We Are Buying a House. So Here Come the Industrials - Singer 331K4

Well, first off I guess I should say this one isn't actually coming home with me.  It's staying in New Mexico with the Boy Scouts.  That leads to the reason I haven't been keeping up with the blog.  I'm working as the Back Country Wardrobe Specialist at Philmont Scout Ranch this summer.  I maintain the wardrobe for around 140 interpretative history program counselors who populate 17 back country camps ranging in time periods from 1831 to 1953  at the ranch.

The 331K4 isn't going primarily because it's from 1961 and a little new-ish for my taste (the 96-10 in an upcoming post, well that's a different story).  I got it from a nice lady in Cimarron NM then turned around and donated it to Philmont after getting it running, to upgrade from the light duty machine they had. So it's also not going to add to the count of my personal machines.

I have been using it as my primary machine here since getting it.  Before that I was using Black Swan, the 401 (for repairing serging on edges) and the Centennial 15-89 hand crank (oh crap I forgot to do a post for that one) I picked up before coming out.  I had loaded them all up in the truck, along with the New Family and hauled them out here.

The table and motor combination aren't what came with it.  Those came with the 96-10 which will be in a later post.  It originally came with a Singer 1/4hp motor and a industrial treadle base/table which matched the 96-10 better.  So I swapped tables.

The one thing that gave me pause about donating the 331 is the awesome reverse slap paddle.  It's really great for darning.  Darning a 5x5 inch area with the Black Swan in the treadle would take around ten minutes.  With the 331 it's maybe a minute.

I'm getting spoiled with the knee lift for the presser bar.  It doesn't seem like much, but saving a few seconds here and there adds up when you are on patch ten of the day.

The guts are pretty close to a 15, so I'm comfortable doing my own maintenance on it.  Well other than the original Singer clutch motor that came with it.  That I let to experts do. 

With the amount of sewing I'm doing on it it's difficult to keep spotless.  You can see the lint build-up on the hook in the above photo.  That amount is from one week.  It probably doesn't need it, but I do take a brush to it every week or two just to keep it from looking like I'm trying to knit sweaters with the lint.  It also gets oiled about that often.  I run it flat out about 20% of the time and that speed uses up the oil pretty quick.  

Next is the gratuitous industrial motor shot.  Insert your own comment about nitwits who post on Craigs-bay with 1.3amp and smaller motors that they claim are "industrial strength".  I clocked this guy at 2000 stitches per minute without tweaking.  A good scrubbing and I'm sure I could hit the factory recommended max of 2200.

If I was going to keep the machine I probably would be planning a repaint of it as I type, but since it will be living in a true commercial environment I guess I'll let it keep it's worn look.  For this year at least.

I guess it's been a pretty productive summer so far.