Jon,

I am sorry if I am starting to annoy you. It's just that this machine has me so excited and I am trying to solve a mystery here surrounding the approximate date that it was made. Here are pictures of the plate under the needle. The only number under this plate is the serial number.
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Thank you for clarifying Jon's post. I am not familiar with the terminology, so I wasn't sure that the piece that I took a picture of was the front slide plate. All of the Minnesota A machines that I have seen in posts or pictures have a much larger slide plate.

I'd call it about or circa 1917 if you want to put a single date to it. This would be right in the middle of estimated dates of manufacture.

Jon

Thank you. Just one more question. We are in the process of cleaning and sanding the cabinet. Do you know if the wood used was oak or walnut or some other kind of wood?

A variety of veneer was used. Take a pic of the cabinet top and someone will recognize it.

Jon

Trying to find out what kind of wood this is so we can buy the appropriate stain after sanding.

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It is white oak. It is finished with shellac. If you use the first coat of orange shellac you may not need any stain. Then finish with two coats of clear shellac. Test in a small area first. If a stain is needed to even out the color use a medium oak stain. I use aniline dye stain either water soluble or alcohol soluble type from a wood workers supply catalog.

Thank you for the information Glenn. If they hadn't stored it in a wet environment and got paint and oil all over it, it might not have been so bad. As it is, we are just trying to get it back to its former glory and put it out as a working display/conversation piece. My wife wants to sew with it. The machine itself is not rusty at all. Only the belt was broken.

Shellac question.
 

Hi Glenn,
It has taken me quite a while to get this baby sanded. I finally got it stained. I used Minwax Early American stain. I have a can of Zinsser Bull's Eye shellac in Amber and was wondering how that might look.

shellac will be fine and recommended although I would only one coat of amber and two coats of the clear shellac. Some times the amber if more that one coat will have a slight orange look.