Old well known hatmaker needs help.

[59Lark]

I specialize in fixing oldler sewing machines and A well known Canadian hat company has come to me to find some sewing machine needles, now these needles are very rare , they have a very old chainstitcher wilcox and gibbs, that they sew straw hats with, Now we have located five needles from maryland and are waiting for them to arrive but five wont be enough so we are using every forum to find more. So I am asking everyone that might have a old wilcox and gibbs , chainstitcher if they have any spare needles that they might sell. This companies manufacturing section is like a museum in some ways but quality never goes out of date. I have the rest of the info here as per style size etc. Wilcox and gibbs, thank you in advance if you can help. yours 59Lark.

 

[duggap]

I may be in left field but can you not use one as a prototype and have new ones made?

 

[Art Fawcett]

Lark, I don't have the machine but would be happy to help find them is you PM me the specifics ie; number etc. I have pretty decent sources.

 

[univibe88]

Way to go Art :eusa_clap

 

[besdor]

There is a complete Wilcox machine on OFAS right now . I'm not sure if the condition but there seems to be lots of extras included. Someone should let that hat company know!!





Steven
www.bencrafthats.com

 

[Stan]

Machine Shop time

Hi,

They need to take one needle to a protyping machine shop - the kind where they still make things mostly by hand - not to one of the production style shops where they want to make 10,000 pieces minimum.

A decent machinist can make what they need easily enough. My dad used to produce specialty needles for Rotron, the company that makes those muffin fans used in computers. They had a motor winding machine design that used these tiny little needles (I'm talking 1/4" long here an 15 thou in diameter) to wind the armatures up with nearly invisible copper wire.

Anyway, it'd have been no problem at all for his shop to recreate anything that someone had managed to make by way of antique equipment. Just about every decent sized city has a couple of these style machine shops around, most of which are in the phone book.....

Later!

Stan

 

[59Lark]

thanks so far from 59Lark

Dear fedora loungers; thank you in advance and so far; we are working on getting some original needles , thanks for the go make one advice but we think that would cost more than they have too spend on this project. Even at this point , we dont have one to copy they broke the last one. Thats bright isnt it, well here is hoping that we find them some, I am hoping to wangle a new straw hat out of this, but who knows. The idea of this old business still making hats the same way and on the same equipment since the 1920s we need to help that , dont we. 59Lark the problem with living the past is having to pay todays prices.

 

[cookie]

But you haven't got to the main point have you? worthlesswithoutpics

What sort of straw hats? etc...

 

[59Lark]

Biltmore hats has there needles.

My thanks to all that helped and tried to help me help Biltmore hats. the truth is that these needles are still available but when ordering needles one needs a model no of the machine and a current system nos. When checking with a large dist. today he said, quote , i have had five inquires for needles for those machines, however since they did not provide model nos, system nos, and since they buy less than $500. a year from us. i simply told them no longer available rather than spend a hour or more looking up nos. Since you buy a lot from us and our a decent guy get the nos and we will find you the needles, I then call the hat factory and find out they found them last week. Didnt bother calling me, I told the lady in the future to do her homework and have all the nos, model nos and system or part nos handy or she might just get a how handed answer again. wonder why custmore service is dying, some people want it, but dont appreciate or reward loyalty at all. 59Lark

 

[Panamabob]

Couldn't spend an hour because they spend less than $500.00 a year? Sad.

 

[frijoli]

Modern customer service at work!

Clay

 

[59Lark]

this works both ways

This works both ways , the person at the hat co didnt do their homework and then left me hanging when they obtained them somewhere else, so they aint anywhere perfect, they were willing to leave me hangiing and didnt look up the info when ordering. I politely to her to do her homework next time and not waste time, this is what the dist, was mad about and less than $500. lets give you an example, my small shop buys $1000. from the dis per month if someone buys less $500. a year. Their dealing somewhere else, and only buying an occasional item . The loyalty item goes to dist too. 59LARK.

 

[frijoli]

Their dealing somewhere else, and only buying an occasional item . The loyalty item goes to dist too. 59LARK.

I suspect I know why.