Reginaromsey

Friday I stopped at one of my local GoodWill outlets just to check the fabric/curtain section and wandered through furniture as one does. A lovely White Treadle cabinet caught my eye. Since I have a machine that needs a place to live I failed to look away in time. When I opened it a sad sight was revealed. A terribly rust defaced side. The other side was only slightly rusty, the underneath workings seemed to need only a normal amount of cleaning and derusting. The Treadle and wooden parts are in nearly perfect shape.
Can the machine be saved by an amateur?[ATTACH=CONFIG]616599[/ATTACH]

leonf

Yes. But you will have to ask yourself a few questions. When will you be finished? When it sitiches or when it looks like a show piece? How much time can you devote to it? How patient are you? Do you have basic mechanical skills. I have brought worse to life, but iI am experienced and do not need everything shiney.

KalamaQuilts

and is the machine that needs a cabinet a White if you decide this is a boat anchor?
Many members on this section of the board love the challenge of fixing up this type of machine or even worse.
But it can take many many hours. What is your time worth? If not a loving hobby, time is worth more than the input required.
I learned early on, a free machine + 60 hours work = $1200.00 in my books. So what is it worth to you?
Welcome to the board and the dark side...Sharyn

juliasb

As an amature "I" would not take on this machine. It is, at least to me, something that can be very frustrating and end up becoming a nightmare rather than a work of love. If you decide to take on this project know that there are a lot of supportive people here that will help you along the journey. Some of us have seen and worked on machines that have required much more work. It is time consuming and requires a great deal of patience. I would love to see this baby restored.

Reginaromsey

Don’t need another Show piece. I would be happy to bring it back to life and allow it to show some battle scars.
I am retired, so I can spend my hours as I want, but that seems to be an amazing number of things! I have no idea where I had time to work at a regular job!

Reginaromsey

Machine needing a treadle stand is a White. The cabinet is quite lovely, and seems to need cleaning, tightening the lift mechanism, and a coat of wax. The stand is free and works like a dream.

OurWorkbench

I totally agree with Leon.

As for cabinet I like to use Cleaning and Reviving furniture(Sewing cabinets) for reference.

I have read that the "nose" on these machines can be a major hassle and is generally advised not to take it apart. Many of the metal pieces can be removed and cleaned and polished.

A couple of other links that might help are How to Clean Up and use a vintage sewing machine - videos by Muv and Fav and Cleaning and repairing the Shellac clear coat on Vintage sewing machine heads I think I would start by just wiping the machine with a lot of sewing machine oil and cotton balls.

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