The Singer 411G

There are sewing machines and there are sewing machines, then there is the Singer 201, which usually sells itself with in the first inch of stitching. That first inch of perfect stitching, which makes it the best sewing machine in the world.

I recently met this Singer 411g and I am going to have to qualify that opinion somewhat. I am going to have to say that the 201 is the best straight stitcher ever built. I am going to say the 411G is a
better machine, because it stitches just as well as the 201, but can zig zag and do fancy stitches too!

The 411, which was built, only in Germany, only in 1964 and 65, combines the best of Singer's technologies at the time. It uses the same type of drop in bobbin with a rotary hook that makes the 201 such a smooth sewer. It is a Slantomatic, which gives the operator a better view of the work, uses the spring loaded hand wheel and direct drive motor which gives it superior piercing power. It uses the same reliable, multi-stitch mechanism as the 401. Finally, it has all steel drive gears, which make it very robust.

I threaded this one up and started to sew. I watched that first inch of perfect stitches come out from under the presser foot and I was sold. The lady who bought it from me, was a little more skeptical, it took her about three inches of stitching to be seduced by this marvelous machine. Everyone should have one of these...

 

Season's Greetings

May your days be filled with peace, joy and hope this holiday season.
As always, thank for your support, and your business!

Playing with paint......

What's in a name?
When I posted pictures of this machine in a Vintage Sewing Machine group on Facebook, I called it Sunset. I had a particularly  red sunset I saw in Cuba one time, in mind, when I painted it.

Several comments assured me that it's name should  be Tequila Sunrise. My first thought was that it's taken me three weeks to paint this thing, so it's darn well Sunset. Once I got over my snit (by watching the news and politicians telling me  that, reality is, what ever, each one them says it is), I  started to reflect a little on my journey with this 1920's model 28, and I think we might both be right. (me and the commenters on Facebook, not the politicians....)

When I first encountered this machine, she had been sitting on the top shelf of a welding shop, for the last 20 years. This turned out to be a bad environment for shellac and she had finish issues. The big blob of weld splatter, right in the middle of the Sphinx decal, didn't help either. Mostly I bought it because it had an interesting needle and back cover plates on it, which turned out to come from an old New Home machine, which I am saving for a future project. Beyond that, I was thinking of scrapping the machine.

How ever, needs must, and painting  sewing machines is a skill that can only be acquired with practice, so it went from the corner of the sun porch to the paint stripping table.You would be surprised to see how rough the castings were, under Singer's thick, black self leveling paint. If you plan to do this yourself, I would recommend metal files, bondo and high fill primer from your local auto parts store, and sand paper, lots of sand paper, in grits from 320 to 1600.  The painting process itself turned out to be a lot of work, spraying and sanding, more spraying, more sanding...... Turns out I am a slow learner.........

The first coat of paint was a loud yellow just to see how it would look, (not good), and everything evolved from there. I chose the sunset in my memory as my color palette, so it became Sunset. But, when I think of it's journey from the welding shop to the scrap heap to my painting bench, to my living room, I am beginning to think that Sunrise would do equally well......

Sail and Sunbrella sewers

 Here is an innocuous looking pair of Japanese straight stitchers. from the 1950's and 60's. the American Home machine is kind of bland, but the cream and blue Woodwards is quite pretty.

Don't be fooled by their looks though. these area pair of kick ass sewing machines, set up for light leathers and tough fabrics like Sunbrella!

How this came to be is an interesting story. Both thses machines are Japanese versions of the Singer model 15, which in it's final evolution
 became the 15-91, which is the machine that
 every one wants for heavy duty sewing.

Now the model 15 was first introduced in the 1880's when the majority of people lived on farms. They were designed to sew what ever could be found on those farms, everything from satins and cottons up to heavy canvas and leathers. They did this all quite well, because back then, they came as hand cranks and
treadles. Now a days, we forget just how strong our arms and legs are. It was that strength that gave the machines the piercing power needed to penetrate tough fabrics.

But then along came electrification and people started moving off the farms and into the cities. heavy duty sewing became less common and 50-60 watt motors were found to work for most sewing. there the matter stood, generally, small motors and lighter sewing till the15-91 came along. It's unique gear drive and spring loaded balance wheel, allowed the machine to get up the speed to piece heavy fabrics again. The mechanical advantage of this arrangement, effectively doubled the power of the machine from 50 to 100 watts.

In the 1960's, the zig zag machine came along. These had a lot more moving parts and required a bigger motor, which led to the introduction of the 130 watt motor to drive them.

Now if you take a very easy to turn model 15 or Japanese copy of it, and give it a 130 watt motor, and it looks pretty, you have a sleeper. It will sew all the normal stuff quite nicely, but turn it loose on heavy duty fabrics, it comes into it's own. Set up correctly, 6 layers of denim, 4 layers of light light leather? No problem! Bring it on sucker.......

More adventures with paint

Yup, it's an orange model 15.

It's an experiment, well that's what I told myself. It was going to be an experiment and the chance to make a few bucks. How hard can it be to paint a sewing machine?

The truth of course, is that I like bright colors. So many black and gold Singers have passed through my hands, that I look forward to the colorful clones. So when a beat up looking Feather Weight came my way, I got an opportunity to play with paint some more.

Rattle can painting requires some skill, but with some of the modern paints available, not necessarily a whole lot, and I have this 15 that I have robbed all the parts from, so I figured that I was in  like Flint. Strip the Feather Weight and practice painting.

 So, this model 15 went from black, to blue to yellow to orange, as the 221 went from black down to bare aluminum. The Japanned paint on the on 221 is not easy to strip. It took many coats of stripper, Saran wrap and steel wool to get it bare.

Then a coat of primer....

Then a lot of sanding to get the surface of the the self etching primer flat enough for paint.......

Finally, I get to put on some color...and I have to sand that flat enough for decals and clear coats.....

It turns out that applying the paint is easy......It's all the stripping, sanding, cleaning that's smelly boring and tedious, and occasionally painful, when you get some of the stripper on your hands.

Still, you have to admit that the orange is great color for the model 15, and the yellow version was hot too, and then there is the possibility for fire engine red as well. I am thinking, that if I put aside some of my more beat up looking machines, next summer, when the weather is warm again and I won't have to run a heater in the shed, I could make some really great looking sewing machines!

Put your orders in now folks....

It's an experiment, just an experiment, that's what I told myself. Just an experiment........

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.....

Miss Daisy

                                                        











Meet Miss Daisy,:
She is a Singer, VS (Vibrating Shuttle) series machine. The VS series eventually became the model 128, which Singer continued to build until the 1960's.
The decal pattern is called Painted Daisies and it instantly became my favorite one, when I first saw it on her.
Manufactured in 1873, I am coming to think of her the little old lady of the sewing machine world.
At 145 years old, she can still sew!