Wow. I really appreciate all the input. You can tell you all have experience with newbies. I try to search for answers first to not clutter up the Board.

Thanks Rodney for the offer. Woodworking should be ok as we get a better understanding of the end goal.

I did go over to the links shared and the house today shows it! I barely got supper in on time! My biggest marvel is machines from one hundred years ago can still sometimes use the same needles as modern machines. The treadle is a perfect simple machine and wonder why it is not used as an example in grade school science on simple machines. Amazing!

Again, thank you, All.

Way too many of the teachers never learned to sew in school. It is such a lost art. Since it isn't in their realm of experience they wouldn't ever think of it.

It would be wonderful if someone could make a business of making some kind of insert for treadle conversions. Just don't advertize on here... It might get you kicked off.

Well, it looks like I'm going to end up with two van loads of treadle cabinets and parts . . . from the pictures, I figured it would all fit in one load, but I guess she had a lot more than just what was pictured. Won't know exactly what I'm getting until it gets here, and we'll pick up the rest this coming weekend.

Hope my husband isn't toooo mad at me . . . I'll be figuring out where to put it all tomorrow when I get home from work. . . . oh well, at least I'm getting my money's worth this way LOL!!

One of the big problems with an adapter is pretty much every one would need to be custom made to match the treadle to the head. It might work to some extent if you had say an adapter to drop a White Rotary head into a Singer treadle base or the other way around but it still leaves a lot of older less common makes hanging out to dry.

Probably the best universal stand would be something like the old Singer convertible setup where the carrying case bottom fit in the treadle top. Something like that would be a good option. All the boxes would need to be the same size and the pulley would have to be in the same place but by the 1950s that was pretty close to standardized anyway.
Rodney

As long as he doesn't see you unloading it you could just tell him it's been there a while. ;)
Rodney

Treadle and flywheel technology hit it's peak right around 1900. You can do a lot with a rotating mass of iron. No real advances were made after electricity became common and easily available.
Rodney

Sort of like tvs haven't really advanced all that much either.

I have a "Crown" treadle base in my breezeway with "table boards" on it to make a table for plants and knick-knacks. The wooden top for it is in the basement, and the extension for that is upstairs in a closet, nicely refinished. There are also some drawers and the base for a wooden cover. The head I gave to a local museum, (in 1988) for which I am most heartily sorry. I think they no longer have it. They probably threw it out. It was quite rusty, but now I see people fixing these things.

Ask about the head. It could be in a box in the back somewhere. If they're not using it they may give it back.
Rodney