miriam

Some of you may remember that I got 50+ junk machines a while back. So where do they go??? How do I determine if it will be repaired or parted out to rescue another machine??? Wilbur, Miss L and Miss M with the adult supervision of my sister and I looked over some bad looking machines a while back. The machines were not moving but that isn't anything we can't tackle with Kroil or Tri-flow and Evap-O-Rust and have mixed results. OK so the Fashion Mate Miss L and Miss M were working on with my sister decided to turn. Yippie - but where is the cord??? The cords were cut instead of pulled out??? I guess the Amish guy didn't think they needed electricity to work. Then they worked on a frozen up Brother with a few missing parts. (Wilbur was mad because the girls worked on the Brother - he thought it was a boy machine and he should work on it.) Since it is missing a few parts & it is an eyesore & they only got it to slightly move - I have pulled a few parts off it and saved a few machines that I would have had to buy parts on line - definitely a parts machine now and I'm ok with that.

For Wilbur, I pulled up an older Kenmore (158) to oil. He pointed at the Kenmore name and whispered, "Grandma, that isn't a Singer." He did read the name and was mad that it wasn't a Brother. Then he was more than a little freaked out when I had him liberally oil the machine because usually he gets told one drop. One drop - WILBUR! One. Drop. This time we put a lot of sewing machine oil on it. He was shocked. So I taught him the difference between rust and dried oil. They are after all about the same color. The dried oil is somewhat sticky if you touch it - with a solvent it will dissolve but Wilbur will have to wait until he is older for that treatment. Rust has a different texture and rust dissolves or what ever rust does in Evap-o-rust or your favorite rust treatment. Some times the sewing machine oil will make the rust more or less sort of run off or make it easier to clean off. For me, usually the offending parts just get removed and soaked over night by my kitchen sink so I don't forget they are soaking. Then the next day I rinse them off real good with soap and water and dry real good. Then if they need wire brush work I do that. BUT not with WILBUR around so we just oiled it and I'll clean it off later. Wilbur's Kenmore has paint flaking off the top front - yuck. It looks beat up like it fell off the wagon, too. Oh well - maybe it will sew. We oiled it. Well Wilbur REALLY oiled it. Low and behold it turns freely - he thought he worked magic!!! Great!!! So we started to try to turn the dials. OK stitch length and reverse works WOW! Zig zag dial turns but not all the way... OUCH... So for looking inside Wilbur was armed with a flash light - he loves my flash light. He found rusted up stamped metal keeping the dial from moving all the way. We oiled it and put it in time out. I doubt if oiling will do it - maybe I'll do some dremel work some time to get the parts to move - jury is still out on that one - those parts would be hard to get back together once pulled out. The tension and the bobbin area are ok - just the rusted zig zag thingy... Keep for later work.

The next day my sister and I peaked inside the garage at junk machines. Rust. Missing parts. MISSING or CUT CORDS. Broken gears. It was going to be a lot of work to get them working. So we parted two of them out. I have a hunch we will part more machines out in the future. The 'body' of one we parted out went in Mom's garden. I'm thinking I want the other one in my front yard... As long as the scrappers leave it alone I'll be happy with that.

So what makes a parts machine. I know there are people who dis-assemble a machine, clean it and put it back to work and I do that, too some times. When I see lots and lots of rust & missing or broken parts maybe it is better to keep some other machine alive. SO what parts do I save??? I used to save the whole machine. In some cases I still do - especially if it is common with others that I mess around with. BUT space is hard to find. I save obvious things like slide plates, tension, bobbin area bits, bobbin winders, spool pins if there are any, motor, foot control, working wires, needlebar, needle bar thumb screw, pressure bar spring, pressure bar, what ever I think has something in common with another machine. I've been saving screws but I'm not sure that will do any good... We put things in little zip bags and mostly label the bags... Some we got confused, gggrrrrr. That is the best reason for leaving the machine in tact and then just robbing the parts and really easy to find the parts you want. I suspect these were machines just for robbing parts when the guy bought them in the first place. OH and not one case was in tact. I learn a lot by dis-assembling a machine. I think poor Wilbur was thinking we were crazy. We aren't fixing them we are taking it apart. Blew his little mind. He is sssoooo not allowed to take things apart. That gets him in big trouble. Next time he comes I think we need to take a usable tension and put it on a machine that has a bad one and see what he thinks.

OK. What is NOT a parts machine? I guess it would be one that can be made to work with out terrible expense or one of sentimental value or simply how much I love that machine or want to mess around with it and learn from the experience. I have made some hideous looking machines work and they turned out to be wonderful machines. Thanks to Glenn I can get some sort of finish on them and at least improve the looks. I'm not as good as he is - mine don't look new again. Grant is another one who can make a machine look really nice. I would say the cosmetics are a small worry and can be improved at some point. Are the insides all there? Are there broken parts? Are the replacements for the broken parts easily found? Are the insides rusted or just covered in dried oil? Is this something I can do? If I fail at fixing one up am I going to beat myself up? What about wiring and controls? There is info on QB about wiring & controls. Just ask J Miller. So maybe it boils down to how much time and expense can be put in on a machine vs how much the same parts can rescue another machine - either way I'd rather part one out than trash it... Well every now and then there are sledgehammer days....

Another option I would love is to take the worst of the worst machines all to Ray White's class and see what can be done with them. There is so much to learn. I guess if they don't get repaired they can be parted.

Mrs. SewNSew

I was waiting for you to write this! Well I was until last week when I decided on my own that a few were "parts machines". I think I grabbed most of the same parts you did except for the needle bar and I may have missed a pressure foot lifter. What I could take I did and it really is a good learning experience to have no fear in taking one apart. I bagged the remains as well and already found that the Kenmore retainer ring in the bobbin area fits a Necchi I am repairing. That comes in handy!

I think that's wonderful that you will show Wilbur how a saved part from one of these donor machines can help repair another. It's a good lesson and will help him be more at peace with the ones that have been parted out.

The more I work on these machines they more I learn to weigh and measure the amount of work and parts I will need to put in against whether I want the machine for myself or whether I can sell the machine (or even give it away!).

It's hard to relegate one to "parts" but also very liberating!

miriam

There are a few I parted then later figured out how to fix. There is a huge learning curve that only experience can teach you. I think a lot of the old machines I pick up were given up on because someone else didn't know how to fix. Some times it is as easy as cleaning out lint, turning a needle around the right direction, setting the tensions, cleaning dried off oil, finding burrs, etc. Some times it can be a lot more complicated so set it aside for a day when you will know how to fix it or use it to keep another machine going. Let's not get judgmental at each other. Some times it is ok to take the machine to a shop and have it repaired if you are butt your head against the wall. If you are in over your head quit. Take some time out but before you go back to it search for information and see if you can apply that to the mess. Never let a sewing machine know you are in a hurry.

J Miller

I need parts.

I hate parting out a machine.

Gads, what a conundrum.


To date I've bought two parts machines. I fixed one and sold it, but the other has too many parts missing.


Joe

Mrs. SewNSew

After reading this I remembered I had a Fashion Mate in my hoard too. I dragged it off the shelf and ran a sponge over the worst of it to see what we're dealing with. Ohhh so hard to decide sometimes. The wheel turns, the cords are shot, the lamp has a broken casing, and both the motor and machine have areas of soft bubbled up paint that I believe is due to cat pee. I could probably make it live.

J Miller

Sounds like my New Home that was a mouse apartment. Yuck!

Joe

miriam

Maybe you already have a parts machine AND a condo for mice.

ThayerRags

Good thread, especially for those of us that get totally submerged in vintage sewing machines. I have parted machines out simply because I didn’t have room to store the complete machines. I can put over 20 machines-worth of parts into a filing cabinet drawer when they’re bagged up in ziplock bags, and that’s pulling every part that is in the casting of the machine, minus the upper shaft. And I must say, I wasn’t all that good at determining which machines would be good part-out candidates. It seems like I get as many or more requests for parts from the machines (parted-out) that I didn’t think anyone would ever want parts from. So it goes.

To Partout, Or Not To Partout......
I’ve tried it both ways over the past 9 years, with around 400 machines. Both storing the entire machine and pulling parts as needed, or totally disassembling the machine and bagging it up. Both methods can be effective, but I would say that “it depends”. It depends on whether you are pulling parts for your own use, or by request from others. If you’re only pulling parts for your own needs, either method will work fairly well. You have the machine being repaired in your hands, and can plainly see what parts that it needs from your donor machine. If you’ve bagged a machine up, you can dig through the bag until you find all of the pieces that you need. It’s workable either way.

But, if you’re pulling parts for someone else, without having the needy machine in your hands, then things get difficult. In this case, it works better to have the parts still attached to the hull to make sure that you get all of the attachment/accompanying items. You can remove just the fiddly bits associated with the “part” when you pull the part, and they can all be included in the shipment with the part. But, there is a down side to this.

I’ve had requests for parts that are still on the hull. But, until I go pull the machine and pull the parts, I can’t honestly say if I have the parts in good useable condition or not, or of what value the parts may be. I have to wait until I pull the parts, clean them up, and inspect them. So, I take the time to pull the parts and then reply to the inquiry, only to find out that the person seeking the parts has changed their mind, found parts elsewhere, doesn’t like the price of my parts, or had requested the wrong parts to begin with. So then....now what do you do with the parts that you harvested? Put them back onto the hull? I can tell you that pulling parts off of a machine is easier that putting them back on, (and much less time consuming). Automobile parts salvage companies went through the same thing back years ago, and that brought about the “pull-a-part” concept of letting customers pull their own parts. If they pulled the wrong part, the salvage yard wasn’t out the money for the wasted labor to pull them and put them back on (or do something else with them to keep an inventory record of them). Once the customer pulled the part, and paid for it, it was theirs. No returns.

As time goes on, I’m tending to back-off from the remote parts requests. It gets aggravating to say the least, and I don’t need the aggravation. I’m thinking seriously about taking all of my parts machine pages down from my website, and just tell everyone to bring their machine by my place so that I can take a look at it and see if I have what they need to repair it. Yea, I know, they won’t come out to rural Oklahoma with it, but I’ve about had it with people that buy a machine for $10 at a yardsale, then tell me that they won’t pay more for the parts to get it going (that it was missing when they bought it) than they paid for the entire machine. Uhhh....you got the machine for $10. Maybe the reason that you got it for $10 was because IT WASN’T ALL THERE????

End of rant.

CD in Oklahoma

miriam

CD I totally agree with your rant - was that really a rant??? You are dead on regardless. I've sent a few parts to people. It costs me space to store a machine. It costs time me to pull a part off a stored machine. It costs me to clean the part. It costs me to haul it to the post office. It costs me to mail the part. So what IS fair for parts??? Ebay? Who knows how responsible someone is about that stuff - there may well be more money in parting out machines than in fixing them up. Since I am a Power Poster, maybe I can power post these junkers out to your place and you can have the worlds largest pick a part for sewing machines business. You could line them up alphabetically or numerically or in colors or what ever - I betcha Wilbur would want to help... People could travel for miles to come and get parts for their $10 sewing machines - just kidding. The scrap yard gives very little for a machine since it is not purely one metal and some times plastic - ask me how I know. But the parts do keep other machines going. Ok wanna talk about those $10 sewing machines??? Now there is a real RANT and for now I'm going to sit on my hands so my rant doesn't go running out of my head and onto the computer screen.

mjhaess

My repairman says if it is old and does not have plastic parts it is worth saving if possible. I have 15 machines and if I find a machine that is not going to be easy to salvage I donate it to my repairman who is very reasonable to repair machines..He appreciates any parts that are hard to find. I never know when one of my old machines might need one of those parts...He has always been able to repair what I take in.