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See if my crude drawing helps.
The knob went out as long as the hand wheel. The bar was welded to the clutch knob. Clutch was removable. It would be nice if the other end kind of went between spokes. Clutch knob cannot be exchanged if it bends down between spokes it would be impossible to remove. It could be welded already on the machine in that bent position but couldn't be loosened. Done deal...

Ohhhh maybe it is a screw on the featherweight.
I'm thinking if I put the hand wheel on backwards and put a bracket in the base to screw the hand crank to, it could work...

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That's a fantastic idea, but might be problematic on this machine - no clutch knob! (no bobbins to wind either lol)

Ah yup that won't take a weld very neatly... You might just have to put a small motor on or a suicide knob but I have my doubts about making the knob go on backwards and having everything work.

Yep I'm going to try and put the hand wheel on backwards then bolt a crank to a bracket on the wooden base, I think :) thanks so much for your knowledge, as always!

I plan on making a portable handcrank for my treadle machines. I know it should mount to the back of hte machie, but if I rotate it sideways, I can mount it to a board (or other support) that lines up behind the machine, and still have the crank hook correctly into the flywheel. I want to make something adjustable so I can use it with any of the treadles, since I'm also making bases for them so they can all fit into the same treadle base. I don't have room for a lot of bases, but I sure have a lot of machines.

I'd love to see photos when you're done! :)

Cathy did you ever make that universal HC? I'd love to see what you came up with.