amuckart

I don't think it's fair to judge the entire population of 29ks on one experience. Remember that these machines are getting on a bit now, it's been decades since they were made and many of them have had hard working lives and can be very worn. How well any individual one works today depends entirely on what sort of work it's seen in the past and it's a bit of a lottery when you buy one. I think if you buy any machine this age, but particularly a machine as fiddly and sensitive as a patcher, you have to be prepared to strip it, examine all the parts for wear, go after it with a pair of calipers if necsessary and replace or shim the worn parts before it can be expected to work again. This means you have to be, or be willing to become, a sewing machine mechanic to at least some degree. These machines did good work when they were new, and unless they're terminally worn in irreplaceable parts there's no reason they can't be made to do good work again. It's all a question of whether or not it's worth it to you. Given what good patchers cost new these days, I think it probably is for hobbyists or very small-time producers, but professionals should go buy a new Claes and have the luxury of not having to worry about it again.

Hi Barra, That's the stuff I use for shoes too. I got several 48-ball boxes of 1940s era "Acadia" brand #10 hemp from a guy on ebay a couple of years ago. It takes wax really well but it's a little weak for fine closing. I use 3 strands of it for round closing and I can break it pretty easily if I'm not careful. Not so much with the 7-9 strands I use for inseaming. D.W over on the Crispin Colloquy uses unwaxed Teklon for inseaming his boots. He un-plies it and tapers the ends with a knife, waxes it and puts a bristle on just like you'd do with linen or hemp. I'm going to get some and give it a go. It's got a lot of advantages over hemp for anything but reproduction or restoration work. It's getting near impossible to get real long-staple linen any more. It's all processed on machinery geared for short-staple fibres like cotton. There's no functional difference between linen and hemp. Once they're processed it's almost impossible to tell the difference between them, even with serious microscopes.

Hi barra, Can you elaborate on what you mean by "common hemp thread"? If you're rolling your own I presume it is something like the un-plied dry spun stuff I use for shoes, but I've never heard that term before. Cheers.

If you've got all the bits they can be brazed back together again even though it's cast iron, but you need to find someone who really knows what they're doing who can preheat the part and cool it real slow after the work is done to stop it cracking. Expect to lose all the paint if you go that route. Do you have pictures of the damage?

Thanks for that. Sounds like a useful, if fiddly solution. I'll order some 328 needles in sizes for my A1 as well as my 45k then. Cheers.

Hi all, I could have sworn I've asked this before, but I can't find it in a search so apologies if this is a dupe. I'm looking for someone who has, or had, a Pearson & Bennion/BUSM A1 machine working who can tell me what type of needles they used in it. My one came with a tin of needles and going through them I realised they're very similar to the needles for my 45k which uses 214x2/328 class needles. I've only noticed this now because it's only very recently that I've got my 45k to the point of paying attention to the needles it uses, and the A1 has been sitting there waiting for me to get an imperial eight-point socket to finish taking it apart. The old needles that came with the A1 are not quite identical to 328s, the distance from the butt to the eye is very slightly different, but I don't have any of the old ones exactly the same size as the 328s I've got so I'm not sure if this is a normal variation in different sizes of the same class of needle. There were a couple of new needles in the tin too, one of which is definitely a 328 though, which makes me hopeful. Anyway, if there's anyone out there who still has one of these ancient machines working, or who did have and can remember what class of needle they take I'd really appreciate knowing if I can use 328 needles in it. Cheers.

Really? Either clones can be had way cheaper or it's vastly more complex a change than I thought, or are you talking about paying a mechanic to do it for me? Most of the point of the exercise for me right now is to figure out how to do it seeing as I've realised that I have to take the machine completely apart anyway to re-drill and tap the screws that hold the big-round-bit-I-don't-know-the-name-of[1] onto the drive shaft because right now they're stripped and the timing only stays right for about 2 stitches. Of course, I can probably figure out how reverse works by taking one of my wife's 66ks apart, since they have fundamentally the same mechanism, but that might not be a long-term survival strategy . Cheers. [1] round bit in front of the head, attached to the front end of the top drive shaft, that the needle bar con-rod connects to and that actuates the thread take-up lever.

Thanks Wiz. I figured there wasn't much I could do to actually damage the machine so I had a go and I see what you mean. The shuttle hook picks up the thread but the timing of the takeup arm is all wrong when the machine is running backwards. Looking at the mechanism though I'm now wondering how difficult it is to convert one of these old machines so it will feed in reverse. It looks like a matter of being able to push the pivoting axle for the stitch length adjuster in the head past bottom dead centre, and if I do this with no needle in the machine and the needle plate removed the feed dogs do feed backwards while the rest of the machine runs forwards. I'm guessing it's not actually that simple and I'm missing something because if it were that simple to make them feed in reverse, why didn't they come from the factory with the capability? Can anyone set me straight? Is it actually a fairly simple modification, or do lots of bits need changing to add reverse to a machine like a 45k? If it is simple, I'd like to give it a go. Cheers.

Hi all, I've got a Singer 45k25 that I finally got mounted up and running yesterday. The manual for the machine says not to run it in reverse, and only to turn the hand wheel towards the operator, but watching the action of the hook with the foot up and no thread I can't see why it wouldn't build stitches running backwards as well as forwards. Am I missing something? Is it actually bad for the machines/needles to run them backwards? Cheers.

Thank you. I made a pattern for the main panels. I drew it up in inkscape where I could play with all the curves to get them looking right and then tweaked it so a single page of A4 would give me half of all the main parts. I didn't pattern the welt or the pouchlets on the front. The pattern shape for those is pretty head-bending and I generated it by tacking bits in place and easing in the rest until it looked right then trimming off the excess.

I realise this question is going to expose the vast amount I don't know about sewing machinery, but I'm hoping the old adage that the only dumb question is an unasked one isn't about to get disproven Art mentioned in the thread on the Singer 97 that machines can be modified to take a modern needle system. I figure this isn't trivial, but given how difficult 331 system needles are to get hold of I'm wondering what the feasability of getting a Pearson #6 machine using something more readily available is? I have a handful of needles for the Pearson I'm working on, but they're getting pretty pricey and given how long I expect the machine to last, the limited supply of 331LR needles seems like it'll be the death of the machine long before it wears out which bugs me. To stave off the inevitable comments, I know I could get a 441 clone and have something that'll do the same job with modern needles etc, but part of the reason I want a running #6 is the same reason I have an A1 in parts waiting to be refinished, and a 120+ year old patcher I'm rebuilding. I just like old machines, especially human powered ones. If I were leatherworking professionally you can bet I'd have something modern but I'm doing this as a hobby and rebuilding the machines is half the fun. Cheers.

Are these feet compatible with Singer 45k feet? I have a roller foot on my 45k but it's been broken and welded at some point in the past and isn't quite on-line. Cheers.

Fantastic. I'll drop you an email. Cheers.

Is that what you use from the motor to the head? I'm looking for the internal belts that drive the upper feed. They're fairly thin flat belts. The under one is about 1/2" and the upper one is about 1/4" wide

Yep, top and bottom. I haven't had the machine apart far enough to get a good look at the other belt yet.

Hi all, I've got me a Marshall Model 2 bell-knife skiver, made in Australia. It's a pretty old looking machine that needs some work but nothing about it looks so damaged I can't get it working again and it was a whole lot cheaper than a new one. Does anyone know anything about these machines? My guess is that it's a Fortuna clone as most of them seem to be. Are parts like feed rollers and feet exchangeable between different brands? Cheers.

Hi all, I recently acquired, along with a couple of Pfaff flatbeds, a 29k58, a Pearson #6 and a Marshall bell-knife skiver, a pair of Singer 236W post-bed machines for closing shoe uppers. One is a W100 and the other is a W111 with the built in lining trimmer. My plan is to use one and have the other head available to rob for parts if I need to. Unfortunately the belts are all a bit the worse for wear and need to be replaced. Is there anywhere I can get replacement belts for these machines, or equivalent currently-produced belts that will fit? I have an original user manual which I will scan and put online as a PDF soon. I've got the downloadable PDF service manuals too but the pictures are all unintelligible. Does anyone have a copy of the service manual they can share? Thanks.

Ok, I don't know how that works, but I want one

Thank you gentlemen for the replies. Given that the guy's trying to get NZ$1800 each for them, I doubt he's going to be amenable to my offer, but we'll see. Bob, do you know how easy/expensive it would be to get a couple of the bobbin winders for these and a replacement spring for the 7-5? What I want to do is restore one or both of them and then find an original pedal base to mount one on Art, funny you should mention featherweights, they're great little machines. I have five of them on my bench at the moment.

Hi all, Someone up north of me is trying to sell a couple of 7-class Singers, a 7-9 and a 7-5. Neither looks to be in great condition based on the photos but they're trying to get a lot more than I think they're worth for them. I'm keen to make an offer on one or both of them but I'm wondering if my gut instinct of what to offer is actually reasonable. I'd be very interested to hear what more experienced minds than mine think a reasonable offer for these would be. The 7-5 is a head only and has a broken tension spring. The 7-9 is on a table, which I don't particularly want, and apparently goes. Whether this means it actually sews or it turns over and doesn't have any obviously broken bits I don't know. The 7-5 The 7-9 Thanks.

Hi Angelo, There are a few places still selling needles, but they're expensive. I just laid in at vast cost what I hope is a lifetime's supply of the sizes I could get my hands on (15 x #5 & #6, 5x #8) but I can't find an even vaguely affordable source of #7 needles, which seem to be the most commonly used, and therefore now hardest to find, size. When you get to working on your machine check that the point of the shuttle is good and sharp, even if everything else is right it won't sew if it isn't. If you need manuals let me know. If you need parts get in touch with Henry Veenhoven. He's rebuilt more of these machines that most of us'll see in a lifetime.

If anyone's looking for motors for this, the ones of old Singer 201k machines work pretty well, and those machines can be had cheap. The motors on them are just bolted on the outside and can be cleanly removed without damaging the machine at all. Don't stress bout wrecking a "valuable antique" by taking bits off, they made millions of 201s, but if the machine is in good nick still, consider donating it to charity.

Hi Ken, I was thinking of doing something very similar just today. Any chance you could post pictures of your one on here? Thanks.

Bayard, Are you trying to attach the scan to those posts you just made? If they're bouncing because it's too big, you can email it to me on silver at where dot else dot net dot nz and I'll stick it up on my website for people to download if you want.

Assuming you have a separate spool for the bobbin thread, would it work to put an empty bobbin on the winder as soon as you put a full one in the machine and just let it wind as you sew?