The illustrations are from the October 1942 issue of Woodworker magazine. I've seen pictures of treadles with wooden legs before and wondered why they hadn't got the standard iron legs. Now I know why - over-enthusiasm in the DIY department. Wooden legs were considered more modern and a way of increasing the value of the machine. I can't believe they could ever have been as stable or as long lasting as the original iron legs.
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I don't think it would be too stable to sew with legs that were made of wood. Good illustration though :) m.
ReplyDeleteI wonder if it's another case of "let's take something that works very well, and mess it up" or perhaps the wooden legs are meant as a replacement for missing or damaged irons. Nah, they just couldn't leave well enough alone. Thanks so much for posting this and have a great day! LJ
ReplyDeleteAll I can say is my Pfaff 30 is on a wooden treadle. A complete waste of time. Moves all over the place but the 2 Singer metal treadles rock solid. Get it right first time. Duncan
ReplyDeleteThey just shouldn't have pfaffed around with it. You might have to find yourself a nice pair of metal legs.
DeleteI'm restoring a 1941 Singer Treadle cabinet for a friends mom and it actually has wooden legs. Due to the weight of the entire setup, the wooden legs are actually more than stable and doesn't wobble at all.
ReplyDeleteAlso, as for them being made of wood.... I believe Singer made the change due to the need to conserve resources for the war effort. FDR had signed the lend-lease act in early 1941 and we began mass producing Liberty ships to supply England.
Heck... in 1942 or early 1943, Singer began manufacturing Model 1911 .45acp Semi-Automatic handguns for the military.
This is really interesting. I've been looking at tables as an Xmas gift for my other half and have found a very nice example, from 1942 which has wooden legs just like this.
ReplyDeleteI'm currently in deliberation with myself as to whether it'd a good idea or not.