American Straight Needle

[K-Man]

Have the opportunity to purchase one for a "reasonable price." The machine currently belongs to a knife maker, who in his words, "is quite frankly scared of the machine." In any event, I got the chance to take a look at it this afternoon. It appears to be in really exceptional shape. The leather belts are in great shape - no cracking, etc. It runs off 110. We turned it on and it hummed to life with no problems. It has spi adjustment. The threading is nothing like I've seen before. The presser foot lift is right at about 1". Did not stitch any leather, as he did not have any and couldn't remember the proper threading. Did not have an owner's manual. Only had one bobbin for it. It had recently (just prior to his ownership) been completely overhauled. There was no real rusting or chipping of paint anywhere that I could see. He's only tried to use it about 5-6 times in the last year that he's had it. The only type of "model number" that I could located was on the backside of the machine and was S61.

Does anyone here have any info or direction you could steer me to get more info about the machine? Are the leather belts and bobbins hard to come by? What would you consider a "reasonable price?" Any direction on possibly finding an instruction/owner's manual?

Thanks for your help.

[Art]

Hi K,

I think that is called an American Straight Needle machine. You see them occasionally, but not like the Campbell, Randall, Champion, or Landis #3 or #16. If it is an American Straight Needle, it will have a throat of about 3" which kind of limits its use somewhat. If you are going to use it a lot, use linen thread as it will cause less wear than nylon or poly. Campbell-Bosworth may have info on the machine, and might have manuals. They can also make parts if needed. This is old iron with nobody supporting it anymore, which could be a headache, then again it could run longer than you do. If in the right mood, I might pay $500 for it, but then be careful, it could be a lot to pay for something that holds down the back corner of the shop. I have seen them priced as high as $1,500, and maybe they are worth that, but not to me. If you are new to stitching machines, the Artisan 3000 would be a good place to put that money. Ron at FERDCO will also know more about these machines.

Art

Have the opportunity to purchase one for a "reasonable price." The machine currently belongs to a knife maker, who in his words, "is quite frankly scared of the machine." In any event, I got the chance to take a look at it this afternoon. It appears to be in really exceptional shape. The leather belts are in great shape - no cracking, etc. It runs off 110. We turned it on and it hummed to life with no problems. It has spi adjustment. The threading is nothing like I've seen before. The presser foot lift is right at about 1". Did not stitch any leather, as he did not have any and couldn't remember the proper threading. Did not have an owner's manual. Only had one bobbin for it. It had recently (just prior to his ownership) been completely overhauled. There was no real rusting or chipping of paint anywhere that I could see. He's only tried to use it about 5-6 times in the last year that he's had it. The only type of "model number" that I could located was on the backside of the machine and was S61.

Does anyone here have any info or direction you could steer me to get more info about the machine? Are the leather belts and bobbins hard to come by? What would you consider a "reasonable price?" Any direction on possibly finding an instruction/owner's manual?

Thanks for your help.

[K-Man]

Art:

Thanks for the reply. After I posted here, I did some googling and finally found some info earlier this morning from a couple of sources. It is the American Straight Needle. I found a source for the manual from the link in the sewing machine section of the forum here. The 3" throat does concern me a bit, and I've been trying to think of ways I can make it work. Not sure if I'll be successful in that respect.... I already have three Artisan machines - two 3000's and one 618, and I'm very happy with their stuff. I was just hoping to find a needle and awl machine at a good price. The difference in the stitch appearance alone makes a big difference in quality perception. I'll give it some more consideration and see what happens. Thanks again for your help.