Originally Posted by
miriam
...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??? ....inside the garage....junk machines. Rust. Missing parts. MISSING or CUT CORDS. Broken gears....a lot of work to get them working. So we parted two of them out.
So what makes a parts machine....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.
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. ....either way I'd rather part one out than trash it... Well every now and then there are sledgehammer days....
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