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How To Fettle* a Treadle - Page 1

*Nice North-of-England word meaning Fix Up

Treadles are pretty heavy to post, and anyway, we want you to be able to do your own..
If you don't look after it yours will end up with ruined pivot pins, but it did take me 27 years to kill mine...
Anyone who finds that treadling is hard work, has the treadle wrong - it should be no more effort than riding a good bicycle down a gentle slope, and as pleasurable...

Note - all shown on a Singer (with a metal pitman - if yours has a wooden one see PAGE 5 but the principles apply universally..

It's really a good idea to find a stout table to work on.. Ours is oilproof; if yours is not, use lots of newspaper.. And mind your back, please. We have removed the treadle table-top so you can see and to save weight

Tools required - big screwdrivers, spanners, grease, sewing machine oil, rags, scraping tools, wire brush and steel wool. Circlip pliers or (as we show later) long-nose pointy pliers are useful too.
Mucky work, you may want gloves

Start by removing the Dress Guard, if you have one.

There's one big bolt holding this on to the back of the treadle. Take this right out and take the opportunity to clean behind it

Let it down gently...

This is the bottom of the pitman, which connects the treadle plate and the axle of the drive wheel

Clean round all the nuts and screws with your wire brush before undoing anything. This makes it easier to see what is happening, and means you will not get so much flaky grot in the joints

You need two matching spanners to undo this (sizes vary, you will just have to experiment). It's possible to get a socket on the underneath nut, but it's much easier with spanners - which should be as good a fit as possible to save rounding-off the nuts

This little lock-nut secures the top of the pitman - back it off and unscrew the whole bar...

...which will look like this. Clean the top threads and the bar while it is off the machine.

Now click HERE to go to Page 2

My address is:-
Helen Howes
Helen Howes Sewing Machines
1 Castell Farm Cottages, Thurlton Road, Raveningham, Norfolk NR14 6NY. UK
07914 676182
Email me here - helen@helenhowes-sewingmachines.co.uk
I prefer that you email me (at any time), or phone between 3 and 6 (UK time) most days