Husband Needs HELP!

Try looking here:

The numbering system used for needles makes

measure

The big number, 705 on standard schmetz needles might be it. The number for width/diameter is something like 90/14 some would call it a 90, and others a 14.

Is it possibly singer needles that you need??? The only two types of needles sold at most stores is either Singer, or Schmetz. As a rule of thumb every machine that is not a Singer takes Schmetz needles.

The old machines are metal but as for being superior it depends on what your wife wants to do. If it is embroidery then no they are not superior just old. However if it straight stitches and that is all she needs then ok. Everything is relative. My Da loved his hand saw and that is all he used, I love my power ones and Hand is a four letter word to me even in sewing. ;-))) Now as for the needles you need to go here and ask. snipped-for-privacy@yahoogroups.com this is a vintage group and if I remember someone was doing a needle list. They are very knowledgeable and can help you with proper threading, needle placement, needles and where to get the hard to find ones. Needles have been standardized for years with one the European/Canadian designation and the other number for the US. Universal on the package denotes the type of needle, a Universal point for most fabrics. You wife is lucky, my DH knows nothing about sewing machines, and I fix the car because he does not know how to do that either, but he raises, or brings home all our meat, butchers and freezes it and does a huge garden every year. He does all the preserving from the garden too. I however cook. It works for us.

This is an oversimplification. There are also lots more makers if needles out there. Just locally here in the UK I can buy Schmetz (who also make many types of industrial machine needles as well as standard

There are many different systems of needle out there: the standard 705 flat sided one is the most common in modern domestic machines, but I have to order the round shank 34F/16X1 needles (in size 80/12) for my

Stride, dig the needle out of the machine and look at it closely: it may have a maker or a type number on it. Send that off to the Schmets email address I posted and ask them about it. They are one of the biggest and best makers of industrial and domestic machine needles, and make the best. If they do not make the ones you need, ask at Treadle ON: the people powered sewing crowd use a huge range of needles and may be able to tell you the Boye and Singer equivalent number you can order, and where to get them. They were very good about my Jones.

Good for you for trying to get that old machine up and running.=20

I used to have a Signature machine which was new back in the 60s. it took standard 'universal' needles such as Singer needles available at Walmart.

I've got over 50 vintage machines currently, and only two of them (a Singer 306 and a 319) use a special needle size. =20

-Irene

-------------- You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.=20

--Mae West=20

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I have been a sewing machine technician for 26 years and have never seen a Wards machine that did not use a standard needle, which are by the way exactly 1inch 17/32 long.

On 27 Apr 2005 11:48:01 -0700 in alt.sewing, "stride" wrote,

Might even be much like my machine, also a Ward's Signature, but I am unsure of the model number.

Watch the underside and turn it over by hand; you should be able to see the needle come down, then just when or just after it starts back up the pointed tip of the shuttle comes by and hooks the loop of thread behind the needle. If not, it may need a "timing" adjustment.

I don't get that; all the "universal" needles I get are the right size and match the 1 17/32 template engraved on the cover plate of the machine. I have used Singer, Schmitz, and others.

In article , David Harmon of This message will self-destruct in Thirty Seconds. uttered

Unlikely to be the timing - more likely the needle's in the wrong way round

Thanks all for the prompt response. After reading, a lightbulb switched on and I realized the problem was in a different area. What I found was the bobbin was missing a part that controlled the thread and allowed it to flow to the needle! A new bobbin and we are up and running. Thanks again for all the help!