Hi all, popping over here to ask the experts
I have the chance to buy this machine tomorrow, for what I consider to be a very reasonable price (30 UK£).
Should I or shouldn't I?
I grew up sewing on a treadle singer, and at school we used a hand-crank singer model, so this would be a real trip down memory lane for me. However I don't know enough to be sure I could get this working properly. And hubby doesn't want me to have an 'ornamental' machine stuck on a shelf somewhere lol.
The machine itself looks really clean, with no scratches to the paintwork. However, it is missing the bobbin cover plate, so the bobbin area is pretty gunked up, but the hook turns fine. The rest of the mechanism turns very smoothly. However the feed dogs do not move at all, which I suppose could be the result of all that gunk (or maybe the stitch length is set to 0). There's a bit of superficial rust, which looks like it would come off with a good polishing.
It comes with the original travel box too, although the storage cover is missing, along with one of the mounting hinges.
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Obviously, I'm very tempted to go ahead with the purchase.
So what pitfalls are there to restoring this machine? How easy would it be to obtain a bobbin cover, for instance? Anything else I should know about before committing myself? Hubby is/was a mechanical engineer to trade, so he'll get roped into the restoration lol.
TIA for any info you can share.
Kate