Quade

I'm not clear why any milling is needed. My 211A has an M bobbin. The M is a little over an inch in diameter. In the 211A, the saddle can easily be moved away from the needle for the larger diameter hook. The hook isn't surrounded by anything as far as I remember. It sticks above the saddle. I'm not even sure I'd need a different case opener. The 226 seems like a clone of the 211. As for economics of it. If it really costs $600 to mod, you can buy a used machine with M bobbin for less than that. So I agree with you that it might not make sense.

There's not much meat to work with so a threaded insert like a helicoil or time-sert probably won't work. You have to drill quite oversize for them to make room for the body of the insert. I'd go the next bigger size up and tap it. Either SAE or metric, whichever lets you remove the least amount of metal. As Kgg mentioned, singer uses crazy non-standard thread pitches.

I can buy a 1 HP servo for under $200 US. I'm wondering if the cost of parts for this reducer is approaching the cost of a servo? I'd simply never use a clutch motor. I took two to the dump the other day.

Both downloaded for me too.

Looks pretty good. I'd be interested if you come up with some solution for the backlash. I don't believe any of my other machines are that loose. I just checked a Consew 224 with the same shaft and gear arrangement and it has backlash too perhaps marginally less than the 211. The case opener is adjusted so there's "two paper thicknesses" of gap between the case opener arm and the bobbin holder when the arm is all the way to the right. I wish they mentioned the actual thickness so I could throw a feeler gauge on it. I have a feeling the case opener arm reduces the impact of the backlash.

My 211A has easily a 1mm of backlash in the gear meshing between #4 and #5. I don't really know how much is too much. It would probably be better if I had less backlash but I see no way to adjust it out. The distance between the gears seems fixed. I wonder of the timing adjustment impacts the backlash? I could try moving #4 to the left and right to see if the backlash changes. It sews pretty well. I have almost no up and down in the hook shaft itself. I haven't thrown a dial indicator on it to measure but I could. Have you checked the calibration of your case opener? "Be Sure Hook Driving Gears are Correctly Set with relation to the face of the hook saddle. Use .008" Shim". I'm imagining we use a .008" shim between the gear and the saddle to set end-play? It's not clear from the manual.

I just recently disassembled, powder coated and re-assembled a 211A which is very similar to this machine. They're brother's really, one made in Japan and the other in Germany. In my experience, you leave the foot lift mechanism (the one on the back of the machine) for last. There's so much timing to adjust on these machines. You have to match the foot movement to the needle movement. You have to make sure the needle moves at the same speed fore and aft as the foot (it's adjustable). Then the distance of the hook from the needle and then the timing of the hook to the needle. Then you have to adjust the foot lift mechanism on the back of the machine to make sure the needle goes through the lower foot at the same time the inner foot presses down on the lower foot and lifts the larger foot.

I'd be really leery of using the shaft as a press point to try to pull the sleeve out. I'd be more inclined to look for a tool you could put around the sleeve and then use some screws through the tool to press on the case. Kinda like how you take a stuck rotor off. Looking on amazon, I don't see a specific tool for it. Something like a bearing puller which doesn't require pressing on the shaft. I've seen some bearing pullers that use a slip hammer. https://www.amazon.com/OrionMotorTech-Hammer-Puller-Bearing-Remover/dp/B07BNLVK12/ Something like this. The issue is, the more pressure you're put on the end of the shaft, the more it tries to drive though the take up arm and the delicate parts on the needle end.

What people with old lathes and mills do is make their own parts. It was a harsh lesson when I bought an old lathe. You need another lathe to make parts for the first lathe. That and like old Lathes, the threads on most sewing machine screws are completely non-standard. So you can't just pick up screws at the hardware store. Most of these old machines aren't worth all that much. I agree with Wiz that the most viable way to get parts is buy another machine and make one good machine from the parts of the two.

My 211A has an air cylinder on the back side which can increase the lift of the feet temporarily to walk over a thick seam. Most machines have a wing nut which holds the walking foot eccentric arm to the lever on the back of the machine. By changing the position on the lever, you can adjust the lift. The air cylinder when activated, will bump up the foot height until it's released. Then the machine reverts to normal foot height. This is on top of the manual foot height adjustments. I borrowed this pic from the site. This isn't my machine but it's like my machine.

Probably best to do a new topic instead of bringing a dead topic back to life.

This. Along with very bright lighting. I have a couple of these visors some with LED lights and some not. The older you get, the more lighting you need. I use magnetic mount lights that stick to the machine that I can point right down near the work too.

I'd suggest it's cheaper to replace than repair. When you factor in time and shipping.

I'm always leery of running electricity through bearings. Either with welding or other processes. I just worry there will be some arcing that pits the races. What locks up on these machines? I imagine most have a ball bearing near the hand wheel and lower belt gear. Is it the bushings that freeze up on the shafts?

Could be no doubt. I'd still suggest it's not a particularly desirable machine. You can buy a brand new juki in this class with table and servo for under $1000 US. https://www.amazon.com/Juki-DDL-8100-Lockstitch-1-Needle-DDL8100e/dp/B07Q5NHZCP/

One of the things I liked about "Evaporust" is it seem to have no impact on non-rusty metal. Rusty metal that was already pitted remained pitted. Which is to be expected. I dipped a majority of smaller parts on a 100 year old lathe into evaporust and it didn't change the clearances on non-rusty metal. I just washed the residue off with soap and water, then oiled. You will have to re-coat everything with paint or powder coat. I love powder coat so that's what I used. I agree with the other things. You should treat the parts on this machine as if they're irreplaceable. All the common parts are easy to come buy but less common parts a hard to find. I've been looking for the arm that moves vibrating feet on my Singer 211 so I can remove the air cylinder hookup. So far I've not found one. This machine doesn't look that bad. I'd probably remove the belt and find out where it's binding, in the top or bottom. If it's out of adjustment, that can make it bind even if everything else is free to move. For example, the feed dog might be bumping up against the limit of travel if they're out of adjustment. You could flip it on its side and try turning the hand wheel back and forth. Maybe you can see if something is running out of travel.

I use two bobbins typically but there's no upper limit. If they require the M the type-15 won't work. I had a 110 year old American lathe for awhile. The problem was it was always one part away from scrap. You needed a second lathe to make parts for the first lathe. Everything was non-standard sizing and manuals didn't exist. The closest thing you had to a manual was the patent documents. The singer manuals are typically not much better. It's made me leery of buying things that are that old anymore. The worst part is the non-standard thread pitches. Now I have a lathe made in the '60 it's not as nice as the first one but I can get parts for it and it uses standard everything. Even the spindle bearings are still available. My sewing machines are from the '60s and newer too. I took it as a life's lesson.

These kind of machines aren't worth all that much money. I got my Juki DDL-5550 for nothing on craigslist (which is in the same class as this machine). Literally nothing. I just had to haul it away. If it has a table and servo motor, I might start at $500 and be willing to drop the price if you get no bites. If it's got an old clutch type motor (big heavy cast iron thing), I might start it at $300. The table, if it as one, might be worth more than the machine itself. The problem with these machines is that they're pushing 300lbs total weight if they have a clutch motor. That makes shipping problematic. The sewiing head itself weights 80 or so lbs. I'd just throw it on facebook market place and craigslist. Most people don't assume you'll ship it on those sites.

I notice the casting is pretty rough. Rougher than I'd expect from a Consew. I suspect it's a Chinese or Indian clone of a Consew.

Mechanically they're pretty simple. If you do decide to disassemble just take lots of pics. The one issue with these machines is they use non-standard threads so, fasteners can be hard to come by if you break one or have to drill it out. I switched some threads to metric.

I took my 211 apart, blasted it down to bare metal then powder coated and re-assembled. If you're just looking for a machine to use, I probably wouldn't go that far. It depends on how far it's gone though. "Evaporust" will just melt any rust away. I don't see a problem with using compressed air on it. The older machines weren't particularly delicate.

I'd toss that motor and get a servo. I just got a new machine, Consew 224 which I really bought because I wanted the table for a different machine. Disconnected the clutch motor from the table and it's now sitting in my van awaiting my next dump trip. Interesting thing about the consew is it's needle feeder but doesn't have a vibrating foot. The main foot lifts slightly when the needle is pulling the cloth through.

750 watts which is 1 hp is about 7 amps of current. That means full out, which you'll probably never see, is only 7 amps at 110. You could plug it into any existing outlet in your house. As long as you're not running a cooker on the same circuit.

Trying to picture in my head how moving the stitch length lever up and down changes how much the feed-dog bar rotates. Does it change how much the forked rod, that goes into the upper shaft eccentric moves up and down? Or is it back and forth? I'd probably try to observe how changing the stitch length lever changes how much the feed dog shafts rocks back and forth. The forked rod goes around the upper shaft eccentric so it much rock back and forth when the main shaft is moving. Somehow this is converted into up and down movement of the lever connected to the feed dog shaft. The amount it rocks up and down is controlled by the stitch length adjustment. Putting it in reverse must make the feed dog shaft move in reverse. I imagine examining how that linkage works would show why you're not getting max throw which would be max stitch length.

I got mine for free off CL. They guy originally wanted $50 for it which I was more than willing to pay. Someone scared him about the clutch motor so he just wanted to dump it. It was his mom's machine. She put all the kids through college by doing alteration jobs for people on it. It looked like it have been dropped and maybe kids played with it. I had to buy a thread stand and some thread guides. It doesn't seem worn. The paint is in great shape. I use it for pretty much anything cloth related. Has a servo on it now. Really the first thing I bought for it. Turned the clutch motor on once and immediately noped. It's a machine that will last for generations as long as you keep it oiled up. They still sell the same machine. https://www.amazon.com/DDL-5550-LockStitch-Industrial-Machine-DDL5550n/dp/B079NQNPHG