I Want to Buy a Hand Crank Sewing Machine
 

I want a hand crank sewing machine I can actually sew with, not just as a display item. Needless to say, I want it in good working condition since I have no idea of how to restore a machine myself. Does anyone know of a ruputable dealer? And are parts available for these old machines such as needles and shuttle cock bobbins or am I just wanting something that would not be practical to actually sew on? I have seen them listed on eBay, but would rather buy from a trusted dealer.

Thanks in Advance on any information you could give me.

Any of the old black Singers with the motor mounting boss can be easily converted to a handcrank. Sew-Classic sells reproduction hand cranks and spoked wheels if needed.
I don't know of any reputable dealers as such. There are members here who sell machines locally. I'm not sure if any have what you want and some don't like to ship because it's so easy for a machine to arrive damaged even with careful packing.
Another option would be to buy locally and test the machine before you buy.
Rodney

When I was at the San Diego Quilt Show there was a vendor there called SewCranky. They had some very interesting machines - I admired the machines from afar, and luckily my friends did not encourage me to get any closer. So I cannot tell you anything other than they do have a website, and the website lists their upcoming events, and they have a lot of fun looking machines.

Good luck - post pictures when you find one you like, okay?

Um, not shuttle cock, long bobbin (the former is the thing you hit in badminton). If your old machine is a Singer it'll probably take standard needles (15x1) unless it's pre-1890-ish. The Singer 12 was the last normal domestic to use a different needle (except for the 206 range of machines). Old vibrating shuttle Jones machines also use a different needle (and they're a little thin on the ground these days).
There are usually quite a number of Singer 28 hand cranks around. They are very standard everything and easy to get parts for. They made millions of them (literally) and they are less collectable than other models (they're 3/4 size) so they're also normally cheap. Oh, and because they're nearly always portables, they're also usually in excellent condition.

Original HC machines are going for a pretty penny these days. There seems to be a real demand for them, although I don't know why. Those that come up on Shopgoodwill.com always go for big bucks.

You don't have to know how to "restore" machines to build yourself a HC. The best way is decide what machine you'd like to make into a HC then buy one, service it, (you can do that yourself), put a spoked hand wheel and a HC on it.
Most Singers made since the turn of the last century have a HC / motor boss on the right side just under the hand wheel. So do all the clones and early ZZ machines.
If the boss lines up vertically with the center line of the main shaft, and a spoked hand wheel will fit the shaft you can make a HC out of it.

Here are two pictures:

Singer 99K;
http://www.quiltingboard.com/attachm...d=491516&stc=1
This was originally a rusted up electric motor machine that I rescued. It currently wears
an original Singer hand wheel and a Chinese HC kit. Works just fine.

Montgomery Wards 7 Jewel ZZ / Cam machine;
http://www.quiltingboard.com/attachm...d=491519&stc=1
As an experiment I put a spoked hand well on it and the HC from the 99K.
The parts fit and functioned perfectly. As an added benefit the 7 Jewel can
be treadled if wanted.

So the spoked hand wheel and HC unit is available from Sew-Classic. If you choose to HC a Singer 15 or clone (good choice by the way) they also have a belt guard with bobbin winder to match.

Joe

I looked on craigslist and found mine. I looked at nearly every big city I could think of,and just kept on til I found one in Texas. Several I saw were not known by the owner to be a hand crank. I called the folks who had it...a young couple that didn't want their inherited gem,so I re homed it. I love mine,as do the DGC who use it regularly for Barbie clothes production!

I'd just like to encourage you on your quest. A customer gave me mine as a barter. Her mom had added a motor and turned it into a regular machine, I just unscrewed it and took it back off. Ordered a hand crank as noted above, and it was easy as could be.

I still have long bobbin fear :) so when I do fill them, I fill all of them at once. I think I have six.

Fear of long bobbins? Filling them all at once means that if you use an unusual colour you won't have a free bobbin to fill.
I don't understand :confused:

Yes but most of the time quilters will use white or a neutral color for piecing. I fill at least a dozen bobbins at a time since I have several machines set up. For the embroidery machines I fill more, doing machine embroidery is where I really hate running out of bobbins.

Cari

Thanks everyone for your response.

To manicmike: you might want to google shuttlecock in sewing machines. This is a very old term for the bobbin holder.