I found 2 old Singer machines for sale

[TomWisc]

I am not familiar with old Singer machines but I thought I would throw this out to you all. I have not seen these machines yet so I have limited info from the seller who knows nothing about the machines. He apparently got them from cleaning out an old house being put up for sale. Local sale of Singer 43-5, head only, looks rough, wheel only turns about 1/2 way around. No table. 

The other machine is a Singer 211W155. From the pictures I can't tell much about the machine except it doesn't look too beat up. I don't know if it has a motor or table. Just a picture of the model number and machine top.

Like I said, I do not know much about these machines, or old Singer machines for that matter,  so please excuse me if I am not giving much info to go on.

He wants $120 OBO for both.

Is it worth messing with?

[Wizcrafts]

What you call a 43-5 is likely a 42-5, from the 1920s. I have one in my shop. It is a very heavy duty upholstery and chap sewing machine with an early walking foot system with a spring loaded presser foot and a static position needle and inside foot and a very aggressive feed dog. It is only capable of sewing up to 5/16 inch of material. It is able to handle very heavy thread, if you have needles in the appropriate sizes (the original system is now obsolete). It uses an odd size bobbin that is also obsolete. Hopefully, original bobbins and needles will accompany the machine.

The 211w155 is a compound feed walking foot machine. Here are search results about this machine on Leatherworker.net.

[Handstitched]

Yep, buy them   As we say in Oz, " bloody oath !!"  At that price, they're worth messing around with .  The Singer 211w155 looks a bit like the Seiko STW's .   They may just need a bit of TLC .......and a few litres of oil    It may also be a good opportunity for you to learn about these old Singers . 

Go on, be brave  

HS 

[machinehead]

Is the 43-5 a flat bed or cylinder arm machine? If it is a cylinder it could prove very useful depending on the work you intend to do.

[TomWisc]

Thanks for the replies.

Wiz, the 43-5 has a model number tag that says 43-5. He sent a picture of that. So could that be a 42-5 with the 43-5 tag?

It is a cylinder arm machine. I am not sure if needles and bobbins are included. I may go look at the machines today but right now, in sunny wisc. it is 10 below zero! Brrr!

[machinehead]

This may be helpful. Take note of the shuttle and bobbins. hopefully they are included with the machine. https://www.recyclart.org/restored-singer-industrial-sewing-machine/

[Constabulary]

Just now, machinehead said:

https://www.recyclart.org/restored-singer-industrial-sewing-machine/

Wow - now that's a machine I never have seen or even heard of.

Looks like a Singer 17 with either jump foot or driven top feed and with oscillating barrel hook as used on the 45K (or maybe a bit smaller type).

Very cool find!

$120 OBO? I would buy them in a heart beat!

 

[TomWisc]

Thanks for the link, machinehead, very interesting.

Unfortunately he does not have the table for the machine, only the machine head, but still sounds like it is worth giving it a look.

 

[CowboyBob]

The 43-5 is a cylinder arm version of the 42-5  they have different shuttles.

[TomWisc]

The adventure begins! Got both machines for $80. I have to unload them and check them out. I will take some pictures later or tomorrow.

[CowboyBob]

Good deal,can't go wrong @ that price!

[TomWisc]

Thanks Bob. I think first thing is to get educated as to how they are supposed to work. I will check the forum for what info I can find and get whatever manuals are available for these machines.

 

[mikesc]

Congratulations :)

[dikman]

Great buy! Now comes the fun.

[Handstitched]

At $80, thats a bargain . Good luck with them , you've got us all intrigued  now    So the journey begins . 

HS 

[TomWisc]

So I have been checking out the Singer 211W155 tonight. Spending a lot of time looking at stuff on this forum and also just general machine cleaning. As I turn the pulley everything moves so smoothly. It is not connected to a motor. So I thought why not try to sew a few stitches by moving the pulley by hand. The machine came with a leather needle. I put some 138 nylon thread through the needle and stitched 2 pieces of bison 6 oz together. It worked flawlessly. I changed the stitch size from 6 spi to 10 spi and worked fine. 

When I picked up the machine it had 2 internal parts in a bag taped to the machine. They look old and worn. Why would someone do that? So being the eternal optimist, I thought maybe the prior owner had the machine repaired, and these were the parts that were replaced. So tomorrow I will clean the dust, etc. off the machine and oil everything.

I guess time to price a table and servo motor! I do have a local industrial machine dealer so I may bring it to him to go over it also.

 

[dikman]

It's stitching, so there can't be too much wrong with it. At that price you've done extremely well.

[Evo160K]

TomWisc, this may be useful:

 http://dixiesewing.com/MANUALS/SINGERPARTS2/43-1%20-%2043-6.pdf

[jimi]

On 2/14/2020 at 3:51 PM, Constabulary said:

Wow - now that's a machine I never have seen or even heard of.

Now i would have thought you saw them in this picture i uploaded a while back? 

[TomWisc]

8 hours ago, Evo160K said:

TomWisc, this may be useful:

 http://dixiesewing.com/MANUALS/SINGERPARTS2/43-1%20-%2043-6.pdf

Thanks for the link to the parts manual.  I'm sure it will help a lot.  I looked up the machine age in the Singer serial number index and it looks like it was built in 1911.

[TomWisc]

I am trying to find the serial number on this Singer 211W115  that I got a couple days ago. Also wondering if silver is the original color. The machine has the Singer model number tag with a Singer logo tag above the model number tag. Can anyone help me with the location of the serial number?