Shuttles, worn and not worn
 

There was a thread here a few days ago about something, that ended up discussing worn out shuttles.
I can't find it now. Probably looking right at it, but I don't remember the title.

OK, so I'll start another one.

I have a cute little Minnesota Mdl B with a genuine worn out Davis shuttle in it.
Minerva:
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Luckily I have a couple spares:
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In the two pics above you can clearly see the wear on the original shuttle, foreground and left. The little notch on the left and the knife edge thin opening on the worn shuttle are signs of extreme wear.

The thing is, the Minnesota and many other shuttle type machines have a small pocket right by the edge where the shuttle swings back and forth.

Here's another pic of Minerva showing the pocket with red felt in it.
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There is a horizontal oil passage from the pocket to the wall the shuttle slides against. Keeping this oiled will help prevent wear.
When I got Minerva the pocket was full of solidified and petrified something. I had to dig it out, clean the pocket, clean the horizontal passage and then insert a new piece of rolled up felt. Now when I use the machine I keep that oiled and it does make a difference. It doesn't seem to sew much if any different, but it is quieter.

Here is a pic of the shuttle from my New Home Model AB.
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The circle at the pointy end is indicating a hole caused because of the extreme wear. The big notch at the rear is also due to the wear.

Now, the New Homes I have do not have a pocket to keep the shuttle oiled. It would be up to the user to put a drop of oil on the wall when using it.

The New Home uses a Davis #3 shuttle {I believe} and if anyone has a good one they'd like to part with please contact me.

I have six shuttle bobbin machines:
Minnesota Mdl B
Free Mdl CE
Franklin 1911
Singer 127
New Home AB
New Home Greyhound Mdl 30

All have a pocket for oiling the shuttle except the New Homes.

So, if you have a machine with a hole right besides the wall the shuttle rides against, clean it out, put some felt it in and oil it. Your machine will thank you.

Joe

Do Singers that use the shuttle also have the oil pocket on their shuttle machines? TIA!

My Singer 128 has the oil pocket. That last photo is about the most wore out shuttle I've ever seen.

Jon

Isn't it though. No comes the fun part, finding a new or better one.

Joe

Very good photos. Thread could snag or break on many of those areas.

Joe,

I looked up New Home shuttle in this handy dandy chart and it lists a Boye #3 which I believe Skip mentioned in a different thread:

https://sites.google.com/site/kevinsstuff1/sewing-stuff

The cost of obsolete antique and vintage shuttles, needles, and bobbins is quite high, unfortunately. Maybe worth more than your New Home AB.

Jon

Jon, Thanks for the link to kevinsstuff. It's one of those I had but lost when my previous hard drive failed. I won't go into the "value" of this particular machine. I'll only say I have plans for it that include a complete repaint and so I'll need a good shuttle for it. Now that your research has verified what I've found, it's on to finding an actual Davis #3 shuttle. Joe

Davis uses a Boye #9 shuttle rather than the #3. You must have meant New Home #3. I always wanted to buy one of the Boye round metal containers with a bunch of the wood tubes with needles and shuttles in them. Always above my limited budget.

Jon

I looked at the three I have, and two are about as worn as yours.

It's neat looking at the Boye Shuttle chart, it helps to give a guide as to which MFG made what machine, since New Home, Davis, National, Goodrich put all sorts of Names on their machines. Standard and White also did, but not to such an extent.

But you also have to be careful, because they often used the same name. I've seen Favorite used on both New Home and Standard, and New Queen that was used on both White and National - and there are others too. And not every name is on this list - as some times the MFG would put some local Dealers name, and there were very few made with that decal put on it.

I'll looking for a New Home that takes shuttle #3, and a Standard that takes #5,
Have a old style Domestic that takes #7, Have a Davis that takes #9 but am looking for another, have a White (New Queen) that takes #11, will be looking for a Goodrich/National that takes #13,
Have a Free and plenty of Singers that take #15

I don't think I'm going to be looking for any of the other less common ones.

Looks like I'd better start looking for some needles to go with the machines -