Should I Buy This?
 

Hi all, popping over here to ask the experts :thumbup:

I have the chance to buy this machine tomorrow, for what I consider to be a very reasonable price (30 UK£).

Should I or shouldn't I?

I grew up sewing on a treadle singer, and at school we used a hand-crank singer model, so this would be a real trip down memory lane for me. However I don't know enough to be sure I could get this working properly. And hubby doesn't want me to have an 'ornamental' machine stuck on a shelf somewhere lol.

The machine itself looks really clean, with no scratches to the paintwork. However, it is missing the bobbin cover plate, so the bobbin area is pretty gunked up, but the hook turns fine. The rest of the mechanism turns very smoothly. However the feed dogs do not move at all, which I suppose could be the result of all that gunk (or maybe the stitch length is set to 0). There's a bit of superficial rust, which looks like it would come off with a good polishing.

It comes with the original travel box too, although the storage cover is missing, along with one of the mounting hinges.

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Obviously, I'm very tempted to go ahead with the purchase.

So what pitfalls are there to restoring this machine? How easy would it be to obtain a bobbin cover, for instance? Anything else I should know about before committing myself? Hubby is/was a mechanical engineer to trade, so he'll get roped into the restoration lol.

TIA for any info you can share. :)

Kate

I'd jump on it in a minute. There is a lady in the UK who sells bits for vintage machines. Can't remember her name. Others will. Near the crosshatchd button to release the bobbin their should be a little piece of red felt to keep things oiled up n the bobbin area. A bit of oil and some gentle persuasion will probably get this one purring. And your 99K is in it country of origin. Unlike mine. http://www.quiltingboard.com/members...53-561484.html
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I think the 99s need the needle plate assembly taken off ( 2 screws) before the bobbin plate can be slipped in from right to left.

Helen Howes is her name. I haven't ordered from her. 1 ocean and 1,500 miles of land is too far

I'm not a Singer gal but I'd jump on that in a heart beat!

Cari

Does it work? I am a little concerned about the bobbin case and the condition. I heard there are a lot of hand cranks in England. Can you get a better one for a bit more $. We bought an electric one but it was wired for England so we took the potted motor off and bought an after market hand crank. It is in mint condition and works great.

Thank you for this name, and all the other snippets of information, I'm finding this all very interesting :). I suspect that the bobbin cover has been missing for some time, since the condition of the bobbin area is so mucky compared to the rest of the machine. The previous owner had taped a bit of card over the gap lol.

I looked up the serial number, and this machine would appear to be 4 years older than me !!

K

I think it'll work fine once I can get the feed-dogs moving. I threaded it up and tried stitching (on a bit of paper in the shop lol) and it made stitches, but did not pull the paper through.

As for finding another, anything vintage very rarely appears for sale in my area. I think this one is the first hand-crank I've seen. Perhaps I've been looking in the wrong place lol.

K

I learned to sew on my mother's Singer treadle as a child, and home ec at school used Singer hand-cranks. My own first machine was also a Singer, which did me well for about 30 years before it finally gave up the ghost. So I think I'm probably a Singer gal at heart, even if my main machine now is a Janome lol.

I think some jumping will be involved tomorrow morning lol...

K

I would happily take a chance on a 99 like that. The metal polishes up easily with the right stuff, and it's usually all about cleaning and oiling.

It's very tempting to disasseble the parts holding the bobbin case it place, if you go for this machine, don't do that until you have read the service manual carefully and plan to spend quite some time getting it correctly adjusted again. Removing the screw right infront of the bobbin will make everything slide around there and cause major tension problems until it's adjusted correctly. It's not impossible to do it, but as a first DIY it's not recommended with out a warning. The recommended way (illustrated in the manual) is to slide bobbin cover completely off, then lift the lever up and towards you, and the bobbin case comes out with ease.

From the pictures it looks mostly dirty and it's not difficult to clean it up, it just takes a bit of time. If there's any rust it comes off too.