I know this thread is old. But I wanted to report I found aBantam made in occupied Japan. Complete with working motor, light and case. Although the base needs work as it’s broken. The machine is a delight and I’ll be checking for a machine chop ASAP.
Thanks all for the support , I was glad for the knowledge I gained here that let me find what I was looking for,
$10 at a flea market ain’t too shabby.

@KalamaQuilts

I have been trying to set my bel air bantam like you have yours. Unfortunately my handcrank is touching the stop motion knob and not turning the wheel properly.
The crank is a repro and works well on my singers .
How much clearance do you have for your crank and stop motion knob?
I’m disappointed, any ideas?

kmoulton Do you have a spoked hand wheel?


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

Yes, I do. I'm familiar with hand crank on fullsixe machines, I have a 15 and a 66. But I can't understand why I'm not able to use my bantam like KalamaQuilter did,

Hi K, speaking for myself ;) a couple of pictures of what is happening would really help.
My crank was a new repro also so I know that isn't the problem. I had to have the shaft machined a hair to make the crank slide on, but it turned easily.

My eyes are going gunnybag on me so my cousin bought the bantam and has been having a blast with it, they go camping a lot.

Thank you Kalama for getting back to me.
I took a picture of my hand crank on my class 15, the same crank fits the same on my 66.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]596013[/ATTACH]
You can see at least 1/4 inch between the bolt on the finger and the stop motion knob

On the bantam the bolt for the finger hits the stop motion knob and binds up the crank.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]596014[/ATTACH]

You can see how it has marked the chrome.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]596015[/ATTACH]

I'm at a loss to figure it out.

The hand wheel is a singer 9 spoke. You mentioned cannibalizing a different handwheel.

My question is how much room was there between the finger bolt and the stop motion knob?

yes, I first used the handwheel of a singer 127 or 128, but when I sold the machine last year I restored it to whole, and ordered a repro

I know someone here will have an answer for you!

Suggest you try another handwheel. I have never seen this problem on a class 15 with a repro handwheel.

How many spokes are on your 15 hand wheel? Is it a 6 spoke? It seems to me I've read that some Singer hand wheels don't work with a hand crank, the center is too thick. That could be the problem with the 9 spoke wheel. Another thought is you could shim the crank where it attaches to the boss.

Cari

Yea the hubs on some handwheels are deeper than others. I don't know how to lead you to another. Shimming at the boss could lead to wobble.