Courtney
Courtney shared some of what he has been up to with some projects with his machines.
My sewing machine projects this month have been rather diverse. A couple of months ago I was given an early Bernina 830 (c1972.) It needed a bit of tuning and quite a bit of cleaning, but I was able to finish it all up. The light bulb switch was bad, and I also had to replace it. It is now sewing well, and I have a light to see the stitching! The original flat plate was not included so I made one from an old sheet of plastic. To make the plate portable, I put on some feet made from some old prescription bottles. It is quite sturdy. Finally, although it did come with the original Bernina foot control and cords, I saw online a modern electronic foot control with Bernina cables. So, I spent my twenty or so dollars and tried one out. It seemed to work fine and did work well on other non-electronic Berninas that I have.
Some months ago, I found online a 3D printable hand crank. I experimented using it with a Singer model 24. The problem with the 24 was that it can only take the belt from the bottom. I made a wooden apparatus for holding the crank off the side of the table. While looking at this apparatus I thought I would try it with my treadle Featherweight. It did seem to work Ok this the treadle Featherweight. I am going to do a bit more experimenting but even if left just the way it is it is quite usable.
I have collected a number of early glass tension Willcox and Gibbs machines. I used the 3D hand crank I mentioned above to turn them into hand crank machines. They seem to sew quite well when all adjusted, so I am going to do a workshop in time travel at Cosine (a science fiction convention) in late January. We are going to sew US Sanitary Commission housewives (sewing kits) on Civil War machines. Not all the machines are Civil War, but half are (1859, 1863, 1871, 1886.) The other half of the machines are the same models just a bit newer. The picture is of the oldest machine first and a housewife is on the plate. Hope they hold together until we get done!
Courtney
In Closing
That is all for this month. Thank you, James & Courtney for your contributions and to our readers. See you next month.