Is There Such a Thing as Too Many Sewing Needles?

I hate not having the sewing needle that I need (and it usually involves breaking a needle in the middle of a project).  I've also developed a bad habit of stocking up on needles when JoAnn's has a sale on the notions wall (like I saw in the recent flyer).  My grammas would probably laugh - I don't remember either of them having terribly many needles on hand at any given time.  I also have something that they didn't have - access to groups that buy needles in bulk (that's how I have all of the Organ needles) and co-op them out. Thank You, Internet!

Because of this stash,  I needed to get a bit organized.  Yes, I misplace things.  Badly.  The below image is my current box.  It's a Plano fishing tackle box that I bought from www.tacklewarehouse.com.  The price with shipping was less than what my local Cabellas charges & it's a better selection than what I was able to get at Bi-Mart.  I think that this box is the Plano 3780 - It's deeper than most boxes.  I used to have a "normal" depth box with the movable dividers, but the 10-pack of Schmetz needles were just a hair too big & were pushing up on the lid.  Now I have *tons* of room to organize by type and size!

Speaking of Schmetz needles - don't toss those cases! Singer needles and Organ needles aren't in these nice cases. The Organ needles are packed in a little foil-lined paper packet in packs of ten. A little tape or piece of post-it note are enough to relabel a Schmetz case with the right needle information & makes it easy to see how many needles are left.

Going to the (feed) Dogs

I swear, there's feed dogs in this picture.  The Singer 778 that I found at St V's has rubber "soft touch" feed dogs. I honestly had never seen anything but metal dogs before - and I learned on a couple different Singers from the same era.

The rubber was breaking down anyway, so I ordered metal feed dogs as a replacement. I did find a caveat onlinevthat the metal feed dogs aren't an exact fit, so "modifications" would be necessary.  No kidding.  It took me several sessions with a cheap needle file (harbor freight) to shorten the dogs and narrow their width to operate without popping the needle plate out of position.

They look innocent enough, but there were hours of fussing trying to get the right amount of metal removed from all three areas that had to poke through the needle plate.  I did think about pulling out the dremel, but was afraid that I'd pull too much metal off any one area (and the space between the long, skinny feed dogs and the short, fat one is rather limited).

I *think* that I have the feed dogs properly adjusted, but it'll take a little bit of use before I put my file away.

I found quite a bit of good information at this Singer repair parts site.

"New" Singer Goldie

Lookie at what jumped into my arms at St V's (just ignore the rest of the mess).
I learned how to sew on a similar model and I'm pretty sure that one of my grammas or great-grammas had a 758.  The one that I learned on had a lever (and a push button??) below the stitch length selector.  I do remember trying to (and breaking) the bulls-eye lever on what may have been the 758.  No one had a free-arm machine though ;-)

It's a Touch & Sew 778 - the free-arm sister to the 758. It's also the first machine that I've seen with rubber feed dogs (metal ones are currently on order).

 

Of course, it didn't come with a zig-zag stitch cam and I had to search for this one. (Thank you, Etsy. I found one from someone in a nearby town)

It did, however, come with a jammed bobbin winding mechanism (jammed, but not broken).

This is what the mechanism looks like with the lower cover removed.  The plastic piece on the left is the bottom half of the "bullseye" lever by the bobbin.  The round metal piece topped with a gear is below the bobbin.  What jammed was the little metal rod above the plastic piece (it's connected to the L-shaped metal piece). Well, a little insanity - tapping on the metal bar to push the rod up and gently prying it back down with a screwdriver blade - loosened the mechanism up enough to pump some machine oil into the hole with the rod. We're in business now!