gifted Davis

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12-01-2013, 04:14 PM

#11

Macybaby

Super Member

Join Date: Jul 2013

Location: South Dakota

Posts: 8,145

Well you know - a girl has to draw the line somewhere - or you guys will have us doing ALL the work!

DH and I have 40 acres - though we are down to just chickens now. We rent the back and the neighbor has cows out there that he'll be taking home for the winter by the end of the week. We sold him the rest of the hay we had in storage from when we had horses - so I have more sewing machine money now!!!!

12-01-2013, 04:49 PM

#12

jlhmnj

Super Member

Join Date: Aug 2011

Location: Millville, NJ

Posts: 1,835

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrsDerf

Last night my BFF called me and said she and her mother wanted to gift me her mom's old Davis in the original cabinet btw mom is 92. Mom LEARNED to sew on it and never sewed on anything else. It has not been used in many years. I read somewhere on here about a Video on how to clean it up. It does not need a repair except for a belt. I will post pics when get it to some decent lighting. Anyone know how to do just a cleaning? Do I need to do anything else? I couldn't find anywhere to date her so I don't know her age. I named her Ruthie after the mom.

Ruthie is a bird of a different feather, a needle feed / walking foot machine which was called by Davis "Vertical Feed" due to the feed mechanism being above the bed rather than below like "conventional" sewing machines. The reason I mention this is that cleaning will be different in some ways to the excellent video's on the site. A big chunk of the mechanics below the bed will be missing from the Vertical feed. If you unbutton the face plate you'll probably wonder "what is all this stuff"? Along with the excellent videos I would seek out a NVF owners manual for oiling instructions. I would recommend cleaning out behind the faceplate or "feed" area but only after taking lots of pictures and only if you consider yourself somewhat or slightly mechanically inclined. I know you'd receive lots of assistance from the QB if you decide to tackle it. Congrats

Jon

12-01-2013, 08:40 PM

#13

MrsDerf

Junior Member

Thread Starter

Join Date: Nov 2012

Location: Michigan

Posts: 119

Thanks Jon for the info. I am excited about working on her but KNOW I should. Watched some of the videos and that scares me bit. I talked to the mom today and she said she hardly ever oiled it. How do I find out the age of the machine and what manual to get ? It doesn't help that I have problems with getting around on web sites. Thank you for the encouragement.

12-02-2013, 08:01 AM

#14

jlhmnj

Super Member

Join Date: Aug 2011

Location: Millville, NJ

Posts: 1,835

Quote:

Originally Posted by MrsDerf

How do I find out the age of the machine and what manual to get ? It doesn't help that I have problems with getting around on web sites. Thank you for the encouragement.

Ruthies' age can be determined pretty accurately from the 7 digit serial number on the front slide used to access shuttle and bobbin. Whether Ruthie wants this information known is another matter

Free manual is available by joining Davis VF group: http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/davis_vf/info

From homepage click on "Files" under homegroup photo and then to "davis VF Manual Part 1" and you will get the oiling instruction for all of machine except the feed behind the faceplate.

To clean the feed properly the same group has excellent instructions under "Photos", which can be clicked on from under homepage picture of straw hats. Once photos is clicked on go all the way to bottom to "Disassemble and Assemble NVF Davis". These photographic instructions are excellent. Good Luck

Jon