Okay, the $35 was too cheap to resist seeing how these treadle things work.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?si=-FPLnBnwuLdPU1b4&v=lRXkhTcOzso&feature=youtu.be
Oooh, this one looks kinda neat. 1890 to 1910 however... I wonder if these have parts available (ie needles)
My friend in Norway just came home with this lovely old girl, wow. 💜 When I asked her if she’d mind me sharing the photo here, she said no, go ahead, this beauty should be shared. What a find! I see them around sometimes but never in this good a shape.
Cycling friends will also be pleased to know she hauled this heavy thing home on her cargo bike. :)
Update: she paid only 500 kroner - ~$50!!
Sewing machine tinkering update: I have a working handcrank attachment!
I got it at the fleamarket years ago. It was dirty and a bit rusty, so I wanted to clean and repaint it, which required disassembly. I hit a wall with the main centre screw: tried everything; it would not budge. I waited several months until I found an absolutely massive flat head screwdriver (also at the fleamarket), and using this plus locking pliers for leverage (after clamping the mechanism to the workbench) I finally got the screw to turn. But it wasn't coming out! I didn't think to mark a line to check whether the bottom was turning, so I thought that it wasn't, and that I had somehow snapped the screw in the middle. So I despondently put the whole thing in a box and forgot about it for ages.
Yesterday I *finally* got it out, and it turns out that the problem was that it's *not a fucking screw at all*. 
It's a smooth shaft that fits tightly into the bottom plate (where most crank mechanisms have screw threads). Turning the head does actually help to push it *in*, but as I discovered it does sweet fuck-all when you're trying to get it *out*. On the bright side, this means that it doesn't matter that the head is horribly stripped now. I just polished away all the jagged edges.
Anyway, it is now the middle of winter here and it's cold and rainy all the time, so it's not a good time for repainting. I've cleaned and reassembled the whole thing unpainted, with a light coat of petroleum jelly to prevent it from rusting while I wait for painting weather. I haven't tried attaching it to my machine yet, but I'm pretty sure it will fit. I'm eventually going to decorate it (either with paint or with decals) -- a design which is unambiguously not original, but fits the vintage cast iron aesthetic. I'll provide photo updates when it's done. In the meantime, I have options if the power goes out!
AI6YR Ben
Norris Dale AC1LP
Hollie
Adrianna Pińska