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https://www.vintagesingerparts.com/products/new-replacement-tension-assembly-singer-part-240446 Look at the second picture in this listing. I wonder if the release rod is part of the tension assembly ... One of the experts here will have the answer.

If you have room for it, and it's not a rusted boat anchor, I can't think of any reason not to drag it home. Trade fodder, if nothing else. It seems to be a well thought of machine.

@joebetoblame if you scroll back up, click on Patrick1's highlighted name, you can send him a message from his profile page.

There's a lot to like about that one. I'd only suggest adding a stitch line right under the pic rail area and up under the trigger guard, to meet the stitches around the belt loop. I think it'd decrease the chance of it loosening up over time.

I like the belt. I made myself a single layer, did the basket weave. No real amount of stitching, just the buckle end. I have made a couple of hats that each have about a hundred miles of stitching, so I understand what you're saying. My next hat I'm going to try sewing it on one of my sewing machines I've accumulated. Another learning curve to navigate.

You don't say why you object to a compressor, so maybe this doesn't help. A friend of mine runs a couple of portable pancake compressors about 50 feet from his workbench, in a different room. They're plugged into Smart Outlets and he turns them on and off with a cell phone app. The outlets are a few dollars on amazon and the compressors are cheap and quiet.

Disclaimer: I'm a total novice with sewing machines and my comments are worth exactly what you paid for them. I haven't had one get "loopy" due to tension. But if the top thread is showing on the bottom, you could have too little top tension or too much bottom tension. And vice versa. It's all about balance. I have had a case where I couldn't quite get the top thread to stop peeking through when sewing a single layer - but sewing 2 layers, it disappeared into the fabric. I have a nearly brand new Brother domestic that was getting loopy on the bottom (with top thread). Turned out that on that modern machine, since the tension arm is mostly enclosed in the case, I wasn't quite getting the thread well into the end of the arm. It would loose the thread from the end of the tension arm (which I couldn't readily see) and caused no end of trouble. For me, anything the thread touches (top or bottom) has to be clean and maybe even polished. If you're seeing big loops, it seems like more than a simple tension issue. I'm following this one to learn and admire your determination.

I don't know how you're setting your initial bobbin tension, but ... I've been rehabbing mostly neglected domestic machines for a while. Often the bobbin area needs a lot of attention. Crud, lint, corrosion, etc. Rather than guess at bobbin tensions, I bought this crude little scale. At least it gets me in the ballpark on bottom tension. Then a good disassembly, cleaning and polishing of tension unit and thread guides and tensions haven't given me much trouble. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000HKPN7I?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

Pre-1900 Singer used a strictly numeric serial number. They ended around 16,800,000 in 1899. Anything without a letter, predates that. Anything starting with a letter, is 1900+. But, somewhere I read about Singers with 2 serials and which one to use. Damned if I can remember where. For 50 US dollars, I'd have broken my shoulder getting my wallet out and hoping the seller didn't sober up before I had it loaded. That is a domestic sewing machine, not intended for leather work.

Would smooth feed dogs solve your problem? I've bee drooling over the cb3500/cb4500 and I know a smooth feed dog is available.

Cowboy Bob scares me... I've started squirreling money away for a 3500 or 4500.

That, I will do. Thanks!

That is good information to have. Thanks.

As said, unless there's a compelling reason to sell, I'd hang on to it. It's unique while the others are common.

There are 2 set screws in the shuttle driver. There must be a reason they used the pin, too. Positioning relative to the hook and maybe keeping the end play where they wanted it?

I don't know. The illustration in the parts list looks like a solid pin of some kind. I'm just going to play with a selection of wires and pins until I find something. For that matter, a machine screw and a nut would keep it from turning.

Maybe this will save someone trouble down the road. My education about the shuttle driver on my 44-10 Singer. I recently dragged home the aforementioned machine. It spun loosely enough but would only make a partial turn in either direction before it came up against some kind of a hard stop. The needle was broken off so wasn't causing interference. I quickly figured out that removing the bobbin case would let it spin fine. A little investigating revealed that the hook timing was off. Way, way off. Like a 1/3 or 1/2 turn of the hook off. The 44-10 is apparently a short arm version of the 31-15 so there was plenty of information to sift through. Looked for info on how to set the timing only to find that all the adjustment is supposed to be by tweaking the needle bar height. Well, unless I have a 3 foot needle bar, there's no way I was going to make this thing work. I went looking for how to reset the shuttle driver position. Nothing, absolutely nothing to be found. So, flying blind, I took the bobbin area apart and removed the shuttle driver (those of you familiar with these machines may see the problem at this point). Cleaned everything up and reassembled it based on how the stitch is supposed to form and where things are supposed to be positioned in relation to each other. Got it working right, picking up the bobbin thread just like it's supposed to. Great! I went to give the shuttle driver set screws a final tightening ... and lo and behold, there before my eyes ... a perfectly lined up pin hole in the shuttle driver and hook shaft! Sure would have saved me a lot of trouble if I had known there was supposed to be a pin in there. Now, where to find that pin ...

Thank you. I went through that timing belt process a few months back when I first got the machine. I didn't know how much resistance there should be turning it freehand, but it seemed a little tight. It had been sitting for a decade or more. So I took the belt off in order to turn the top and bottom independently and isolate where any tightness was happening. I found that each the top and bottom rotated pretty freely with the belt off and decided the tightness was just the belt. It runs free and easy with the motor. I'm going to go through the process outlined in the above videos and check each adjustment before I try too much stitching. Partly as self-education and to be as sure as I can that the machine is as close to factory fresh settings as I'm able.

Thanks, guys. I have it stitching pretty fair at this point. I have just a little bit of top thread peeking onto the bottom. Next time I get to sit down with it, I'm going to loosen that bottom tension a 1/16th turn and see how it goes. I haven't gone through all the adjustments yet but it's my next step. Make sure everything is at baseline.

Cool. Thanks for this.

Well, neither of those really. I thought somewhere I read that the feed dog adjustment could affect hook timing. It makes a kind of sense that the different systems on the sewing machine can affect each other. For example, setting the needle bar height is necessary before setting hook timing. I just wondered if there were other things to check before setting the timing.

I'm working on my 111W153 and reading lots of resources. Somewhere on this forum someone mentioned that another adjustment went hand in hand with hook timing (can't remember what, offhand). I'm wondering if there's an order of operations or list of other adjustments to make when looking at hook timing on these 111 machines? My timing seems to be right on but I'm not entirely convinced something else doesn't need to be tweaked. Thanks

Not at all. The thread is #0-80. I just shortened it. If it were a flathead I'd be in business. A. new hook and case will be here in a day or two.

The pan head screw does not work. The original one is a slotted flat head because there's not much clearance between the hook and the bobbin case. It rotated fine until I needed to back it out to decrease bobbin tension, then it binds. I suppose I could pull it out and reshape the head. But another hour or so of screwing around isn't worth the effort. Too bad, I was >this< close to having the tension balanced ...

Oh, I never found either of them - I bought 8 screws to start with. I'm surprised it only took 3 tries! The screws are just stainless steel "pan head" screws. Right in the section with all the screws, nuts and bolts. I ended up holding one in a small vice grips and gently grinding it on the bench grinder. If you have a different machine, you'll need to look up the part number of the screw. Then check the size and pitch here: https://www.singersewinginfo.co.uk/screw_threads