Many of you may have heard about the terrible fire we had here recently. The first significant snow of the season was unusually delayed until late December. The winds that sometimes precede the arrival of a cold front produced 100+ mile per hour winds. What would have been an isolated fire swept burning embers from house to house in a residential neighborhood between Denver and Boulder. Heavy snow and single degree temperatures immediately followed the fire, leaving the smoldering ashes of peoples homes blanketed under several inches. Had the snow come one day sooner, there might have been a different outcome.
We are fortunate to report that we have heard of no one in our group being affected by it, although a current count of 991 homes were a total loss. Please offer thoughts and prayers to our fellow Coloradans and be a little more grateful for what you have.
That said, in our first posting of the new year, we have offerings from several of our members. Courtney was the first to send his report in anticipation of a busy Christmas with family, so we'll start there.
Courtney
Courtney used his good woodworking skills and a lot of cleverness to make a nice treadle:
I am writing this shortly before Christmas because I have a bit of time now. Sewing machine stuff started this month when some good friends were cleaning out an old shed and came across an 1880s treadle and top for a Singer model 12 sewing machine. They said the first thing that popped into their minds was "we can give it to Courtney!" The Irons are in great shape but the top needs work. A couple of weeks later I ran across a YouTube video from the Featherweight Shop demonstrating their new Treadle Kit for using a Featherweight in a treadle. That reminded me, a couple of months ago, that I had seen another YouTube in which a fellow had adapted a Featherweight to a treadle. So, I looked around and watched it again. The Featherweight Shop kit was very simple, elegant, but rather expensive. The other was rather complicated and required ordering a couple of pulleys and a couple of bearings from Amazon.
I got to thinking (always a dangerous thing!) About 5 or 6 years ago I saw someone on eBay selling a Featherweight hand crank. It attached to the stop motion screw on the end of the machine. At the time, I went to the shop and tried to come up with a simple equivalent. My design was quite simple just a piece of wood with a handle on one end and a 1/2 inch hole on the other. To hold it in place I used a (1/2-20-1) bolt from Ace hardware (1/2 inch, 20 threads per inch, 1 inch long) which cost $1.50. It seemed to work just fine except just like the eBay crank it was one stitch per backwards turn. It would take forever to sew a simple seam.
At the same time that I made the crank, I made a treadle adapter. I cut a 2-3/4 inch circle from 3/4 inch thick MDF (because it was what I had on hand). Again, I drilled a 1/2 inch hole in the center. I laid the stop motion washer on top of the hole and drew around it. I then drove in a small finishing nail so that it would contact one of the ears on the stop motion washer (see picture #1 which shows the crank and treadle adapter). Finally, I put in a 1/4 inch groove around the outside of the circle. To attach it to a Featherweight, I would remove the stop motion screw and the motor belt and replace it with my adapter with the pin on the inside so it would contact the stop motion washer. I would hold it in place with the 1-inch long 1/2 inch diameter fine pitched screw.
I dug around the basement and found my old crank and treadle adapters. My plan was to use the 1880's treadle I was given. I got everything set up and tried it out. It worked, but not great. It was hard to keep the treadle going and in the correct direction. The treadle drive wheel was rather light and a bit smaller than a normal treadle. When it was used with a model 12, the large heavy balance wheel on the sewing machine would give it enough momentum to keep going but a featherweight only has a small aluminum wheel which could not provide enough momentum. I was a bit disappointed. But thinking back this is probably why I had not pursued it any further.
After a bit of thought I remembered that my Willcox and Gibbs sewing machines have a rather small balance wheel and that the W&G treadles have a drive wheel which is weighted on the outside to produce enough momentum to keep the treadle going. So, I pulled out the anti-reverse ball in a W&G treadle and tried the Featherweight with my adapter. It worked great! (see picture #2 which shows the Featherweight on the W&G treadle with the adapter attached. I colored the adapter black to match the Featherweight.) I was able to easily sew a simple 4-patch. I didn't have a Singer treadle with a full-sized drive wheel around, but I still had a Kenwood (NSMC) treadle I had purchased a couple of months ago. It too has a drive wheel which is weighted a bit on the outer rim. It also worked well. After the Christmas chaos I plan on trying out a full-sized Singer treadle but for now at least I know that I can get a Featherweight to work well on a couple of treadles.
I made my adapter using a router and mdf because that is all I have. I can dream however of an adapter made of hard maple or oak carefully made on a lathe. I think it would be quite attractive as well as simple to set up and use.
Courtney
James
James sent notes and pictures of some of the things he has been working on:
Since the last posting I picked up what I believe is a late 1920s Willcox and Gibbs treadle table. The head is in great shape and the treadle action is nice and smooth. It came with a single drawer that is not attached with an original tucker. It also came with a metal base for the motor version of the Willcox and Gibbs.
I pieced together a table topper for my sister as a Christmas present using it and bound and quilted it using my 1907 Singer 28 hand crank. I am getting better at sewing but I did make some mistakes with the binding and should start using safety pins to make sure the corners of the blocks match up better.
For Christmas I received a 3 yard quilt pattern book and leather belt for my hand crank along with the Treadle Lady "Treadle Sewing Machines - Clean and use an Iron Lady" book.
James
... to be continued