JoeJr

Someone gave me this machine, it was in a table but I am forbidden from bringing another table into the house, so I'll be making a case for it. The casing on the wiring was fried all the way up into the motor windings. For new people, do not leave your vintage machine plugged in.

Unfortunately it takes the somewhat expensive and hard to find CC1221 needles and much harder almost impossible to find bobbins, but there was one with the machine. Because of this I am guessing it's a cousin to these machines I used to have over here:

New Home Treadle Update, thanks to OurWorkbench and Mickey2!

I did get the motor running with new wiring and heat shrink tubing to recover up to the windings, no sparks or flames so I was happy. The motor is a retrofit, and the bracket is not spring mounted so I have to loosen the bracket nuts to back the drive wheel off the hand wheel. The machine itself was very clean. It sews OK, it does not want to sew full speed in reverse, but I'll never do that anyway so I'm not going to tinker any further. And free is free!

thepolyparrot

Nice clean machine! I wish I knew how to do all the wiring stuff.

Too bad about the needle system. Have you already checked into whether there's a "cheat" for them, to get the 15X1s to work? I know there aren't many that are workable, but maybe you'll luck out with this one?

Have fun!

pocoellie

That's a beautiful machine and I'm glad you were able to get it up and running.

JoeJr

The first time I took apart a motor that wouldn't move, I'll admit to quite a bit of trepidation, but I thought, "What do I have to lose?" Although I don't really understand how a motor works, in terms of the number of parts they are relatively simple. As to the wiring, I have not had a motor where the wire itself was ruined, but just the rubber/plastic casing on the wiring, then it's just a matter of recovering the wiring and splicing in what you need to put on a plug or get to a junction with a foot control and power. I use sandpaper and CRC QD electronics cleaner to clean them up inside, and petroleum jelly and wool felt to replace grease wicks for lubrication. There are videos and posts on this, and here's a fairly recent post here about motor work with a link to a great blog on working on the wiring:

Singer BY6-7 Motor Help on 66-18

Regarding trying a 15x1 needle, I think I would have to either grind down the shaft, as the 15x1 is noticeably longer then the CC1221, or remove the needle stop and mount the 15x1 up farther into the needle bar which would assume a long enough needle groove in the bar to accommodate this, but I didn't look to see; I should investigate this further.

thepolyparrot

That would be great if a little grinding could make the 15X1 work properly.

One of the machines I bought years ago had SCARY wiring - I think it was a 15-90 but it might have been a 201. The lady kept it plugged in and didn't notice that the rubber insulation was literally melting off of the cords and dripping onto the machine and cabinet until we pulled it out to load it in my car!

I did fix that by myself, replacing the motor, the cords and foot control with new. Heaven only knows how close she was to burning down her store.

When I was growing up, my grandmother always had me unplug the 401 after sewing and I forget why, but I still do the same on my 401 - the wiring is perfectly sound and has never given me any trouble, but 60 years later, I'm still listening to grandma.

Barb in Louisiana

I'm betting the reason your Grandmother had you unplug the machine was so that if there was a storm, a lightning strike wouldn't ruin the machine. That's the reason my Grandmother gave me for unplugging everything after we used it. EVERYTHING!!!! We were allowed to keep the fridge plugged in, but only until the storm started. lol I forgot about the radio and the TV. Those could stay plugged in until there was a hint of a storm.

thepolyparrot

Barb, you could be right about that. We didn't really have thunderstorms on the west coast like we have here in the south. I was grown before I ever saw a "real" thunderstorm and it scared me half to death. I was used to earthquakes, though. 😄

The only thing I shut down for a big storm now is my new computer - I have a big ol' surge protector on it, but I gotta protect my "baby."

JoeJr

Janey, this may surprise you but I did a little of my own research. Turns out Vandervoort's was a department store in the St Louis area, similar to my Famous Barr Special over here:

https://stlouis.craigslist.org/zip/d...287247436.html

I still don't know who made it, but will go with New Home, as I think this is an older cousin to the other machines I had to which I linked. I am basing this solely on the needles and bobbins used.

OurWorkbench

I think you meant Famous Barr Special

I was just looking at http://www.needlebar.org/nbwiki/inde...achine_Company and most of the pictures there are of VS machines, with a few for round bobbin machines but it did say ""New Home" models include: AC," so I would tend to agree that it is a New Home AC model. There is a Serial Number list available for New Home machines at https://www.janome.com/siteassets/su...anufacture.pdf ISMACS has a list, too, but if I remember correctly is not as complete as the Janome one. I think you will find the AC serial numbers were produced between 1934 and 1942.

Good find.

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

Thanks Janey, and for correcting my Famous Barr Special link, obviously I was looking at sewing things on craigslist.