firelass77

Morning People of the board,

I hope you had a lovely festive season. I spent all day yesterday reserching the best way to refurb the old singer I have been given by my mum.

I have found out from the searial number that being manafactured in 1925 it is three years older than my gran. There is a manual in the drawer of the machine dated 1929 but it is for the same model.

The moving parts all move, so we are off to a good start.

My plan is to strip it, clean all the metal with metal polish, then strip and re varnish the wood. After all that is done I would like to see if someone will take it of my hands who will use it. I am not doing this to make money, getting the money back for the varnish would be fine.

When mum moved in to a disabled adapted house she could not take it with her, then I moved out of the city and could not take it with me. Only I did because I coudn't stand to see it go on a dump. There is really no space for it in this house, and I don't sew offten enough or do big enough jobs to warrwent having it when someone else could be using it.

The reason I am hear is to make sure I don't do anything really wrong and mess this up. I noticed online that people reconmend lots of diffrent products for doing the restoration, and for lots of reasons.

I would like to know what you guys thought.

I would like to introduce myself: I am Kelda, ( waves) My gran ( who owned the sewing machine) brought it up from england with her. That is amusing because it was my dads mum who was the knitter and sewer.
I was born and brought up in Edinburgh, since graduating from uni I have moved north, I am currently A highschool Careers Advisor. You would be supprised with how much careers advisory has changed since you were at school.

I do cross stich, I have been known to sew things, but not offten enough. The most I do is fix seems, hem things, change zips.

Nice to meet you guys, any advice on what products to get for the singer welcome.
There should be pictures attached to this post.

Thank you

toverly

Good Morning, great save, someone wants it. I am picking up an old Singer this morning that was sold in a garage sale then put on the free table at Guild. A friend knows I just refurbed a Featherweight and picked it up. I do have a suggestion for you of a different sort. Since you don't plan on keeping it, I would sell it/give it as is. To me, part of the fun is refurbing them. Let her new owner bring her back to sewing. Just my thoughts.

leonf

firelass77,
a word early on gives me considerable pause. Strip. If you truly want to strip and refurb you are in for a huge project. Cleaning and oiling will do great things to this machine. If you think a treadle machine takes a lot of space, you won't believe how much space it will take once it is separated into bits and stored in boxes. Also be aware that if you do a massive refurb on the head and the cabinet it will be hard to let it go after you have invested so much of yourself into it. That said, Its your machine, enjoy it as you will.

Pleasant memories of Edinbugh flowed into my head this a.m. A few days later I was in Pitlocery. Knocked on a door to tell folks of their chimney fire Laughed afterwards that I had traveled from Kansas USA to give them that information.

Cari-in-Oly

Hello, and welcome to the QB,
I too am of the opinion that you shouldn't strip this. The machine and cabinet are not as bad as you think. Those of us who love these old gals take much care in the refurbishing, doing as little as it takes to bring them back to working condition. Trying to bring them back to new condition is a shame as it is an old gal with a history and that history, even though we usually never know what it is, should always be allowed to show. I think you should give it to someone with a love for these old machines and let them bring it back to working condition. Just my 2 cents.

Cari

miriam

I agree - find it a home and let someone who will use it refurbish it. It is a very nice Singer 66 - decals are perfect. Once it sews it will sew very nice seams and be easy to treadle. If someone used it often it would save the space of an exercise machine. The cabinet looks a bit rough but the machine just needs a good clean up and a slide plate which is available on line.

Beachbaby12

I would reconsider and keep it. You may wish you had kept it after it's gone - seems that these type of machines people are interested in.

Mickey2

It's always easier to find a new owner for these machines when they are in clean good condition. The old veneer usually turns out very nice when repaired; all you need a steam iron, clamps and wood glue. Any missing pieces can be replaced by cutting out a new piece and it's not too difficult as a DIY job. Don't strip anything too harshly, clean gently, the black finish on the machine looks like it's in very nice condition, and the cabinet can be improved upon with various polishes, or you can do it more thoroughly with new layers of shellac.

If you sort it out your self, you will in the least be very tempted to try it out :-)

cashs_mom

I'm in the "do not strip" group. It has very pretty gold on it and you would lose all of that. I would do as others have said and just find it a new home as it. Stripping and refinishing is a huge project and since you destroy the original finish of the machine it may or may not add value. The wood could be redone but you probably won't recoup enough to make it worthwhile. I'd just clean and oil the machine and do as Mickey says to the wood.

toverly

There is a product by a company called Howards that is sold in antique stores. It doesn't refinish or strip the wood but enhances it and oils it while covering up little scratches in the finish. The walnut finish is my favorite.

firelass77

Hello,

Thank you all for taking the time to reply. My settings are set to send me emails when I get replys but something somewhere didn't send the emails. Never mind, I am here now.

I agree with you all, I don't want to damage such a lovely machine. I tried to give it away free to good home twice and no one came forward.

I went into B&Q to see what I could buy for cleaning the machine up that would not be too harsh. The boy on the counter tryed to help, but it seemd like they had nothing that was any good at all. In the end I got some suger soap because if it's no good for the sewing machine I can use it on other things.

My mum has spilt gloss paint on the lid, that was what I thought I might need to strip.
All ideas for the best way to do this refurb welcome.
I was looking for metal cleaner to clean anything metal, then suggestions on how to clean up the wood. I will need to get you better pictures.

Micky2, could you tell me more about "all you need a steam iron, clamps and wood glue". I can work out that the clamps will hold the wood in place once glued, what would the steam iron be for?

I was wondering how on earth I would do this in a little flat with the landlords cream carpets and white walls :/ if I don't need to take the varnish of and redo it that would be amazing.

My tells me some of the rubber washers have perished, but that is to be expected. I am not worried about those. I found A singer sewing machine in edinburgh, I am going to give them a phone and see if they have machine oil and cleaner.

Thank you so for all your help so far