New member from England signing in.

[unclealec]

Hi guys

Ancient retired bored creaky henpecked hamfisted wannabe master craftsman reporting for duty.

I have just inherited a Singer 211U, serial no. yet to be discovered (suspected to be hidden under a service label) with no presser feet, but otherwise seemingly working fine.

If anyone has expert knowledge of these models please step forward.

I live 3 miles from College Sewing Machine Parts Ltd, ; I can see them getting a visit or two.

I am now off to my man cave to look for the full serial no, and get the machine off my trailer. They're not light, are they!

Gratuitous photo of my beloved Riley cars attached. I can't afford to buy a new car, so I have to make one.

[DieselTech]

Welcome to the group. Bunch of great people here. Nice Ole rides! Need a couple Tommy guns to go with them sleek rides. 

[Herbie]

Welcome!  This is a great forum!

[unclealec]

I would be most grateful if some Singer expert could verify my search-based diagnosis of the machine I have just installed in my mancave.

My belief is that it is a Singer 211U, serial number unknown; the rivet holes are there, but the ID plate is long gone. I know not why; it sure ain't stolen.

There is tinkering to be done; I am intrigued by the location of the spool winder atop the mainframe; I am used to them being under the flywheel and being engaged by pushing overcentre onto the drive belt. This one seems to be a dog clutch drive. The throwout lever needs adjusting, it lies about 1/4" outside the outer diameter of the spool, so presumably I need it to throw out level with or just inside the spool o/d.

By browsing this forum I believe that I can find and download a Parts Diagram for the 211U; a hint as to which sub-species I have would be most helpful.

For operating instructions, I believe that I will have to settle for a 211G manual which will be approximate to my requirements (thread path, stitch length adjustment etc) but if anybody does know where I could find an operator manual more specific to my machine I would be grateful. Although I have supergoogled, I often find that my googling skills are inadequate when compared to others.

I have purchased a thread guide for the needle shaft, and two piping feet, from College SM Parts Ltd, who are very close to my home, and this together with the standard foot already with the machine should cover all my needs.

The clutch motor is rocking a 5" drive pulley. I doubt my limited skills could cope with this rocket speed, and I have from my current machine a 2" drive pulley that should fit the armature shaft; hopefully this will reduce the speed to one with which I can cope. The slower the better for me.

Any and all advice and suggestions will be gratefully received.

 

[unclealec]

Another picture of the back side if you forgive my crude language.

 

 

[Northmount]

2 hours ago, unclealec said:

I would be most grateful if some Singer expert could verify my search-based diagnosis of the machine I have just installed in my mancave.

My belief is that it is a Singer 211U, serial number unknown; the rivet holes are there, but the ID plate is long gone. I know not why; it sure ain't stolen.

Moved this thread to leather sewing machines.

[kgg]

2 hours ago, unclealec said:

The clutch motor is rocking a 5" drive pulley. I doubt my limited skills could cope with this rocket speed, and I have from my current machine a 2" drive pulley that should fit the armature shaft; hopefully this will reduce the speed to one with which I can cope. The slower the better for me.

To get controllable slow speed sewing and to reduce your frustration level I would suggest:

1) dump that clutch motor ---- Clutch motor:

   i) It is always going to be on at full speed probably revving at 1750 rpm's or 3500 rpms.

   ii) It is going to be annoying loud.

   iii) Learning how to feather the clutch has a very steep learning curve for most.

2) Install a servo motor:

   i) about $150 this side of the pond.

   ii) More energy efficient as the motor runs only when you press the "go" pedal

   iii) More bottom end torque.

   iv) ability to set the speed and no matter how hard you depress the "go" pedal the speed will not exceed that setting

3) install a speed reducer for added torque but most importantly added speed reduction.

kgg

 

 

 

[unclealec]

Thanks for the move, mods. In retrospect I should have considered more the appropriate placing for my machine post.

Are servo motors plug & play, or is there more to the installation that I can forsee?

[toxo]

3 hours ago, unclealec said:

Thanks for the move, mods. In retrospect I should have considered more the appropriate placing for my machine post.

Are servo motors plug & play, or is there more to the installation that I can forsee?

Welcome from a fellow Brit. Changing to a servo is a must and is pretty straightforward. You'll still want a speed reducer. Smallest pulley on the motor and either replace the handwheel with a large pulley or fit a speed reducer in between.  Either way will enable one stitch at a time if that's what you want. Having College up the road will be very handy but they can be pricey, especially for original parts.

[dikman]

They're a decent machine and as has been said throw out the clutch motor and fit a servo. College Sewing would be a convenient place to buy one but for the most part they are pretty generic things these days and readily available on ebay; a 550w will work fine, a 750w will be better. It will mount in place of the clutch motor (they all have standard spacing for the mounting bolts) the only thing you may have to do is replace the drive belt. If you can work on cars then you shouldn't have any problems fitting a servo.

Toxo suggested replacing the handwheel with a larger pulley to further reduce the speed, normally this is a great way to do it instead of fitting a pulley speed reducer BUT can't be done easily on the 211 models because the shaft end bearing is actually part of the handwheel and not mounted in the head casing as is normally done. Try just the servo first and if still too fast look at fitting a speed reducer. If you are that way inclined you can make your own, search on here there's been lots posted about them. And unless you're a safety freak don't worry about re-fitting the belt covers, I don't know too many who bother with them, you would have to be pretty stupid to get tangled up in the drive belt.

[unclealec]

Thanks for that dikman.

The weight of evidence does shout servo motor as the way to go. However, when I did my upholstery course I don't remember having much trouble feathering the clutch motor (Statesiders - don't forget that's how we drive cars in the UK!) so I am musing over building a speed reducer. I have some Picador shafts lying around, and a stepped pulley that would suffice as an intermediary.

Part of my thinking is that with limited funds (poor pensioner - cue violins) £150 for a servo motor = about 60 pints of Joseph Holts Rough Mild in my local, so I have created a massive priorities dilemma for myself. But many thanks for the info, I have a portfolio of possible plans to consider.

Not to mention my irrepressible desire to tinker.

[dikman]

Yep, that might work. My first machine, a Singer post-bed that I was given, came with a clutch motor and the first time I fired it up it scared the daylights out of me as I had absolutely no experience with such a thing! Yes, I learned to drive manuals but feathering this clutch was NOT working! So I went through the usual things, fitted a larger pulley in place of the handwheel, made a speed reducer and experimented with various pulley combinations but to no avail, I could not tame this beast. It wasn't 'til I fitted a servo that it became useable.

Mastering a clutch motor can be done (just not by me), I wish you luck in your endeavors.

[Constabulary]

I´d say 99% of the sewing machine rookies do not have fun with clutch motors. When I stared my sewing machine journey I even sold machines that were too fast because I had no idea that servos existed. I regret some sales now but in 2012 I found this forum and learned so much ever since... Really - you do not want a clutch motor nowadays. A servo is what you want!

You sometimes find unbelievable cheap servo motors on AliExpress. Just recently we had an offer of 68€ for a 750Watt Motor - that is approx 1/2 of what you pay elsewhere and even incl. shipping . Not kidding. But they cost a bit more now but still cheap. I bought 2 of them just because they were so unbelievable cheap.

The prices may vary depending on your location and have an eye on shipping cause some ship from China, somewhere in the EU or from a warehouse in your country.

This one is offered for 75€ incl shipping to Germany (not sure if you see the same price)

https://de.aliexpress.com/item/1005007219685444.html

Edited 13 hours ago by Constabulary

[unclealec]

Not quite, Constabulary - I clicked on the link and found the price to be £125,601.06!

I'm still shaking.

But I hear what you're saying. I do get the ditch-the-clutch vibe.

I shall start not drinking 60-odd pints in my local; eventually I will have the money for a servo motor.

Good point about AliExpress (and maybe Temu?) - I shall browse and see what I can find.

 

[Constabulary]

interesting - must be because of IP or geo targeting. On my end they show 74.99€. But maybe you find something similar on Aliexpress on your side of the pond.

Yes or on Temu or VEVOR... you name it. Or maybe wait for the Black Week. In October I paid ~68€ for these motors.

Edited 11 hours ago by Constabulary

[nejcek74]

I guess such price is because of free delivery, I guess Germany and France, and everything else is paid. Price to Switzerland is also much higher, 135 CHF

[Constabulary]

@nejcek74 since you are from Switzerland, a German shipping address near the border may be an option for you. Check this out:

https://www.grenzpaket.ch/
https://www.grenzpaket.ch/grenzpaket-lieferadressen

https://www.swiss-paket.de/
https://www.swiss-paket.de/filialen.html

[AlZilla]

It's $150,000+ USD with free delivery to America. But's it's on sale from almost a half million!

I ordered 2.

 

[Constabulary]

48 minutes ago, AlZilla said:

It's $150,000+ USD with free delivery to America. But's it's on sale from almost a half million!

I ordered 2.

@AlZilla you didn´t right? It is a 220V / 230V Version with EU plug.

 

EDIT:

sorry now I got it

, and . is the other way around on my end.

Edited 5 hours ago by Constabulary