Aurora

There are some charts online that you could print and take with you. Here's a link to two, there are more.

http://www.thecolorfulworldofsewing....d-accessories/

https://www.anniescatalog.com/pages/which_foot.html


Thanks, these are great tools. I have purchased so many machines and boxes of accessories that I have quite a mix of feet. These will help sort them out.

txmerlin

Thank you for these links (and the education). Based on this info, the Nelco is a high shank. It only had 2 feet in with the machine and one was plastic and broken, so now the adventure begins and I know what to look for.

Ken

Cari-in-Oly

Slight correction-
Necchi zigzag(BU) machines are high shank. Necchi straight stitch(BF) machines are low shank.

Cari

Suzanne57

My 1970's Electro Grand is a high shank. Never been to a repairman and still going strong. My Kenmore and Singer 15-91 are short shank. The rest need work but I think they are either top clamp or short shank except for the Singer Slant.

steihy

I agree that it's not hard to tell the difference between the most common ones, but I understand people who are not confident about this, or haven't learned it yet.

Same about the "mixed drawer", with a bunch of feet without a name...

What is the risk of just trying? As long as it lines up with the hole, fits the rod, the rod operates normally, and it doesn't feel overly tight or loose...what can happen?

There is the width thing, of course - general rule is narrow foot for ss, wide for zz, usually the same as the width of the feed dogs. Also easy to tell the difference, but no damage done if you get it wrong, just suboptimal performance.

Always starting up real careful, a couple of cycles with the hand wheel to make sure there are no collisions between needle clamp and foot.