It's Not Awesome, But It Works - Revco Reverse On 1908 Singer 27.

It installed the Revco a couple of days ago. The whole installation video at the bottom of the post. Here are the highlights.

I went slow on the installation since I was shooting video and wanted to make sure it could be followed along.  Going at normal working speed, I would guess it's about a 15-20 minute process to get this installed on a 27.  On a 66 it's going to take longer because of the Feed Forked Connection/Feed Regulator cramped working space.  With my fat fingers it added about 30 minutes of cussing and stomping.  Smaller fingers will have it easier.

I looked for instructions online, only finding one bad photo someone had taken of the instruction page.  I made my best guess at alignments based on that picture.

That image is the original size so I went by the image on the right of the Feed Forked Connection for the alignment of the Roller Bearing and Screw Stud with the bearing shaft offset at about the 2 o'clock position.

The materials don't have the feel of Singer parts.  They aren't junk, but the do appear to have been fabricated with less than Singer's top end feel.  The durable joints are all done by rivets instead of screws.  The linkage piece from the hand lever to the 'chase lobe' (I really can't read what the instuctions say) Is flimsy enough to accidently bend when installing.  The 'chase lobe' itself looks out of place with it bare galvanized coloring.

Once installed it does do what it advertises.  It gives the 27/28/66/99/127/128 machines reverse and a numbered stitch length regulator.

With the belt driven bobbin winder there was a problem.  The Revco Reverse occupies the same space as the bobbin winder.  The top of the bobbin winder can not be pressed back or it will block the Revco select lever from going any wider that 30 stitches per inch.

Once tilted forward the bobbin winder is always engaged against the belt.  The cam is always rotating and pushing the thread guide.  Not a big deal if the thread guide is to the left of the Revco lever.

But if it's to the right, then the cam can drive it into the lever and damage it.

I'm still playing with the fine adjustments.  The stitch length indicators can be made accurate, but the problem is that the screw tip is pretty darn wide, so it's not any better than the accuracy on something like the 15-87 indicator.  Really makes those Necchi BU indicators look good.

The piece has given me some hints about making my own for the other machines.  I would really prefer to use the Philip Diehl design from 1914, but the person who I've been trying to get hold of with the Singer 103 that incorporates the slap lever hasn't returned my contacts.  So for the time it looks like it's me and the boy with a lot of experimental forging in the future.