Wednesday 19 September 2018

Hand Crankery....adventures with paint and hand cranks.....

There is a great demand for hand crank machines in my part of the world. But there aren't that many around. Now, given that our mission statement says some thing about keeping our customers satisfied, I thought I might do something about that, (after the appropriate dose of dark chocolate, of course).

I have this lovely blue and cream Japanese machine, just crying out for a hand crank. But putting on a black spoked wheel, and a black hand crank just wasn't going to look right.
I had an idea about that....... But, ideas can be dangerous things....Instead of doing what I usually do what I usually do in the situations, making myself a nice cup of tea and thinking about it, I ventured out in search of primer, color and clear coat paint.

All went well, until it came time to install everything. The crank fit perfectly, but the spoked wheel didn't. Turns out some Japanese machines with small balance wheels, also have a shallower balance wheel, Shallower than the Singers that I usually deal with. Therefore they have a shorter stub shaft to hang the wheel on and attach the clutch......Sigh.....
However, some Japanese machines, do have the deeper balance wheels, so I am off to shop for some of them, and since, odds are, they won't be blue, for some more paint.....hehe... You just can't keep a good idea down.....