Latest Acquisition
 

I found this beauty at the thrift store for $35. Serial number says it was made in Jan 1900. I'm a sucker for a bullet shuttle.

The decals are in various degrees of good and bad. The center medallion on the bed is in pretty bad shape.

Haven't done anything with it yet. It needs new wiring. Any advice on this machine?

Here are a couple more pictures.

Wow, I like that spring belt for the bobbin winder. I think it was a Franklin that had two belts, one for the machine and one for the bobbin winder.

It looks like it has one of the connectors that might be called Manhattan or Chicago plug which are no longer available. Some of them may screw apart so could rewire it. I'm guessing that it does not actually have a motor boss. I'm also guessing that it may not have an actual Singer motor, but could be. I think I have seen a foot controller like that - maybe even a Singer one.

No, I don't have any advice for you, other than to rewire and enjoy.

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

be careful
 

I would think the wiring would contain asbestos. Please be very careful and would there also be lead in the paint? You found a beautiful machine!

What a pretty little machine!

Congrats! Nice machine.

Do you really think novices like me can give you advice on sewing machines? Yeah, right.....

bk

This is a beautiful machine! Rewiring it totally will be your best best for repairs. It will also be a challenge since it does not have a "real" motor. I am wondering if the entire electrical system was an add on. You may want to consider looking into that before you restore it, especially if you want it restored to its original state and beauty.

Great find. Could you add a couple pictures of the motor? I would like to see how the motor is mounted and the spring belt for the bobbin winder. Thanks

As motors became popular for driving machines, people could take their treadle only machines and get them "upgraded" with a motor and light. Unless someone did the motor/electrical modifications at home, my understanding is that if the same were done by a non Singer dealer then the badge would have been removed as part of the modifications, so the setup may have been done by a Singer dealer back in the day.

I also am curious to see the back of the machine and how the motor is mounted.

Here's a couple other pictures. You're right, Janey. It doesn't have a motor boss.

The bobbin winder spring belt is not something I've ever seen before. I'm glad it was included!

The wiring is all bad, except where it plugs into the motor. Even the lamp is broken. Can I solder new wires into the lamp?

From where I am sitting that looks like a wood screw holding on the motor bracket...yikes!! I hope a dealer didn't do that.

Remove the bulb from the light and then remove the shade. The part holding the switch, sitting in the hanging metal housing, should slide out and if you're lucky there are screw terminals for the wiring, otherwise use the existing wire or break out the soldering iron. That housing holding the switch just pushes back into the housing still on the light bracket. But all that comes apart as well, you can see the small set screw and the ring on the motor side of the light bracket unscrews.

the motor wiring looks fine up to the first plug visible in the picture.

wow. you do have some challenges ahead. This motor set up would never have been set up by Singer. The disc handwheel would not have come with it either. No motor boss, of course so the motor mount is inreresting. Be very careful with all yoru wiring and especailly with those Chicago plugs.

Thanks for all the info and suggestions. Don't know when I'll get to play with it. Got too many store samples to make at the moment. But I figured you'd all like to see some pictures. The Board has been kinda slow lately.

Someone was certainly creative in keeping this machine going. I am no expert, but I believe this was originally a treadle machine. The bobbin winder wouldn't have had a rubber tire on it. Instead, one pressed the bobbin winder onto the leather drive belt.

I may be wrong but I think this may be a Singer 27 with Sphinx decals. Look at the picture below for how it was originally set up.

Some creative person rigged up the machine so that it now has a motor on it and they put a double pulley onto the motor using one pulley to drive the handwheel and the other to drive the rig for the bobbin winder.

Again, I'm not an expert on this model, but it also looks like they changed the handwheel to a solid instead of a spoked hand-wheel.

No way to tell where the motor came from, but it may be a Singer, given how Singer dominated the market. Whatever you do, do not plug this thing in. It needs re-wiring. It may well need a new motor.

If this were my machine, I would look for a spoked hand-wheel to fit this model, I would guess they're easily available and I would put a hand-crank on it. The original Singer hand-cranks are costly, but generic ones are easily found and easy on the wallet. Hand-cranks need spoked wheels though, so that would be my first priority, after removing the electrics of course.

That won't solve the bobbin-winder problem though.

https://i.etsystatic.com/25397914/r/...50389_oks5.jpg

Here's a surprisingly well made video showing a Singer 27 with a hand-crank. You'll notice it has a bobbin winder that's mounted higher up so that the rubber tire can run against the hand-wheel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8CUHKd7FF8

Wow, I didn't know it had been tampered with so badly. I do have a Singer treadle table that I could hook it up to. But my great-grandmother's machine is in it. If it doesn't have a motor boss, I can't attach a hand-crank to it, can I?

No, hand crank could not be used, unless the machine had motor boss or if you can find a Singer bracket that would have made it possible to add a motor without drilling into the pillar, but would need a spoked hand wheel. SIMANCO #195978 is the number but they are few and far between. There was another one that hung from the back inspection plate, but I don't have a number for it. I'm not sure even if it was a Singer. It was a common practice of adding a motor and/or light to treadle machines, as electricity became more widely available. Usually, they drilled in the pillar to attach the motor. Yours looks more accessible than the one I have. Mine has the screw under the motor and very close to the bed of the machine and is a royal pain to get to.


If the wiring from the motor to the plug is decent, I think I would be tempted to put a regular plug on it and get a light motor block cord like https://www.sewingpartsonline.com/po...and-motor.aspx. These were popular with the Japanese machines.


I've seen several later machines that basically had two belts or even a direct drive that used a separate belt for the bobbin winder. There are images that show this setup at http://needlebar.org/main/manuals/re...ay/2index.html


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

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As I said, I'm not an expert on these, I didn't realize that a hand crank couldn't be fitted without a motor boss. I just learned something that I didn't know!

I am intrigued by the machine with the separate bobbin winder pulley. I've never seen one.

I do have a light / motor box that I could use. And I might have another similar machine. Between the two of them, I could probably come up with some solutions. I'd really love to make one of them a hand-crank machine. It's just finding the time to do it. I will have to make December my official vintage sewing machine month. I can't stand having all these machines and not being able to work on them.