A new batch just arrived
 

My sister in Minneapolis, who enables my affliction, picked up all these machines for me, along with all the extras, for a total of $60. How could I pass it up??

There's a violin (or is it fiddle??https://cdn.quiltingboard.com/images/smilies/wink.png) base Singer up at the top, I know nothing about these. Five 66 red eyes, two 27s, a couple of old White VS machines, a Kenmore 117.959 (I have an empty Kenmore table), and a couple of newer machines.

I don't know what 95% of the accessories are for, but I guess I'll learn, once I remove the layers of rust.

I may be busy for a while now!

WOW! That's fun! I would have picked them up, too!

WOW, what a great haul.

Look at all those back clamp attachments.

Even the White attachments. And a Famous buttonholer.

Most of the attachments should be shown in the manual.

Janey - Neat people never make the exciting discoveries I do.
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What a fun haul! Hope you have a great time with them. 😊

The touch and sew may be already past repair. The gears are at the age they disintegrate when the machine is used. That said, mine still works, but it has been used very lightly and always stored in a closet in the house.

Good luck with the others. It looks like a great haul.

bkay

Nice find (and what a good sis) Joe https://cdn.quiltingboard.com/images...es/thumbup.png keep ya busy for a bit.

The Famous buttonholer is a substantial piece of machinery, it must weigh at least 2lbs. I'm no metal expert, but the main housing appears to have been machined from a block of metal. It's actually a beautiful piece.

You definitely have your work cut out with this new haul! I have to ask how long do you think it will take to overhaul all these priceless machines. Then what will you do with all of them once they are restored? Do you keep them or sell them. I personally would be hard pressed to sell any of them as I tend to be a collector. Have loads of fun tinkering.

I think it will take months. Generally, I clean the machine as much as I can, test it, then make a base for it to sit in. In this situation I had actually been looking for some beat up 66s with the 9 spoke hand wheels, to use on other machines for hand cranks. I can get aftermarket hand wheels, for about $19, but they aren’t as high quality and I just prefer the idea of having a genuine Singer hand wheel. When I saw this lot of machines for the price they were, I couldn’t pass it up, and it gave me an excuse to drive almost 10hrs to visit my sister.

What will I do with these machines? I have a local sewing machine friend who is more connected with other sewing machine people, so I will check with her on anyone who might be interested (for not much money probably) in the Singer fiddle base and the two White vibrating shuttle machines; I think I have the shuttles for all three of these machines, and attachments for the Whites, which should make it easier. I just don’t know anything about these particular machines. I won’t clean or service any of them until I know one way or the other.

The Touch & Sew I will check for intact gears, if they are intact then I will service it and sell it on craigslist for $5; if not then I will try to scavenge parts from it and recycle the rest. The Kenmore 117.959 I will clean up and service. I’ve had three other 117 series Kenmores, and I like them, and right now I have an empty Kenmore table in which I can store this one, or I’ll make a case for it and sell it. The blue/white White I’ve already tested, but not serviced, and it sews just fine, although something was supposed to be wrong with it, just not sure what the problem was supposed to be.

The 27s, I’m not sure. They are treadle only, no rail/boss to handle a motor or hand crank. I do have a really cool motor mount for Singers which clamps to the back using the hole at the back top of the pillar, so I may keep those. If nothing else I will clean them up and test sew them by hand. Apparently the 27 with the Persian decals is not too common.

The 66s, I think three of them have good enough decals to clean up and service and then turn into hand cranks after I make some bases for them, and then try to sell. The other two will be donor machines as necessary, and if I have enough parts I will hopefully make them work and make bases for them with hand cranks, they just won’t be as pretty.

The more time I put into a machine, the harder it is to part with it, but I don’t have a lot of storage room so I have to say goodbye to some of them. When I try to sell, I am really only looking to get back actual $$ I have in them, my labor does not add any value in terms of sale price. I only sell on craigslist, I am not on facebook. This is probably more than you wanted to know, but there it is!

somehow when you said you had reached your limit a while back, I thought you were deluding your self.

Way cool about the motor mount. those beasties are RARE "I do have a really cool motor mount for Singers which clamps to the back using the hole at the back top of the pillar"

Joe, does your sister in MN want to take a trip to the middle of South Dakota and pick up a load for you?

Or do you want to make a side trip when you come to visit? I've already got rid of the poor quality machines and would still like to trim down my collection by 25-30 machines, and I also want to trim down my attachment collection - most I do have labeled what it fits, though I still have some I've never figured out. I also have quite a few Singer cabinets I want to rehome.

Look at all those Red Eyes, all in a row! The machine at the front of the right row has some gorgeous decals!

Leon, pictures of the motor mount attached. Is this what you're thinking of? I think I need to look into 3D printing costs, I would have the bottom half different as far as attaching motors.

Wow. That is not at all like the ones I've seen before. Is it Simanco? looks simpler than others I have seen pictured.

It is a Brownell Sewing Machine Kit, which included everything in the picture, never been used.

fabulous find. hugs to your sis.

Thank you for the great pictures!!! I wish they had used one of those on a couple of machines I have. They have holes drilled in the back of the pillar and hard to reach the screws to adjust.


Janey - Neat people never make the exciting discoveries I do.

What are the specs on the fiddle base machine? Year, model etc. looking for a fiddle base 15-1 or a Singer Improved Family late 1800's in age. (probably a needle in a hay stack find).

I know nothing about fiddle bases, the serial number is in the photo if that helps.

Sent you a personal message--thanks

WOW!! What a haul, good for you

Wow - does your sister want another sibling?!! https://cdn.quiltingboard.com/images...es/biggrin.png What a nice haul! And you can't beat the cost of about $4.60 per machine! lol
I was really surprised when I bought my 66 Red Eye that the decals were in such fantastic shape, but the more photos I see of 66 Red Eyes, I'm struck by how intact the decals usually are compared to other models (older and newer) with other decals. Was there something about the Red Eyes that was different?

I think the Red Eyes with good decals weren't used much! Of the 5 I picked up, 3 of them I can still see decent decals, the other 2 not so much. I put the first one with decent decals on the workbench yesterday and there is a very thick layer of dirt/grime over the entire machine. I hope I can clean it and have the decals survive. And actually based on the amount of lint under and behind plates, this machine was uses quite a bit, just never cleaned.

Wow, that was an amazing find!! I have an interest in the white accessories. I just got a White Rotary treadle and wonder if your willing sell them? I am also curious if you got any owners manuals?

I've finally finished this batch of machines, with a handful of other machines interrupting my progress, and good thing because I am due to head back to Minnesota next month for another pile...

The final machine was the Red Eye in the picture, which I wanted to convert from back clamp to side clamp. When I thought I was finished I just couldn't get the presser foot lever to lift such that I could check the tension release, the tension release lever was blocking everything. I couldn't understand how just changing the presser foot bar could cause this.

After about an hour of snarling (head banging on the workbench requires at least 3 hours of prior snarling) at the machine and checking two others to make sure I had the parts in correctly, I finally thought to check the tension release lever against one from a parts bag. Lo and behold the parts were different, even though the part numbers were the same. Although it seems evident that this machine had been worked on at least once before, I am still considering a strongly worded letter to the Singer Manufacturing Company.

I think the larger of the two is the newer one, looks and feels cheaper than the other. Anyway, once the switch was complete things worked as intended. I will wonder for some time though as to what machine the larger lever goes to. Maybe I'll never know.

WOW! What a haul, have fun.

I'm always interested to see what problems crop up when working with old machines and (as my grandmother would have said) "that takes the cake"! Different parts with the same part number? Really? What were they thinking? Simanco, speak!