Question on Singer treadle irons...........
 

I've got a very beautiful Singer 66 which came to me with a circa 1930's motor in a portable case. The wiring was so bad / motor so old I removed the motor and converted it to a handcrank.

There are always a lot of Singer irons on Craigslist in my area so I'm thinking of using a very nice vintage piece of butcher block that I already have to remount/treadle my 66 over irons.

Could someone give me the dimension for the width/depth of the Singer irons which I could fit up with my Singer 66?

And while I'm at it, since I don't know a lot about treadle irons: I see some irons have a wooden pitman and others have a metal rod (instead of a wooden pitman). What's the difference? Just vintage of the irons or is it model of Singer machine?

Always looking to learn......

Thanks in advance!

Singer treadle irons come in two sizes and of the smaller size, there are two styles. All of them will work with the any model 66. The wooden pitman indicates that it is a very old set, I think Singer went to metal around 1895 or so. So yes, the pitman only helps indicate vintage.

One thing you need to be concerned about is the flywheel. You need the larger spoked flywheel for it to work well as a treadle machine.

Macybaby,

Thanks for replying! What diameter flywheel should I have for this to work?

This 66 does have a spoked flywheel but I'm not sure what 'size' (diameter?) you might be speaking about.

What diameter flywheel should I have for this to work? I might have something larger on one of my other vintage machines.

If your 66 has the spoked wheel, than you are a ok to convert to treadle or handcrank.

Like Redsquirrel said, if it's a spoked flywheel, then you are good to go -there is only one size, but it's larger than the solid one. The solid style is designed for use with a motor. A motor can be mounted and used with a spoked flywheel, and often the treadle machines were converted to electricity at some point in their lives.

Since you had said you converted it to Handcrank - I should have known you already had the correct wheel LOL!! Sometimes my reading skills aren't what they should be.

Now you just need to get the base. BTW belts are easily obtainable - usually for $5-$10 range. I don't know how familiar you are with treadles - the normal belt is one long piece with a staple, and you cut it to fit and then use the staple to join the ends together.

The neat thing about most of these old machines with rectangular bases - they are almost all interchangeable in the cabinets. So you don't need a Singer base, especially if you are going to make your own top.

If you are looking at Singer bases, make sure they have all the parts. The two most likely missing are the belt guard and belt shifter (some really old bases may not have that). I like the belt shifter - if you have the cabinet style that you need to tilt the machine back to open the brace and then lower the machine - you need to take the belt off the treadle wheel first. Other style cabinets (mostly non-singer) where the machine pulls up with the cabinet opens don't need this and the bases don't have the belt shifter on them.

Thanks to both of your for replying to my questions. I'm a cast iron lover from way back and if I had room for a treadle w/wooden cabinet I'd go for it but the cabinets I see around here are all pretty well trashed.

Regarding the spoked wheel: Comments were not misleading at all because somewhere back in my mind I had read there is a difference in the size of them so I went on a search late last night and did find the source of a discussion on the different sizes here: http://vssmb.blogspot.com/2011/07/lo...eels.html#more

I'm kind of arm-chairing these thoughts while I recoup from a nasty bout of pneumonia so 'in-my-mind' I'm gathering ideas of what I want to do when feeling better.

Thanks for all the help.

That's neat to learn about the spoked wheels. I've got about 7 of them out in the shed (mostly off 66's) and they are all the same.

Here is a link: http://www.quiltingboard.com/vintage-antique-machine-enthusiasts-f22/my-new-$11-legs-t232419.html