Courtney continues
I can sit the Featherweight on the plywood base. I only need to disconnect the motor belt on the Featherweight; I do not need to remove the motor like I have seen on some other Featherweight hand crank modifications. The belt from the hand crank does have to be twisted to make the featherweight turn toward you (counterclockwise) when turning the hand crank clockwise. Since using a hand crank is not high speed it seems to work well. I used a neoprene belt and hooked it together with a W&G ferrule made from a Chicago nut. When done using the hand crank the featherweight can be removed, the Belt reattached, and it is ready to go again. No major modifications necessary.
The plywood base does not need to be quite as large as what I started with. It could be made much shorter. I think 11 ½ inches would be fine. The 8 inch width however is about the minimum and could be even a bit larger.
I was quite proud of how well things worked with the Featherweight, so I thought I would quickly try some other machines. A Singer 201 worked quite well with a twisted belt.
A Wheeler and Wilson worked out quite well. Since it turns clockwise, the belt does not need to be twisted. I will have to come up with some way to wind the bobbins, but that should not be too difficult. My W&W machine was “refurbished” with a Godzilla finish and an electric motor many years before I obtained the machine, and the bobbin winder wasn’t working as it was originally a Treadle machine. However, as I mentioned earlier one of the benefits of this hand crank is that the motor does not have to be removed as you can see in the pictures.
One quick note. I do like the neoprene belts. But for trying stuff out, I usually use inexpensive oxygen tubing held together with heavy duty staples. It is cheap and easy to quickly set up and try things out as shown in the pictures above of the 201 and W&W machine.
That’s it for this month!
Courtney Willis
PS The Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum is having their bi-annual men’s show through April 18th . It is a national juried show (international if you count one quilt from Ontario.) I am pleased to say my ‘After Picasso’ wall quilt was accepted!
In Closing
That is all for now. Hope that those hit with cold and snow are staying warm and dry. Spring will come, no matter what the prognosticators say.
Thank you Dianne and Courtney for your contributions.
Thank you for reading. See you next month.