Treadle refurb.

[leecopp]

Here is another option for squeezing an industrial size machine onto an domestic treadle. Photos and idea with permission of Bruce Day. Simple axle and sheeves move the drive outside of the the frame

More Pictures at https://sites.google.com/site/oldironmachines/home/bruce-days-treadle-mod

 Sorry about the huge pictures ...

Lee

 

 

 

 

[dikman]

Interesting link, Lee, that guy's pretty serious!

Anyhow, nearly finished - I think.

Works much easier with the 331K4. One minor drawback with this setup is that the needle is almost in line with the left hand leg, so I tend to sit a bit funny at the table. I'm also thinking that a larger handwheel (and pulley) might make it easier to use.

Have to fit the drip tray, paint the edges of the table and fit the drop-down part on the left side of the table (not really necessary but it was already fitted to the original table). And a spool holder. And a light of some sort. I've decided I don't like the little steel wheels on it, everything shakes and vibrates when I move it!! I'm thinking of a couple of wooden bearers under the feet with some casters/wheels, but I'm going to have to off-set the casters otherwise it will raise it too much (I think Uwe did something similar).

[cdthayer]

Your rig is looking good dikman.  You might try learning to treadle with just your right foot.  That’s how I operate all of my treadles.  My wife is learning to operate her Singer 78-3 needle-feed to do straight-line quilting with just her right foot, and has been having good luck.  Of course, she’s just sewing through cotton layers with it, so there’s very little resistance.  The ease and smoothness of about any treadle rig will depend upon the material being sewn.  I sew mostly wovens and vinyls with my treadles, and they work great for that.  Sewing a zipper into a pair of leather shotgun chaps was stiffer-going than sewing zippers into insulated overalls, although still very do-able.  

During my experimentation, my Singer 111W153 treadled very nicely in my Singer industrial treadle, until I put a couple of pieces of belt-thickness veg-tanned leather under the foot, then I had to push so hard that I was afraid that I was going to break something.  The density of the material that you’re driving your needle through will make a big difference to the ease of the operation.  The size of the needle will make a difference too, of course.

I like the looks of Bruce’s Singer 31-15 household treadle that Lee posted.  Thanks Lee.  The only treadle rig using an industrial head in a household stand that I have is the 78-3 mentioned above.  I have one Singer industrial treadle that has a household flywheel in it that I used for a while to power my Singer 16-41, and liked the way that it operated.  For my kind of work, I think that the smaller flywheel is a benefit to slower speed without losing too much power.  I ran out of room to have all of my treadles set up, the top on this treadle was not too good, so I switched the 16-41 into a regular Singer industrial treadle stand that used to hold my 31-15 roller foot machine.

CD in Oklahoma

 

[dikman]

Thanks CD. One problem I have is that the handwheel is too small. None of my other handwheels will fit, as they have a 1/2" bore and the shaft on this machine is actually slightly larger than 1/2". I have a few options - bore out one of the handwheels to fit this shaft (but then it wouldn't fit anything else), find a suitable steel disc and turn a handwheel to bolt onto the existing wheel, likewise with a piece of aluminium, cast an aluminium handwheel or turn one from wood and bolt it to the pulley. I'm going to have to give this some thought.

I've also come to the conclusion that this setup will only be suitable for cloth and/or light garment leather - no big deal really.

(I just saw an old White treadle machine for sale for $100. It has a bigger drive wheel and would be nice to play with, but I'm not game to say anything to my wife!!!).

[Yetibelle]

5 minutes ago, dikman said:

Thanks CD. One problem I have is that the handwheel is too small. None of my other handwheels will fit, as they have a 1/2" bore and the shaft on this machine is actually slightly larger than 1/2". I have a few options - bore out one of the handwheels to fit this shaft (but then it wouldn't fit anything else), find a suitable steel disc and turn a handwheel to bolt onto the existing wheel, likewise with a piece of aluminium, cast an aluminium handwheel or turn one from wood and bolt it to the pulley. I'm going to have to give this some thought.

I've also come to the conclusion that this setup will only be suitable for cloth and/or light garment leather - no big deal really.

(I just saw an old White treadle machine for sale for $100. It has a bigger drive wheel and would be nice to play with, but I'm not game to say anything to my wife!!!).

[dikman]

This is pretty well the finished product (other than making the bearers to fit under the little wheels, may take some time).

Now I just have to learn to treadle!!

[cdthayer]

Looks good.  Nice job.

CD in Oklahoma

[patria]

@dikman

Your thread inspires me to hunt down my own treadle iron stand

 

Edited March 11, 2017 by patria

[dikman]

Buried somewhere in that vast warehouse, maybe?

[suzelle]

Kewl! Does that machine sew in reverse? I like that fold down you added! Push that metal on the treadle!!!! Whoo hoo!