machine to another without having to modify each machine’s bobbin winder.
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