merwin61

I just bought a 29-4 in Adamstown Pennsylvania and trucked it home in the back of my pick up truck. It was not bolted together so I think the head weighs about 45 to 50 lbs and the treadle unit about the same maybe a hair less but awkward to move by yourself. It was locked up from disuse when I got it but patience and machine oil and small brushes and it was running fine. I saw earlier in this post mentioned that the head bolts to the treadle table and that was my question for all here as my came in two parts. So off hand anyone know the size and thread pitch of the bolts? Thanks to any and all who reply![ATTACH=CONFIG]451606[/ATTACH]

Vridar

CD, good point about thread distribution. I have a cone holder with the wire hanger (whatever it's called) and I was thinking of how I could stabilize it. The cone of thread came with the machine and the previous owner had a wooden spool glued/taped inside the cone. The spindle was/is wrapped with duck tape. I was pondering why. He must have had distribution/tension problems as you suggest. I like the idea of the boot and can thing. I also like your stool. I've got a step stool with a round top and the steps fold into the stool. A leather top on it would look pretty cool. Thanks for the thoughts. I've not threaded the machine yet. The previous owner used wax and dripped it all over the machine. Good thing is it protected some of the places, bad thing is it's a b@@@h to get off. Going to soften it with a hair dryer next go round. The little wooden drawer has a partial block of black wax and the reservoir is about half full of the black stuff. The needle/bobbin area is in remarkablly good condition (famous last words for the man who hasn't tried sewing yet). It didn't come with a threading wire making me wait to thread it until I get one. A good thing, otherwise I'd have had it threaded and sewing (?) and neglected maintenance.

Vridar

Not having seen a 29- in the wild since childhood, when we got one pair of shoes a year and resoled and reheeled them at the cobbler, they aren't as big as a little boy imagined. But, as you said, it is heavy. Much heavier than I expected, especially the treadle part. My head was bolted to the base with 3 flat headed slotted bolts (screws) and one round headed. The round headed looked original, the three flat heads were shiny indicating not original. Hopefully, CD or SteveH or someone will get back with size for you. If not, I'll eventually get them figured out and post it. It appears to be a 1/4 inch 3/4 inch long bolt with a standard medium thread.

ThayerRags

I should have mentioned that I only use V92 or B92 (Tex90) thread on my patchers, mostly the small 4oz cones, so my can/boot thread holder works great for them. I use an 8oz cone on my home patcher from time to time, and it works just fine too, but it’s the one with the boot turned inside out, so I’m not sure how it would pay-out of my other boot. Your cone looks like the 8oz size in the photo. I use the small cones for a couple of reasons. I have the need for as many colors as I can find (of the UV-resistant variety) due to most of my sewing being repair work, and I move the cones from one machine to the other and have new cones in reserve until a cone is used up. My reserve furnishes thread for two locations, my home and my shop downtown.


I bought four of those stools at an auction. They had been used in a home for seating at a kitchen counter. I suppose that the room décor on either side of the counter dictated the color choices. Two of them had black vinyl tops, and two of them had the green and white fabric tops. I latched onto the two fabric-covered stools for my treadles, and the wife got the other two for seating at her cutting table in the shop. All four of them have black vinyl tops now. Since I have caster trolleys under both patchers, I needed stools without wheels so I could stay in one place while I sewed. I use caster chairs for nearly all of my other seating around in my work areas, and I’m constantly finding myself trying to roll these stools without any luck. They push back!


I have two different designs of threading wires for my patchers. One has a barb machine-pinched into the side of the wire near the end, and the other has a fork in the end to catch the thread. I like the forked one the best. I think one would be easy enough to make, by simply hammer-flattening the end of a piece of wire, then putting a notch in the end with a small chisel. Keep it small and dress it down with a small file, so it doesn’t damage the spring that it slides by inside of the cylinder.


CD in Oklahoma

ThayerRags

I doubt that they will be standard thread, unless someone has forced a standard screw in and buggered the threads. One thing that you will discover from working on sewing machines, especially Singers, is that very seldom will you find anything “standard medium thread”, or any other “standard thread” that we have today. Most things will be a “Singer thread” of which there are many. Part of Singer’s strategy was to use proprietary fasteners so that others wouldn’t have access to them without getting them from Singer. Some of the overall sizes are common, but the TPI and thread pitch will be Singer.


One of my patchers came to me with the head and stand separate. I discovered that they had never ever been connected. The screws that fit in the head wouldn’t fit through the holes in the treadle, so I had to ream them out. I found my screws in my junk parts cookie tins. When I first started messing with sewing machines, I bought 2 or 3 large boxes of SM parts at that online auction place and put them in large metal cookie cans. When I need a screw, I dig through my cookie cans to see if I can find what I need. They’ve bailed me out several times. I don’t know, nor have any way of finding out, what TPI and pitch my screws have.


CD in Oklahoma

merwin61

Thank you for the information. I did try to have a quick look in 2 of the holes but soon found out they
were filled with debris, so mouch so I could not even see any threading. Hence my questions here. I am going to have to do some careful clean out and liberally use the air compressor.

merwin61

Thanks for the information! I will get in touch with a few friends who know a bit about the machinist trade. They may have an idea of what size they should be. A little peeved that the bolts are missing in the first place but at least the machine sews well so if that was the trade off then so be it.