Colorado get-together?

Old 08-06-2018, 08:53 AM
  #91  
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Dorothy's wrap around motor mount is a rare beastie indeed. Some folks have tried to reproduce them.

Lucky her.. and Great books. (Whimper)
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Old 08-06-2018, 09:47 AM
  #92  
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Originally Posted by leonf View Post
Dorothy's wrap around motor mount is a rare beastie indeed.
I don't know if I got a good picture or not. It is a straight bracket that is attached to the back of the pillar. The top screw for the bracket goes through the inspection plate and the bottom screw actually goes in the back of the pillar. If I didn't get a good picture of it, I will try to get one of mine. It is really a pain as one can't screw in the bottom screw as the motor is in the way, so even an offset screwdriver doesn't work.

Originally Posted by leonf View Post
... and Great books. (Whimper)
Right, It would love to have a few weeks.... or maybe a few months to just browse through them.

Janey - Neat people never make the exciting discoveries I do.
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Old 08-07-2018, 03:02 PM
  #93  
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Leon -[ATTACH=CONFIG]599134[/ATTACH] The yellow circle is surrounding the top of the motor mount. I thought I had gotten one of the lower screw, but evidently not. Hopefully you can see the top of it.

Sorry it is side ways

Janey
Attached Thumbnails back-motor.jpg  
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Old 09-03-2018, 07:12 AM
  #94  
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Default September 1, 2018 Colorado Get-together

We had our regular Saturday morning get together, ten o'clock at Perkins, on the first Saturday of September. We welcomed a new person to our group, named Carol. Also there were Dorothy, Dianne, Courtney, Cheryl and Chris and Janey and John.


Dianne brought another one of her collection of very small sewing machines, a SewMaster, shown below. It's a chain stitch machine that she is working on to make it sew.


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Dianne also brought an interesting sewing kit. The picture is a little blurry, but you can still see the clever idea.


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John and Janey brought one of their two sewing machine work stands. These rotatable work stands allow easy access to a sewing machine from all sides, for maintenance, oiling, cleaning or repair. The stand was set up on one of the tables after we ate, for a post-breakfast demonstration. Below, John and Courtney may be seen looking at the stand, with the machine in the upright position.


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The work stand allows a machine to be rotated to any one of sixteen positions. Below, John and Courtney are looking at one of the interesting mechanisms found on the White 11 sewing machine, showing the machine in its upside down position.


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The work stand also allows a machine to be turned on its end, allowing easy work on some tricky hand wheels, such as White 41 and 43, with ball bearings that can fall out.


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The workstands have interchangeable baseboards to accommodate various machines, including Singer standard, three-quarter size, Featherweight, Kenmore, White and others. A great number of non-Singer sewing machines adopted Singer sizes and also fit the Singer standard and three-quarter sized baseboards. A few of the baseboards were brought to show.


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A thread detailing the construction of a workstand may be found on QuiltingBoard at:
Sewing Machine Work Stand


We will post here again after next month's meeting.
Attached Thumbnails dianne-sewmaster.jpg   dianne-sewing-kit.jpg   workstand-machineupright.jpg   workstand-machineupsidedown.jpg   workstand-machineonend.jpg  

kenmore-featherweightbaseboards.jpg   singeruniversalbaseboardcloseup.jpg  
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Old 09-04-2018, 05:32 AM
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Originally Posted by OurWorkbench View Post


We will post here again after next month's meeting.
Looking forward to it.

bkay
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Old 10-08-2018, 07:18 AM
  #96  
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Default October 6, 2018 CO get-together, Part 1

A cold and cloudy overnight drizzle gave way to sunshine and a lot of blue sky by the time we met for the October meeting of the Colorado antique sewing machine enthusiasts group. Fall is in the air.


Our newest member Carol was there for a second time. Also there were Dorothy, Courtney, Cheryl & Chris and Janey & John. Seven of us in all.


Dorothy brought an interesting machine that she has, a Thompson Mini-Walker. Janey has found a classified ad for this machine in a 1980 "Popular Mechanics." It is based on a machine that is a Singer 15 clone, but with several modifications. It features a walking foot that is driven by an external bar added to the rear of the machine. It connects the additional presser bar and foot to the top of the pillar. The additional parts are covered with a metal case added to the outside. It also has two tension assemblies, one on top and one on the nose plate. It has a heavy duty motor that is connected through a two-step reduction. It uses two timing belts with ribs to match cogs in pulley even on the hand wheel, so it can't slip. She brought a sample of the leather she is able to sew with it. Quite a workhorse.

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Dorothy also brought the machine with a carrier made with webbing to wrap around the plastic case. Unfortunately didn't get picture of it around the case. The picture above that shows the "reveal" shows it under the base.

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..... to be continued in "October 6, 2018 CO get-together, Part 2"
Attached Thumbnails dorothy-full-front-thompson.jpg   dorothy-removing-outsides.jpg   dorothy-15-reveal-n-carrier.jpg   dorothy-back-n-nose.jpg   dorothy-walking-foot.jpg  

dorothy-thompson-motor.jpg   dorothy-hand-wheel-cogs.jpg   dorothy-case-carrier.jpg  
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Old 10-08-2018, 07:49 AM
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Default October 6, 2018 CO get-together, Part 2

continuation of above post....

Courtney is working with a Raspberry-Pi micro-controller to do some sophisticated speed control for a sewing machine. Chris, being an engineer and John talked with him a bit, brainstorming a few ideas about how to interface to the machine.

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Janey brought an example for a controller cover made from a quilted place mat. Such controller covers help to avoid scratches to a machine when the controller is placed under the harp when put away. Janey likes to sew the cover on the machine it is intended for.


John and Dorothy talked a little bit about a work stand that she is putting together to do work on machines more easily, the Thompson Mini-Walker among them. It's an extra heavy machine.

Several interesting books were brought for people to look through. We have some pictures of them, shown below. The "Coats" book defines stitches and seams used in industrial settings. The 1935 "Student Manual" shows converting treadle to a motorized machine. The Sears catalog has the Franklin Sewing machine near the front, but the motor for sewing machine is near the back. I think the "Invention of the Sewing Machine" may be a compliment to the video. (Janey can't find the link)

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We intend to meet again next month. We look forward to posting again then.
Attached Thumbnails raspberry-pi-controller.jpg   coats-book.jpg   coats-stitch-seams-definitions.jpg   cheryl-1935-student-manual.jpg   cheryl-student-treadleconvert.jpg  

carol-1923-sears.jpg   carol-sears-franklin-head.jpg   carol-sears-motor.jpg   cheryl-invention-sm.jpg  

Last edited by OurWorkbench; 10-08-2018 at 07:53 AM.
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Old 10-08-2018, 01:25 PM
  #98  
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When I saw the pics of the Mini-walker I wasn't all that impressed. Then I read about it.. wow. It is a mini Industrial machine. Never heard of it. Sounds great..
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Old 10-08-2018, 05:28 PM
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Indeed it is a neat machine. Dorothy's, I think, is the first model. I still haven't gotten the progression right as found some later models from the mid 1980s with the same "dealer." https://sailrite.wordpress.com/tag/s...ewing-machine/ Sailrite evidently badged the later models and then had their engineers develop the zig zag model after the Thompson. I did find a later patent that was assigned to Sailrite.


Janey - Neat people never make the exciting discoveries I do.
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Old 10-09-2018, 09:09 AM
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Wow. Just found this thread and read the whole thing. Thoroughly enjoyed it. About the button hook - are you using it to clean/work on machines? It is celluloid and you mentioned not caring what it is made from but to keep it you will need to keep it out of the sun and away from any heat source. We are talking about not going to Arizona next year but travelling around more. Perhaps we will get to Colorado. Would love to come and learn.
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