mpeters1200

Here is a link to the thread that has the pictures of mom's case. I'm hoping I can just glue it to fix it. Do any of you have any suggestions? It's all still one piece, but it's obviously broken.

http://www.quiltingboard.com/vintage...ml#post6303539

Here are the before pictures that I took of her today:


As you can see, most of her decals are gone.

bobbin housing


bobbin housing


tensioner, needle plate and arm dropped


badge

mpeters1200

Front plate


under front plate


Spool pin I thought was broken, but it just needed the screw to be tightened:


Under the spool pin it's really gunky. Balled up old oil and greasy yuckyness.


Closeup of the grossness under the spool pin


Oil drop pan where you can see the oil all over it:


Felt liner soaked through with oil and grease:

mpeters1200

Underneath - there's whitish powdery stuff on there. A gf of mine has a PRISTINE FW and I asked her if it could be proof of electrical damage of some kind, but she insists it's not. Electrical stuff all seems to work ok. Not sure what that stuff is.


Underneath gunk


More gunk under there


This is the white powdery stuff from the 3 pic above this one. It's like green/gray junk. All powderized, it came off. The rest of it seems stainednow.


Prettiest (only) decal that isn't coming off is on the shafty thing.


Balance wheel


Belt seems ok


Plug
[URL=http://s190.photobucket.com/user/mpeters1200/media/Featherweight/29fwb4plug_zpsbe5b70d1.jpg.html][/URL

Serial number, i think it's a machine from the 40s

mpeters1200

I went over the power cord with a fine tooth comb aka flashlight and magnifying glass and I saw no crinkles, cracks, seam weirdness, hardness. Seems like a good, sound, pliable cord. Looks like it could be newish or slightly used. There's a serial number on it too, so I think it came with the machine, it's just in REALLY good condition.

I already fixed the spool pin base thing. I've got my hard ware store list going already and hubby and I are going on Saturday. I am so excited!

manicmike

Your case doesn't look like it belongs with the FW.

The oil drip pan can be very cheaply replaced (novamontgomery.com) or you can soak it in kerosene and leave it in the Sun to dry. Gets rid of the smell, too.

EDIT: Yes 19th Aug 1947

StephT

My cord thing has a white powder stuff on it too. What I can find on the internet is...it is a lead tube and it just has condensation type stuff on it. It is not damaged. You can take a Q-Tip and rub it off. I have not done that yet to mine.

I wonder where you can get new decals. I know you can because the ones that have been repainted have new decals on them. Your mom must of loved to oil her up..LOL

Does he/she have a name yet?

mpeters1200

The case probably came with my aunt's white/green FW. She and my mom traded. The FW itself was the only black thing my mother owned. She just hated black swore it sucked the life out of colors. My aunt no longer has the light colored FW, she replaced it with a tan one.

As far as her name, it's "Moms" I just can think of any other one. My mom's name was Olga and I just can't see me calling her that. "Moms" works. Her big sister, my 66 is Raquel after my mom's big sister. The Janome's name is Naomi which was another one of mom's sisters and if I can ever get my hands on a 15, that one would probably get the only sister left.

I would put new decals on it if I could ever find some that looked original. Mom sewed all my clothes, my brother's clothes and my sisters clothes until I was 10. My sister was 22 when mom stopped sewing and her wedding dress was the last thing that went through it. My brother was 5 when she stopped. Everything I owned except underwear and socks came out of that machine. She did all the bells and whistles and I looked like a page out of Montgomery Ward's catalog as that was where she got her ideas from. Never used a pattern if she could help it. Just eyeballed everything and based what she finally put together off of measurements and fittings. I'll never be that good, certainly don't want to be with clothes, but I'd love to piece my quilts on her.

Oh and some of the pictures look like there's rust, but there really isn't any. Just balled up old oil or grease or something. I thought machine oil was clear, but all the gunk is dirt colored.

Quilt Novice

As to the decals I wouldn't change a thing, after hearing the story of how it got that way. So much love can still be seen when looking at it without the decals.

Sheluma

Wow, what a great story about your mom. So talented! And she did it all with her little FW. I wouldn't change a thing, either. About that lead tube -- it protects the lamp wires from the gears and from oil. Be careful with it because I'm pretty sure the white dust is lead oxide. Wash your hands well and discard or wash that cloth. Personally I don't want to deal with it -- I just try to avoid it, but I did see a website where a guy replaced it with a copper wire "backbone": http://tech-rhet.net/misc/featherweight/

mpeters1200

Do you think I should clean it or avoid it. I don't want to break any thing or make anything worse. I've been looking at the possibility of replacing the decals. I think, if I really want to do this, I'll have to strip it down, repaint it, decal it and then add the clear coat. I absolutely will not do that. I do not want to fix something that isn't broken. Know what I mean?