Lew Schiller

Hello,
We need a Free Arm machine with as narrow an arm as possible.
The 70's Kenmore's are too large for this project.
I know there are a raft of industrial machines out there both cylinder and post but we're sewing light weight material and would rather not incur the expense nor take up the space they require.
I've been told Bernina and Pfaff had small arms but that's been apocryphal - no model citations given.

Help?

Lew
in Denver

Cari-in-Oly

Take a look at Some of the older Brother machines. There's one on ebay right now, I think it's a Pacesetter XL703 or something like that. They have a small enough arm to do a sleeve cuff.

Cari

Lew Schiller

thanks! I'll follow up in that.
I found this post with some actual measurements

Bernina from the 70s, Elna from the 70s, Pfaff from the 70s, free arm Singers from the 70s and earlier (all the others from earlier if free arm too). In fact most of the earlier machine with free arms had real free arms!

All the Pfaff 12 series with free arms have narrow free arms - and narrow means narrow -

Pfaff 1222E 2.5" from front to back, and 9.25" circumference. The end of the free arm is 1" from the center needle position.

Janome 115110 (Kenmore 19110) modern machine has 3.25 front to back, 10.25" around and 3" from needle center is the end of the free arm - pretty typical of today's machines.

miriam

"Live Well, Die Old, Leave a Big Estate Sale"
ha ha ha - I like that very much.

Macybaby

We had this discussion before.

http://www.quiltingboard.com/vintage...m-t262798.html

I don't have an older Pfaff free arm, so can't measure one of those.

first measurement is circumference

Singer 222 7.25" - width just under 2"
Viking 21A 8.75" - width 2.5"
Bernina 530 9" - width 2.5"
Viking 6570 9.5" (didn't dig out, but pretty sure it's the same - 2.5", I know it's narrower than the 990)
Viking 990 10" - width 3"
Pfaff 2140 10.25" (this is the newest of the group) - I know this one is also the widest.

Macybaby

It does amaze me at how wide most new machines are - being able to easily do a cuff was normal with older machines.

I know the one Singer open arm I had was wider than my Vikings and Berninas - but my son has that one now. But if you are OK with 2.5" to 3", then you won't have any problem finding one. If you want narrower, you are pretty much limited to industrial or spending a lot for a Singer 222.

Lew Schiller

Thanks for all the response!
Our early 70's Kenmores range from 3 to 3 3/8" wide.
The 222 is small but probably too light for the tasks - and at those prices you can get an industrial.
Okay - I think we need to decide if 2.5 would make enough of a difference from our +- 3 arms.

Now...can anybody here tell me the practical difference between post and cylinder? I guess I mean if you're sewing purses and need to get into tight spaces which would be better - cylinder or post?
(Probably is no one answer...and that's why they make them both :-) )

ThayerRags

I used my Singer 431G yesterday to mend an L-shaped 2” rip just below the knee in a nearly-new pair of men’s Wrangler jeans, without having to take out the side seam. The legs on these Wranglers are fairly narrow. I don’t think that I could have done it on the Singer Stylist 834 that I had been using before getting the 431G.

The 431G arm measures 2 7/8” across at the needle, and 9 3/8” in circumference at the needle, while the 834 arm measures right at 10” around the circumference. That difference in circumference saved me some work this time.

CD in Oklahoma

ThayerRags

I’m still looking for my first post-bed machine. I passed one up a few years ago because I was afraid that I might have trouble finding needles and parts for it. It was a 2-needle machine too, which I didn’t think I wanted for a repair/mending machine, even though it could be used with only one needle in it. The post is generally larger for 2-needle machines, so I held out for a single-needle.

I use my cylinder-bed machines regularly for things like purse mending, and I haven’t ran into a situation where a post-bed would have helped much, but then, I’m only doing repairs to things. The post-bed machines would be ideal for some production tasks, and maybe the only thing that would work.

CD in Oklahoma

SteveH

It was explained to me that "Post beds are for sewing to the end of something" Cylinder beds are for sewing to the middle of something" Seems pretty accurite.