oldsewnsew

I'm sure everyone either has a story like this, or will have one eventually. Am I right, or am I the only clutz!?
Every now and then we get those humbling experiences. I just picked up (off of CL, and bargained downward but still paid too much probably) a Singer 28 with handcrank and coffin top. It had a weirdly bent crank handle, which I was luckily able to bend back without breaking, and needs a replacement handle that will revolve, and I could see lots of old thread wrapped behing the hand wheel, so I decided to remove the handwheel. It was stuck tight, and I was able to leverage it out a bit, but towards the end I grabbed a deadblow hammer, figuring a couple light taps, evenly spaced around the hand wheel won't hurt. WRONG!! It came off alright, with about 1/2 of the collar that it slides over, that is threaded for the hanfreewheel clutch knob and pinned to the shaft. [ATTACH=CONFIG]485479[/ATTACH]
The after effect[ATTACH=CONFIG]485481[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]485482[/ATTACH] So for my next trick, I'm going to clean the parts, chamfer the edge a bit with a Dremel, and try and silver braze it back together, hoping to maintain alignment. We'll see... unless someone, has one of these sitting around in their stash????? I hope I don't need to find a tapered reamer for the pin afterwards. Arggh. Meanwhile she sits half dressed[ATTACH=CONFIG]485483[/ATTACH]

tessagin

I had a machine that had thread tightly wrapped around it. Took a small exacto knife and cut into it. Slowly coaxed the thread out with tweezers and cut. Just FYI for next time in another situation.

oldsewnsew

My next boo boo wasn't as expensive if it doesn't work out, but still... another CL ad showed a treadle base for an unknown brand of head, for $12. I whisked off an email, saying I'll give you $20 (I drive a hard bargain!) They replied, I popped over, gave em a Jackson, and loaded er up, telling myself what a sweet deal that was. When I got to the recycle yard where he said he donated the head, (and it wasn't there anymore) I noticed the base had wire wrapped around the leg, or was it 2? the cast iron had been broken. [ATTACH=CONFIG]485484[/ATTACH]Another chance for some silver brazing... Does anyone recognize the brand of this base, it looks like it held a rotary of some type. [ATTACH=CONFIG]485485[/ATTACH] Just due to the relief cut at the left end. upside down photo, sorry Joe. It came with 4 drawers in need of some work. [ATTACH=CONFIG]485486[/ATTACH]Thems the breaks! Lesson being, "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably IS!"

nanna-up-north

Oh Jim, I know you are heartsick. I know I would be. There are just some lessons that you don't want to learn. Sorry. I hope you can get it back to being usable again. I do love my handcrank.... in fact, I'd love to find another.

oldsewnsew

I actually had the thread out, but once I set out to remove something, OCD kicks in! :^)

Rodney

Your base looks like a Wheeler & Wilson to me. Congrats on the 28. Too bad about the broken parts.

I forced my daughter's 99 to break loose some shellac that I had applied. I bent the needle bar and broke part of the crank mechanism for it.

I passed up a $16.00 Bernina-it looked like an 830 record- at our local Goodwill. I've learned since that if it says Bernina and is $16.00 to go ahead and buy it.
Rodney

costumegirl

Rodney - I did that with a Bernina too - I found an early model at the 'Sally Ann' for $25 - looked it over and when I turned around another person scooped it up behind me. Oh well - they probably needed it more than me

Mrs. SewNSew

Ugh awful. And here you went and gave them 20 when you were so sure you were getting such a wonderful deal! Gah! I have been fairly fortunate so far not to have horrifying breakage stories, but I am young in this hobby so there's plenty of time!

So far as over paying...I am not so sure my Pfaff 130 was a great bargain even though I talked them down to 40.00. I was blind and in love from the moment I saw it and there was no hope for me. It had missing cords, belt, foot controller, bent spool pin, the wrong motor mount, the usual bad bobbin tire and no box or table. Later I found it also has a broken off cast iron foot. Sometimes you just can't stop yourself!

Rodney

You said you had the drawers on the stand? You did ok at $20 even with the broken leg IMO. The parts individually would cost far more.
Rodney

Macybaby

I also think it looks like a WW base - with that dished out spot on the top, it looks like it would fit a rotary machine. I have some WW drawers that have the same engraving as your center drawer too.

My worst mistakes have come from getting excited and hitting "buy it now" a bit too quick, and realizing I didn't read some of the details quite as close as I should have.

My husband had one of these learning experiences - he was dealing with a very dirty 127 with great decals. Until he got the idea to put it in the sink to clean off all the grime. He was amazed at how black the water ended up. I was amazed that he didn't notice he was washing off the finish and decals!