Singer 52w22 questions

[Constabulary]

Cooool - love it!

I hope you don´t overdo it with decals. You sometimes see machines where people add decals where there weren't some ex factory. IMO less is more. But it's of course a personal choice.

[AlizabethThomas]

3 hours ago, Constabulary said:

Cooool - love it!

I hope you don´t overdo it with decals. You sometimes see machines where people add decals where there weren't some ex factory. IMO less is more. But it's of course a personal choice.

It's completely finished here. I spend so much time looking for parts I actually need that decals and stuff like that are just a waste of time. I wanted something easy on the eyes, and logos don't help that look. Plus, since I had to sand and respray about 7 times, I'm not going to risk messing up the satin finish again with any kind of decal.  

[Wyowally]

Beautiful work, Elizabeth! Curious what paint and other products you used. I used Duplicolor wheel paint, satin. Constabulary - decals or not is a personal thing. I like to have minimal decals and don't care if they are perfect matches for what the factory did. I'm not doing a museum restore. Looks like this is Singer restore week here     Constabulary, you're probably aware, but here we have people doing "de-badging" - removing all the bling, badges, extra anything on the exterior of their vehicles. 

Edited May 10, 2021 by Wyowally
typo

[AlizabethThomas]

1 hour ago, Wyowally said:

Beautiful work, Elizabeth! Curious what paint and other products you used. I used Duplicolor wheel paint, satin. 

 

Rustoleum satin, thinned with Xylene. It's what was in the old school spray paint and magic markers. Volatile enough to dry fast, viscous and stable like mineral spirits. None of that crazy brittling, curdling, or evaporating to the point of no longer knowing how thin it still is, or drying around the edges causing dry particles to form or redissolve from/back into the paint side effects like with lacquer thinner or acetone.

Edit: used 400-500 grit to featheredge after stripping the old outer layer of cheap oil. Under that was what seemed like powdercoat (sanding it produced a reddish powder reminiscent of a powdercoat primer I used to sand and paint at a factory job I had). Sanded reaally well and finished with 600 grit. When I used the 600 enough that it left no previous marks from coarser papers, it's marks were invisible under one sprayed coat. I did resort to paper as coarse as 220 to get rid of some major crusty layers, and paid dearly in redo time with the marks left.

Edited May 10, 2021 by AlizabethThomas

[shoepatcher]

contact Diamond Needle in NJ, the Organ distributor in the US about needles for the 52W22.  your needle system is indeed 128x3 rd point, 128x4 leather point.

 

glenn

Edited May 11, 2021 by shoepatcher

[AlizabethThomas]

On 5/11/2021 at 11:00 AM, shoepatcher said:

contact Diamond Needle in NJ, the Organ distributor in the US about needles for the 52W22.  your needle system is indeed 128x3 rd point, 128x4 leather point.

 

glenn

That's what I ordered, or was searching for when I bought this small sample pack I have here. It's going to take me a while to learn needle sizing equivalences. This pack says 128x22TRI. The thing that seems strange is that it has another short grooved area where the scarf would normally be cut out. The one needle in the machine had a scarf there, both sew. I'm not sure which one was more correct. My listing says 128x21 128x3 128x1128x22 for Singer 11w 21w1 51w where I purchased them (ebay) and has been the most reliable place to order. I looked at Diamond's website and they only allow me to purchase $32 of these at a time. It does also clarify 128x3 or 4 as, or give the conversion to, 128x22TRI there as well. I just wonder about the scarf. The cast, machined segments that make up the post of the machine are spaced a bit further apart than show in the old school hand-illustrated "stock photo" of it's manufacturing day, so I am thinking the hooks could be spaced to compensate for no scarf; couple MM on either side further from the needle. Note the gap/no gap in the photo collage. So I am cuirous about this feature of the machine and it's currently available needles compared to what was available originally; if there is a difference. 

Edited May 15, 2021 by AlizabethThomas
tried to make text all same size...

[shoepatcher]

early needles did not have a scarf.  You had  a long groove and a short grove where the scarf now is.

glenn

[Constabulary]

That's why I upgraded my 51w with a new needle bar so it can use 135x17 needles or generally common needles with a 2mm shaft. Almost all of my machines I have set up to 135x17 / 135x16 needles so I don´t have to stock different needle of all kind and sizes. Makes sewing life a bit easier

Edited May 16, 2021 by Constabulary

[AlizabethThomas]

12 hours ago, Constabulary said:

That's why I upgraded my 51w with a new needle bar so it can use 135x17 needles or generally common needles with a 2mm shaft. Almost all of my machines I have set up to 135x17 / 135x16 needles so I don´t have to stock different needle of all kind and sizes. Makes sewing life a bit easier

You showed us where to get the adapter for the laterally flat shank foot to the square post in another thread (which I will be adding to my cylinder bed sometime), can you show us what needle bar to buy? There is a guy who made a youtube video on the new style needle bar with threaded, screw-in needle block and timing reference marks etched into it, added to his needle feed double needle flat bed vintage industrial Singer. Just not sure which one to look for for our 51/52 series machines. Or the search criteria. I tend to spend way too much time looking, it's a confusing world of sewing machine parts out there. 

[Constabulary]

Do you have a link to that video? Screw in type needle holder is the most common nowadays. Well I do not know your needle bar. Is the needle holder replaceable - probably? If yes maybe you can just replace the needle holder and you are done. But I don´t know your machine...

If not then the NB diameter also matters. The timing marks do not work when you install the NB in a foreign machine but that does not really matter.

Well, a double needle machine is a different story. I have single needle machine and used a needle bar from a Dürkopp machine which I had in my spare parts box and because it was shorter than the OEM NB I had to install a longer NB Guide. I´m not sure if you want to go that way. It may require drilling out the casting if you cannot find a NB guide with the correct length and diameter.

If I was in your position and cannot replace the needle holder then I would look for a Singer 212 needle bar. I´m not sure maybe there is a double needle bar which is longer but I don´t know so my choice would be a Singer 212 NB. Then you need a needle holder with the correct needle distance that matches your needle plate.

Needle bar:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/153445408972

For the needle holder you most likely have to buy a whole 212 gauge get with correct needle distance - not sure what your needle distance is

https://www.ebay.com/itm/142635430976

Edited May 17, 2021 by Constabulary