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clarkjd

@ calliope davis sewing machine

clarkjd
11 years ago

i just got you all mixed up....i think i have been talking to you all the time...lol sorry bout that

Comments (2)

  • calliope
    11 years ago

    That's OK. I just didn't want to be presumptive. I'm a novice compared to Annie, and I'd feel more comfy with her input, but I worked so hard to track down my machine, I just thought if there was some way to help, I'd try.

    The info that Ohio Farmer was a Davis, came from the forum Needlebar.com. But I wanted to confirm that. I started looking up pictures of antique Davis machines and hit on some with the duplicate body style and finally found one close enough to get exact decal matches. It's not all a bunch of curly-ques and even though a lot of decals are copied, most are pretty specific for machines and eras and can be a good clue in identifying them. You can't always depend on a cabinet to give you positive identification to a maker, because with treadles, many are interchangeable from one maker to another and you can have a National put into a singer cabinet somewhere down the line. But finding a probable maker's machine in the appropriate cabinet is a pretty good indication it's authentic to the original purchase.

    Your machine is in better condition than mine. I use mine and have for thirty years and it has been rode hard and put away wet. I would say yours is a vintage about the same era as mine. Our serial numbers are not far apart....another good indicator we have the same manufacturer.

    If you do have a Davis machine, and I think you do, it's a good machine. It is not their vertical feed model (one of their best and their signature model) but they did make standard feeds as well as walking feeds, and if you just Google them, it can give you the impression that's all they made.

    As for listings of serial numbers and manufacture date, it's going to get hairy. Unlike Singer whose numbers are well documented, Davis is more obscure. I can't find the site I used to use to track down some machines. It's somewhere on the puter, but I have so many sites I use.....I can't find it. If I do, I'll get it to you. But I can tell you right now your machine is older than 30s-40s and judging by the type of tension it uses....quite a bit older.

    I'm going to put the photographs here instead of emailing them, in case anyone else is interested in these machines (or has info they can share with us) it's searcheable.

    Yes, it's dusty. Sorry.

  • calliope
    11 years ago

    When I bought my machine at auction, it had been electrified and somebody did a horrible job doing it. I do believe that it was a retro-fit (some machines will say that) and on this particular machine, it was a doozy to restore it back to the original working order to use the treadle again. Annie said it shouldn't have been so hard, but it involved rotating a shaft, removing some other parts and reversing the hand wheel to accomodate the belt again. Took me two days and lots of cussin' but I did it. If you can get a real leather belt for it, do so. Lehman's sells belts but the last one I ordered is rubber and I don't like them as well. There is a site I have where you can order the instruction manual for Ohio Farmer and it would also be applicable to your machine. Mine came with all sorts of attachments and some extra bobbins. There are also lots of online sites for things like spare bobbins and needles and even shuttles. These machines are very specific with sizing on that stuff and not interchangeable with every other treadle.