Singer 306K purchase

Having donated my Singer 201K23 to my daughter and son in law, I have been missing it’s quirkiness and lovely performance. I haven’t bought a machine for a while, but a Singer 306K from 1954 came up on Facebook marketplace, and after a couple of days of research I picked it up for just NZ$40.

The research was necessary because opinions on this class of machine are a bit polarized, some say Singer should never have made it, others say it is an excellent machine, will do anything asked of it and if maintained properly sounds great. As I picked it up the seller told me that he had used it for making sails for boats! It was dirty and stiff to turn, but it was complete with all 6 zig zag pattern discs, and a good original timing belt. When I took it out of the homemade base it came in, I realized it was immaculate underneath, and I had a good buy. I have comprehensively oiled it, and it has freed up nicely.

It had a 15×1 needle installed, and a few half empty packs of the same type (100 and 110 size). The bobbin carrier was perfect, unmodified and no marks from needle strike. There is a myth with some truth behind it that these machines have to use a special needle – 206×13, but this machine is one of the first 306Ks made at Kilbowie, and used mostly 206K mechanicals. Those made in the US (306W) and Italy (306M) used a different bobbin carrier from day one, and Kilbowie followed suit with later models. A very quick test shows that the 15×1 needle works with straight stitching, but with the zig zag set to a bight of 5, or set fully to the right, the needle collides with the bobbin carrier. It’s fine on the left hand side, so may be an adjustment problem, or may need the shorter needles for zigzag work.

I have given it a wipe down with Singer oil, and it still has quite a shine, most of  the brightwork is still good, but it is short of a case and motor. I was considering converting it to a handcrank, but the motor mount lug on the 306 class machines is off centre by about 4mm and about 10mm closer to the main shaft, so the hand crank will not line up with the balance wheel! I also just found out that the hand wheel is aluminium, not cast iron, has a bronze bush in the middle, and therefore the boss in the middle is 1 1/4″ not 1 1/8″ in diameter.

This is a machine I hope will keep me busy during the autumn and winter of 2005, so plenty of time to address the few issues it has.