chichimamma

I would never think I had too many!

Sunflowerzz

This one is easy for me as the realization of too many machines slapped me upside the head just last week with the purchase of a brand new Juki JZL Exceed F600 quilting/sewing machine and I also have a new Juki Serger.

Too many vintage machines, supplies, cabinets, tables.

I started buying and refurbishing vintage machines last October. I now have about 40 machines and as Miriam has said waaaaay too many tables and not enough wood cases. I have sewn with many vintage machines and I have found out what I like and don't like.
I am drastically thinning the herd starting this week. I am keeping one of the two VS2 Treadles, Morse 300 Deluxe, the FW, 319W's, Slant O Matics, T & S's, Necchi's ( may sell those later as I am waffling about them) and the New Home Greyhounds plus a few fun odds and ends. Selling most straight stitching machines as one of the things I discovered is I LUV CAMS!!! I love reverse and I love zig zags and auto buttonholes. I found out Hubby and I also prefer lighter weight machines so the heavy ones are outta here too. Selling the 99K, The 15-91's, the Pfaff 131 and so on and so forth.

It has been a blast learning all about the vintage machines and meeting the people here. I now have two wonderful real life friends from this forum and I have had a blast gathering a small collection of machines but I am anxious to get into quilting/sewing with my friends and using my new machines, taking classes with my beautiful little blushing celery featherweight and freeing up the closets and drawers of many many boxes of buttonholers and accessories gleaned from the thrift stores. I will be happy to get my space back and I can't wait to be free of endless vintage sewing machine to do's, which will now be showing off my small collection and using them in rotation through out the year for small projects. Getting back into my glass studio is tops on the to do list now.

This will always be my go to forum for anything vintage sewing machine and I still have many machines in different stages of repair that I need to finish or sell as is... What a wealth of info here. Thank you all for helping me to explore a new craft/hobby and being so helpful.

Hubby and I learned so much and we had such fun...never did score a penguin foot though.
Lorraine

jlhmnj

I noted Miriams comment about cleaning the needlebar area and "Feed" that goes with it on a Davis Vertical Feed and wanted to mention a Yahoo group with great step by step photos on how it's done:

https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/davis_vf/info

Keep the head tipped up and take your own photos as you go and you'll be fine. I'm sort of in awe of the VF feed myself and often wonder how did Mr. Davis think up this thing? I guess necessity is the mother of invention and in the 1860's the "Four motion Feed" or Underfeed ruled the land and to manufacture a sewing machine stiff licence fees had to be paid. I suppose Mr. Davis figured if it feed from the top he would circumvent the license fees. Not So. The courts found Davis' machine in violation of Mr. Wilson's FMF patent. The Davis SMCo was already in operation so they made a trade with Singer, Wheeler and Wilson, and Grover and Baker. Howe's patents had expired by the late 1860's. The trade was the "Combination" would manufacture Davis' machines at Watertown, NY in exchange for a smaller licence fee and completed machine fee which was much in excess of Davis SMCo small scale production. The deal almost ruined Davis due to alleged shoddy workmanship but they soldiered on. Mr. Davis was company president in 1869 but I suppose buisiness life didn't agree with him and seems to have left shorty after.

Jon

Rodney

Well, a very good friend of my wife (whole family really) just asked about a sewing machine. I'm giving her my Singer 66, the second machine I've owned and the one I started sewing on. It's actually one of my favorites which is why she's getting it. It seems backwards but I'd rather give away a machine I like and know sews well than one I don't care for as much. I hope she has fun with it.
Rodney

miriam

I feel that way, too. I have some I can't get rid of because they are junk. I would rather someone have a good one so they will use it.

Purpleprint

Oh am I laughing. I only have 6, and I thought that was a lot.

Mrs. SewNSew

Oh YOU are still at that point where it's ok to say the number. But for some of us, well.. Shhhhhhh! We do NOT count!

miriam

For some of us it is fruitless to count - you have to keep going back over it because there is always move - they breed somewhere when you aren't looking.

nwm50

When a friend asked me which machine did I use to make this quilt this time.....😳😳...it dawned on me that I had enough to make everybody aware of it!! Lol

Sewnoma

My agreement with DH is that I can have as many as I want but I have to keep them in MY room. I've got 8 machines; 2 of which are really just for looks as they don't run and I'm not skilled enough to make them run (they're not actually all that attractive; they just each look like the machines my 2 grandmothers used). I will NOT take on any more non-functional machines, and I keep telling myself I won't buy a machine if I won't actually use it.

I keep LOOKING at machines, there are so many awesome machines out there that are SO COOL (I want a Rocketeer so bad...and that recent thread on the Japanese ZZ machines had me drooling)...but I'm trying to keep my hands to myself. I don't know how to fix them, don't really have the space or inclination to really get into learning that at this point in my life, so I'm keeping myself restricted.

Of course, to my friends, 8 machines is absolutely ridiculous. OHH...if only they knew... LOL