Just for Fun, what is the wackiest thing you have found in a vintage machine
 

Hi,

I have been wondering if I am the only one finding weird stuff in old sewing machines.
Lets hear what you have found.
My most unusual was a bunch of popped popcorn in a beautiful 1906 White family Rotary. It began falling out and falling out, I thought it was never going to stop.
Mice nest, old pins, scraps seem normal.
My son, who I am afraid I have infected with the old sewing machine bug, sent me some photos of a machine he was cleaning. He took off the face plate and out fell dead cockroaches & their feces.

So lets hear it from everyone, send us your strange "find" in a sewing machine.

Ethel

Thus far, fountain pen nibs.

I bought a very dirty Viking 21 and found a Mud dauber's nest up inside it.

Cathy

I have a Sears godzilla with a mouse nest made out of pink insulation. I have found old garters, a letter from Singer and my favorite is a crochet hook with the hook end ground to a point.
How about pics? This is stuff from drawers of a Wheeler and Wilson.
I don't know what the thing is:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]472645[/ATTACH]
[ATTACH=CONFIG]472644[/ATTACH]
[ATTACH=CONFIG]472643[/ATTACH]

Bought an old Singer 27 treadle, and the hand wheel wouldn’t turn, just wiggle back and forth a bit. So, I gave it a good hard turn and heard a loud “crack”....

Some varmint had filled the arm and pillar completely full of pecans, and boy were they packed in there!

CD in Oklahoma

Actually laughed out loud at this CD!! Probably because I have really small kids ;)

All I've ever found was giant dust bunnies. But a friend of mine spotted a sewing machine cabinet in an alley. She wrestled it into her car and hauled it home. Well she has a nice Singer from 1974 and 3 kittens. She still has all 4 treasure's. She named the kittens Singer-Bobbin and Thread. She has 3 dogs Peanut-Butter and Jam.

Lots of fun things in the drawers and plastic cases but the one that made me fall over backwards was one of the poor old machines I bought that had been outside in the dirt. When I turned it over to see what it looked like underneath several cockroaches decided to flee the premises!!! I now take garden gloves with me and I put those machines in the back of the truck, and those machines are kept quarantined outside until they each receive the all clear. :p

some people use real popcorn to pack things in, so this might be where the popcorn came from.

LOVE the kitten story!

This popcorn was in the arm and the pillar. Machine was well cared for but not used in a long time. Every time I turned it over more popcorn fell out. Beautiful old machine, 1906 White.

Sunflowerzz,

My son is from Redding. Maybe the cockroaches up there like sewing machine oil??

I will try and get a picture posted of his machine. Mud dobbers do not surprise me they are everywhere. Kittens, wow!

Here is the roaches and feces of roaches
 

He managed to get it clean.

Mines not that bad, I just got a White Family Rotary from Shop GW. It looked good in the pics, and actually it's in quite good shape. It was shipped in it's case, which amazingly survive with only 1 bent latch screw. I opened the box of attachments left rattling around underneath. Inside was an attachment that had me mistified. It had 2 positions and was spring loaded.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]472756[/ATTACH] Now I've been on the planet awhile, and rebuilt Tube hi-fi's in the past, but I din't figure it out very fast. A clue is 1 postion say 33, and the other says 45. So I'm guessing it's some kind of turntable adapter. I did spend a couple minutes trying how the heck to attach it.
The machine [ATTACH=CONFIG]472757[/ATTACH]
Now to find a link on how to thread it!...

My grandfather's barber tools - his thinning shears and a straight razor. Found this in my grandmother's machine. When I received this treasure it was just as it was the last time she used it and it is still exactly like that - her buttons, bobbins, thread, scissors, etc. I have no idea why papaw's barber tools where in there but they are still there and most likely will be when I die and it goes to one of my daughters. I will haunt them if they sell that machine or its contents or if they in any other way allow it to leave the family!!

Not very strange but I did find a pair of scissors that had Salt Lake City School District etched on the blades and one point is broken off so I wonder if someone was injured? LOL
I have also found guarders, lace, cotton string balls and safety razor blades in the drawers

The worst was mice that jumped out and moved into my car vents. It cost $200 to get their huge nest out and sanitizing. The smell was awful! Salvaged garters, zippers, and elastic, buttons, marbles, game pieces, naked double edge razor blades for seam ripping and buttonhole cutting. Crackers, seeds, corn cob pipes, stamps, letters, eyeglasses, hearing aids, leaking batteries, S&H Green stamps- every drawer is a mystery treasure trove. Pretty much everything Except bobbins, parts, and the booklets I want!

Cathieinut, those razor blades really surprise me when I find them but thankfully most are taped on one side.
Monroe, I always love it when people say the manual comes with the machine. Rarely is it the one for the machine.

I have seen tape - stuck on tape from 50 or 70 years ago. Drives me bananas. Too cheap to get a gauge so ruin the machine????

I picked up a Sphinx machine from a thrift shop. At the shop they had used packing tape to attach a puzzle box( in a zip lock bag) to the machine. The tape was wrapped around what had been a perfect decal. I almost want to leave it (the tape) alone.

I yell at the thrift stores all the time about that. Ruins decals. Ruins paint.

On a machine I just bought, there was a piece of tape over the decals. I very carefully used Goo Gone to remove the tape, and it didn't damage the decals at all... just a suggestion for you. I did not rub hard though, just very gingerly and carefully.

I found hook sections cut from old bra straps in the case with my Singer 128.

sunflower seeds I guess from where the mice put them

Look on you tube just type in "threading a white rotary sewing machine"

Just look on you tube type in"threading a white rotary sewing machine"

HelenAnn, if you have not done anything yet; consider using oil, oil, more oil, and three parts patience as well. You may be able to de-glue-gunk the tape and save the decals...

Heartbreaking!!!

A 1" long real fingernail.

ooh how sick.....

A shoe horn.

I'll have nightmares now for sure over that image :shock:

I think this one probably should win the prize. I found it in a cabinet drawer of a Singer 27 I've been fiddling with today. I had no clue what it was. My husband cracked up - yup he howled. He says one end is for pimples and the other is for blackheads. I have no idea how it works and I'm so not going to test it out.
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Thanks for the tape removal suggestions. I removed it before I realized what would happen. Lucky for me it did not remove to much of the (perfect) decal.

I remember those Miriam. I think my mom had one.

looks like pure torture

I found a rather nice necklace. It is brass/copper leaves hung on a chain. I should probably have that thing looked at....

I have found 2 wedding rings. Made me wonder why but then mine is AWOL currently. I have also found a dead mummified mouse. It was so dead my kitties weren't interested in it. Mud dauber nests are also common for barn stored items. I also found an old shoe hook, for when shoes had buttons on them, in one of the treadles. Lots of old buttons and a .22 rifle shell one time.

I think the thing on the right is a bracket for a curtain rod - we had some like that in our old house, the rod was about 1/4 inch in diameter.

Spider webs, but no spiders.