Not long ago I happened to get close enough to a plain-dressed baby to see that the flounce on her sleeve was overlocked, rather than hemmed. I don't think that she was from a sect that eschews electricity (the family appeared to have arrived at the event by private car), but it set me to wondering: are there all-mechanical sergers that can be adapted to treadles and cranks?
Probably almost any mechanical serger could be adapted to a treadle. Since most sergers have lug/cleated motor belts there would have to be some additional mechanism to transfer the "power" from the leather treadle belt to a belt that would actually drive the serger.
Adapting to a crank would also require some connection between the crank and a pulley for the belt that would actually turn the handwheel, or a direct connection to the serger's lower shaft.
gwh
It would be easy enough to convert a Merrow industrial serger to treadle. They have a hand wheel that utilizes a round leather belt as that found on treadle machines.
This person says she has a Merrow A-3DW she runs by treadle.
That was the one I had in my mind when I posted that. Nifty little machine if you can get used to threading it.
I know I am a little late in responding to this, but yes I do have a Merrow A-3DW-1 treadle powered serger that I use every day.
I bought the Merrow head on Ebay, and attached it to a Singer industrial treadle stand. The stand was made for the Singer 31-15 industrial model, I bought it at the worlds longest yard sale. It works like magic! My husband was a doubting Thomas when I started my quest to use all treadle powered sewing equipment, but he was quite impressed with the final results!
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Way cool. The only thing I don't like about my White Family Rotary is that I can't take it to church with me. (Well, I could now that they have a new wheelchair ramp -- but I'd rather bring the banners home. And bouncing around in a pickup truck can't be good for machinery.)
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