OurWorkbench

Courtney continues

I can sit the Featherweight on the plywood base. I only need to disconnect the motor belt on the Featherweight; I do not need to remove the motor like I have seen on some other Featherweight hand crank modifications. The belt from the hand crank does have to be twisted to make the featherweight turn toward you (counterclockwise) when turning the hand crank clockwise. Since using a hand crank is not high speed it seems to work well. I used a neoprene belt and hooked it together with a W&G ferrule made from a Chicago nut. When done using the hand crank the featherweight can be removed, the Belt reattached, and it is ready to go again. No major modifications necessary.





The plywood base does not need to be quite as large as what I started with. It could be made much shorter. I think 11 ½ inches would be fine. The 8 inch width however is about the minimum and could be even a bit larger.
I was quite proud of how well things worked with the Featherweight, so I thought I would quickly try some other machines. A Singer 201 worked quite well with a twisted belt.



A Wheeler and Wilson worked out quite well. Since it turns clockwise, the belt does not need to be twisted. I will have to come up with some way to wind the bobbins, but that should not be too difficult. My W&W machine was “refurbished” with a Godzilla finish and an electric motor many years before I obtained the machine, and the bobbin winder wasn’t working as it was originally a Treadle machine. However, as I mentioned earlier one of the benefits of this hand crank is that the motor does not have to be removed as you can see in the pictures.



One quick note. I do like the neoprene belts. But for trying stuff out, I usually use inexpensive oxygen tubing held together with heavy duty staples. It is cheap and easy to quickly set up and try things out as shown in the pictures above of the 201 and W&W machine.

That’s it for this month!
Courtney Willis

PS The Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum is having their bi-annual men’s show through April 18th . It is a national juried show (international if you count one quilt from Ontario.) I am pleased to say my ‘After Picasso’ wall quilt was accepted!



In Closing

That is all for now. Hope that those hit with cold and snow are staying warm and dry. Spring will come, no matter what the prognosticators say.

Thank you Dianne and Courtney for your contributions.

Thank you for reading. See you next month.

OurWorkbench

Denver broke the record high for February 15th with a high of 68° February 24th Denver tied the high of 71° with 1981. Denver had 41 days at or above 60°F for the meteorological winter (December–February), Denver finished with its 2nd-warmest winter on record since 1933-1934. Denver had the second snowless February on record and first since 2009. February 2026 was also the third-hottest February on record in Denver.

A little late getting this out from usual. There is going to be an in person get-together on Saturday. We did get a couple of notes from members.

Leon
Leon, our member at large from Kansas, tells of a recent machine acquisition and giving hand crank demos.

Just checking in. Happened to be close to this Elna TSP last week. "doesn't work, needs electrical work". Cheap and came in a cabinet. We dragged it home and gave it some oil and cleaning. Light always works. Power randomly. I did get it to run for 15 minutes. Then nothing. I haven't taken the plug area apart yet. It may need a drop of solder. It is fun though. Oh our state museum finally opened up and we got to go do demos for our hand crank machines. Maybe 400 Kiddos tried them out. Greetings from Kansas. Stay safe. Leon and Iris.





Cheryl & Chris
Cheryl sent a note about Chris doing a rewire of a foot controller with notes on how he did it.

We had a little bit of sewing machine related activity lately. Chris noticed that the foot pedal on my 301 was looking sketchy so he did what he's done many many times before and rewired it. But this time he documented it. Here's a link with photos of the process and there are his comments with each photo describing what he did and why.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/ML2Mtp1hRNcNJ6Jw8

In Closing

As mentioned before we plan on meeting in person on Saturday so will probably have a part B next week.

OurWorkbench

As mentioned last week some of us were able to get together in person. A few could not attend due to various reasons, such as car trouble, previous commitment and being out of state.

We met for lunch at Wrigley Chicago Bar and Grill that is not far from the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum. Courtney brought one of his Civil War Willcox & Gibbs machines, which according to https://ismacs.net/willcoxandgibbs/wg_dating.html dates it at 1863. He had another 3D printed hand wheel on it, this time in black.





We then went to the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum https://www.rmqm.org/ for the 2026 Men's Exhibit. There were 36 quilts in the Men's Exhibit. The Men's Exhibit is a biennial event. Courtney already has plans for the next one in two years.







In Closing

It sure was nice to be able to get together in person. Hopefully we will be able to have more in the future.

That's all for this month. Thank you for reading.

Farmhousesewer

I don't know anything about 3 D printing, but just joined Knox Makers, a membership group in which you can use all equipment of every kind, of course after training. 3D equipment included. Are there plans available to purchase or being shared in QB or in VSS? . Forgive me, I should have checked there first.

OurWorkbench

Sending a PM. I believe Courtney found the file for 3D printing online, but may have had a university student draft it.

OurWorkbench

Denver has been having some strange weather. March 14th the high was in the 70s, but woke up to snow on Sunday. Denver broke many high temperature records in March which included some all time highs for March with a couple of days at 85° and then on the 25th was 87°. On the 30th, Denver hit 80° which made it the 8th day of temperatures of 80° or over in March. Typically, March is the snowiest month.

Enough weather, probably many enjoying the summer like weather as only got one report this month.

Courtney

Courtney has been busy putting together various both old and new pieces to make a working machine.

Most of my time recently has been working on drive trains for my Civil War project. Last spring I bought an old rusty looking Willcox and Gibbs machine. When it arrived I found out exactly how old it was, 1863. This gave me the idea of trying to sew a Civil War quilt with a Civil War machine. I had to do some research on what an actual civil war quilt was like.

The U.S. Sanitary Commission (forerunner of the Red Cross) asked for quilts of a specific size about 50 inches wide and 7 feet long. Rather long and skinny, but this was because they were going to be used on cots, not beds. A normal bed quilt would be hanging on the ground and getting in the way. During the war, the Sanitary Commission received about 250,000 quilts. Apparently only about 20 are known to still exist and half of these were “Pot Holder” quilts. A mid 19th century version of a modern Quilt As You Go. Women of a particular group would make pot holder squares of a particular, size completely pieced, quilted and bound. The pot holders would be brought together, and then the bindings would be sewn together to make the quilt. So, I have decided on a pot holder quilt. I have never tried a pot holder quilt but came across 27 old log cabin squares which I am going to practice on. (see pics)

Earlier I reported on the 3-D printed hand crank I had found online and the base I made for it. It turned out great. But recently I have been working on a treadle since I already had an 1859 W&G machine. I had cut the wood for the small trestle table, and It was sitting down in the basement. The top was made about 15 years ago to fit on top of a W&G treadle while I was refinishing the real top. I found an old W&G drive wheel online cheap but when it arrived it had gotten broken in shipment, so I tried some JB Weld and it seems to be holding so far. It was patented in 1857. The foot plate was from an old treadle I already had, so the only thing left was a pitman (the lever which connects the foot plate to the drive wheel and makes it spin.) My drive wheel only had an old broken part of the original pitman. My plan was to try and put something together out of wood, but a good friend has a metal lathe and decided to try and make one of metal. It has finally all come together. I kept using an old broken W&G machine I was given a few years ago while trying all the building of the hand crank and treadle so I would not accidentally harm my Civil War machines. It is even sewing nicely now. I guess I have no more excuses for putting things off!

The treadle has turned out so well I am thinking on taking it to History Fest next month. History Fest is put on by our local museum at Centennial Village here in Greeley. For a week 4th graders visit the village and get to wash clothes on a board, eat real beans from a chuck wagon, watch a blacksmith forge a nail, and of course get to hear the history of sewing machines. I also have them sign their names to squares which I make into a quilt. Each quilt has a different theme. This spring the theme is the 250th birthday of the United States and the 150th birthday of Colorado. So my Civil War machine may still have a couple of quilts in her!
Courtney









In Closing

Thank you for reading. We will post next month. There is a strong possibility we may have an in-person meeting.