Barbrasue, wish you would post a picture of your model 128 converted to hand crank, would love to see it...planeshavings42 Duane Hampton

There's a really good post about spoked wheels by Rain in his blog:
http://vssmb.blogspot.com/2011/07/lo...eels.html#more

If you find a machine with a spoked wheel and a motor boss, the repro crank is all you need. That would be the easiest.

I have an old red eye with no boss - I made it into a 1 x 1 ratio HC for my grand daughter. She has some vision problems and this is much easier for her. I got the part at NAPA.
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I am very interested in this thread.

WARNING: Moronic questions may follow; I am the Novicest of Novices!

So, not having seen in person a hand crank, I had envisioned that one would simply attach a nice handle to the wheel, to enable it to be turned by, um, hand. But it was illustrated on this thread that this will pretty much mean one complete crank rotation per stitch. Hmmmm. Is that correct?

It was also mentioned that one need a spoked wheel; could someone kindly tell me why one needs a spoked wheel?

What is a "motor boss"? (Told you I know almost nothing...)

Finally, one of the photos shows a more complicated handcrank mechanism which seems to drive the handwheel with a belt, thereby presumably giving a more effective number of stitches per hand-crank rotation?

I would like to learn more, as I aspire to convert my latest rescue into a hand crank. Perhaps. ;-)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9DAZTh8744
Here you go. Generally three stitches per crank rotation. They're great for children to learn sewing (all the old children's machines were HC).
EDIT: Motor boss is the raised bit the motor is mounted on and can slide up and down. Cranks are mounted on the same boss

The shuttle machines make a lovely handcranker.

People griped about the Chinese repro handcranks feeling notchy and annoying, not smooth. I opened mine up and put grease in there, either the Singer grease if I had some or red grease or white lithium grease from the auto parts store.

This one has one revolution. The usual HC has 1 revolution and 3 stitches. The 1:3 turns backwards. This one turns toward me. It did not need a machine boss. The machine does not have a boss but someone did drill a hole and tap it for a bolt - the regular Chinese HC will not fit - it needs the raised area to work the Chinese HC.

Hi Miriam, I'm hoping you are still subscribed to this thread! I am trying to hand crank a singer industrial machine which has no motor boss and this looks ideal but I can't find the part anywhere, do you have a link I can look at please and is there a tutorial?

It's a "suicide" knob for a steering wheel, that may help in finding them. Start by checking auto parts stores. Or find yourself a vintage tractor that has one and take it off.

Curious? Why would a person want to hand crank at 1:1 on an industrial?