My Homemade Hand Crank Singer 403A
Could it be this easy? Just add a knob to the hand wheel? I didn’t know, but the motor doesn’t work any more, so there was nothing to lose by trying. I drilled a hole in the hand wheel and attached a bit of dowel with a screw. Voila, a modern zigzag hand crank sewing machine, most useful for my small trailer where I don’t have room for a treadle base anyway.
(Even if I still had my treadle base, which I don’t.)
Turning the wheel around by hand is tiring, but easier than hand sewing, and slow, but faster than hand sewing.
![](https://www.janelwashere.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Singer-403A-hand-crank-b-crop.jpg)
![](https://www.janelwashere.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Singer-403A-hand-crank-crop.jpg)
It worked just dandy on my most recent trip to our cold new home, where at one point I needed to hem a piece of heavy canvas. Doing it with a machine surely did save my fingers.
“If it’s stupid but works, it isn’t stupid.”
![](https://www.janelwashere.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/wp-1670199635723-1024x768.jpg)
![](https://www.janelwashere.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/singer-hand-crank-window-blind-2208-1024x576.jpg)