Went to an estate sale Friday and purchased this abused treadle machine. She needs a total work over. Her case is a mess with large spots where there is no stain what so ever, and what stain there is has darker spots on it as if someone had varnised or shellacked it. Her belts are missing and she needs her tension cover replaced plus a total overhaul of the sewing machine . The base we already washed and found that there is gold on the name Singer and on the trademark on both side legs of the treadle. I would like to know what is the actual color of the stain is on the cabinet itself. According to her serial number she was born in 1911. She is missing a lot of her design on the machine from wear and not being taken care of. I do see what I believe you call the red eyes on the machine but most of the design is gone, So any help from this great board woul be greatly appreciated. This would be our first overhaul of a beautiful machine.

If you go to our virtual machine section Billy has a fantastic tutorial for cleaning her up. I did and mine is back to life!!
I think it's page 46 or close.
Show us a pic! :D

Susan: Thank you for the information. As fr pictures, well she is all apart for now. But as soon as I can I will post pictures.Thank you again
Little Sue

Good luck with the restoration! She should be a grand old lady when you are finished, and lots of fun to use!

Most of the Singer cabinets I've seen are a dark walnut finish. For the cabinet work on what you've described, contact Glenn for help...he's an awesome woodworker! :)

Here's a description of how I refurbished a Singer cabinet. http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-22150-1.htm
Good luck with your machine.

http://www.quiltingboard.com/t-155695-1.htm
link to a video I just posted.
A lot of machines do not need a total spa treatment. Of all the machines I have rehabbed probably only a couple needed an all out treatment - the rest were given a treatment about like Muv demonstrates on the video. You do not need to have the exact machine in the video to be able to do it. Get an owner's manual before you start.

Good for you!!

There may not be a tension "cover". I'm not sure about other models, but the 66 doesn't have a cover. Nor does it have numbers indicating what the tension setting is.

I recently purchased an old abused treadle myself. The cabinet top is in critical condition but the drawers are in fair to good condition (as are the drawer frames). I've given husband carte blanche to restore the cabinet while I restore the machine. He has already decided to keep the drawers and completely replace the top. And he decided that instead of folding the machine down into the cabinet, he's going to recess the machine to the base then fit it with a coffin top. As these cabinets are not really worth that much even refinished or in prime condition, we're not worried about restoring it to match it's original look. We're after functionality and practicality.

Thank you everyone for your quick responses, I know that we have a lot of reading to do on my newest addition to our family. We're very excited abut this baby, my DH just told me it's my birthday present just a few days early. WHOOOHOOOO, gotta love my man. Again thank you!!!!

WOW, I always thought that my Singer treadle was a dark OAK !! I am certainly no expert. All I needed was a belt for my Singer.