Oh Charlee, I am so glad that you "popped in" and that you are well. Canning really is wearing on you. While I am an infrequent "writer", I am a daily "reader", almost a "lurker" but I have missed you tremendously. Don't wait so long to stop in again.
Donna

Janis,

Let me know, I'm curious too. I do like the cam machines, they are fun to make stuff with. There is over 30 different flat cams to find and play with.

Grant,

In the 600 series possibly, but I had two 413s, a 457, a 518, and a 538 with plastic gears. They work but those gears are not near as durable as steel. Obviously.

Joe

Thanks Donna! I'll try to be here more often!! :)

Thank you, we haven't done anything to it. My DH said we did get it in Scotland and He thought we paid no more than 45 pounds for it. So that would be about $90 or less. I would like to get it cleaned but don't want to damage anything.

Grant...here are the photos of the bobbin winder that I promised...

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348 is the same construction as the 347, Janis and Joe. The only difference is that 348 takes decorative cams, the same black ones used by the Swing Needle machines (206/306/319). It's the same blue color as the 347. Made in Great Britain. I think it was a '66-'68 machine, or thereabouts. I have one in my collection, and I also had a 347 that I gave to my niece. I never sewed on mine much. I bought both the 347 and 348 at estate sales and cleaned them up and made sure they would sew, and that was it.

Ok Charlee, I dug out my pix of my Anker or Free Westinghouse. I noticed that the stitch width is opposite of yours. Mine is widest to the right, while yours is widest stitch is to the left. I find that very odd. But I digress. Here is a better picture of the bobbin winder on mine. My friend with the Free Westinghouse had the same Bobbin Winder as was on my machine. That being said, It is quite different from yours. Very German engineering happening with the one I had. Is yours original to the machine? Could it be a Singer bobbin winder on it? It looks kind of singer like to me. The fender looks different too. The needle position lever on mine is marked and has a different knob as well.
~G~
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Different badges too. Mine says "Anker Works, Bielefeld, Germany" and is a teardrop shape. Do you know what the serial number is on yours? I found a certificate of sale HERE that gives a 1953 date for it's serial number, and mine is after that one.... K1524375, so I would guess that my machine is a mid to late 1953 model.

Joe, My bad. I was trying to go by memory. And my memory can't be trusted. I know that I read something that told me the changeover to plastic. But like all things on the interweb, who knows if it was even true. Besides, I misplaced it. I will try to find that again. Maybe what I read was specifically for the Touch and Sew line only. That would make sense to me. This is a picture of a 603E. BTW, does anyone know what the "E" is for? I also have a 600E. As you can see it has metal gears.

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And here is a Singer 778 with plastic gears and a belt.
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It would make sense that if it is in the T&S line, that the change from metal to plastic was in between these model numbers. UNLESS the higher end models had metal and lower end models had plastic gears. But that would go against what I read recently.:eek: I wish there was a list of machines that said if it had metal or plastic gears in them.
I am going to have to look into this more. I thought I had it down pat. If I can get a list together I will post it for all in it's own separate thread so it is easily accessed by anyone. I think that would be a great piece of reference material for a lot of us. Especially me that can't remember where I leave lists like this.:D
~G~

Charlee, I do not. I can ask the new owner if that helps. The year sounds like it was right for the machine I had and sold to a friend. YES!!! It is THAT good of a machine that I sold it to a friend! Mine came with no accessories, paperwork or anything. However, I even gave up my own personal nightstand cabinet (in pristine condition) to put it in. It was that special of a machine. But the new owner is very happy with it, and that makes it worth it to me.
~G~