1000scraps

Hello, I am in Germany and I think that there were no changes in voltage over here, only the plug ins have changed to more safely ones!
And you are right, there is a divine in northern saga with the name "Freya" or Freia" but the inventor himself said that he used the abreviation of the German name he gave his machine: "FREIARMNÄHMASCHINE" and the first 5 letters are "FREIA"!

SteveH

sorry I missed the already in Germany part. my bad.

you posted "but the inventor himself said that he used the abreviation of the German name he gave his machine: "FREIARMNÄHMASCHINE" and the first 5 letters are "FREIA"!"

I'd love to see the source for that! I have a local collectore friend who has two of these and no documentation

1000scraps

Have look at my original post #1: it's a link to a video where the experts told that it is an abreviation!
And here is another link:

http://www.ddr-museum.de/de/blog/the...igns-die-freia

Sorry it is in German, but it says that many people thought that he meant the goddess Freya, but the inventor Ernst Fischer always said that it is a real "made-up-word" used by him!

“Aber ich habe mir wirklich nichts Arges dabei gedacht”, beteuerte ihr Schöpfer und Taufpate, der Suhler Ingenieur und Erfinder Ernst Fischer (1910-2006). “Freia ist ein reines Kunstwort, das Kürzel für Freiarmnähmaschine. Und so war es wohl auch verstanden worden.”

Hope this helps you!

SteveH

huh, well... ok then. I stand corrected. Thanks for the enlightenment!

Sewnoma

I hope you can get it up and running. It would be a treat to see it in motion!

I've never seen one that swivels from a base like that - are there works for the machine inside that base part or is it just for stability? Anybody know if that design is unique to this machine?

So cool.

Monroe

I have a different model- the Fischer Mewa Koma. Unfortunately no cord or knee lever so I've never tried it. The bed folds almost flat and the machine slides into a small briefcase type holder. If I recall correctly it has a dual voltage selector switch on the base. The Needlebar link has photos and information about your machine as well.http://needlebar.org/cm/displayimage..._display_media

Just found another good link in German to both styles. http://www.naehmaschinenverzeichnis....aschinen/mewa/

KLO

What a cool machine and interesting video. Sure wish I had studied by German more while in college so I could understand all that the guy in the video said. I am of German heritage so you can bet I would love to stumble upon one of these someday .... but sounds like I would have to do some traveling first and then get very lucky. Thanks so much for the posting.

sewbeadit

They are so neat looking, thanks for all the pictures and info. I wonder if you could get one off of ebay in Europe?

1000scraps

A little update for this FREA sewing machine: we found out it's one of the earlier machines because the name of the inventor, Ernst Fischer, is on this machine:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]531946[/ATTACH]

And it was a little bit tricky to biuld her up:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]531947[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]531948[/ATTACH]

And then we found out that there is no bobbin case or such a thing for the under going thread:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]531949[/ATTACH]

If there is anybody out there who knows how the bobbin case looks like for this machine: please send a picture! We don't know....

[ATTACH=CONFIG]531950[/ATTACH]

Perhaps SteveH knows something about the bobbins for this machine? Without it it will never work....

Mickey2

It's a very good fine, one of the early light weights. I have found a lot of producers made claims to their prodcuts that were only almost true. I think Elna had their free arm straight stitch model officially introduced in 1940. Freia is the only bakelite vesion I know of, probably lighter than Elna 1? There is likely much better sources for info on a German vintage forum. They would know which bobbins ot takes, maybe a standard veritas type? I doubt this machine were exported in large numbers. Bernina's first free arm zigzagger came in 1944 (some sources say 45). Favta had an early free arm model called "Darling", a smaller size light weight, but I have not found any date of introduction. It came in various version know as "Cresta" or "Vigorelli" (a zigzagger version from the 50s). Singer introduced their 320 (320K) in around 1958, a free arm zigzagger.

Edit; I found a picture on the web, the bobbins look small and flat, a bit unusual.