Make Your Singer Sing (Part 2)
Hello Dear Friends and Readers. This is the continuation of the story of my Singer 66K Lotus Treadle and recovering her to working order.
This follows on from Part 1, here is the link
Make Your Singer Sing (Part 1)
As it can turn out when buying any secondhand items there may well be flaws which are not immediately apparent.
So you can imagine when I brought this machine home, a lovely 66 Singer from 1923 with beautiful Lotus decals, I wanted to use it and sew with it immediately. So after some time of cleaning and oiling I was most disappointed to learn that the treadle would not work. As it turned out there was a crucial screw missing from between the treadle plate and the wheel, so the wheel could not be driven. I tried everything I could think of and nothing worked. It seemed to be quite an unusual screw a short two staged affair, and I could find nothing like it. The Singers are fantastic machines but perhaps in this one it was a bit of a design weakness that the whole thing is dependent on this one screw, much like today’s planed obsolescence.
I made another trip back to where I bought it from but to no avail.
After some time I managed to find someone who said he might be able to help. I sent him a message and heard nothing. Just when I was about to give up on that contact, he sent a message saying he had the screw. So yesterday I drove down there on the chance that it might be the correct one.
When I got there and stepped inside, he had the small part but… I was stunned by the most wonderful display of antique sewing machines I have ever seen in real life. Very old ones from 1860 on. Toy machines, small cast iron machines, beautiful treadles and names of machines I’d never heard of and all in superb condition. Gorgeous drawing-room cabinets, and fabulous wrought iron and rose decals. Sewing puzzle boxes and more, maybe 100 machines, but all in beautiful conditions and beautifully presented and somehow just fitted into their daily household and really just a beautiful bit of sewing history preserved.
Maybe I will need another part so I can go back and visit again!!!
Anyhow I took my little part home. I was pretty sure it was the correct one. I put it in and it was correct. The funny thing is, now looking at the machine, and it’s overall excellent condition, it has occurred to me that maybe that piece fell out a very long time ago because the machine has had little use, or maybe the owner didn’t like sewing. So lucky me with a bit of perseverance I now have the machine working and she is sewing well. I’m looking forward to making a quilt with it.
If you find an old machine you like, don’t give up, just a bit of perseverance may be the key!
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Singer 31K20 Industrial Treadle 1937
All the best,
Susie