manicmike

First, you're welcome.
On the shuttlecock thing, sorry but I'm still not convinced. I did Google it and it seems likely that a couple of other people get confused with the word, as it's similar to shuttle. Here's what Wikipedia says:
A shuttlecock (also called a bird or birdie)[SUP][1][/SUP] is a high-drag projectile used in the sport of badminton. It has an open conical shape: the cone is formed from 16 or so overlapping feathers, usually goose or duck and from the left wing only[SUP][citation needed][/SUP], embedded into a rounded cork base. The cork is covered with thin leather. The shuttlecock's shape makes it extremely aerodynamically stable. Regardless of initial orientation, it will turn to fly cork first, and remain in the cork-first orientation. The name shuttlecock is frequently shortened to shuttle. The "shuttle" part of the name was probably derived from its back-and-forth motion during the game, resembling the shuttle of a loom; the "cock" part of the name was probably derived from the resemblance of the feathers to those on a cockerel.

Now not only was the word derived specifically for the bird in badminton, but there's no feather like things in a sewing machine (bunnies and barn finds excluded), and in all the ancient books and manuals I've read I haven't once seen the word shuttlecock mentioned, only shuttle. Additionally, the long bobbin is an actual shuttle in the true sense and not named for its resemblance to one.
I've only ever seen the word in reference to badminton before actually searching for the couple of people on the Internet who have connected the two words. Show me it mentioned in a 120 year old book produced by someone like Singer and I'll happily consider myself educated.

manicmike

Thanks Cari, now I understand. I was thinking again as a clothes maker, where I need at least one or two empty ones.

Cari-in-Oly

Being a garment sewer too I like to have at least one of every type of bobbin filled for every spool of thread. Makes for a lot of bobbins. I was using a system where I kept each type of bobbin in a separate box but what to do when the little box gets full. When I started doing machine embroidery of course that meant a different type of thread and tons of colors so I started looking at thread racks to hang on the wall. I found one that has 3-1/2" tall spool pins and has 60 pins. I have two so far filled with my embroidery thread, some pins have 3 spools on them. I need another for the embroidery thread and at least one for my sewing/quilting thread. With the extra tall spool pins I'll be able to keep the bobbins with the matching thread.

Cari

manicmike

I've got two of those plastic boxes: One is for class 66 bobbins (ahh... the 201K) and one for the industrial bobbins the 320K uses. The others are various long bobbins (most for the VS2), class 15, 15-1 and Bernina, all of which are in various places (I'm so disorganised). Both the plastic boxes are full and no two bobbins contain the same thread. The obvious solution is to just buy more boxes but the thread rack idea sounds much better: One of my friends has something like that and it did seem appealing at the time.
Embroidery would be horrendous: I'm guessing many changes of thread are involved there.

Teri D

My summer project was to "restore" a Singer 128-23 Godzilla finish that I got at a community yard sale. I've never done anything like this before and I'm writing to encourage you to "GO FOR IT!". Try to get a decent old machine that has all of its main parts. I converted mine from a knee control to a hand crank and can highly recommend the Sew-Classic website as an excellent resource for a "newbie" with questions and need for suggestions. I kept all the old parts for the knee crank but I'll have to have someone with more electrical prowess handle that part. The hand crank is a hoot to use because you can put it anywhere and sew standing up. I was concerned about the vibrating shuttle thingy but it works great and Sew Classic has bobbins for it. I plan to use it for paper piecing and regular piecing and as an alternative to playing solitaire by candlelight during power failures.

You can easily convert the machine as long as it has the motor mount the others here have mentioned. And there is a wonderful sense of satisfaction when you see an ugly duckling become a swan after being cleaned and oiled. There are wonderful videos on You Tube by "Muv" that show you how to take the machine apart and clean it.

I'll post pictures soon of my beautiful "swan", which I've named "Isaac".

DonnaC

I have a Singer 66 that I bought as a hand-crank, but I also bought a motor for her. I convert the machine back and forth at will. It's really, really easy to do even if you're not mechanically inclined (I am not). So if you can get a cheap machine locally that has an attached motor, go for it!! You can convert it to hand-crank easy-peasy, in most cases.