Has anyone upgraded the Singer 201k from 60 watt to the new 180watt motor

[chrisash]

Just noticed that you can buy a uprated 180 watt motor for singer 201K at under £20 on ebay

I have a 201 that i use on goat vegtan wallets and its rated at 90watt, so wondered if anyone had upgraded and what the results were

[Matt S]

Do you have a particular problem which a more powerful motor might fix? Remember that a more powerful motor doesn't always give you more torque, especially at lower speeds.

[chrisash]

Hi Matt

No it does the thin goat fine as it is , but finding double the power for about £17 i wondered how much extra torque it would give, but no numbers supplied just the watts

Not expecting to make a 3-4 mm machine out of a 201k, but its happy with 1mm goat, may even give it a try on canvas

[mikesc]

My 201 has a treadle..wonderful to use..zen machine..don't want any elastictrickery near it ..

[Gymnast]

Yes, I have got one a 180 W motor on my Singer 201k. But what I got was more a heating element, than a motor. I have with some equipment measured the shaft power of it, and the max power at 230 V was only 52 W at 3800 RPM. Max PRM is at about 12500 RPM. When you buy a motor in this market - and also with servo motors, the watt-value is the input power from the grid. I have not seen how much of it is transformed to shaft power and how much to heat.

The main thing to ask for is what is the weight of the motor. The weigt of the 180 W motor I got is 0.5 kg. The manufacturer like to reduce the costs to copper and iron in the motor. And then the efficiency will be lower (more heat less shaft power). So for at 180 W you shall only accept a motor above 1 kg.

I have not been using my maschine for hard work in longer periodes, so therefore I have not run into overheating. But I think there is a risk for that with such low weight motor. And one or two times I think it became 100 degr.C.

Actually a Chinese manufacturer do make a 250 W motor, and they garanteed a weight of 1.3 kg. So I have considered trying one of those - I would expect the shaft power to be at least 100 W on this:

Link to Aliexpress sewing motor

 

Edited April 29, 2019 by Gymnast
fail

[Gymnast]

By the way... What I found out is, that Down gearing of the machine from the motor will give you much more power. But it required some workmanship. You can find one Picture here:

And one more below:

 

[dikman]

I haven't seen anyone use a speed reducer pulley on a domestic machine before.

[Rockoboy]

I have a 201P in the beige paint job (assembled in Penrith, Australia). Its a standard unit, so whatever it came out with, but it works fine on a few layers of heavy canvas or plastic tarpaulin and 2 layers of seatbelt webbing.

Edited April 30, 2019 by Rockoboy
Added a pic

[Gymnast]

13 hours ago, dikman said:

I haven't seen anyone use a speed reducer pulley on a domestic machine before.

I agree, that it is not common. I have been warned, that the extra stress on the machine may ruin it. I take the risk.

Anyway. I think you can get very high momentary stress on the machine with high speeds, when suddently the hook hits the needle, or when needle hits the needle plate. So in this way gear down can help by reducing speed 

I did actually notice other people have reported gear Down on domestic machines:

http://danielbauen.com/make/index.php/cool-tools/speed-reduction-for-a-belt-drive-sewing-machine/

https://forums.mtbr.com/bikepacking-bike-expedition/vintage-sewing-machines-diy-bikepacking-gear-948319.html (somewhat Down in thread)

And some Kenmores have in build in: https://softsolder.com/2014/07/18/kenmore-158-flipping-the-pulley/