Well, this blog thing is new to me, so I thought I’d start out by sharing my answers to some of the questions I’ve been asked recently....
I received an email from a customer who had purchased a lift out tray for his 221 case and could not figure out why the tray did not fit. Have any of you ever noticed that FW cases are not all the same size?
There were three cases made for the Featherweight 221 machines over the years. An A, B and C case.
The "A" had the lift out tray. There were slight changes in the class "A" cases design in the very early years ('34 to '37) but you have to be pretty sharp to notice them. In 1948 Singer discontinued making the lift out tray cases and went to the "B" case. The "B" case has a small metal box secured to the left interior side of the case. This held the odd stuff you personally used and had a narrow slot for holding bobbins on the outside edge. The attachments were in a green box set into the bottom of the case under this metal box and the controller was put on the base of the machine under the machine's arm. The "C" case is like the "B" with the addition of a metal bracket secured to the inside lid of the case that the controller slides and latches into for travel.
The "A" case is taller than the other two cases to accommodate the lift out tray, the "B" "C" cases are longer than the "A". An "A" case's lift out try which will fit any "A" case, but it will not fit the other two models of cases, the "B" and "C".
