Monday, March 12, 2012

Notched Handwheel Gone Awry

Rumor has it that you can cut a notch in a Singer handwheel and attach a hand crank to it.  This should do two things:
  • save the extra bucks that the spoked handwheel costs
  • allow the bobbin winder to function (it won't with the spoked wheel)
Heather kindly volunteered her husband to cut the notches as part of a barter.  The notches are notches, can't see how anything could be wrong with them.  But the finger on the hand crank is just too short to seat securely in the notch.  It looks more or less OK until you go to use it, then it immediately slips out of place.

Singer 99 notched wheel and handcrank

In place

Out of place
 And yes, the notch is wider than the finger, but that should not matter.  By the way, he also cut a notch in a Singer 237 handwheel, which is thicker, and that works on the 237.  In that case also the notch is a bit wider than the finger.

Any ideas?

thanks in advance,
Cheryl
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3 comments:

  1. Sarah MartinMarch 12, 2012 at 12:45 PM

    I wonder if you could weld a short length of pipe into the notch...that would act as a collar for the handwheel finger.
    I've not tried Sugru putty yet but I also wonder if that would hold up in such an application either in place of welding or by itself to make the collar out of...Hmmm

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  2. Cheryl's Teapots2QuiltingMarch 12, 2012 at 5:08 PM

    What about adding a piece of clear plastic tubing to the finger, to make it longer. That is what has to happen when a New Home is converted to a hand crank. I had to have a special adapter made, and, he also included clear plastic tubing to make the finger longer. It works now.

    ReplyDelete
  3. AnonymousMarch 13, 2012 at 3:26 PM

    $12 for a spoked handwheel isn't too much, compared to a one-way conversion of an otherwise nice looking machine.

    ReplyDelete

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