Caroline S

My OSMG told me that a friend of his, another OSMG, had a Wheeler & Wilson's treadle and asked me if I might be interested in looking at it. Of course we all know what the reply was. When I took my Damascus to him yesterday he had the treadle in his shop, AKA his living room. Once I looked at the sewing machine I knew that it would be coming to live with me.

She has almost all of her original attachments and came with a copy of the manual. My OSMG says she is an earlier model No. 8 because the bobbin case is a little different than what is pictured in the manual and the bobbin winder is mounted on the treadle base. The serial number on the back slide plate is 423159 and the last patent date is 27 Aug 1878. Surprisingly the cabinet is in good shape for being 130 plus years old.

Another plus is that the OSMG gave her a good oiling and a test drive.

sharon b

WOW - do you have it home already - can't wait to see her all cleaned up

Caroline S

Yes, she is home. I had to hurry to pick her up today because this morning it was raining like crazy. When the clouds parted and the sun came out I made a mad dash for the OSMG's house. I will post some more closeup pics tomorrow.

Charlee

The W&W 8 was made until 1880...and yours would have been made between Sept 1878 and the ending date, whatever that was of 1880.
I'm excited for you! I love mine, even tho I don't use it because it still has some of the bed decals and I'm scared of ruining them, it does have a really nice stitch! I will, eventually, make SOMETHING with the machine...
I see a metal "hemmer" insert, do you have the glass foot? Did you get any of the glass inserts? It's great that you have the spooler (bobbin winder)!! Those are most often missing!
CONGRATS!!!

Caroline S

Yes, I did get one of the glass inserts. It is the plain glass presser foot. I will post some closeup pics of the attachments later. The machine head does need cleaning. That will be the project for today. Thanks for giving me the mfg dates.

Nagi

WOW! I've never seeing a sewing machine like it. I would had taken it home myself~enjoy it

3incollege

I think it would really be net to have that machine. I can never find machines like that.

jaciqltznok

oh you lucky dog.....that is just lovely!

Caroline S

Thanks Jacquie. My DD and I spent half a day yesterday cleaning and repairing the cabinet. The cabinet drawers frame came loose while I was moving it. My bad, but I wanted to get it out of the truck before it rained. The right side irons has small wheels on the bottom which were frozen. It took DD about 1/2 hour, Liquid Wrench and a small channel lock priers to free them up. Every movable part on the treadle irons were oiled and everything moves freely. We had to fill the holes on the bottom of the cabinet top where the drawers frame came loose and the screws came out. It looks as if they had been repaired sometime in the past. My chore for today is to sand over the wood putty so we can remount the drawers frame to the cabinet. Sometime in the distant past a child had done some "artwork" on the drawers. We are going to leave the artwork intact. Gonna have to do a little furniture arranging so we can bring the WW8 into the house.

GailG

I love the chalk drawing on one of the cabinet parts. The old Singer treadle that I have (and have never done anything with it yet) has a tic-tac-toe scratched in (probably with one of Mom's pins) on the back of the machine. Kiddo was probably standing at the back of the machine with a sibling or friend while Mom did her sewing. My DH told me that he and his brother took turns manning the treadle while his mom sewed. I suppose that was her way of knowing where they were while she did her sewing.