Let's Get Cranky

I've had a hand crank sewing machine listed recently and it has brought about a fair amount of interest. Looking back over my posts about hand cranks I see I really don't have much documented so now is the time to write up what I know about hand crank sewing machines and converting to hand crank.

Why would someone want to sew by that laborious method of cranking the wheel by hand? Doesn't that give you just one hand to guide the fabric? How would this ever be an advantage? It seems to me you would want to go with a slow pace when you are quilting and looking for precision that only comes with carefully preceding slowly that you can only get with a hand crank. I don't know of an electric machine that would let you go that slow, even with a speed reducer as some of the machines boast. Needle down is perfect as you land on the intersection of corners while piecing fabric for a quilt square. It's true that you only have one hand to guide but when you are going slow that is less of an issue. When I treadle I have more trouble stopping-on-a-dime and that does not occur when using a hand crank machine.

I've also used and sold hand crank sewing machines for use with children and this prevents them from "wild sewing" where they like to think they can race to the end but find out you can't sew straight when you go too fast and fingers get mixed up when you are speeding. A hand crank sewing machine slows everything down and the curious start to wonder how this is actually working. Curiosity might just fuel a budding engineer to ask questions and investigate and isn't that how many of us got started in our love for vintage sewing machines?

How do you convert an old sewing machine to a hand crank version? Maybe you can but maybe you can't and the Treadleon people know all about it. On their page about converting to hand cranks, they show options you might want to consider. I keep it simple by choosing Singer 99 or 66's, adding a spoked wheel if they don't already have one, and adding the hand crank mechanism via the motor boss. What is a motor boss? It's a place on the side of the machine under the hand wheel where you can screw in that crank mechanism:

Motor boss in casting with threaded opening

It makes sense in the end but sounds confusing when you are starting out but think of it like this: when the motor is removed and you add the hand crank how are you going to get it to stay on the machine? You need to anchor it onto the side and using a threaded slot gives it stability.

Motor attached to the motor boss

Can't we just add a "knob" onto the side of a hand wheel? Take a look at an original hand crank sewing machine and you will see it is not quite that easy:

German hand crank: pretty complex mechanism

Treadleon does give ideas of how to make a solid hand wheel work with a reproduction crank but I haven't tried any of them so I can only direct you to their website. With my repainted Singer 99 that I added the hand crank, I have now been asked to add a motor back so it can be used either way. I dug up a motor, light, and foot control set and got it all working again.

Singer 99 repaint with motor

As with many of the Singer 99's that are converted to hand cranks, you cannot adjust the bobbin winding mechanism enough for the winding wheel to touch the handwheel. I've added plastic tubing in the past but this time I came up with a set of black rubber belts that would fit over the part of the hand wheel that isn't qite fat enough to touch the bobbin winding tire. I wish I could show you but the photos are black on black and you cannot see it clearly so you are just going to have to trust me on this one! In the end, this little repaint is going to a good home where there are children who are sewing light leather projects. It's cute, solid, and portable so I hope it fits the bill for them:

Singer 99 repaint as a hand crank

Happy sewing!