Restoring an elderly knitting machine

Our textile business was started by my Grandfather Harold Stanier back in 1921 when he bought his first knitting machine. Over the years he produced many sorts of fabrics, but in the 1950's started to make aerospace-grade filtration fabrics. We were still manufacturing them until John Stanier wished to retire in 1999, so sold our knitting business to an experienced knitter in Hinkley, Leicestershire. 

They relocated all our productive machines to their factory at the time, but we still have a few knitting machines buried away in dusty corners and wonder if these could be restored? And if so - can we make some interesting textiles with it? 

First up is an old single cylinder knitting machine who's paintwork is a bit tatty, but don't be fooled as it now works perfectly ...except it has no motor. 

In a cupboard we found two Italian-made motors that have never been used but had 90 degree gearboxes when we needed direct drive, so wouldn't fit on the motor plate.

We paid a call at APT Powerdrive in Burntwood, Staffordshire who were really great. At first they thought (like us) that we needed new gearboxes, but instead used clever thinking to modify what we had. Their friendly technicians spent hours with us, carefully showing us how to dismantle our box correctly, properly reassemble it and then only charged us for the parts used. They were amazing! 

With our motor now sorted we are eagerly waiting for a modified bracket and guard, which a local engineer is making for us.

This machine is a single cylinder small-diameter knitting machine who's latch-needles are controlled by a rotating cam box. The photo shows a grubby length of fabric, but this is just running-on cloth that knitters use to get their machines started. Our machine is now actually knitting perfect cloth and just needs it's new motor to make some real fabric.  

For now restoring it is just a hobby, but we have a number of other machines and knitting heads that need returning to running order too.

Modern knitting machines work a lot faster than our old things, but the principle of knitting is exactly the same today as it's always been. Sometimes a slow old machine can produce a quality that modern-in-a-rush machines simply can't, so it will be interesting if see if we can think up a good new use or product for this old knitter!