Tool Talk
What's-It Forum => What's-It Forum => Topic started by: Mel Larsen on November 22, 2012, 11:07:10 PM
-
My son just sent me this photo of a ? that he found in a shed in Colorado. Never seen one before and not real sure of what it is.
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v671/lugnut/112202_214000.jpg)
Mel
-
Total guess....Could it be telegraph related?
Just thinking...Colorado + Old + sitting + small amount of power ...Just says telegraph to me.
-
Looks like a rheostat type switch to control a motor or machine of some type. Maybe to raise or lower a hoist of some type. Gas pedal from a Ward electric car ?
EvilDr235
-
Dentist speed control?
yours Scott
-
Rheostat foot control for an early sewing machine, well that's my guess anyway.
Batz
-
I am thinking sewing machine too.
-
>I am thinking sewing machine too.
Ditto, particularly because it is somewhat fancy, so it would look good in the house....
PS: You *do* know what that white stuff is right? :P
-
Dentist speed control?
yours Scott
Where do you attach it to the dentist?
My vote would be for industrial sewing machine.
-
Don't breath in the powder from the 'white stuff' - if you want to keep it original suggest you spray it with lacquer or PVA glue in water to keep its integrity, but best to change it for a modern insulating material, e.g. heat resistant glass fibre tube which is available in white (or at least off-white)... and double bag the old stuff and dispose of it properly...
-
My thought too ! The big A Asbestos.
-
I talked to him on the phone this morning and he said it did have all the indicators of a speed control. I told him to spray the wires with some clear lacquer of something to keep the Asbestos from spreading..
Mel
-
It could be for a sewing machine, but....... does this look girly to you?
It seems too heavy duty and probably expensive for a sewing machine.
Sewing machines didn't catch on as electrics very quickly. Treadles were working fine, and frankly, early electric machines were pretty anemic.
A good treadle operator can sew 8 layers of Levis like it was tissue paper!
The early dental drills used a foot treadle. The dentist had to physically pump to keep up the speed!
Then they got electric, but we are still talking a belt about 27' long, and articulated arms, with tiny pulleys for the belt, all the way out to the handpiece.
It could still be for something else altogether. Its just that I have had a horrible hole of misery in my jaw for the last week, that is taking forever to heal. So I am secretly wanting this thing to have electrocuted a dentist or two in its time.
yours Scott
-
A similar one sold on ebay
http://www.ebay.com/itm/antique-SEWING-MACHINE-MOTOR-rheostat-electric-foot-pedal-cast-/120991707410
-
How about a controller for a shoe repair sewing machine, it certainly looks heavy enough. The foot piece looks just like the one on a jewelers flywheel driver that I own. The one that sat below his bench, with a tiny belt running up to the buffer and drill press.
-
definately a speed control for a sewing machine, I've seen these exact things with sewing machines.
-
I can remember my granny (you guys call your grandmother that?) using an old treadle sewing machine like this one.
(http://i128.photobucket.com/albums/p175/batz2/MyTreadleSewingMachine.jpg)
My sister still has the original machine by granny used, I'm sure the last time it was ever used for sewing it would have been granny.
So nice that's it still in the family.
Sorry for the off topic I got carried away.
Batz
-
That sewing machine is a Red Eye, (or some name very much like that).
Its a later machine for a treadle. Probably 30's.
See the little chrome plate on the bed near the needle? See how it slides out the same direction as the machine bed? This means it has a bobbin. A little spool of thread inside a case under the bed, that spins round and round.
Singer could not use a rotary hook until White's patents ran out.
The rotary hook changed sewing forever.
Now see this? Look at the plate?
(http://users.snowcrest.net/kitty/sgrandstaff/images/house/singer31.jpg)
This is a shuttle plate.
Instead of a rotary hook, this uses a pill shaped shuttle that whizzes back and forth underneath like a weaver's loom. This was Singer's invention that started machine sewing in the first place.
But it was nowhere near as good as a rotary hook and bobbin and nobody used a shuttle the second White's patents were up.
Oh, this Singer is an early electric. 19teens vintage as you can see by the Flora Dora decals. Its probalby 20 years older than treadle shown.
Its rheostat for this machine is nowhere near as masculine as the rheostat shown in this thread.
A leather or industrial sewing machine? Sure. Could have been for that easy. But not a household sewing machine.
yours Scott
-
Since sewing machines have come up, does anybody know about Davis treadle machines? Need some parts for one my wife found. I later found the treadle base at a yard sale -- just the base, which was used for a table.
-
Learned to run one of those Singers when I was about 12. Made a handkerchief. Damn handy machine!
Absolutely tried to never be too far from one since I learned all the things that machine can make. Been carrying one in the motorhome for years.
Branson; Not sure if they can help with the Davis, but you might try googling up Pilgrim Sewing Machine.
-
I don't know about Davis either. But try Brewer's Sewing supply. They are a real old school joint!
I got an account from them the easy way. When George Holt retired (we had a sewing shop here once) I looked him up trying to get some parts. He gave me a catalog and called them to say he did. So they made me the local dealer.
Besides Kitty (wife) the local hippie girls (very darling girls in pretty dresses fit them atrociously beautiful, and 8 pound army boots........) all had treadle machines.
Nobody else was stepping up and Kitty the blabbermouth told them I fixed her machine,
So I got unanimously elected.
Well it all worked fine except when it came to more modern rotary hook bobbin machines.
I had ordered treadle parts from Brewer and no matter what I ordered they substituted treadle parts. heeheheheh
yours Scott
-
That sewing machine is a Red Eye, (or some name very much like that).
Its a later machine for a treadle. Probably 30's
It's not the machine, I just found a picture on the web like it, I know it was a Singer.
My grandmother could sew canvas with that thing!
When I go back to my home state I'll get a photo.
1st December here today, time to dig out the tree.
-
While guys are all talking sewing machines, find one with a photo of my foot peddle on it.
Mel
-
FWIW, I collected a few sewing machines a while back - I have a treadle one with the flying shuttle marked "Wanamaker's Special" that we use - I believe Wannamaker" was a department store in the midwest. The most interesting one, from a brand perspective, is one marked "Western Electric".
-
I believe Wanamaker" was a department store in the midwest.
Farther east Try Philadelphia, not usually seen as a Midwestern city: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wanamaker%27s (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wanamaker%27s). Wanamaker's was featured in the Terry Gilliam film, "The Twelve Monkeys," one of Brad Pitt's more memorable roles.