66 treadle back clamp accessories
 

I can't say I wasn't warned. With my first vintage sewing machine I was told here in this group it's a slippery slope. All true!
I brought home my last one. Really! Well, I think I'm content now with purchasing a red eye 66 singer treadle. Unfortunately it didn't come with any attachments. I'm trying to find some. It does have the screw in the back instead of the side for mounting the attachments.
My question is what about a button holer. How can I know for sure what the right one for it would look like? Does anyone have any pics?
Also I will try to add some pics of my machine.
Thank you all for your help. It's so good to come to this place and people totally understand this addiction. 😊
[ATTACH=CONFIG]553786[/ATTACH]

For some reason I can't get more pics to show. Grrrr

I am not aware of a buttonholer that fits a 66 back clamp machine, but I'm not sure that means they don't exist. I just haven't seen one. The back clamp feet are harder to find. It took me a couple of years to find the basic feet for mine. You can change out the needle bar so it will fit low shank attachments, but I was not sure how and wanted to keep mine as it was manufactured. You might want to ask the same question over at www.victoriansweatshop.com.

I have never seen a back clamp buttonholer or zigzagger. There might be options to alter the fitting on one of those top clamp buttonholers, but it would take a clever person. It's easier to get a standard low shank for the Featherweight. Back clamp accessories turn up on fleabay now and then, quite regularly. Unfortunately it's not like with the general low shank stuff which is there all the time. Keep an eye out and it will turn up.

This one needs polishing and a bit too expensive for condition, a ruffler. They are available, if you have time to search and wait it out a bit, better condition and at better prices are likely to turn up.

There's a lady in Florida who sells adaptors for the back clamp, to take regular side clamping feet and accessories. I hope it's all right, I just copied and pasted this from treadleon.net. Might be the easiest way to get a buttonholer on the back clamp model.

Adapters to change Singer 66 back-clamping machines to side-clamping, professionally machined; easy on, easy off for $25 (this includes shipping).
Pictures available.
Lindalu
West central Florida
E-Mail: [email protected]
(Updated March 2013)

Identification of back clamp feet it should be fairly easy. Singer only had this version of back clamper as far as I know and I don't think there are any other who easily would be mistaken for them. Other brands had, but they are different. I found this thread here on the Quilting Forum with a clear picture of back clamp feet.

http://i119.photobucket.com/albums/o...s/IMG_3730.jpg

Thank you all for the links and photos. Now I know what to look for. I think I will order the adaptor so I can use my button holer. But then try to find the correct attachments. Appreciate so much the help you provided.

Please post a photo of this adapter when you get it. Thanks

It would be very nice to hear how it works out with your machine Rebecca. I found it first in this blog post, and a photo embedded from her site:

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Y4tmoH0v9Y...0/DSCF0819.JPG

for fun, here are some other sets of back clamp attachments.

I also have never seen a buttonhole attachment, however I have several older bar clamp ones that may work. I've never tried them to see how they might line up. It would require taking the back clamp attachment point off the presser bar first.


http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...ps59aff424.jpg

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...ps580f8856.jpg

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...ps93e03ad8.jpg

http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c3...ps50181b46.jpg

Mickey2 - thanks for the photo. That looks very well made.

It should look just right on the presser bar :- )

I noticed you haven't had a chance to polish the needle and presser bar yet. It took me about a year before I found out they usually polish up like new. The bars are steel and with the right stuff even the most stubborn grime and dirt come off. With the feet and plates it's unfortunately not always the case, once the nickle plating goes it's gone. However, they usually shine up reasonably well too even if not like new.

The first polish I used didin't do much for the steel bars and I though they just were like that. Later I discovered Quick-Glo Chrome Cleaner (an all round metal polish in a small tub, for cars I think) and it gives a very deep shine; I have several tubes of stuff that work much the same; Auto-Sol, Pol metal polish, ... You likely have something around the house that will work. When you take off the needle clamp, thread guide, thread cutter; clean and polish everthing, it's surpising how good it all looks when it's back on.

Rebecca, I have a hemmer foot that came from a back-clamp 66. I found it at a yard sale this past weekend.

If you would like to have it, I'll be glad to give it to you...if the postage to Canada is not too wild. I have received several needed bits from fellow forum members. I'm tickled to be able to play it return the favors, even if in such a small way.

Would you be willing to share some more information about the attachments in your first photo? Namely, the binding feet with the flat attachment points, the quilting guide without a presser foot, and the two squiggly pieces with the rotating screws below the tucker. I recently acquired a 66-1 that came with most of the standard back clamp attachments, along with other items, including some of these flat attachment ones! My searches for information have come up empty. Do they belong to the 66-1 or a different machine? My set seem to be made of much flimsier metal than the original set. Thank you!!

I can't help with the other questions in this post, but I can about these two
Attachment 630099
The top one is what is called a bed mount underbraider and the bottom one is called a bed mount shirring plate.

It looks like the ruffler is a Singer with a patent applied for, but it is not shown in the 1919 parts list for the 66-1, nor are the other items. I do know that Greist made attachments for many different machine, so it is possible some of these attachments were after-market attachments and not made by Singer. I think that Greist made buttonholers that were made with the Singer name on them.

I hope Macybaby will drop in and answer, as I am curious about the other items also. Do your attachments have numbers on them? It seems that there were some very early attachments, that I'm fairly certain were made by Singer, but did not have numbers on them. Most attachments by Singer did have Singer or Simanco and a number on them.

We like pictures. In order to post pictures on Quilting Board, you will probably need to reduce or compress the picture to a file size that is smaller than 2MB. How to post images can be found at https://www.quiltingboard.com/attach...020-01-17-.pdf
Don't forget to scroll over to the far right to find and click on the "Upload" button.

I have found that only the big red "Reply" button or "Quote" work to give me the paper clip icon to work for adding pictures.
https://www.quiltingboard.com/attach...p-location.jpg

Some additional info regarding reducing images at post #4 and images for the scroll and upload button can be found at #5 of https://www.quiltingboard.com/main-f...d-t312607.html

Janey - Neat people never make the exciting discoveries I do.

Okay, I didn't search as much as I should have. I had forgotten that Singer did have a few versions of the back clamp feet. I found another source about Singer 66-1 attachments at http://needlebar.org/nbwiki/index.ph...ts/Accessories and had forgotten about http://needlebar.org/nbwiki/images/1...tachments2.jpg and http://needlebar.org/nbwiki/index.ph...e:66drawer.jpg The links above don't show how to use, but most should be fairly easy to figure out if one is familiar with attachments in general.

It looks like the adapter foot for the flat attachment points is on the far right above the quilting bar.in Macybaby's image.

Janey - Neat people never make the exciting discoveries I do.
Not affiliated with off-site link(s)