My favorite cousin now has this hand crank, they are turkey hunting this week, and here she is, she took about six projects to finish ;)

ok ..i hadn't seen this thread before in my wanderings thru threads in 'vintage machines' ..this is such a great thread to read thru and this last pic is fantastic! :) what you did with this machine and the awsome re-do of the base ..fantastic!! i live across the river fr toppenish where this machine was originaly purchased in 1952. there was a large population of japanese moving to this area before & after the war. they still have some small local celebrations, but for the most part, the community from earlier era is gone. would be so near to know this machines history ..was it bought in states! ...was it brought to states by one of the many mail order brides that arrived after the war? i haunt goodwill stores when traveling ...there's one in sunnyside, another valley town near me ..but stuff like your incredible machine find are mostly shipped off to ??? and/or auctioned off away from here on the east side. i & other quilters here donate to christion thrift or other non commercial thrift shops now ...goodwill is not for locals. sadly.

I think that mfgr. card is worth more than the machine, I was so amazed to find it still there.
Goodwill is a business like any other I expect. Hence the goodwill online website.
Did you know thrift store biggest expense is having the trash hauled off? all donations are not equal :)

Anyway, waving at my eastern neighbor!

Can you, please, advise the JA number on the cast iron on the underneath of the bed of the machine or on the front lip of the Belair?

Do you still have any problem with the bobbin winder?

sorry farm, I don't have the machine anymore, to check.

these are aluminum machines, not cast iron.
I would always recommend filling bobbins on an electric machine, hand cranking bobbin fill would be pretty tedious.

The Bantam and sewmore were both electric to start with, so yes they have working bobbin filler apparatus

This machine is not on the JA list and for historical sake, if there is anyway to get the info, even if aluminum it would be great for future reference. Yes the tag is invaluable. The reason I ask about the bobbin winder is I have tubing to fix the issues when bobbin winder did not reach when snapped and was going to offer kit, if needed. No need to use electric.

little hard to see, in post 11 you can see the bobbin winder still attached, near the spoked wheel

I'll ask Margie if there are more numbers on the bottom or back.
Do you have an image of what the tubing is or does? Thanks

The tubing allows the bobbin tire to work. The bobbin tire usually touches the handwheel. When converted, even the adjustment screw doesn't work. Tubing solves it.

Better picture

thank you for those