And I have been here in Middle TN totally enjoying and bragging about my Red Eye that I paid $75 for......Oh well. Some folks have all the luck....Congratulations.

This machine is gorgeous! My redeye looks dull and I don't know what to use to get the decals brighter looking. They are on there, but very dark and have had so much oil floating on them that I'm afraid they are going to come off if I try doing anything more.
ALSO: how do you put a treadle machine down in the cabinet? The belt won't allow me to tilt the head back enough to get it down inside the cabinet for storage. This seems weird to me that it would have to stay open all the time.

what a beautiful machine -it would make me want to sing when I would sew with her.... congratulations! and a great buy...

Glenn has a tutorial on how to brighten them up. The shellac coat is probably grungy so removing/refreshing it should bring everything to life.

Slip the belt off the drive wheel down below. As far as I know they're not intended to be put down in the cabinet with the belt in place.

Beautiful!!! I can just imagine how happy some woman was decades ago when that appeared in her home. The time and labor saving it represented and how proud she was to get a lovely piece of furniture as a bonus. So neat that you feel the same way about it!

Thanks PinkCastle -- I'll look for Glenn's tute - I've read them, but am always hesitant thinking I'll mess something up worse than it is.

Lucky you. Mine all needed more cleaning than yours. Love the decals.