In our family the saying is ''Crazy is in the eye of the beholder'' For me I would rather restore the cabinets while my brother restores the machines for me. I take a piece of the old veneer with me to get a good match. Veneer is really easy to replace. And since you can now purchase a water based epoxy the ventilation problem is gone. Like vanginney says this is ONLY the beginning--I can not leave a sad machine in or out of a cabinet sitting in a store or yardsale. All they need is a little TLC and a loving home.

This might be a no-no but this is what I have done for rust. I scrub the metal to get as much rust off and use heat-resistant BBQ high gloss or matte paint (it comes in a can and uses a brush to paint on like regular house paint). It super thick. I have used it on metal sewing machine pedals and they look great. I once had a iron bed sand blasted, looked great, but cost me more than the bed cost:)

Get one vintage machine and you will be infected and want more of them, they are adictive.

Yes, I guess I'm crazy too; even before hoarding was ever spoken in polite society, I was hoarding sewing machines--all makes and models (if it is $5 or $10 at a yard sale, it comes home with me; with all my sisters and husband giving me that furry eyeball "where are you going to put it"......Oh well. Welcome to the board and enjoy your visits--this is where I come alive in the morning with my first cup of coffee.

"Am I crazy?!?! " sure are ! just like the rest of us :D

be sure to get a blood test...

Is that a test for dust, sewing machine oil and rust?

beats me - all I know is my blood test says NORMAL!!! That inoculation with the sewing machine needle when I was 6 must have done some good eh?

If your irons aren't in bad enough shape to need sandblasting, you can use a fine steel wool to scrub them down. I used that with a mixture of dawn (the blue kind) dish soap and warm water, then wiped them dry, and repainted mine with rustoleum appliance paint. They look brand new. I haven't reassembled them yet, waiting for the (consistent) warm weather to pull it out again and get working on them. I used this for one set of my Davis irons, which are not very ornate. I have 2 other sets of irons that are more decorative and will require a little more work. One singer set, and one National set. I'll do some close hand painting on those I'm sure to restore them as close to original as I can.

I've got one treadle cabinet (Davis) that is a full restore as well. It came to me already stripped and partially sanded so I'm just finishing up where it started. My Singer 24 chain stitch treadle, however, has been painted a caramel color and its really ugly, so that has got to go. I'm not sure yet how I'm going to fix it....stripping with all those intricate woodworking shapes on it may prove beyond my capabilities so I haven't decided what route to take on that one. I may have some fun with that one. I'm open to suggestions!

as for magazines, I'll have to PM you with a list of some of my favorites.

That sounds great, I've cleaned and oiled the rest of the machine - thanks to Muv's tutorial! Wow, what an amazing experience. The machine looks fantastic, and I don't think the irons are too rusty at all.

How about a heat gun and a small, flexible scraper?

Lovely! Thanks Jennb :)