[Grow Your Own Clothes] had finally found their ideal sewing machine for doing zig-zag stitches (/\/\/\) and converting to a treadle drive (mechanically foot-fed) — a Singer 411G. This is a well-respected workhorse of a machine, and if you see one in a secondhand store, you might want to grab it. The only problem is that its multi-step zig-zag stitch is a 4-stepper and not a 3-step, which is what [GYOC] prefers. Having heard it was possible to hack them into doing a 3-step, [GYOC] set out to learn Tinkercad and grow their own sewing machine parts.
So once upon a time, sewing machines didn’t just do a bunch of things out of the box. They needed an array of plastic cams to do different stitches, kind of like trading out the element or disk in a typewriter to print in italics. While most machines still have exchangeable feet for different needs and special parts for sewing things like buttonholes, most domestics now have decorative stitches and their cams built in.
The 3-step zig-zag cam was just the beginning. [GYOC] decided to make a few more parts before their Tinkercad knowledge faded: a needle adapter with an improved design, some tension stud sprockets for a different machine, and a couple of buttonhole templates for making different sizes with a buttonholer. Although they aren’t giving away the files for free, all of these parts are available quite cheaply in their Shapeways store.
Got an old machine you don’t know what to do with? Try converting it to a computerized embroidery machine.
Thanks for the tip, [Raphael]!
This is a really cool hack!
I would like to get replacement gears for my touch and sew, the ones that are always breaking both bobbin gears and both feed dog gears , I’m sure there is a demand for these also in the 347 robin egg blue machine has a failure prone top gear
I have those gears. You need to replace all 5. If belt driven. Or 7 if gear driven. The Arm Shaft gear should not be replaced if in good order,,,this is a very technical adjustment and timings,,,you need a experience technician to do this. What is the Model number.
It sounds like a lot of work to me.
But than, what do I know., everything is
changing so quickly 😃😃
Based on her ideas, some years ago, I made an OpenSCAD script for creating the discs from a simple list.
https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3268941
It appears to be a lot of work. Everything is changing at an incredible pace these days.