Treadle irons, cabinet, and machine from different sources, now one.
 

I finally have a treadle sewing machine. It's been a long journey, because the parts are from three different sources. The treadle irons were from a machine from 1914 or so (a Singer 127, I think). I found the irons set out for trash pick-up, attached to a cabinet literally falling apart and a machine completely rusted up. I bought a Singer 66 for peanuts a couple of years ago because insulation on the wiring was flaking off.

Last week I spotted a cabinet for sale for $30! With a bench seat! I've seen this style only occasionally, it has a treadle-type top, but wooden legs. It was in great shape. Over the weekend, I put everything together and it's running great. I used aquarium tubing for the belt.

Can anyone provide information about the cabinet shown in this thread: https://www.quiltingboard.com/vintag...d-t260093.html Seriously, any info on the cabinet would be appreciated.

Tate
[ATTACH=CONFIG]593812[/ATTACH]

It's a reasonably common cabinet, I have the seen similar with one drawer on each side, and a single drawer. I think yours is treadle cabinet No.2, they are very stable and nice running when oiled. There are a few versions of the drawer fronts, flat, rounded sides, more or less embellished. Some cabinets have a sort of drawer in the middle that tips out, others just a solid pice of wood. You have to do a bit of catalog resarch on the web and see if you can find something spot on. Model 127 came in No.2 at least.

I guess very few model 66 with the stitch length lever came as treadle, I have seen a few of the earlier version with stitch length turn knob; treadle cabinet and spoked hand wheel. If you plan to keep the arrangement a leather belt is nicer than the plastic tubing.

Mickey, I guess I didn't make it clear that the wooden top is not from a treadle cabinet. It came from a cabinet for an electric-powered machine. The link at the bottom of my post is to a topic that shows this type of cabinet. However, your link to Needlebar gave me the chance to find my cabinet. It is under the category "Student Electric Bases." It is the photo on the left, a "Set 401." Unfortunately, it doesn't show the years it was manufactured. Thanks.

Tate

Looks like a new set-up.

What you have is the same style as the #2, just made for electric machines. I'm surprised it fit on the treadle, as Singer went to a narrower setup over the years. I found that out the hard way when I got a drip pan from a newer singer treadle and tried to put it on my older singer treadle.

It's hard to find info on the electric version because it's newer than one would think. the ones I've seen had a later Singer 15 in them (the treadle version of the 15-91, think it's the 15-89).

it's interesting that Singer when with a lot of fancier style cabinets, and then came out with this "retro" looking one.

Glad you have a treadle to play with now.

Hmm maybe not a 66 with that thread length slide and guide for winding bobbins. Or it could be just much newer than mine.

Macybaby, I had looked at the link I posted above, which shows plenty of room for a treadle, then was surprised that my treadle was a tight fit. I had the top and treadle turned upside down; the treadle started in okay, but then the heads of the bolts on the side hit the drawers. Arg! I was considering moving one set of drawers over a bit, but instead I just pulled the bottom of one of the drawers over slightly and "scooched" that side of the treadle a little then repeated on the other side. It scraped the inside of the drawers just slightly, but it's out of sight.

I eventually found a reference that said that this table started production around 1949. I don't know how long it was in production.

Tate

Leonf, according to the ISMAC serial number chart, mine is a 66 from 1947.

yep, much newer than mine. Thanks.

I didn't look at needlebar, but I downloaded a picture only manual for a 411 from somewhere, but can't find the link now. It shows a wood base treadle with drawers like yours and is dated 1963. The manual that you can download from singer shows part of the cabinet for the 411. I also have a jpg of cabinets ad that I have labeled from 1951 that I may have gotten from a Yahoo group, but again can't find a link now. It only shows one drawer on each side.

Janey - Neat people never make the exciting discoveries I do.

Nice finished product no matter where all the parts came from. I've been following Leah Day's blog with her account of doing much the same thing with some treadle machines she recently bought.

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner.. YOU did great on putting it together.

An update on the machine, actually on the aquarium tubing. I had trouble using a section of the tubing as a connector. I tried cutting a thin slice off it, so it would fit better, but it would pull loose after a day. Or I wouldn't cut a slice off and I had trouble with that; my machine has a "hood" over the part of the handwheel where the belt goes and the belt bulged too much to go through with the full-sized connector. I tried using a piece of very thin, clear packing tape wrapped around the tubing just once and, so far, that seems to be working fine. If that fails, I may try sewing the two ends together.

Tate

Back for what I hope is the last update. The packing tape didn't hold. I'm sure duct tape would be sticky enough to hold but it would add too much bulk to get through. I found that the hood was only partly to blame; the groove on the handwheel is so narrow, anything larger rides above the groove, thus it rubs the hood. So I have sewn the ends together by cutting a 1.5 inch section of tubing, cutting it in half lengthwise (so it won't make the tubing bulge), putting half of it up into each end, and hand sewing it. I put the section into the tubing so the stitching will be spread over a larger area than if I just sewed the tips of the two ends together.

Tate