VS-2 Fiddle Base
The phone rang. It was Janey. Having been out and about, she wondered if I wanted to go look at an 1889 Singer VS-2. We needed to hurry.
It was at a thrift store across town that closed at six. It was now five-thirty. We hopped in the car and were off, trying to negotiate rush hour traffic. It seemed like we hit every light red. And they seemed to take longer than usual to turn green again. We made our difficult way across town, pulling into the store's parking lot about five minutes until six. We went inside and sure enough, they still had the VS-2. Senior discount day, too. Half price.
We bought it and carried it out just as they were locking the doors. In the parking lot, we took the head out of the simple flat top, which was attached to a good set of irons. The top and the irons went in the back of the car, I rode with the head up front to keep it safe. We picked up some sandwiches and headed home.
Recently, posted in another thread:
Originally Posted by
Janey(OurWorkbench)
I thoroughly enjoy seeing the machines from before 1900. I sincerely doubt that I will ever be "up close & personal" with any of them.
As an unmistakable case of fortune-telling:
Originally Posted by
Rodney
Don't be too sure you won't stumble across one. Steve has run into some real beauties locally. Your area has been around long enough that there should be a few jems hiding there too. I know I've seen a lot of nice machines around Denver on Shopgoodwill. Nothing quite as old as Steve's Singer but still the possibility exists.
Finally home, we set the VS-2 head on the kitchen counter and ate our sandwiches, while pondering the new acquisition. Surprisingly, the machine turned fairly easily, at least for a hundred and twenty six year old sewing machine having had no oil recently.
The spool pin was pretty badly bent, but not difficult to straighten and we did that right away.
In a more careful look at home, Janey noticed that the needle clamp was missing. A wire thing at the end of the needle bar caught my eye at the store. I didn't see what was missing. From a parts machine (a much newer Signature) Janey took the needle clamp and it seems to work. We'll see when its time for it to sew.
(VS-2 Front View)
[ATTACH=CONFIG]531752[/ATTACH]
A New Baseboard
This older machine requires its own unique baseboard for our workstand. It didn't take long to make, since it doesn't need the stepped edge. The hinge pins needed a little special attention, since they're non-removable. What was tricky was the lack of points of reference that I'm used to, since the base is all curves. For the baseboard color, we used a light blue.
(VS-2 In Workstand)
[ATTACH=CONFIG]531753[/ATTACH]
This machine has unusually good access to the pillar with a removable contoured cover on the back. Janey removed all of the small parts. It then got a couple of days doused with Kroil inside a black bag in the sun to loosen up old grunge and grease.
Now in the workstand and turning very smoothly, the process of cleaning up all the smaller parts will probably begin. It needs a lot of work, a real fixer upper, but it's the oldest machine that we have. (I almost think I can hear Janey's voice adding, "...so far...", but maybe I just have an over-active imagination.)
John