Reworking Willcox Gibbs Foot Pedal
 

I thought I'd share my journey with the Willcox Gibbs Machine I just restored.The most difficult part of the project was diagnosing the foot pedal problems that prevented it from performing variable speeds. It turned out, after having to grind and resolder the one of the rheostats, that one completely failed. There was no going back, and none available anywhere. I decided that I would retrofit a Singer Rheostat into the housing of foot pedal. This meant grinding, cutting and trimming plastic and metal to retrofit the Singer into the Willcox. It had to be carefully positioned, screwed down and then aligned to the opening of the foot pedal upwardly. It worked!!!! The foot pedal was in beat up shape, so that had to be touched up with aniline black lacquer, and they french polished with shellac which is how I restore my finishes.

Here is a little picture history of the project.

That looks very nice!

I have to look into mine one of these days. It works but wiring is bad.