mpleister

Hello all,

I recently purchased a Vassar treadle sewing machine from a yard sale. Its pretty dirty but should clean up nicely. I have been looking for information on it with little success. It is marked with the serial number 146805 with patents from 1891 to 1898. I was hoping someone could point me in the right direction to get more information on this machine. Let me know if any additional photos or details are needed.

Thank you.

OurWorkbench

Welcome. What kind of information are you wanting. It appears that Vassar is a name used by National (as well as a couple of other makers) according to http://needlebar.org/main/makers/usa...l/index.html#v To me it looks like a VB-TT Type 3 or VB-TT Type 5 or maybe as seen at http://needlebar.org/main/national/index1.html Manuals for similar machines although a couple of them are for electric machines, but the threading should be the same.
https://ismacs.net/newhome/manuals/n...ine-manual.pdf
https://ismacs.net/national/manuals/...ine-manual.pdf
http://needlebar.org/main/manuals/re...ay/1index.html

Unfortunately the person who knew about which needles went with which machines recently passed away. I'm fairly certain that it would take what is called a 20x1 needle. Some have dropped the modern 130/705 needles a bit and had them work. There is someone on another forum had a solution to having to figure out how far to drop by cutting a magnet to work. If you search for "15x1 rather than 20x1 needles" you should be able to find it.

I think JoeJr had a similar (electric) machine https://www.quiltingboard.com/vbulle...a-t310944.html Maybe he will pop in and confirm or deny my notion that needle system needed for these machines is a 20x1.

JoeJr

Welcome also. I did have a similar machine, and am 99.99% certain it took a 20x1 and a Boye #13 shuttle.