annthreecats

Love this thread. I just got my 15-91 this week and even though it looks to be in great condition wiring wise, this was all interesting information. I would never attempt to re-wire anything, but I love to hear other folks stories of refurbishing their machines.

Vintage.Singers.NYC

Hi Dawn, at 40 years of experience your guy has way more experience than me. I can see his point about the wires not touching, but I always make it a point to cover mine up; I guess it's different when you're working on a machine that you love, versus working on a customer's machine when you've got 10 other machines waiting to be done after it. I guess people have different ideas of what's "proper," and I can't really criticize someone with a lot more experience than I have. It might be silly, pointless or excessively anal of me, but when I work on a machine my goal is that if someone looks at the machine in 50 years, after I'm dead, they'll look at it and go "Wow, whoever worked on this machine last did a really good job."

It's not true that you cannot re-wire the light on a 15-91; what's true is that it's a pain in the neck to get the light re-assembled when you're done. Maybe what he meant to say was that it's not cost-effective for him to re-wire that light, as he would spend a lot of billable hours putting it back together, thus it would simply be cheaper for you to buy a replacement light. I've used the type of replacement lights sold by Sew-Classic, they work fine and their styling is close enough to the original machine that they don't stick out, from an aesthetic point of view. So I'd say those are a good buy. (But please don't throw the old light out, sell it on eBay or something! Maybe someone is looking for one of those lights and is willing to re-wire it.)

At some point I should write a foot controller replacement tutorial up on the blog. It is pretty easy to do. I find that with vintage sewing machines, a lot of stuff is pretty easy to do, but it seems impossible unless someone shows you exactly what you need to do and tells you exactly what things you need to buy. I had to learn a lot of things the hard way and I was surprised that clear explanations for a lot of basic stuff doesn't exist on the internet, so I'm trying to fill that gap with the VSSMB blog. I am hoping to save people some of the frustration and wasted money I had to spend.

I can relate to not wanting to learn to solder. I didn't either, but I had to because I've accumulated so many machines that it wouldn't be cost-effective for me to pay someone else to do it. But given a choice I wouldn't do it. I enjoy cleaning and wrenching on the machines but I always look at the soldering part as a chore I have to get through.

In any case, good luck with the new light and the machine! The 15-91 is such a great machine, I'm sure you'll be thrilled when it's all up and running!

- Rain

Vintage Singer Sewing Machine Blog
http://vssmb.blogspot.com/

miriam

Rain, I hope you do a tutorial on foot controls. Trouble shooting and re-working them.

The info on the 15-91 is very good right down to the correct screwdriver. I have two with snipped wires - either have to be rewired or treadled.

DawnFurlong

Thanks Rain! I am already enjoying sewing on my 15-91 immensely. A few issues with stitches - but to be honest, I never really paid that much attention to needles and/or thread (and I believe that is where my issues reside). My thread is from a LQS, but since the label came off the top - I can't tell you if it is 100% cotton or a mix.

I think I expected differently from the person I took my machine from simply because of the way cleaning/refurbishing is described on this forum and other blogs. Such care is taken! And I think you are correct - if it different when you are working on a machine you love versus working on someone else's with 10 more waiting. I think the job was adequate, just not was I was expecting.

So glad for blogs such as your own!