Oh I love a great find...lucky you! congrats on your new baby...glad the board was able to help.

Now I know to reverse what the plugs say but marking them is a great idea. Thanks Quilting Board. I will be checking in here often :lol:

Check out the pics I added of my "new" Free-Westinghouse that I paid $1.00 for at a garage sale!

The knob that turns.....it lowers and raises the feed-dogs, if it's like my moms old machine.

Who wants a history lesson.........

The machine that you have is made buy Koyo which turned in to Koyo-Seiko and then Seiko. Yes it is the same company as the one who makes the watches and you will find that the Japanese companies are EXTREMELY diversified. The company eventually moved its entire operations to India and are now being produced by the S.K.Sharma & Sons corp. Thats right India is the capital of the sewing machine world right now with over 95% of the Japanese sewing machines being made over there for export.

I have a "Universal 15" that was made by Koyo in the mid 50's and the company badges machines for a lot of folks. But I had no idea that they were doing these machines also, so this machine is a very important one for my research into the Japanese machines!! I am going to say this machine is a mid 50's machine going from what I know about the company and when the transition occurred. I have some translated inter office documents from them talking about the merger and the desire for a broader export business. Really interesting reads these documents are.

Congratulations on the machine and if you need any information I might have it here in front of me if not I can find it.

Billy

Its beautiful! I found one at a garage sale to thats a Free Westinghouse! Mine is brown though, and looks more old fashioned....more like the older Singers! Tension is messed up on mine though.
Sure love the color of yours!

What a pretty machine and I love the history lessons you provide Billy.

Great job.

Thanks Lisa, I have a lot of time doing research into the Japanese machines and especially this company in particular. I guess I just have a real passion for these things and I really enjoy the history behind them.

Billy

Billy, You are awesome! I love the history of the things that I have acquired. Thank you so much for the post. If you need any more information about my new baby blue 903 please let me know.
What is so funny is that last year I bought a beautiful oak treadle base that has "The Free" in the treadle. The base has four long drawers with beautiful S-shaped pulls. The drawers lock when the top is down and open when the top is opened. The front of the base moves back when the top is opened, too. I paid $10.00 for it at a garage sale. There is no machine with it so am thinking of putting my new baby in it if it will fit.
My father manufactured woman's clothing from 20's thru 60's when he passed away. He only used Singers so I knew nothing about The Free or Free Westinghouse. It is now a mission to learn as much as I can. I do have a treadle base from his factory but brothers took most of the equipment when I was young so that is all I got. Have been using it as a side table with glass top for years.
Again thanks for the info. will keep you posted if I find anything more the 903.
Debi

I am a Debi J too! Mine is Debi Jo - what's yours?
Thanks for the reply but I'm not sure what the "dogs" are. I think I know but could you explain. I don't see anything happen when I turn the knob. Thanks Debi I use dejo as a sign in name lol