Lew Schiller

Today I came across two Singers.
A 306W and a Centennial Model 66.
Both appear to be in decent condition needing the usual clean-up.
The 66 needs a belt and rewiring.
The 306W has only one cam - I could use leads as to where I can get others!
I understand that needles for the 306 will have to be found online.

Now for the interesting part.
I brought these in all the way from...our basement.
Imagine my surprise.

When I got the 15-91 last month I mentioned here that my wife really missed her old Singer and I was happy to find the nice 15-91 for her. Well - this 66 is the one she missed, and it's a birth year machine for her!
When we moved here in '96 it got put in the basement and gradually covered with other stuff and forgotten. She was pretty sure she sold it at a garage sale ages ago.

The 306 was near the 66. Now that I think about it I seem to recall buying it at a garage sale - again - ages ago, before the move in '96. I don't know if my wife ever used it. It was like $10 or something and I seem to recall I bought it because it does ZZ and her other Singer (the 66) didn't.

So...go check your basements. You, too, might find a couple treasures you didn't know you had. :-)

Ok - well - probably not since most here know what they have but...just sayin'

mighty

That is so cool, glad you found them!!!!

GreyQ

That's so funny!! Sometimes, it pays to take another look at the familiar.

Rodney

That's funny. I've done the same thing-just not with sewing machines. Your 66 is only a couple years newer than mine. Mine's a 1948. Other than that they're identical down to the cabinet. I really like the 306 with it's case. Very nice.
Rodney

Lew Schiller

The 66 is pretty intuitive but the 306 - now on that one I need some guidance both as to its use and care.

KLO

Wow, see what happens when it snows and you have to stay in .... assuming it is still snowing in CO? Sure wish I lived nearby so I could play in the snow and then rummage through your basement. Love the look of the 306. Bet there's some more good stuff down there. Just sayin' .......

Candace

That's pretty funny!

Lew Schiller

No more snow for now - but darn cold!
There is a lot of interesting stuff down there. I know what most of it is...but not so much on my wife's side.
Maybe time for an expedition :-)

manicmike

It's pretty easy Lew, the manual is available from Singer as a free DL. Also, the cams are very common, since they were used on a variety of machines. If you can get the plastic case, though, you have hit the jackpot (they contain 22, from memory).
Miriam started a huge thread a while ago http://www.quiltingboard.com/picture...c-t162425.html
the 306 is the same machine as the 319 but without the built-in cams. Needles are fairly easy to get (although Schmetz stopped manufacturing the size 16 in August), size 12 and 14. They have their own bobbins too. I have the ultimate in that series of machines, the 320k2, and absolutely love it. You can do anything on it, even FME.

ThayerRags

Forgetting about things after a move can happen. My wife and I still have some boxes to unpack from two moves ago back in 2001. We never unpacked them after that move. I guess we didn’t need whatever is in them, because when we moved again in 2006, the boxes were already packed and ready to load, so we moved them again. We don’t know if it’s some of her stuff, or some of mine. She thinks it’s mine, but I’m not so sure about that. Today, they’re still taped shut, at the bottom of the stack in the storage room, and we still don’t know what’s in them. Some year I may dig them out, gift wrap them, and put them under the Christmas tree for my wife and I to open just for fun.


But for sewing machines, I had to start keeping a spreadsheet to keep up with them, so that I know what I have, and especially where I have them stored. I give them each a 3-digit identification number when I get them (stands and cabinets get a letter added). I started with “000” for my wife’s first machine when I set up the spreadsheet. I think I was up to about 20 machines back then, so I went back and tried to number them in order of acquisition.


My Singer 306W (#483) is in the sewing room currently mounted in my Singer MUTT (Multi-Use Traveling Treadle) stand (#485T), and my Centennial Singer 66-18 (#503) is next to it currently mounted in the German Semi-industrial treadle stand (#533T). When I get a machine and cabinet together, they both get the same number, but the cabinet gets an additional letter added. That automatically tells me what units originally came to me together. Some portable cases get entered into the spreadsheet with a letter added too. I mix and match machines and cabinets and cases so much that they each have their own ID number to keep track of them. I use the ID number when naming photo files of each machine too.


I must admit that when I started my database back in 2006, I used 2-digit numbers thinking it would take forever to get to 100. I got there by November of 2007 (I made a single purchase of 217 machines), so I had to quickly go to 3 digits. I’m up to #551 now. Number 550 was a White Rotary Model 41 portable that a retired school teacher gave me last month and happened to mention who had been the previous owner. I know a granddaughter of that lady and gave the machine to her. So that number got used, but I didn’t have the machine for more than a couple of days. But, it’s still in my database, along with what history of its life that I learned, and its serial number. I’ll keep the photos of it too.


CD in Oklahoma