Cigarette Smoke Covered Sewing Machines
08-30-2014, 05:15 AM
#11
Senior Member
Join Date: Oct 2011
Location: Jacksonville, FL
Posts: 374
The gunk on my inherited 403 was from those unbelievably nasty little black cigars my mother smoked as well as the pipe my grandfather smoked. Patience, paper towels, cotton tipped sticks, rags, gloves, and my home-brewed cleaner/unsmeller of choice did the trick. The poor machine had literally dripped nicotine from the piece joins and the areas that were originally painted a pinky-tan was brown. It's back to the pinky-tan and nothing oozing out of those joins. It works gangbusters too.
Pat
Pat
08-30-2014, 05:21 AM
#12
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Join Date: May 2011
Location: Frederick, OK
Posts: 2,031
I can “see” that scenario Cari. And thanks to Ken for mentioning the fry oil and kitchen fumes. I can envision those conditions playing out in many homes throughout the years.
I’m sure that many of the machines that we come up with do, in fact, have a cigarette smoke coating on them. But some of the really old machines lived in atmospheres that included other smoke and fumes that would leave a coating on everything too. I just get a kick out of so many thinking it is tobacco smoke, which is about the only smoke and fumes found in homes in recent times.
Technically speaking, the coating of yuk on a machine is part of the history of the machine, but I haven’t heard of anyone going to great lengths trying to “preserve” that historically significant yuk on a machine. I don’t really wonder why that is, but I find it interesting. I don’t know why. I just do.
CD in Oklahoma
I’m sure that many of the machines that we come up with do, in fact, have a cigarette smoke coating on them. But some of the really old machines lived in atmospheres that included other smoke and fumes that would leave a coating on everything too. I just get a kick out of so many thinking it is tobacco smoke, which is about the only smoke and fumes found in homes in recent times.
Technically speaking, the coating of yuk on a machine is part of the history of the machine, but I haven’t heard of anyone going to great lengths trying to “preserve” that historically significant yuk on a machine. I don’t really wonder why that is, but I find it interesting. I don’t know why. I just do.
CD in Oklahoma
08-30-2014, 05:33 AM
#13
Power Poster
Join Date: Mar 2013
Location: Corpus Christi, Tx.
Posts: 16,105
ALso a reformed smoker. I believe we are our worst critics because we realize what we had done to ourselves. Many of us are paying the after effects.
08-30-2014, 10:34 AM
#16
Super Member
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: Duncan, SC, 29334 USA
Posts: 4,580
***
*** I use to reprocess Dish network receivers an when they were coated with nicotine
*** it was Yellow/Gold/Tan colored, very very Sticky, and you could Smell it..
***
*** Very ICKKKY stuff & Disgusting Stuff & had probably been in homes with little children.
***
*** What were these people thinking.
***
*** I use to reprocess Dish network receivers an when they were coated with nicotine
*** it was Yellow/Gold/Tan colored, very very Sticky, and you could Smell it..
***
*** Very ICKKKY stuff & Disgusting Stuff & had probably been in homes with little children.
***
*** What were these people thinking.
***
08-30-2014, 12:13 PM
#17
Super Member
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: Campton,Kentucky
Posts: 1,397
I see a lot of posts that mention sewing machines “covered with cigarette smoke”, “coated with smoke...the brown of tobacco and nicotine”, “coated with cigarette smoke grime”, and so forth......
Considering the age of some of our “vintage” machines, I wonder if there are times when a foreign coating on a machine or cabinet might be misdiagnosed as cigarette smoke, when it could be something else?
I would think that many of my old sewing machines could have been in homes that were heated with coal or heating oil, by stoves or furnaces that didn’t always send all of the smoke out the chimney like they were supposed to do. And some older machines were possibly used around oil lamps as well. Possibly with the lamp setting right on the cabinet.
Do you suppose that some of the gunk on old sewing machines that we think is tobacco smoke could be coal or oil smoke instead, and that some of the previous owners never touched a cigarette in their life?
Here’s a scenario for you:
Ma & Pa have finished their evening meal and retired to the parlor where they can soak up the warmth from the coal stove before retiring on to bed. Ma sets down to her treadle sewing machine while Pa nestles down in the big old stuffed chair nearby and fires up his favorite pipe. Pa had lit a couple of oil lamps right after stoking up the stove with a little shot of kerosene while Ma was clearing the dishes away. Ma has one lamp setting on her sewing machine to light up her work area, and Pa has one on the stand next to his chair so he can read the newspaper. After a fairly long spell, Pa gets up, opens the shove door, and banks up the fire with more coal for the night. Soon after, both Ma and Pa retire to bed for the night.
Ok now. How much of the gunk on Ma’s sewing machine is from tobacco?
CD in Oklahoma
Considering the age of some of our “vintage” machines, I wonder if there are times when a foreign coating on a machine or cabinet might be misdiagnosed as cigarette smoke, when it could be something else?
I would think that many of my old sewing machines could have been in homes that were heated with coal or heating oil, by stoves or furnaces that didn’t always send all of the smoke out the chimney like they were supposed to do. And some older machines were possibly used around oil lamps as well. Possibly with the lamp setting right on the cabinet.
Do you suppose that some of the gunk on old sewing machines that we think is tobacco smoke could be coal or oil smoke instead, and that some of the previous owners never touched a cigarette in their life?
Here’s a scenario for you:
Ma & Pa have finished their evening meal and retired to the parlor where they can soak up the warmth from the coal stove before retiring on to bed. Ma sets down to her treadle sewing machine while Pa nestles down in the big old stuffed chair nearby and fires up his favorite pipe. Pa had lit a couple of oil lamps right after stoking up the stove with a little shot of kerosene while Ma was clearing the dishes away. Ma has one lamp setting on her sewing machine to light up her work area, and Pa has one on the stand next to his chair so he can read the newspaper. After a fairly long spell, Pa gets up, opens the shove door, and banks up the fire with more coal for the night. Soon after, both Ma and Pa retire to bed for the night.
Ok now. How much of the gunk on Ma’s sewing machine is from tobacco?
CD in Oklahoma
08-30-2014, 03:57 PM
#18
Super Member
Join Date: Jul 2012
Location: Not Here
Posts: 3,817
I think there's another source of the brown sticky nastiness.
In some of the Singer service manuals, you will see a preparation list - ie what the machine was supposed to go through before a customer ever saw it. One of the steps is to remove ALL traces of the anti-corrosion film that was put on the machine for shipping.
I suspect that a great many machines didn't have all of this removed, especially the ones with brown just in the crevasses but look otherwise quite clean and don't stink of nicotine when wet.
In some of the Singer service manuals, you will see a preparation list - ie what the machine was supposed to go through before a customer ever saw it. One of the steps is to remove ALL traces of the anti-corrosion film that was put on the machine for shipping.
I suspect that a great many machines didn't have all of this removed, especially the ones with brown just in the crevasses but look otherwise quite clean and don't stink of nicotine when wet.
08-31-2014, 03:01 AM
#19
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Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: PA, NC, or as-paid
Posts: 287
I think some of it is just sewing machine oil film itself. I am a nonsmoker. I bought a Kenmore brand new in 1980. It sat in the case most of the time, and in my back bedroom on a desk the rest of the time, not near any smoke, or cooking oils. It still turned amber-ish after about 20 years. I scrubbed it off with Tuff Stuff, and waxed it. Looks like new.
08-31-2014, 11:54 PM
#20
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Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: Upstate New York
Posts: 1,231
Smoke has very distinctive smells...I can tell the difference in the smoke smell of a house fire, forest fire smoke, or exposed to wood stove smoke, or cigarettes, and even pipe tobacco smoke......not sure about coal, but I'd bet it has it's own odor...cigarettes have a distinct smell, and most people know it! I do know that on metal...like old sewing machines..the grime (and smell) can be easily removed...but these newer machines made of plastic...I'd bet that's harder!
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