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.

I would buy it.

There are lots of old Singer fans on the board today!

I'm going to suggest that you not buy it unless your DH has committed to fixing it - unless you are really only buying it for the nostalgic value.

If not, then look on ebay and craigs list to see how they are priced, add what you think it will cost to fix it and then decide if it is worth purchasing.

Have fun with it!

I think it will clean up very well. The bobbin cover was probably lost, because the previous owner could not figure out how to put it back on when they moved it too far! But it is easy to get another. Mine cost £8.
Helen Howes is based in Norfolk, she has a very useful website and is very helpful, and Lizzie Lenard has lots of videos on You tube about cleaning these machines - in fact, she only uses vintage machines, and has a wonderful blog; she is also in the UK
My 99K is older than your intended purchase, it did cost £14 at a local auction, and it was quite messy; it cleaned up very nicely, and I gave it to my niece (she is very keen). It took me a few days to clean it up and get it working, but it is really nice.
I see a lot of hand cranks in various charity shops down here in Hereford, and also at local auctions, and I am constantly tempted to get another.

I would buy it in a flash! The bentwood case and hand crank are worth over 30 pounds, at least in my area. Even if you can't get it working, I suspect you could sell it for the original price without too much difficulty. Of course, I enjoy cleaning and tinkering with old machines; if that isn't your thing, then maybe hold off.

Do you do any other sewing? I remember someone in the past said they keep a hand crank like this set up with a buttonholer attachment, and just use it to do all their buttonholes.

I agree - buy it. I would love to have a 99 hand crank machine. It would take some work to get it spiffed up and sewing, but for me that would be fun.

It does look like the stitch length is set at zero. Does it have a manual? I've seen some poorly scanned manuals on line.

There are a few threads here on QB that are about the 99 class machines. My thoughts would be to check a few in particular --
http://www.quiltingboard.com/vintage...g-t195869.html
http://www.quiltingboard.com/vintage...w-t272838.html
http://www.quiltingboard.com/vintage...s-t274177.html

I do not think that you have to take the needle plate off to get the bobbin cover plate back on. It can be a bit fiddly to get it on. I have used a fine screwdriver to lift the springs to get it started. Actually, if you clean unscrew the spring and clean and polish it first, it seems to go on a little easier.

Have fun, and I'm sure if you have any questions -- ask. Nice that you are able to post pictures as many times that helps.

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

Hi again, and thank you everyone for your replies :)

Mickey 2 - that advice about not opening the bobbin mechanism is exactly the kind of advice and warning I was hoping for, thank you.

Cathyvv - my heart says buy for nostalgia alone, but my head says I don't have room for an ornamental machine, hence my wish to know if it can be fixed up. Seems likely that it can :-)) As for fixing, I have learned that DH doesn't trust me with tools :thumbup: :D:D

Charley26 - Oddly enough, I'm not so far away from you today! Whilst I live in Scotland, I'm currently in Stafford, heading to Birmingham for the weekend. I never see this sort of thing on sale in Scotland.... However there's very little room left in the boot of the car, which is another issue altogether :D

Jennifer23 - these days I mostly do quilting, but have been known to do other things in the past. I probably don't do enough buttonholes to need a machine dedicated to that, but I can see me using it for topstitching and suchlike. One of the main things I hear regularly about vintage machines is how nice a stitch they make... Also resale value might influence DH lol.

Janey and John, thanks for those links, I'll get looking into them later today :-)


So thank you again for your advice, It's much appreciated. I'll let you know how things go.....

Kate

With these cast iron machines you can almost always assume they clean up to a working condition. Parts are all metal, very durable, and if anything is missing it's usually bobbin case, cover, shuttle or something like that. Any missing part are usually obvious, they can usually be tracked down (it's generally a question of patience and price), a complete machine is always a pluss. The worst of wrecks can usually be brought back to life, even if it take a lot of effort to get them looking good again.

As for the cleaning of the race and shuttle, there's usually enough room to clean thoroughly when the bobbin case is out. There is access partly from above and the rest you reach from under the base. I tend to use loads of cotton buds, tooth picks and those velvety microfiber cloths.

Good luck with the machine :- )

Singer 66s and I think 15s use the same slide.

So the saga at the moment is that I was unable to go into the shop this morning. I phoned them early instead, to ask them to put a reserve on the machine until sunday for me. Unfortunately they wouldn't agree to do that, so I have to sit back and wait until sunday morning and phone them again to see if they still have it.

Fingers crossed......

Kate

Your heart is telling you what you should do.

Ok, it is Sunday afternoon in your part of the world.
Do you have it?

Yep!!

A 6 hour drive home turned into 7 due to a detour to claim the machine lol. Just got home half an hour ago, so haven't unpacked it yet.

DH, never shy, talked the price down even further by pointing out the missing bits and the bits not moving when they should, so the staff reclassified it as "faulty" and dropped the price lol. Definitely a bargain now !

Now to hunt out a manual online and watch some of those you tube videos on maintenance.

Oddly enough, I do have an original Singer instruction book, which belonged to MIL, but it's for a 15K80.

I'm surprisingly excited about this project..... :D

Kate, tired but happy....

congratulations
 

Big Smile for you. I'm glad you were able to get it and letting us know. I don't think it will be too hard to get the pieces you need. Online manuals can be found at http://www.singerco.com/support/instruction-manuals just type in "99" (without the quotes). There are actually three manuals that INCLUDE the 99, but looks like they are for electric machines. The machine is just powered differently for yours - it is the same machine. On page 14 of this manual http://www.singerco.com/uploads/down...2c142a66d9.pdf shows how to install the bobbin cover. Have fun. Janey - Neat people never make the exciting discoveries I do.

Congratulations! Keep us posted on your progress. I hope it cleans up nicely and will be up and running soon. Enjoy the process!

thank you for these links, I've downloaded them already :).

I'm planning to take loads of before and after photos of the clean-up process, so I can guarantee you'll all be very bored of this before its finished :D :D.

K

:) looking forward to seeing the process :)

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