leecopp

Hey Rainy, Singer manual at http://parts.singerco.com/IPinstManuals/17.pdf calls for 16x2 needle. One ebay source offers 16x2nw = 16x257LR as modern alternatives. Reversible cylinder arm, with narrow foot .. lists handbags and pocket books typical work. Needle sizes from 9-25 originally. Doesnt appear to be setup as a hand crank. CowboyBob said in 2012 ..."The stitch length is on the front,a knob that has a slot in the casting loosen it push it down for longer,it can use up#92 thread & sew 16 oz thick." Have fun. Lee

Hey Guys, My 111W155 is sewing well now, thanks for all help. The remaining minor issues are: 1. The front (walking foot) is very tough to install. I need to use a screwdriver to spread the socket to slide it onto the foot shaft. No visible corrosion or deposits. Tried with several new feet with similar results. Is this usual? 2. The needle does not go through the center of the hole on the front foot. It is near the left side of the hole. There is no rubbing or thread wear or breakage. The foot is installed straight. Is there any adjustment of the alignment of the presser foot and the needlebar? I have tried new needles, so bent needles are not the issue. note: this machine had been cruelly adjusted by dreaded previous owner. It came to me without feet so there is just no telling what was going on. Lee

Only somewhat on topic - Needle feed machines.. I have 3 needle feed machines and they are among my favorite hobbyist machines 1. Singer 21w180 - a compound feed which is an ancestor of the 111W151 (uses same bobbins and feet) Someone rode her hard for a while .. but she is still sewing well. https://sites.google.com/site/oldironmachines/home/singer-21w180 . Retains Wheeler and Wilson tension components. Pretty sounding gear train. Running on a 1890s W&W Domestic Treadle. 2. Singer 78-1 - Needle feed only. Sews medium to heavy cloth. Bobbin and Shuttle very similar/same to 31-15. Weird, hard to find feet. Runs well under foot power. picture from the web, mine looks better ..grin .. Runs up to V92 without issues. Replaces my 31-15 except for top stitching feet and roller foot. --- 3. I am also the foster parent of a Davis Mfg A, vertical feed (needle feed) Machine, Sews pretty nicely, but has a weird long bobbin vibrating shuttle and can only handle up to V69 thread. Seems to be a very rare machine. https://sites.google.com/site/oldironmachines/home/davis-manufacturing-a Only comes out on holidays. Lee in Florida

Well there is no doubt the machine will sew after Uwe went over it. I used his videos to help get my 111w back on line. Have fun. If you dont have servo motor think about it. I love the way it powers through my stuff. Lee in Florida

Replaced the dying clutch motor (gray smoke, burning wood smell) with a FESM 550s from Keystone Sewing Machine (Hi Greg). Being flexibility impaired (stout and a bit squishy about the middle), I rolled the machine out to the driveway and tilted it up on the left edge, propped up against my pickup truck. The hardest part of the effort was removing the old motor which was a bit bulky and heavy. Bolt holes lined up fine on the servo motor and the drive pulley lined up nicely. The motor came with a 50mm drive pulley in place as well as a drive belt. A few minutes later I had the head dropped in and was test sewing .. no problems. I used my existing spring loaded lower pitman connection to the treadle peddle. This give a few degrees of movement before the motor arm is engaged. Low speed control seems very good. This was definitely my easiest and cleanest sewing machine project to date. Happy Days Lee in Sunny Florida.

I am not sure of the importance, but they sell a feed dog / needle plate for use with a roller foot. I had followed the steps outlined by the Wiz and it was no big deal. Lee in Florida

All issues resolved, dreaded previous owner had tweaked around with about anything that would tweak, Timed hook, adjusted presser feet (hardest part to understand), got all the pieces lined up with the proper grooves. As others had mentioned, too much internal resistance to run on a normal industrial treadle. too bad, I am guessing a servo motor is in my future since the clutch motor is a little flakey .. at least it has a modern three hole mount. Sewed single index card and 4 layers of heavy poly webbing (barely fit under the feet). Was using v92 dacron since I already had it on the right style bobbin. No problems. Thanks to all for their help. Happy Day Lee in florida

Some Progress .. hang in there The bottom shaft drive/timing gear was not seated into a shaft groove .. the set screws straddle the groove, one is marked with an S. The feed dog eccentric appeared to be tight to the bottom shaft, but actually was not (set screws were firm, but not tight) allowing it to move on the shaft. The feed dog lifting cam is seated correctly on the shaft. So need to figure out which set screw locks the timing gear and eccentric into the proper orientation and try once again at getting the upper and lower drive shafts synced. Looks like the goal is to have the feed dogs forward and the lifting arm at the top. There is anecdotal evidence the owners husband was a tinkerer who sadly had diminished capacity toward the end.. Cowboy Bob, did you mean the Setscrew on the Drive gear is marked with an S engages into the slot? The feed dog cam only has 1 setscrew on my machine. Hold on Breaking news .. Reset the feed eccentric and the drive gear , aligned the arrows and put the belt back on and the feed is working correctly - Max stitch length is more than 1/4" ! The needle timing looks close but can't see very well till I take off the needle plate and it is time for bed. Thanks for being there guys. more details to work out. Lee

Hey Guys, thanks for the continued support. Cowboy Bob .. with the take up lever all the way up , the alignment arrows are spot on (just like Uwe's in the still above). I didnt quite catch your meaning about the feed cam not being in the slot.. I will study on that a bit. UWE - The belt being off by half rotation does sound enticing, and it is something I can check fairly easily. Thanks for your videos, they turned out super nice. Lee in HOT Florida

Umm Right. I am turning the wheel in the correct direction. I removed the outer foot for clarity of feed dog movement .. great observation wiz. I first noticed the issue on my first stitching attempt after the new belt. Lee

Ok Guys, I am stumped. Belt replacement went fine. Hook Timing looks good. Vibrating Foot, Needle and Feed dog are all traveling along together. Stitch length mechanism working. But, feed sequence is effectively 180 degrees out. As feed dog moves to the rear, it drops and the needle ascends, only to have the needle descend and the feed dog raise for the trip forward. A shakey movie can be seen at: Help Please. Don't think this is covered in the military manuals. Lee

Hey Guys, thanks for the assist. Thank Uwe for the Army manual reference, it helped clear things up. Thanks Bob, makes good sense. I got the new timing belt installed with no problems (arrows match with takeup lever up) and the hook timing looks about right (whew). Ran the machine under motor power and seems to spin just fine. But you know the part of the "Keystone" Navy manual that says "Timing the presser-lifting eccentric The presser-lifting eccentric controls the feeding motion provided by the alternating pressers. If the presser-lifting eccentric is not, properly timed, it can cause the machine to feed backward or prevent the machine from making the full stitch length." Bucket list check off, yep my machine is feeding backward Seems like someone might have been messing with stuff before I got this machine. This may not go down easy! Lee

I am just going down this path on my new old monster. By cd's measure I must have exactly the right number of marks on the bushing..grin.. I was feeling a little guilty.. excess force and the wrong tools to the rescue. I won't mention how long it took me to remember the set screw on the back .. duhh.. The top was spinning well, but the bottom side is still a bit tight. More oil and sunbaths I guess. Lee

The 31-15 works great on a treadle but you need a wide treadle like an white sit straight or singer industrial. Lee

I brought home this craigs list find ($150) and it looks to be in pretty good condition. Drive chain seems good, not a lot of buggered screw heads, most of the paint intact, decent table with modern style clutch motor. Since i busted the drive belt trying to get her freed up I thought i might replace the hook while I was in messing about. Has anyone run up against a good document for hook replacement .. or even better a video? I have been through most of the sites archives .. but I didnt have much luck on this topic .. (may have missed it in a senior moment). ps. the underdeck movement still seems pretty tight .. I have re-oiled and plan to put it out for a sunbath again today (sunny florida). Any particular locations that seem to get bound up (no thread nests, very little dust as found). Lee

I don't know much about this topic, but there are a metric-butt load of binder attachments for normal industrial lockstitch machines. Doesn't sound like the material is overly tough so perhaps something like a 31-15 with the right binder might be a solution. I am using 2 fold and 4 fold binders on that machine with good success. Seems like sailrite and ebay both have pictures of this sort of binding attachments. Happy Day Lee in Florida.

Hey Uwe, very nice hook timing video. Lee in Hot Florida

Dont forget our treadle sewing machine roots. I find that singer industrial sewing treadles can often be retrofit with a singer domestic band wheel yielding higher torque and slower speeds. The White Sit Straight (wide body) treadle is also suitable for standard Singer Industrial size machine and comes with the domestic band wheel. I have Singer 31-15, 42-5, 78-1 and 21W180 all running well under treadle power.

Hey JP, found a picture of my 2 part motor setup at: http://tinyurl.com/nbe9fhl (original path way too long). That machine was worked hard (and was a bit out of wack when I got it). Sounds like it will be a solid performer. Off-topic: Some day I will sit down and compare the bobbin assembly of the Class 15 / 16 with the 31? The bobbins are pretty much the same, but the 31-15 bobbin case has a shorter alignment finger .. are there other differences? Hey Darren, Thanks for the info on 31-20 . Can it carry larger bobbin thread than the 31-15? My 31-15 seems happy with V69 thread top and bottom , or even V138 on the top for decorative stitching. Of course I am running on an industrial foot treadle .. much slower than a motor driven machine. I would like to chat with you off-line about the 42-5. I have a nice example setup on a treadle and could use some hints on making better use of it. I have some pics of mine at https://sites.google.com/site/oldironmachines/home/singer-42-5 (email on the bottom of web page). I am tickled at the similarities to some of the old Class 16 machines (16-35 for instance) Happy Day to all. Lee

Hey JP, I can't offer any help but I wanted to drop a comment. I have a 31-15 which is generally similar and a flexible easy to use machine. Looks like you have an early motor drive rig with a separate clutch. My singer 21W came with a similar rig with an Old Wheeler & Wilson multi-speed clutch with a patent date of 1892. It still works. You may be able to change out the motor drive pulley to something smaller if you need to run a little slower. Seems like the 31-20 has a walking foot of some sort, but I am not sure which variation. Good luck, keep her sewing. Lee

To augment Cascabel's description, I have some photos and additional notes on my web page at: https://sites.google.com/site/oldironmachines/home/singer-42-5 It is somewhat interesting that the 42-5 has several physical similarities to the 16-35 including the odd rounded end bed, bed mounted bobbin winder, similar faceplate tension assembly. The 16-35 is a short shanked predecessor to the Singer 31-15. Lee in Florida

I am currently running all of my industrial machines on foot powered treadles, Singer 31-15, 42-5, 21W180, 20U, 16-33, Davis Mfg A. I run most of my industrial heads on a White Sit Straight domestic treadle. It is wide enough for an industrial head and the smaller domestic drive wheel gives you a bit more power than the Industrial treadle. The White treadle is somewhat more available than an intact Singer Industrial treadle down here in Florida. http://i.imgur.com/y6Ocq.jpg White Sit Straight Treadle. I have another one with an industrial top which I use for various industrial machines. It is possible to convert some motorized Singer Industrial treadles back to treadle power by using a drive wheel from a domestic treadle and cobbling together a pitman arm to fit. http://i.imgur.com/mpHIiZC.jpg Old Singer Industrial treadle converted back to foot power. Treadles are a lot of fun (and a lot easier to control than a clutch motor for us tyros) Lee in Florida

Hi This is Lee down in Sunny Florida, These machines were generally designed for medium speed (3000 spm ) garment sewing. I did some testing on a 95-1 and could never make it happy beyond V69 thread. This machine was my first introduction to industrial machines and it gave "sewing your finger" a much more vivid image. They are sometimes called 3/4 size industrials .. just a inch wider than a domestic (If I remember correctly). I have a 95-10 with very small, light weight balance wheel indicating that this machine was meant to run fast and light .. For heavy canvas I would look for a walking foot or preferably a compound feed. Happy Day