HMTATM?* Wheeler & Wilson's No. 8. And two videos!

*How Many Treadles Are Too Many?  Post #3 on this topic.

After a long cozy chat about this machine, you will find videos showing how to thread the upper thread and the bobbin.  Read on down or just scroll down to the familiar YouTube windows.

Best guess on the date: 1878 or 1879, based on interpolating from other people's serial numbers with known sales dates. 

I look at lots of sewing machines online, just as eye candy mostly.  CraigsList and coffee in the mornings.  Shopgoodwill.com.  Sometimes eBay.  I rarely look at treadles anywhere other than CL, but one day I clicked on this machine on shopgoodwill.  It was in a nearby town, the auction was ending that day, and no one had bid.  I got it for $40 without knowing much about it other than it looked older than anything else I had.  I felt sorry for it and wanted to rescue it.

The badge on the bed and the raised No. 8 on the pillar told me that this was Wheeler and Wilson's No. 8.  I shared my score with the folks on treadleon and over the next week an amazing amount of information poured in.

Riley told me that this was the third time it had been listed on shopgoodwill.com.  We have a strict no-mention-of-auctions policy on treadleon, so he couldn't give a shout-out on it.  So maybe I really did save it from the dump.


Bill offered some of the rare needles (but it came with 2 dozen!)

Kevin and Miller provided amazingly detailed technical information about the needles, including advice about what modern industrial needles can be persuaded to work with it.  I have saved every scrap of this information just in case I ever do exhaust my supply of needles.

Phyllis explained the two belt slots in the balance wheel (handwheel) and the flywheel:  one set for speed and the other for slower sewing with more power (for heavy fabrics). She also relayed a statement from a vintage sewing machine guru that this machine was the "Rolls Royce of sewing machines before there was a Rolls Royce."

Shown here with the belt in the outer groove of the flywheel.  Can you see the inner groove?

I used a coil spring steel belt so that I could easily shift the treadle belt back and forth between the wheel slots.

Jennifer and Miller had a conversation about the single rotation hook.  I have read about the different types of hook rotation and have even observed some of them, but confess I have no idea of the significance---yet.  There is always more to learn and I am in no hurry.  Just floating down the stream of sewing machine lore.

color added so that you can see where the take up lever is

Kelly gave me a useful tip about sewing on this machine.  The take up lever, which is on the right rather than the left, is pulled to the left if you remove the material in that direction.  Then when it is free (when you cut the threads) it swings back to the right, taking your thread right along with it---and right out of the needle.    Hold onto those thread tails.
 

Miller (who has recently helped to found a Wheeler and Wilson yahoo group) provided lots of information.  He told me where to find the serial number.  It had been on a cover plate, now missing, but is also engraved on one of the ledges that holds that plate.  He described the two different bobbin case possibilities and I found that I have the older one.  He gave me a vital tip about the bobbin (thread comes off the bottom towards you). 

The bobbin mechanism was filthy and completely gummed up to the point of being frozen.  No repairs were needed, but I did have to disassemble the bobbin mechanism in order to clean it.  Its always SO satisfying to bring a machine back from the dead. 

I saved all the emails from my treadlon friends in a document, which is why I can remember who said what in such detail.  Sadly I don't remember who pointed me to the link to the pdf of the manual, or where I found it.  This was almost a year ago.

bobbin winder bracket

I also don't remember who explained the bobbin winder to me.  If you go back and look at the pictures above, you will see it with the other goodies.  And if you look at the machine head you will see that there is no place for the bobbin winder to go.  That's because it sits in a bracket on the treadle frame and rides on the flywheel.  It has to have a tire, and the largest one I have will fit but is really not quite big enough and tends to pop off.  But it works well enough to wind a bobbin.










Bobbin winder in bracket, shown without the necessary tire.

 Bobbin winder rests on the flywheel.





Thank you, thank you, thank you to everyone who helped me, those mentioned above and anyone else I forgot to mention.  The unfolding of the story of the machine's characteristics was a lot of fun.









It has glass presser feet, wonderful for sewing visibility.  And an idea that did not come around again until clear plastic presser feet were developed---when?  1970's?  1980's?  Let me know if you know.














and it came with a whole set---every foot mentioned in the manual, although one of them is chipped.

and here is the whole set of goodies.  It would be fabulous is that were a dated receipt, but it isn't.

The machine is fascinating because all of the workings, which on later machines were encased in cast iron, are all out in the open and you can watch it all moving.

I would never have figured out the threading of this machine without the manual.  Even with it, it took me a while.  Couldn't find a YouTube video of the threading of this machine, so I made one myself.  These are my FIRST YouTube videos (cue the horns, bells, flutes and crashing cymbals).




On more modern machines, the tensioner has two discs that move freely, with a spring holding them together.  The more tightly wound the spring, the more pressure on the discs, and the tighter the tension. 



On this machine there are also two discs, but they are fixed together as one piece.  They spin around as the thread feed through. The manual refers to this as the "tension pulley".  There is a leaf spring in front of them.  So how does increasing the tightness of the spring increase the tension on the thread?  My best guess is that increasing the tension slows down the speed at which the tension pulley spins around.

You wrap the thread around the tensioner one and a half times, btw.  That's just one of the things that I could never have figured out for myself.

There is a removeable panel to the right of the machine head.

Removing the panel gives you access to the bobbin area.

Lifting off the panel reveals a shallow box underneath.  This serves as a drawer.











I took this treadle out to an event with my quilt guild.

Lots of machine and hand quilting going on

Saturday, March 16 was National Quilt-In Day, and the Alamance Piecemakers Quilt Guild sponsored an event at Brookwood Retirement Home in Burlington, NC.  And I can't remember ever typing a sentence with that many capital letters before.  It was co-sponsored by another local guild, a recently created one and I apologize for forgetting their name.

Kathy, cutting fabrics for charity quilts

Guild members came and went throughout the day, doing a variety of quilty tasks.  Lots of plastic sewing machines, two Featherweights, and my treadle.

Residents of the retirement community were invited to stop in and see what we were doing.

look at the flywheel spinning!

Compared to a Singer treadle, the Wheeler and Wilson No. 8 is nice and petite.  I threw a piece of plywood down on a mechanics creeper and made a platform for a traveling treadle.  Borrowed the DH's van with a wheelchair lift.  Took the head out of the machine and laid the treadle down flat in the back of the van, and took it over to Brookwood.

All of that worked well enough, although the creeper/plywood platform thing can be vastly improved, and will be.









The cover plate next to the needle plate is missing.  A piece of the outer wrapper of a bar of Lindt chocolate covers the moving parts beneath.  Until I come up with something better.

The machine called forth lots of memories from the people who stopped by.  A Singer would have been even better for the nostalgia factor, but managing one by myself would not be fun. 

How about your treadles?  Do you ever take them anywhere?  How do you move them around if you do? Where do they go?

The DragonPoodle Economic Model. And A Treadle.

Myra, at my house, working on a Singer 27

Myra brought her "new" Singer 27 over and we took a look at it.  Got it oiled and turning freely, talked about what else can be done with the exterior.  But we never got it to make a decent stitch.  Swapped out bobbins, shuttles, and even the tensioner (!!!!!!) with a 27 of mine.  No luck.  My 27 is also new-to-me, and I haven't tried sewing with it yet, so who knows, maybe they both have bad tensioners.  We haven't given up, and I'm ordering new springs for both, so we will try again.

Myra's 1906 Singer 27 with Tiffany decals

But in the meantime, Myra wants a pretty machine for her treadle.  It was a birthday present from her dad, her husband got it put back together and they put new veneer on the top.  She restored the rest of the finish and it looks terrific.
 

Have you ever replaced the veneer on a sewing machine cabinet?  They did a great job.

They have worked on the color match since this photo was taken.

So I sold her one of my personal treasures, a Singer 66 with Lotus decals, brown variant.  I bought it for its good looks because I really don't like sewing on a 66--a fact which I fully disclosed to Myra before closing the deal, which included a certain amount of money and the rest in fresh eggs from her hens.

Singer 66, Lotus decals, before I restored it.  It is even prettier now, as you will see in the photo below.

Now it is Myra's Lotus!

I would have taken just eggs, but it is often hard to explain the DragonPoodle economic model to normal people.  Well, I explain it, but obviously it does not make sense to anyone but me. 
 

1909 Singer 66 Lotus in a 1906 treadle.  They make a lovely couple, don't you think?

When I figured out that I would never make any money

• selling crafts, or
• restoring sewing machines

I had a flash of revelation (no kidding) that went thusly:

 "instead of trying to make money, why not try to avoid making money?"

followed by a vague misty feeling that I had found a Path.  Even I thought I was crazy, though.

But it works.  When I can keep money out of the equation it changes everything. 

I do have to pay money to acquire sewing machines, though, so I don't mind selling them.   Money does have its uses.

However I would MUCH rather have fresh eggs from the hens of someone I know than money.  Much.

Bartering is part of the DragonPoodle economic model, but it goes farther than that.  It also includes not charging money for doing things I really want to do, like spending an afternoon with a friend with our fingers all greasy and dirty cleaning a sewing machine from 1906. 

And because I'm avoiding making money, it's easy to turn down people who want me to fix their sewing machines.  Unless they want to come over here and disassemble it with me.   That's not work, that's entertainment.

Back to the Lotus:
we were initially puzzled by the bobbin winder.  I tried the largest tire I had, and it didn't fit.

Then I realized that the bobbin winder rides on the treadle belt. 

So how do you know if there isn't a belt or bobbin tire in sight?  It's easy once you know how.  Just like everything.

If the groove in the bobbin winder and the groove in the hand wheel line up with one another, then don't bother trying out the bobbin tires!

The angle of this photo makes then look a bit off, but they are straight on.

There are ridges on the edges of the bobbin winder groove, another clue that a treadle belt is meant to be grabbed there.

The bobbin winder is nowhere near the handwheel on the Singer 27.  It is mounted low on the pillar.
Here's Myra's 27 again.

BTW, that's one difference between a 27 and a 127:  on the 127 the bobbin winder is mounted higher, and does come into contact with the handwheel, and takes a bobbin tire.

And here's a closeup from my 1896 Singer 27.  

The groove for the treadle belt on the handwheel and the groove on the bobbin winder align perfectly.

You push the bobbin winder up into contact with the belt (belt not shown here, obviously) to wind the bobbin and push it back down to disengage it.

if two grooves align, no tire needed

Here's a more modern Singer 66.  This machine only missed going to Afghanistan by one day, but that's another story.

There is a motor belt in the handwheel groove, it looks gray in the photo.  To the right of it is the bobbin winder tire,which is riding on a flat place on the handwheel.

So if the groove in your bobbin winder lines up with a flat place on the handwheel, you need a bobbin tire for it to ride on.




if its flat, you need a tire!

Spoonflower. YES,it really IS that awesome

Just got back from a fabric swap at Spoonflower.  If you don't know Spoonflower, you should.  Go and look at their site RIGHT NOW.  Of course if you do, I probably won't see you again for days.....

They print custom fabrics and wallpapers.  You can design your own, or you can buy fabric designed by other Spoonflower customers.  You can keep your designs private, or you can share them with the world and earn money if anyone else buys them.

They have ten different natural fabrics, wallpaper and wall decals, and they gave us a booklet of swatches.

The possibilities are endless. Any image you create can be printed on fabric.  Anything.  I've been thinking about DragonPoodle labels.  Take a look at their site.  Amazing fabrics.  Amazing crafty items, all printed and ready to cut and sew.

The fabric swap was not of Spoonflower leftovers, sad to say.  They don't own any of the designs (the designer/customers do), and they print out on demand so there are no leftovers and nothing for then to sell.  They shred and recycle any misprints, so no "seconds" either.  I really, really wanted to hijack the giant bin of scraps headed to the shredder.

And because they don't own the designs, I can't show you photos of the awesome fabrics being printed or cut in front of our eyes.  A bright floral with a modern vibe.  Star Wars Death Stars arranged in a grid.  A periodic table of the elements.  Some pink Daleks.  Cut-and-sew globes. Cut-and-sew cute animals. 

We were permitted to photograph anything hanging on the walls.

We didn't get to walk around and fondle the giant computerized printers, but we could see them clearly through the glass walls of the printing room.  I just LOVE factories.  Making stuff on the grand scale.

Printers were running by themselves, but I'll bet it is a lot busier in there during the work week.

The woman whose face is not obscured is Becca, who organized the event and gave us the tour.  Thanks, Becca!

There are so many small pieces of interesting fabrics in here that this photo does even begin to convey the full scope of the bounty.  As a "spring cleaning" swap it would have to be counted a dismal failure, since I brought home twice as much fabric as I took.  There were still piles and piles of fabric there when we all left and it will be donated to the Scrap Exchange. 

I had a great time hanging out with Kathy from Alamance Piecemakers Quilt Guild.  We originally met at the guild, but discovered that we both grew up in the same town in Ohio.  And I was sorry to miss meeting Ginger, a local follower of this blog who alerted me to this event but then couldn't make it.

I really don't know how to convey in words how much fun this was.  I thought about going back and putting the word AWESOME after every sentence. That would just about do it.

Now go to their website if you haven't already done so.  Have a hanky ready if you have a tendency to drool.

SPOONFLOWER 

Facebook page too

ahhhhhhh...............fabric................

A Visit To The Metal Scrap Yard

just a quick update

DD Em is down from her mountain town and helped me haul 5 dead cast iron sewing machines to the metal scrap yard today.  I had previously stripped them of everything useful to me.  They were all well and truly dead.  Do I sound defensive?  (Yes)  Am I feeling guilty?  (No, not really)

We had a good time wending our way through Durham's industrial district.  The actual place was on a gravel road off of another gravel road.  Pretty far back in there.

Wish I had pictures, but this was the most security-conscious place I have been outside an airport.  Our license plate number was recorded.  My driver's license was recorded and checked against a database.  THEN they scanned my index fingerprint.  Never had that happen before.

So, no pics, but you can check out their website:  Always Buying Scrap.  There is even a video.

It was very, very cool.  We spotted the corner where they were obviously hoarding things too good to be melted down (cool old metal 1950s chairs, large spoked wheels, and what looked like some kind of giant grinder.  Rick of American Restoration would have loved it).

The three different guys we talked to were all great--friendly and helpful.  They butted each machine up against a tubular magnet about 3 feet tall and 4 inches in diameter.  I could have told them they were iron!   Then they put them on a platform scale all together.  Printed out a ticket.  I took the ticket into a little booth (again very secure) and slid it into a slot.  And my astonishing payout emerged from the ATM.

So what were my ill-gotten gains for wanton sewing machine destruction, you ask?

Twelve dollars.  Not apiece, $12 for all five.

We had spotted a diner on the way in, so we went there and blew the whole thing on brunch.  Actually, it wasn't enough to cover brunch for two at Joe's Diner. 

And if it weren't for looking up the link for YOUR benefit, dear readers, I would never have discovered that Joe's Diner is not just a corner diner in the heart of Durham's industrial district.  It is also a magnet for celebrities.  Here's a partial list of the photos of happy Joe's customers:
Spike Lee
MC Hammer
Katie Couric
Matt Lauer
Earth, Wind, AND Fire.  Yes, all of them
Emeril
Usher
Charles Barkley

for some reason they did not ask to take our pictures while we were there.  perhaps they did not know who we were!

Yet Another Electric Treadle

Walked into my favorite charity shop a couple of weeks ago, and lo and behold, another version of the electric treadle.

Looks like vintage sewing machine Mecca, doesn't it?  Many of the ones back there are crap machines that have been there for YEARS.  Thrift shops don't have to freshen up their stock!  There are some gems here though.

You may remember that the one I bought had both a full treadle set-up (foot pedal, flywheel, pitman) and a motor controller that could be attached to the pitman.  The logical conclusion is that it began life as a treadle and was later converted to use an electric motor.  And then unconverted back to a treadle.


This one is different.  There is no flywheel.  There is no evidence that a flywheel was ever there.  So, yeah, I know I should not be calling it a treadle.  But except for that missing flywheel, it looks just like a straight leg treadle.

So what is this, some rare early transitional form?  Inquiring minds need to know.

The one I bought had frayed and broken wiring, and the pitman was not connected to the controller.  Now I have a nice photo if I ever want to refurbish mine. 

One of the many things that keep me hooked on this hobby:  There are many different things to look at, think about, learn.  Fascinating, relatively meaningless things.  None of it has to be taken seriously.  The fate of the world, the country, the state, the family are NOT AFFECTED in any way.  It's very soothing.  

Just another (potentially) pretty Red Eye.  I don't have one since the family treadle went to live at DD A's.  And I have always been partial to this particular cabinet style.  But I didn't buy it.  Not yet, anyway.

And now a word about blog comments.  Yahoo sometimes tells me when you post comments, and sometimes it does not.  I do like to respond, so I often have to do it here rather than by email.  You have the option to "subscribe by email" to the comments section on each blog post if you want to read my response to you.  And the comments by readers can be the best part of the post!

HMTATM? Davis New Vertical Feed

...continuing to explore the question "How Many Treadles Are Too Many?"  In the last post I justified my latest (and cheapest) purchase, now living in the studio as a student treadle easily converted back and forth from people power to electric power.

I joined treadleon shortly after being bitten by the vintage sewing machine bug.  Started hearing about all kinds of machines I never knew existed.  As soon as I discovered that there was a machine named
Davis, I knew I had to have one.  My maiden name was Davis.  The more I read about them the better they sounded.

Every morning with my coffee I read the digests from various sewing machine bulletin boards, and look at CraigsList sewing machines both near and far in North Carolina.  Ah, retirement.  I spotted a Davis in a town far away.  The listing was up for months, then disappeared.  Six months later the same photos showed up in a CL ad in a town nearby.  The people had moved and brought it into my orbit.  The luck of the Davises, no doubt. 

It had the worst finish of any machine head I have worked on---like sandpaper, and it would have been impossible to sew on.  The wood cabinet was in similar shape.  My usual policy is to do the least I can, but this time I stripped the finish off the cabinet with denatured alcohol, then put a tung oil finish on.  I know NOTHING about wood and woodworking, but ignorance has never stopped me.  Tung oil is super easy and looks age-appropriate in my opinion. The finish on the wood is now smooth as glass.

Now it looks terrific, better than this photo. 

This is now my go-to treadle, and I love it for many reasons.  First, it is just more comfortable than the Singer treadles.  I haven't taken any measurements or tried to figure out why, and it would not matter to any one else if I had.  Certain brands of shoes fit me, other brands the same size just don't.  I think you have to try on machines the same way you try on shoes.

Next, you don't have to haul the machine up and down.  It has a chain system and opening the lid raises the machine automatically.  Closing the lid lowers it.  I really, really love this feature.  Easy peasy, or facile facile if you speak French.  You learn the most interesting things on sewing machine bulletin boards.

It has an amusing drawer lined with a VERY thick felt.  The bottom lifts out, allowing you to hide something beneath it.

I assume this drawer is meant to protect the attachments, and it came with a bunch.  I love having them, fondling them, and reading about them.  But all I do on this machine is piece quilt blocks.  No attachments necessary.

All of these things are terrific, but none of them are unique.  Here's what makes a Davis vertical feed special---why, it's the vertical feed.

Look closely at the photo for the feed dogs.  Look again.  Still don't see them?  That's because there are none.

The needle hole is a slot rather than a hole.  Can you see it right under the presser foot?   The needle plate can be turned around for different weights of thread, so the slot you can easily see on the right hand side of  the needle plate is also a needle slot.  The needle descends at the front of the slot, pierces the fabric, the needle slides to the back of the slot and then rises and goes back to the front.

Better than a walking foot.  WAY better.  Treadling quilters love these machines.  It is just not possible for layers to shift.  You still have to prepare carefully and baste, and basting is not my thing, so I haven't tried it for quilting yet.  Next baby quilt, though.  I do love it for piecing. 

Bobbin winder engaged.  Fold it up to disengage.

I took the many of the photos before this belt was installed:  3/16" clear plastic tubing, connected with a little plastic connector.  The advantage of this is that it won't stretch over time the way that leather will.  It's cheaper and quieter than the coil spring belt.

This tubing is also available in black, which would be great, but it will take me a bit longer use up the 30 feet of the clear that I bought.  McMaster Carr has tubing in several more colors also.  Do you fancy red, green, or yellow?

As always, there is no advertising on this site.  If I tell you about a product, it is only to help you find something that I know from experience will work.  For all I know there are thousands of places to buy this.  I have heard that aquarium tubing works.






The finish on the head of the machine was sandpaper rough.  It looked like the varnish had hundreds of tiny bubbles that had burst, leaving jagged edges.  I had to attack the finish more vigorously than I usually do, at least on the bed.

Cleaning the gunk began to reveal the decals, although going too far begins to strip off the colored layer of the decals, revealing the silver beneath.

I made a radical decision on the back of the machine--I deliberately stripped it down to the silver.  It was even gunkier back here than on the front.  I just wanted to be able to see the letters and the designs.  I don't regret it.

And if you feel the need to tell me how I have sinned, send all comments to
Cheryl Warren
c/o Michael Garibaldi
Babylon 5
Epsilon Eridani

best I could do on the front

The decals on the machine look much worse in person than they do in the photographs.  The remaining gunk obscuring the decals is still dimensional--it has thickness.  It's ugly.  It's horrible.  If you saw it you would NOT blame me for stripping the back!  At least I think you wouldn't.

And although I do dearly love a beautiful machine and would swap this head out for a prettier one in a heartbeat, in the end what REALLY matters is how well it sews.  And, like most of my vintage and antique sewing machines, it sews very sweetly.  It is a pleasure to sit at this machine.

It has an interesting bed decal that reads "Made in US America".  Doug from the Davis board suggested that the number of stars on the flag would be a clue to its age, but they are just too worn away to count.


The luck of the Davises held all the way through, btw.  I did not know this before I bought it, but apparently this model (the NEW vertical feed) is the only one that takes regular sewing machine needles, rather than some obscure and hard to find vintage needle. 




Here's the thing about a nice friendly treadle, one that works well and fits your body:  it's just fun to sew on.  Not really much different from other smoothly working vintage machines, once you find the rhythm of the treadle.

Buy a treadle (or revive your grannie's with some oil and a nice new belt) and you, too, can joke about being ready for the fall of civilization.

(and, in honor of my Baltimore roots)
How 'bout them asteroids, hon?