I Got Another Singer - A 331K4

[dikman]

The foot was actually hitting the shoulder on the needle, as the needle doesn't go all the way up into the bar. Anyhow, I removed the foot and cleaned some gunk off, which may have been offsetting the foot just enough. I reset the needle bar and fitted the original needle and now the needle shoulder just misses the foot, so that's ok.

[dikman]

I've ordered the hook from my local (industrial) sewing machine place. Slightly dearer than off ebay, but I figure it should be decent quality. Hopefully it should work properly with it fitted, I'll know next week.

[dikman]

Picked up the replacement hook. Part number is the same, although no brand on it. Comparing them and it's obvious just how worn the original is! I fitted it to the race and it's a good fit with no slop and moved smoothly within the race. When I installed the assembly, however, something was binding slightly at one point in the rotation. After removing and replacing the race several times, with no luck, I noticed that the arm that's supposed to open slightly to let the thread past the shuttle wasn't opening. I pulled out the shuttle again and compared it to the original (again!) but it looked the same, so I started measuring it. I finally found the problem - below the hook itself the metal forms a "mouth" that the previously mentioned arm fits into. On the new one this "mouth" was significantly shallower, so the arm didn't have enough room to move. In other words, it could never work properly! I had to use the trusty Dremel, with a cut-off wheel, to deepen this "mouth".

That did it, now it operated properly. Threaded it up (#69) and ran some stitches by hand, and it looks good, although at one point the top thread caught somewhere underneath and snapped. I don't think there will be too much wrong, so I'll hook it up to a motor and see what happens.

[Darren Brosowski]

Glad you got one locally - been off line for about a week so only just saw your message.

When Singer was running around trying to pretend it was a sewing machine company rather than a marketing company they did a bunch of stupid things such as creating the "New" 331 machines. All they did was take the 31 and modify the body.

Shortly after that they went broke.

[Art]

With your truck, or at the Karaoke? The guys down here used to hang out in front of the local Karaoke during open season and wait for the singers to try and come in and shoot them right there till the game warden started writing citations right and left. The good ole boys were complaining that it wasn't a violation 'cause it was open season. The Warden replied that it was true that it was open season, but you still can't bait 'em.

Art

[dikman]

Now THAT is one heck of a hijack!

[dikman]

The hook needed a bit more judicious re-shaping and polishing where I'd already worked on it, as there was an edge that looked a little bit sharp. That seems to have fixed it, as I can now handwheel a row of stitches in a piece of leather. While the baseplate is the same size as the 211G166 (so will fit the table) the belt, of course, is the wrong size and it's a fair bit of messing around to swap the machines. Also, the knee lifter mechanism on this machine doesn't line up with the table's lifter, so no knee lifter. Other than that, it's a goer.

Total cost $45 - hook $26, paint $12, needles $7. Not bad for an industrial machine, I reckon.

[mathy]

I am looking singer 331k4 for stitching leather works 

Or singer that can do leather work without hesitation. Thanks

[Northmount]

12 hours ago, mathy said:

I am looking singer 331k4 for stitching leather works 

Or singer that can do leather work without hesitation. Thanks

You should post in the Marketplace > Wanted section instead of posting on 9 year old posts that have nothing to do with buying or selling a machine.