Oh, my gosh! Haven't seen one of those in years. It was my mother's first sewing machine and she made a Halloween costume with it.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]292713[/ATTACH]Here is my little jewel! We got her all oiled up - cleaned out a bunch of very large sized thread from around the hand wheel and she stitches a perfect stitch!

Nancy

the inventor of these machines are amazing to me. Looks like a very simple machine too. Wish we still had seam guides like that now. Do you know how old it is?

Thank you for your help, donna.
I have been fiddling with the tension, just the screw part, and when I do about a two inch chain all but one look nice. Just a tiny little loop. I did not think to oil that! Silly me. I did (I hope), every where else. Are those two disc things supposed to be facing the same way? That's how they were when I cleaned them...

Grayhare, I have the same machine, compleat but with green on the decals where yours is red. My DMIL got it as a child in the 1920's. I love it.
MisDixie

I would love to see a picture of it! They are so little and cute.

I don't remember about the tension discs...I don't have one here right now to check, maybe someone with a machine on hand can look and tell you. Just my experience with fixing these up, I don't think they should be "spooned"...it won't hurt anything to take them off and put them back to back, then try sewing with it...most tension discs that I have seen are back to back..smooth surface touching smooth surface...they have to be this way so the thread won't bind or snag...it is the tightening of the spring that creates pressure on the 2 discs, so there is tension on the thread, but if they are spooned it just doesn't sound correct to me. Donna

Jean, I am not sure who you are addressing this question to, but I think my machine is a 1950's machine. Singer made the toy machines from about 1910 to the 1950's, then resurrected them in the 70's for a short time. The machines from the 70's were more modern looking with enclosed parts. Starting in about 1922, Singer numbered the thread guides. My machine has numbered thread guides so I know it was made between 1922 and the 1950's. By the picture on the box I'd guess the 1950's - besides there are two other people on here who have the same machine with dates of 1953.

Nancy

My machine and box are the same as Nancy's (Bojangles), the manual that came with mine has a 1953 copyright date, making mine, at least, after that date. :)

Anyone have an idea how I can get a manual or a copy of one for the 1922 model k-20?? Putting together a folio for my DS, who has Mom's k-20..been looking all over the net as well as ISMAC..but not finding one..