Singer 66 Red Eyes had to come home
12-04-2014, 03:03 PM
#1
Junior Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: Samsonville, New York
Posts: 268
Singer 66 Red Eyes had to come home
CL really is an unending pit of temptation!
So, last weekend, there was one red eye in a beautiful cabinet, one electric red eye that had gorgeous decals, and a White in turquoise and white with original attachments and manual (will have to talk about the second two another time). Usually when I send emails, I only hear from maybe one in three, but everyone called back and I was doomed. They were just all so pretty (although the electric red eye was mostly just stuck). We actually had to go back the next day for the treadle because the car was full with the other two.
I love the treadle cabinet and although the machine that was in it can be cleaned up, it's going to take time that I don't have right now, so I switched my existing 66 into the new cabinet and put the new machine in the older one. The new treadle came with an interesting assortment in the drawers - a manual with many, but not all, pages; a catalog of Singer cabinets; a variety of feet, both side clamp and top clamp; a nice assortment of screwdrivers; and a huge hooked needle (lower right in the photo) that is sharp. The sellers were really nice and interesting. The machine came from Caribou, Maine and belonged to the seller's grandmother, who died shortly after giving birth to his mother. I'm not sure anyone used the machine much since then. It took some oiling, but sews fine now. I haven't done anything but lightly dust the cabinet and clean out the drawers (and gave some of them green felt lining, just because).
Now, here's what I find interesting. Everything I've read said the earlier 66s came with back clamps and the later ones had side clamps. But the 1910 one (that I already had) came with the original manual and it clearly shows side clamping attachments. The 'new' one is from 1914 and has back clamping attachments. In its manual, the attachments are shown as back clamp. I had read speculation on another site that if an early 66 had side clamp, it was because someone along the way had switched the needle bar. But I'm pretty confident that the very fragile 1910 manual I have is the actual one, not a later version.
One more thing. After I moved the older 66 to the newer cabinet, I gave it a nice oiling, polished the wheel, put on a new treadle belt, and generally spruced it up for its new home. But when I tried to sew, the thread broke. I tried turning the handwheel ever so slowly and it still broke after 1-3 stitches. Hmph. After a long and frustrating time of re-threading, checking everything I could think of, dusting out the bobbin case, etc., I just gave up and folded it up. We went down to Connecticut for the night for DGD's school concert. On the way down, I said, 'The needle!' I didn't think to check the direction, because it was already in place. Then, I remembered that when I had first tried to use the machine, I thought I had forgotten how to treadle because the thread kept breaking. Well, duh. When we came back up, that was the first thing I did and sure enough, the needle had been in backwards all along. I got the tension set and it just buzzes along happy as can be.
The photos don't show them, but there are nice ornamental carvings on each side.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]501210[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]501211[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]501212[/ATTACH]
So, last weekend, there was one red eye in a beautiful cabinet, one electric red eye that had gorgeous decals, and a White in turquoise and white with original attachments and manual (will have to talk about the second two another time). Usually when I send emails, I only hear from maybe one in three, but everyone called back and I was doomed. They were just all so pretty (although the electric red eye was mostly just stuck). We actually had to go back the next day for the treadle because the car was full with the other two.
I love the treadle cabinet and although the machine that was in it can be cleaned up, it's going to take time that I don't have right now, so I switched my existing 66 into the new cabinet and put the new machine in the older one. The new treadle came with an interesting assortment in the drawers - a manual with many, but not all, pages; a catalog of Singer cabinets; a variety of feet, both side clamp and top clamp; a nice assortment of screwdrivers; and a huge hooked needle (lower right in the photo) that is sharp. The sellers were really nice and interesting. The machine came from Caribou, Maine and belonged to the seller's grandmother, who died shortly after giving birth to his mother. I'm not sure anyone used the machine much since then. It took some oiling, but sews fine now. I haven't done anything but lightly dust the cabinet and clean out the drawers (and gave some of them green felt lining, just because).
Now, here's what I find interesting. Everything I've read said the earlier 66s came with back clamps and the later ones had side clamps. But the 1910 one (that I already had) came with the original manual and it clearly shows side clamping attachments. The 'new' one is from 1914 and has back clamping attachments. In its manual, the attachments are shown as back clamp. I had read speculation on another site that if an early 66 had side clamp, it was because someone along the way had switched the needle bar. But I'm pretty confident that the very fragile 1910 manual I have is the actual one, not a later version.
One more thing. After I moved the older 66 to the newer cabinet, I gave it a nice oiling, polished the wheel, put on a new treadle belt, and generally spruced it up for its new home. But when I tried to sew, the thread broke. I tried turning the handwheel ever so slowly and it still broke after 1-3 stitches. Hmph. After a long and frustrating time of re-threading, checking everything I could think of, dusting out the bobbin case, etc., I just gave up and folded it up. We went down to Connecticut for the night for DGD's school concert. On the way down, I said, 'The needle!' I didn't think to check the direction, because it was already in place. Then, I remembered that when I had first tried to use the machine, I thought I had forgotten how to treadle because the thread kept breaking. Well, duh. When we came back up, that was the first thing I did and sure enough, the needle had been in backwards all along. I got the tension set and it just buzzes along happy as can be.
The photos don't show them, but there are nice ornamental carvings on each side.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]501210[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]501211[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]501212[/ATTACH]
12-05-2014, 06:28 AM
#6
Super Member
Join Date: Oct 2013
Location: Centralia, WA, USA
Posts: 4,890
Beautiful machine! That one is in great shape. It's possible given your information that Singer offered the 66s in both side and back clamp configurations in the earlier years though I can't think of a good reason to.
Rodney
Rodney
12-05-2014, 06:44 AM
#9
Super Member
Join Date: Jun 2012
Location: Sonoma County, CA
Posts: 4,299
Thread
Thread Starter
Forum
Replies
Last Post
shelrox
For Vintage & Antique Machine Enthusiasts
19
05-14-2012 04:50 AM
charity-crafter
Offline Events, Announcements, Discussions
2
06-03-2011 05:21 AM
