Delta/Rockwell Homecraft Drill Press from the '40s

I needed... OK, "needed" may be a little strong. I desired to have a drill press for the garage because, well, you know, everyone needs (oops, there I go again) a drill press in their garage. This one popped up on the local Craigslist, and was advertised as made by Montgomery Ward. I took a look at the photos and tried to determine what model of Montgomery Ward it was. No joy. I then did a search using one of the casting numbers on the main body of the drill press (HDP125) and got many hits regarding Homecraft/Delta drill presses. Hmm. Is that what this one was?

As I've said before, I like the look of a green machine. - Elna Supermatic

As I mentioned in the previous blog post, the gentleman I bought my latest Singer 319W from also threw in an Elna sewing machine for free. And it was a Supermatic to boot. Score!

Singer 319W - What a cool 50's machine!

I already have one Singer 319W but it is not the most attractive of colors. It's a beige crinkle finish, but it was the color that came up for sale when I was looking for a 319W a few years back. Here's a photo of it.

Recently though, this mint green 319W showed it's face on Craigslist (yeah I know, why do I keep looking). Shiny two-tone mint green is much more pleasing to my eye.

Finally bit the bullet and got a Featherweight - Singer 221-1

Like many people that find sewing machines fascinating, the Singer Featherweight 221 is among those machines near the top of the list for acquiring. I'm no different. What to do, what to do....... Yes, I finally did the dastardly deed and bought one off Craigslist. It's hard finding a good one with a case for under $300 but in my case, patience paid off.

Singer 50D - SewHandy Electric

I've gotten to the point that I don't buy every cheap sewing machine I come across. There are exceptions though, and here's one I couldn't pass up. A Singer SewHandy Electric model 50D, for the princely sum of $4.99 plus tax.

Seneca Falls "Star" 10-inch lathe - cross slide chip guard

I have an old lathe in the basement, keeping the sewing machines company. The lathe is a little over 100 years old. How do I know that, you ask? It has several patent dates cast into the bed and the most recent is 1910 (the oldest is 1895). If it were made in 1916 or after, it would have a 1916 patent date also.

Recently I did get a new-to-me toy in the garage too. A Smithy lathe/mill:

Can you say "Rocketeer"? - Singer 500A -

Yes, I finally added a Singer model 500A to my ever-growing stash of sewing machines. Ok, I do have one other 500A but it's missing parts. These are called a Rocketeer, obviously due to their shape, and the 500 is the next iteration in the line of Singer's finest back in the early 60s.

Good deals are still out there. Singer 403A "Slant-O-Matic Special".

Ok, so maybe one man's junk is another man's treasure, and thus many may not consider five bucks for a 55-year-old sewing machine a "good deal". I, however, do. Take for instance this fine Singer 403A I picked up yesterday. Apparently the thrift store had been storing it long enough that they decided it needed to be in the half-off section of the store. And fortunately for me a friend was watching out for my best interest (debatable?), and emailed me a photo of four sewing machines at a particular thrift store 20 miles away. Here's the one that caught my eye, and it was the cheapest of the lot.

Should I create a new blog? Nah.

For this next entry I wondered if I should branch off and create a completely new blog for things that I want to write about that aren't sewing machine related. I actually went so far as to create the new blog, but then I contemplated....... and decided to just write about things outside the realm of Sewing Machine-dom on this blog. I actually have done that once or twice in the past, but I may do it more often from now on. So without further ado, here we go.

We have a camper. A truck camper to be more precise in RV lingo. Growing up I'd just called them campers though. So to me it is still just a camper. And here it be in all its glory, among the redwoods in Northern California. Oh, and there we are too.

The camper is a 2002 Bigfoot 25C8.11 that we purchased used in 2013. The truck is a 1996 Ford F250 4x4, with a 7.3L powerstroke diesel engine, crew cab (4-doors), and a short pickup bed. We also purchased it used, in 2002. The camper is designed specifically for short-bed pickups.

The reason for this blog entry is to document the electric rear steps I just got done installing on the camper.

My newest acquisition - A D9

I know what you're thinking. Isn't a D9 a Caterpillar bulldozer? Well, yes it is, and I'm sure if you did an online search, the first photo to pop up would be a very large shiny yellow bulldozer. But I digress. This isn't a heavy equipment blog. Although Heavy Equipment Nut does have a nice ring to it. But I digress even further.

The D9 that is the subject of this blog is a Wheeler & Wilson from the early 20th century. There is a fair amount of information online regarding the W&W D9. One fact that I read is that it was about 1905 when W&W was bought out by Singer, so any W&W D9s were most likely produced prior to that date.

Here is mine:

RAGS........ 401A

This is sort of a continuation of the last blog posting. And the title probably gave it away (for those sewing machine nuts out there - you know who you are). Here is my second purchase at RAGS.

So there my wife is, standing guard over two sewing machines on the floor at the Rotary Auction Garage Sale, one of them being the Spartan I blogged about yesterday, and the second one is today's subject. A Singer 401A from the late 1950s.

You see, a 401A is one of those sewing machine models that many people think is one of Singer's finest machines ever made. It has many features that make it so desirable, such as a direct-drive gear-drive motor, steel gearing (not belts or cams), rotary hook, hardly a plastic part to be found on it, a host of stitch patterns, and many more. So let's get to the one I picked up for $5 at RAGS.

The outer case is quite a mess, and one latch is broken, so I think this case is a total write-off, but that is one reason it was so cheap. I can look beyond the carrying case.

RAGS........ 192K

I think it's such a clever acronym - RAGS. It stands for Rotary Auction Garage Sale. And fortunately for me, it is an annual event, held in the Kitsap Pavillion.

So there we were, the lovely wife and myself, aimlessly wandering the aisles. My wife spotted a sewing machine case on a table. A lady had her arm on the case so we wondered if she was buying it. She took her arm off it and moved on. Ok, time for me to dive in. Twenty bucks. A little outside my price range. I popped the top and it was a Kenmore, about 1970 vintage. I wasn't interested. But wait, there are two more next to it. Hmm, they look like 70s vintage, a couple Singers. Both $5, and after a little inspection, both in need of repairs, as in they had things broken off. That put a damper on it for me, even though the $5 price for each would probably still be a good buy since they both had motor controllers and they may not take much to get them going. I put up a good fight with myself in my little pea brain though, and persevered. I walked away from them all.

Being just a slight bit disappointed, I started looking around again and just then the dear wife called out my name from a couple tables away. Oooh, what has she spotted but two more sewing machines on the floor under a table and out of people's sight. I like it.

I zipped over and had a look at the cases. They were quite the worse for wear. Here's the first. You can't see it but behind the handle is a large hole. There are also a couple large cracks across the top of the lid. Not to worry, though.

Merry Christmas 2015!

"For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord." Luke 2:11

So, today started out a little hectic. The wife and son are in the emergency room. Son has either appendicitis or (hopefully) something less serious. Blood work seems to indicate it isn't the former, praise the Lord.

Now on to things less important. A good friend's daughter is renting a place and offered to clean out the basement for the owners. She ran across the items below, which made their way to me via a Christmas present. How cool is that!

All these things are for a Class 301 Singer, of which I just happened to pick up not too long ago.
(click here)

First up is a Buttonholer:

Broken timing belt? We have a solution - Singer 111W155.

When I arrived at the 111W155 sewing machine seller's home to take a look at it, she said right off that "the belt broke". I naturally thought it was the main drive belt, not the timing belt. But alas, it was the timing belt. I assumed the upper main shaft had to be removed from the machine to get a new belt onto the shaft. I was taking a bit of a chance buying the sewing machine, not knowing how difficult (or easy as was the case) it would be to replace the timing belt, but I decided to take the leap. Below is a photo of the broken belt.

I ordered a new belt from an eBay seller for $19.95 with free expedited shipping. I got the new belt in 5 or 6 days.

Industrial Strength - Singer 111W155

It's been a long time coming but I finally got my first real-life honest-to-goodness industrial sewing machine. And as the title states, it's a Singer 111W155. This machine weighs in at a portly 61.5 pounds. Yes, that is only the sewing machine head unit. The table/motor is probably another 80 or 90 pounds, although I didn't weigh it. Here she be in all her glory ('scuse the previous owner's dust).

I've sewed through a lot of heavy duty things on my domestic machines such as leather and canvas, and they do quite well, but having a true industrial..... well, it's just cooler to a sewing machine nut such as myself.

Singer 301A LBOW

Another Singer followed me home from a garage sale a couple weeks back. And a model that I haven't owned before, to boot. A Singer 301A. Oh, and the LBOW, you ask? Those that are into the Singer lingo know that it stands for Light Beige / Oyster White, that once-ubiquitous two-tone color combination Singer used so much.

As you can see, this sewing machine needs a bit of cleaning. The lady I purchased it from said it was probably good for parts (!). I was thinking that it seemed to be in pretty nice condition to just become a parts machine.

Singer Golden Touch & Sew Deluxe Zig Zag Model 630

The title says it all. Ok, so maybe it doesn't, but we do know from Singer's name for this machine that it does zig zag stitches. What we don't know until we delve into it is that it has an electronic motor control, which has an automatic needle-up park feature. That's kind of cool. And it has very similar stitch controls to the much-revered Singer 401/500 series. And it has a built-in bobbin winding feature. You simply leave the bobbin in the machine, flip a lever, hit the gas, and don't let up until the bobbin is full. But enough of this. On to the photos, which by the way, were taken before I did anything to clean up the machine.

The carrying case leaves a little to be desired. Instead of gluing down the loose flaps, someone decided it was easier to just rip off the offending flaps. Bummer. But the big S is still proudly displayed.

Domestic 69 Hi Speed

This is an update of my blog post from a year and a half ago, of a Domestic model 69 Hi Speed sewing machine.
(click here to read it)

I'd mentioned in that posting that I was in need of motor parts to get my machine running. A kind man (thanks Keith) emailed me saying he had a 69 that he was getting rid of. He unfortunately lived on the other side of the country so shipping the machine to me would be nearly $50, a cost I wasn't ready to incur. So I asked if he'd want to part with some pieces. We came to an agreement that anything he could fit into a USPS flat rate box was mine for the cost of shipping plus a couple bucks for his time and effort. Here's what I got:

Elna Carina - Together at last!

I had left this poor Elna apart long enough. Time to get all its bits back in place. If I can remember where they all go. The first photo below is the shot that I showed in the previous blog post. I had taken the machine apart to this level to try and sort out a slow-speed jerkiness but didn't get the problem sorted. It's just a minor inconvenience, so back together it goes.

Necchi-Alco A709-4

Ok, so I'm a little delinquent on posting new stuff to this blog. It's been a busy 4 months. Below is a photo I took this morning of my sewing work bench, with a poor Elna that's been all ripped to pieces for 4 months or more, patiently waiting for me to reassemble it. I just hope I can remember where everything goes...

No Grasshoppers here - Elna Carina TSP cl. 56

Wow, it's been a while since I've posted something here (March to be exact, and now it's July). That's what happens when I don't stop at Goodwill stores. So, guess what? I stopped at the local Goodwill last night. And what did I find? Well, there was a Singer 404 for $19.99, some other generic plastic thing for $19.99, and this wonderful *Swiss Made* Elna for a paltry $12.99. As soon as I saw the price on the Elna, I promptly had to take the machine to the closest 120v outlet to see if it worked. Since the "air" foot control was missing its friction end plug, I could only get the machine to briefly go while I held the end of the tube against the air intake and simultaneously pushing the air bulb. The machine showed enough life that I felt confident that my $14.12 (after tax) was well-spent.

Yet another Kenmore - model 385.17928090

There's a reason there are so many older Kenmore sewing machines still floating around the thrift stores these days. They're built well (in my humble opinion) and just seem to keep on going with minimal upkeep. I've been sort of lax on my hunt for sewing machines lately but last night we stopped at the local Goodwill on the way home from dining out (hot date, huh). This Kenmore model 385 had just been put out on the shelf (Goodwill dates their price tags) and at $12.99 I couldn't pass it up. I could have waited a few weeks for the half-off sale but it wouldn't last that long at the low regular price. I have a couple other model 385s and they are both good machines so I figured, hey, one more? Why not.

How to wire in a motor controller

I have a 50s vintage Morse zig zag sewing machine in the basement that has the two plugs coming off the machine, one for the motor and one for the light. Here's what the plugs look like, along with the $2 motor control I picked up at Goodwill to connect up to the machine:

Mini Kenmore - reminds me of tax time coming up - Model 1040

I've heard of these miniature (well, maybe not that small) Kenmore sewing machines but haven't had one in the stable (actually, my basement) until recently. It's probably a 3/4-size machine. Cute little thing. Actually I saw one of these at a Goodwill a month ago but didn't buy it because the outer case was fairly trashed. I ran across the one pictured here last week and decided to take the plunge. It is missing its small tray for accessories, which the other machine had that I didn't buy... Oh well. Can't have everything.

This is a Kenmore 158.1040. Yes, it reminded me of the 1040 tax form. So I'm weird. Deal with it.

Something else has consumed my time lately... a car.

Not just any car, mind you. On the contrary, this is something you don't see every day. A 1966 Plymouth Sport Fury.

Ok, so maybe I should have dressed up a tiny bit for the photo... Just don't tell my wife I'm publishing a photo with "those pants" in it. The pants have since gone to that great pants fantasy land in the sky, much to my wife's delight. But I digress (I seem to do that a lot).

Merry Christmas! German Hand Crank

We sewing machine nuts are usually easy to buy for at Christmas time. Anything sewing machine related is fair game for the giver. This Christmas my wife gave me a cute hand crank sewing machine from the late 1800s/early 1900s. I can't pin down a more precise date because the sewing machine has no maker's name on it. It looks to be German but I'll need to do more digging in order to find out who made it.

What says 1950s more than a PINK sewing machine?

I have no clue as to the distributor of this sewing machine, only that it was made in Japan. It appears either someone took the badge off the front or it never had one. I would guess someone just removed it, or it fell off. It could have been a Brother, Remington or Morse, or any number of other branded machines from the era.

In any event, here it is in all its glory.

BelAir Bantam Model 33

I broke out of my comfort zone when buying this next little guy. It was more than I usually pay at a thrift store but I just couldn't pass it up (and how many previous times have I heard that statement in my brain?).

Green without envy - 1958 Singer 185K

I presume sewing machines don't have feelings, like being envious of other machines around them that might be getting more hands-on time. So it is with this little green guy. He's (I'll just make the assumption that it is a he) content being green without having an envious piece of cast iron in his extremely heavy little body.

More Sewing Machine Window Dressing

First, to make things perfectly clear, I'm not the window dressing. I realized after publishing this that it was a strange title for having me in the first photo. Focus here, it's the machines, not me.

This is quite something. Two stores with sewing machines in the windows in two weeks (see previous blog entry). We happened to be in San Francisco a few days ago and found this:

Nice birthday outing

A few days ago I had a birthday. My loving wife planned that we go to Seattle and visit a certain address downtown. I was driving but had no idea where we were going (I could insert a lame joke right about now, but will refrain). We got off the ferry in Edmonds and hit the local Goodwill since it happened to be on the way. Then onto I-5 south, bound for the big metropolis. We exited I-5 and wound around in the bowels of downtown Seattle. Oh look, there's the Sheraton, where we spent our honeymoon night. Nope, that wasn't the surprise. A few more blocks and we were stopped at a stop light. I wasn't very observant because my wife finally had to point out a building across the intersection...

Reunited at long last... Dressmaker 7000

A couple days ago I mentioned I'd picked up a Dressmaker 7000 at Goodwill.

Dressmaker 650 - built Ford tough

These old sewing machines are nearly indestructible. Take this cast iron Dressmaker 650. I could probably run over this thing with my 6,600 pound Ford F250 4x4 and it would still work. Little bits might snap off or bend and it wouldn't look pretty, but it is so beefy that it would probably still work.

Another banner day at Goodwill - although 'banner' may be a little strong

Thinking in a normal person's terms, snagging three sewing machines in one day would be a banner day. Or possibly a worst nightmare for the spouse of someone bringing home three sewing machines in one day. I guess it depends on your perspective. For me it was a pretty normal haul.

Today being Black Friday, the Goodwill stores in our area had a 50% off sale on any item that had a colored tag. I'm weak, I just couldn't resist. The first Goodwill had a Singer 6212C. I'm not sure if it works yet but it is fairly new so it shouldn't be a problem. Strange thing is, on most of my sewing machine purchases, the lamp on nearly every one of them still works. No extra charge for that tidbit of information. Here's the Singer.

Kenmore's Finest... back in 1949 - Kenmore 117.959

I have a JPG file of an old Kenmore ad that states the model 95 was Kenmore's Finest. Well, what was once the finest machine Sears sold some 64 years ago is now an outcast Goodwill relic.

I was browsing the aisles at the immense Seattle Goodwill by I-90 and came across a small chair that had a couple drawers that slid out to the side. I thought to myself that it looked a lot like a sewing cabinet chair. I slid out one of the drawers and, lo and behold, there were some old Kenmore attachments and an owners manual. I thought it strange that someone would donate just a sewing cabinet chair to Goodwill and not the whole machine.

Just about then my wife asked, "Did you see the sewing machine over here?" She was just on the other side of the shelf unit I was at, so the sewing machine and chair had gotten separated by about 8 feet. I went over to the machine, looked at the cabinet, looked at the chair, looked at the cabinet again. Yep, they go together.

I just couldn't pass up this little treasure trove of history, all in one neat little package, and one neat little price of $12.99 plus tax.

Universal Admiral Class 15 Clone

I have two old black Universal class 15 clones, one a DeLuxe and the other an Admiral. There are some subtle differences, like a feed dog drop feature and the Singer-style stitch length lever on the DeLuxe. I wonder which one is older. I'd guess the DeLuxe is, but I'm not sure. The two machines have very similar decals.

Here's the DeLuxe.

And the Admiral.

Spring Cleaning - in November

I don't know if it was because of the nice young lady that runs "My Sewing Machine Obsession" blog (Elizabeth), or if I'd just had enough of my basement, and more specifically, my "work bench" that got me to do some straightening up. Elizabeth had just blogged how she cleaned up her work area. That may have been just the nudge that made me do something about my sewing machine dungeon.

My "work bench" has been a 3-foot square folding card table (from the 50s I'm sure, with the little tubular steel legs that fold up). When I'd put the pedal to the metal on a machine and it got going full-tilt, the table would also be doing its own little jig. Things would rattle off the table and onto the floor. It was getting annoying.

Back before my sewing machines started reproducing on their own (it seems), most of them fit onto a super-heavy-duty-industrial-strength steel table (telephone company surplus from 40 years ago, back when sturdy really meant something). Well, now that table could be put to better use as my work bench, and I would put the sewing machines on a newly-freed-up storage rack. Brilliant. On a rare occasion I actually have a good idea.

Here's a before shot of the steel table and general area. I guess you can't even see the table buried under the clutter...

Even the best machines have their drawbacks - Pfaff 130

We sewing machine nut-types hear a lot about sewing machines having all metal construction, steel gears, et cetera. I for one like those types of features, so when I was poking around in my latest project, a Pfaff 130, I was more than a little startled to see not one, but two gears that were not steel.

I didn't get photographs of the two offending parts but I can tell you where they are. A white colored nylon gear runs off the upper main shaft and provides the movement for the needle zig zag swing. The gear can be seen if you pull off the back cover of the machine. The second non-steel gear is on the rotary hook shaft. I don't know the technical term for the gear material but I'd call it a fiber gear. It is a brownish color. I did an online search and came up with "Linen Phenolic", which might be what it is.

The two non-steel gears are to me a drawback (albeit a small one) of the Pfaff 130. Then of course there is also the fiber timing belt that drives the lower shaft of the sewing machine. I can fully understand and appreciate that Pfaff chose those materials for the gears and timing belt because of the unique qualities of the materials but it wouldn't be my first choice in a machine that will last several lifetimes only if those parts can withstand the aging process.

Singer 920, you growl too...

I shouldn't have expected any different from the 920 once I started working on it. Especially right after getting the 900 going. I really think it is just the electronic controls for the motors that causes the growl. It isn't unbearable by any means but it certainly is louder than a silky smooth vintage cast iron Singer 15-91.

Singer 900, why do you growl at me?

I'm not sure how popular Singer 900 sewing machines are. Looking at this one, it seems to be very well built, with typical Singer quality in many places (but then there are other places that are a bit lacking). When I first plugged this one in and fired it up, it growled. Wow. What a noise. I'm thinking it is because it has an electronic motor control and running at slow speed seems to make the various parts vibrate loudly. However, once I oiled it up, the growling subsided substantially. It is now a fine running machine.

Elna Transforma - the little sibling to the Supermatic

This here photo below shows the native form of the elusive friction drive tire on an Elna Transforma sewing machine. The highly technical term for this phenomenon is "flat spot". Ah, the dreaded flat spot.

Montgomery Wards Simplicity - Happy Times

You're thinking, "Huh? What's he so happy about?" Most people wouldn't be too happy about a sewing machine that took the better part of a day to get to stitch properly. My Happy-ness is in this next photo:

Singer 403A Completes The Set

I can finally stop my seemingly endless search for Yet Another Sewing Machine (YASM). Ok, I suppose I can't go so far as to say I'm cured of YASM, but having a complete set of a particular model run of sewing machines is something we 'nuts' strive for.

For those that, when they hear the numbers 401 - 403 - 404 and don't have a clue to what those numbers mean, I'll clue you in. What I'm referring to is when Singer was producing what many think are the quintessential sewing machine family, the Singer slant-needle 400-series.

The model 401 was the top of the line Singer in the late 50s. It could do it all, and it could do it without having to pull one cam and insert another. Scads of stitch options (not sure how many but somewhere between 10 and 100) were available merely by turning a couple knobs on the front of the machine. And it could take cams as well. The 403 was the lower-priced variant that only took cams, no built-in stitches were to be had. The 404 was the straight-stitch variant that was for those looking for no frills, or possibly for use in school home-ec classes.

I have no clue how Singer managed to come up with the numbering scheme they used for sewing machines back then. When I'd mentioned 401, 403 & 404 to my wife and daughter, they immediately asked, "What, no 402?" All I could say was, I have no clue why. And Singer made things more convoluted when they introduced the 500-series. There's a 500 (successor to the 401) and a 503 (successor to the 403). Ok, so the 403 and 503 make sense, but where's the 501, 502 and 504? I just don't know.

Well, now that the (very lengthy) preamble is out of the way, here's the subject of today's blog:

The machine pictured above is the illustrious Singer 403A, the "cam-only" version of the 400-family. I had picked up a 401 some years back and not too long ago I found a 404, so this 403 rounds out the 400-series collection.

It came in a portable Singer case that has seen better days, but I think is salvageable with a fair bit of elbow grease, some warm soap and water, and maybe a little glue.

And it even came with a bunch of attachments and 9 cams.

Not a bad haul. The only down side is that the stitch length knob is missing, but there may be one waiting for me on that popular auction site...

Ciphering For Dummies - Or, Making Money The Hard Way, On eBay

I was doing some ciphering on my latest eBay sale (the Singer 237 seen below), and it's not pretty. I got one bid on my sewing machine, so it sold for the starting price of $34.95. It sure could have been better but it also could have not sold. So then I started to break down my costs versus my perceived $34.95 profit.

More Fantasia

I got the Fantasia all back together and was testing the different stitches. I got to the buttonhole settings and noticed the stitch length forward and reverse were different lengths so tried adjusting with the small screw on the back of the machine........ One of the few plastic pieces in the machine happens to be the eccentric cam to balance forward and reverse stitch length for the buttonhole. I'll give you one guess as to what happened.