She's Home Now - a 28/38 - Is There Really a 38 ?
 

hi all,

my singer from GW San Diego finally arrived. WOW, 3 days shipping from GW. as you can see from the pictures they did a good job of packing my machine. kudos to GW SD, for taking good care of it. as you can see from the first picture, she's hiding underneath her big brother 16-188. she's so shy. may need a lot of TLC and fixings but definitely up to the task. i checked the knee controller and looks like assembly is there and bobbin is there too. when i checked the serial no. on ISMACS it is showing that my machine was built 1909 and that it is a 38. can anyone confirmed this. i am puzzled as i have not seen a model 38 yet. is this a good buy for $14.99 ? thanks.

PS: anyone has a spare knee controller bar ?

Your serial number doesn't match up with the one above it????

but my serial no is D1182102 (7 digits). and above it which is from ISMACS is D - xxxxxxx (7 digits). am i right or missing something ?

I don't know a lot about the charts, but the one above it is D1170851. That is not your number on your machine.

That's the range. Meaning all nos. from 117851 up to 1200850 we're built August 1909. My concern is that it shows as model 38.

Ok, sorry.

It is a range of nos. 117851 upto 1200850 are model 38 and are built August 1909. And serial number of machine is D1182102

Do you have an idea of what model 38 is ? I know what 28 & 128 is.

From looking at the list of models - Singer never made a "38". They have a 37-10 and a 39, but no 38.

And yours IS a 28, not doubt about that, so I expect someone fat fingered the data when entering it into the computer. It would have been keyed in from hard copy after all - kind of amazing there isn't more mistakes when you think about it.

At some point, someone disconnected the lever control and put on the different electrical connection so you could use the more "modern" plug type. what that means, if you want to use the knee bar (which sell for $30-$50) you are going to need to do some rewiring.

I’m not sure that the knee lever control has been disconnected from the circuit on that one. Singer had two different setups for the built-in control, one used Singer plugs and the newer one didn’t. I have a couple of model 99s that have the different knee control setups.

CD in Oklahoma

He's got the box of the first type (where the hot comes into the knee control via those two holes) but the connection of the second type - where the hot plugs into the back of the machine.

My husband told me that if I wanted to use the second type plug on mine, I'd have to bypass the knee control all together - but maybe he just told me that so I wouldn't bug him to do it.

Either way - Vic has cut off cords so he's going to be doing some rewiring no matter what. Though it may be more cost effective to wire it to a regular foot control and skip trying to locate a knee bar.

BTW- I think a lot of these we modifided over the years to go with more modern wiring - and getting rid of the two male/female connectors that the setup originally used.

I'm still looking for a cord with the end that screws directly into the light socket for the sewing machine - before outlets were common.

1909 is awful early for any kind of electrical set up and I'd expect to see something ancient looking if original. This might have went through the Singer shop.

Jon

I've been keeping my eyes open for that type of vintage cord end for a while now. I want mine for an early electric motor I have for my wood working machines.
Rodney

*EDIT* I just noticed I'm now a senior member. I'm not that senior-I just talk a lot. :D

This machine was put into the box at a later date - it would not have come with that from the factory. Most likely it was a hand crank originally.

Why do people seem so surprised to think that a machine that has been around for over 100 years has been put in a different case, or adapted with a new motor or cord? And more often than not, the attachments that come with the machine aren't original to it either.

Hello Vmaniqui,
Somebody has done wrong with the machine, packing I just read 38 and other data and wrote the post.