Singer fan from Downunder

[Andy132]

Hi, I'm Andy from Victoria in Australia.

A long time lurker,now time to post,and hopefully contribute.

There's an amazing wealth of knowledge and advice from some very informed and generous people here. Thank you to all those who do so, it appears to me a rare forum- without the grandstanding and point scoring prevalent on so many others.

About myself,I have been hobby sewing for on 20 years now,canvas only though - never touched leather other than as some reinforcing backings on motorbike panniers etc. But I find the information here translates equally well to both fields.

I started with my first machine 20 yrs ago,a trusty old Singer 132k6.A mates Pop had died and I was asked if I wanted an old machine he had in his back shed,as my friends cousins were going to throw it out.

We went around and had a look, I said,"I don't know what it is,but I'm happy to give it a new home"

When we got it home,I rang a friend interstate who is a professional canvas worker,he asked what it was and I told him,"no idea".  He said,look on the front and read out what the brass plate says.

132k6- "you lucky bugger" he said, they're a fantastic old machine". And so it has been,alot of camping and motorbike gear for myself, family and mates over the years.

12 or so years ago I added another to the collection,a Singer 133 k12. A free arm darning machine/bag sealer. Bought it off a fella that used to post alot on the forum- Darren B. Though I've not seen any from him for a number of years.

Next was a little Singer 201,for the occasional finer work,as the other two have needles like harpoons and delicate work is not their forte.

Earlier this year,I got the bug for a patcher,it ate away at me and I just had to see it through.

So I bought a fixer upper Singer 29k 58 for what is a reasonable price here in Oz ( everything still has covid tax added over here ).

That's my current project at the moment, a siezed needle bar was the main culprit,but unfortunately,when I removed the taper pin holding it to the top pivot,the whole head fell off and hit the concrete floor- breaking the revolving bush handle and a couple of smaller bits.

Turns out- someone had already removed the four head mounting screws and I didn't realise. Sure would have liked to keep that original handle in one piece as that is what has led me to finally post-;to warn other of the perils of buying eBay parts, particularly those from China.

I Will make a seperate post about that if it is acceptable to the moderators to name and shame?

I wasted over $130aus of hard earned on eBay crap,so would like to assist others to direct their coin to recommended sources.

I realize you have sponsors/vendors in the States to purchase from, unfortunately,the exchange rate and postage to Oz generally makes this a prohibitive task.

Otherwise,the machine is coming along nicely,Stripped it down to it's last piece and all back to bare metal, new paint job (brighter colours,have enough funeral black Singers lying about)

Ok, wandering off the introduction,will open another post.

Thanks again all,if anybody would like some sewing machine photos, happy to provide.

Regards-Andy.

[Andy132]

Apologies - I was always told as a kid that I used a sentence where a word would do, and a paragraph where a sentence would suffice,guess I'm a long winded sort of fella.

[Constabulary]

Welcome here - me is Singer-Idjit too

because of your 29K58 - when a Chinese seller on Ebay or elsewhere offers new 29K parts then they are meant for the latest 29K´s like 29K71, 29K72, 29K73. That is because the Chinese have cloned these models and keep on making them but the earlier 29K´s in many cases are using different parts. 29K´s are by far not all the same. They share certain pars but especially the gear boxes have changed over the decades. You have at least 3 different sizes of gear box pinions and they are not interchangeable. The Chinese clone makers just do not know the earlier 29K models. They sell parts for machines they know / make but not for ancient machines. So can you blame them? Well - it depends I´d say. It´s like asking a modern Ford dealer for Parts for an F-150 from 1953. Some may know what you are talking but most likely they will have no parts for you.

Since you are in Downunder MAFAR is probably a good parts source for you. https://marfar.com.au/

Edited September 30 by Constabulary

[Andy132]

Hi Constabulary.

I've read many of your posts over the years and recieved much useful information from them,thank you.

Your correct in that the bulk of parts on ebay are for the later machines,the only reason I bought the 58 was because most parts were the same as the 71/73.

I have one of your contributions saved where you showed the differences in the , mostly,3 seperate gear arrangements of the various 29k models.

I cross referenced the part numbers from the 58 parts manual and the 71-73 manual. Aside from the long arm model,all the numbers matched, the numbers the eBay items displayed also matched.

So I felt as confident as one can in ordering but was disappointed in what I received.

The issues were of build quality,not compatibility. When I learn how to resize photos, I'll post them up.

For instance,the screw holes for mounting it were half a hole out,so I had to file it to get it to fit.But that didn't work well for the recessed heads of the bolts.

The external diameter of the original revolving bush handle was 2.2mm larger than the aftermarket,which wasnt able to centralize as a result. Then after getting those aspects close, the gap on either side of the mounting points for the bell crank feed were- 2.2 and 3.5mm either side,which caused the foot bar in between to jam and not be able to function.

Other issues were the needlebar springs being too long,too wide and having as much spring as an old dogs jump.

The shuttle carriers tapered screw hole was drilled off centre to the shaft and was well undersized for the screw diameter.

On the bright side,I managed to get a 90% refund ftom the seller on the bush handle,after spending 3 hrs back and forth with a flood of documentation and photos. The other parts I'll just have to suck it up and learn

Great recommendation on Marfar. I spoke to Phil yesterday and placed a large order. He explained that all of his parts are sourced from TaKing in Taiwan and stands by their quality,so we'll see how that goes when they arrive.

 

I hope this explains the situation a little better, I'm a tinkerer and maker of things, happy to modify where necessary but sometimes the starting point of an object just doesn't allow for that.

Cheers and thanks again for the help you've been over the years with your posting.

Andy.

 

[Northmount]

18 hours ago, Andy132 said:

When I learn how to resize photos, I'll post them up.

If your files are too large to post here due to file size restrictions, you need to resize your files to fit.  Follow this link for some helps and suggestions.  https://leatherworker.net/forum/topic/15122-how-to-post-pictures-on-lw/?do=findComment&comment=551171   There are lots of Apps, software, and online tools available on the web, or even built into your device to enable you to reduce your file sizes.  800 pixels in the longest dimension is quite adequate.  Smart phone screens and many monitors don't display high res files in high resolution.  People that live on the fringes of the internet appreciate smaller file sizes and high res photos may take from 10 minutes to hours to download.

 

 

[Andy132]

G'day Northmount and thanks for your reply and assistance.

Apologies in my delay responding - been out bush minus phone reception the last 5 days.

I'll have a look at what you've suggested and see if I can get my limited tech head around it.

I only have the phone,no computer,but should be able to manage somehow,Ihave average data coverage out here at the best of times,so small files sound the way to go.

Cheers and thankyou.

Andy.