Singer 12 Mother of Pearl

This is the most beautiful sewing machine I've ever seen. I bought it because it was obviously a stunning piece. The needles will be a bit of a problem, though. Not all that many Singer 12s being used these days, and they stopped making them quite a while ago (1903). I'm surprised they were made past 1890 actually. My machine was made in 1885. The stand is original and has 1st May 1885 cast into it.

In reality it's even more beautiful than this. The shimmering light on the mother of pearl is something special.
If I get some needles for it I'll post where I got them.

Singer 15 revival

This machine was given to me by my friend who had issues with the number of machines she has and the space they take. It was made in 1910.
I didn't get a single picture of it before I touched it but here's what was wrong:

1. The case's bottom veneer layer had come off.
2. The rest of the bottom had broken and perished.
3. There were signs of borer in the good part of the bottom.
4. The coffin lid also showed borer holes.
5. And was coming apart on several places.
6. The machine was a bit stiff and made noises

The Case

So to work I went. Firstly, sanded off the remaining shellac coat from the case, then treated it with kerosene (twice) to make sure the borer weren't coming back. Then I took to it with wood glue and a clamp.
The base looked to be in good shape but when I removed the bottom it all fell apart, so out with the glue, also clamped it for 24 hours and was left with the following.

Lid, sanded and glued

Base, also sanded and glued.

I figured the original finish was probably shellac, so as I had some from another job a few months ago out it came. You can give it as many coats as you like, and it only gets glossier. The drying time was about 30 minutes and I lightly sanded with wet and dry emery paper (used dry) between coats.

Lid after one coat

accessory slide cover

base, one coat

Skipping straight to the finish now, she looked like this:

Lid after three coats

Base, ready for hardware

With machine put back, she's now on the kitchen table looking fine.

The machine

Rather stupidly I only took one picture of the machine before cleaning and it's of the undercarriage, thusly:

There was a lot of lint and fluff under the feed dog, always a bad sign. I just pulled the machine apart and cleaned it 'til it looked like a new one. Oiling is always last when you clean a machine. Reason is that if you oil as you go, dirt will stick to it and you'll end up with a sticky mess. This underneath bit comes up extremely well with Silvo soaked on the middle of a strip of fairly strong fabric. Wrap it around the part you want to clean and go vigorous. It's remarkable how much better you feel after doing all this, and after application of some oil, the noise was gone and the machine is as smooth and free as you could hope for.
That stupid amount of shine was the result of car wax. Does a spiffing job.
Here are some more "after" pics.

Slide plate. Considering having it re-plated

These decals are completely original

Took the bobbin winder apart completely to clean

Didn't clean all of it

Yes didn't clean all of it but the bobbin area got a lot of attention. It is likely where the noise originated so I disassembled it and thoroughly cleaned it, oiling as I reassembled.
One thing I didn't check was the timing. I mean, it's a 15, so what are the chances? The tension spring was broken, so part of cleaning the assembly was a new spring.
So, after pulling out the bobbin assembly, the bobbin winder, tension assembly how did it stitch? Didn't take pictures but it was like a 201 without even adjusting anything! Perfectly straight and no problem with tensions.
One thing I didn't notice was the lack of spool pin. I snapped a bamboo chopstick to the right height and now we have one.
I didn't enjoy sewing with this machine at all, though. The lack of a light wasn't a huge problem but the lack of my right hand to guide fabric was definitely noticed. The hand crank has been taken from a 66 (it has lotus decals) so I don't have a problem with adding a Singer motor and foot controller.

Pyjamas and a Singer industrial

These were another garment made from an old one. My favourite PJs were worn out and frankly a bit smelly too. My GF is a pattern maker and disassembled the old ones and made a pattern. Again, I put it together without any assistance, and again felt as though I'd achieved something significant.
Here's the final product:

Comfortable, warm and better quality than the originals. These were made almost entirely on the 1959 Singer 320K2, buttonholes done on 1891 VS2 (don't know why, it just does a brilliant buttonhole).
Machine-wise, I'm working on a 1938 Singer 29K58 leather shoe patcher which I probably shouldn't have touched. It was a real rust bucket, and took way too much work to get it freed up. Dad has done almost all the work and the thing already looks great. Here's a preview:

Just need to fix the bobbin winder and the front tension and I think she'll be ready to take on the world. Well, maybe a pair of shoes.

Harrington #2

Firstly my friend was turning 50 and I made him a Harrington. I discovered just now that if I don't write it down as it's happening there's no chance of my remembering what I did! Apologies, but it looked like this:

I made it reversible, because it wasn't much more work, and why wouldn't you? Who doesn't like a tartan jacket?

 This one was a lot closer to the Baracuta G9 design than the one I made for myself. Turned out extremely well, though.
Sewn on the Singer 201P. Stitch perfection.
The great triumph I felt with this jacket was in putting it together without any pattern instructions. This and the pyjamas were things that felt really good to finish.
Oh, and in case you want one, I'll take orders. Just email me.

Singer 320K2 bobbin case mod

Don't you love a mod? Ah the '60s... No that's a different kind, but this one's more useful than stylish.

Here is the bobbin case after Nick Ciancio did his thing:

The arrows point to the bit he machined off. I asked him to explain the mod and he said that when there's a 15x1 needle inserted, there's no problem when straight stitching. When zig-zagging, however, there's a real danger of the needle hitting the bobbin case, and the removed section marks the point of impact. The longer 15x1 goes down an extra 2mm or so and removing this by making the "U" shape a little wider (see arrows) removes the possibility of impact.

I now have an extremely rare old machine that has a free arm and uses common 15x1 needles! Allowing a 15x1 needle to punch the metal out is a bad idea. Just Google for the result and you'll find pictures of destroyed cases.

I'm more than happy to recommend Nick to anyone in Melbourne who has a vintage machine. He's very friendly, can repair anything and really loves the old machines.

Oh and I should mention that in a comment on my last post I said that I was a little disappointed in the 320s stitch quality. Checked the needle height and it was a mm or two out, which had also put the timing out. Spent 20 minutes fixing it and she sews much better now.

Singer 320K2

Can't believe I haven't posted about this. My first sewing machine was a 319k. I loved that thing (you can see it in previous posts). However, they're really common and after buying a couple more for their bits (e.g. double needle) I saw a picture of a 320k. This was the free arm version of the 319! Only about 5,000 of these were ever made, and I think most of them must have come to Australia. Four were auctioned last week on that auction site. I looked for over a year before finding one and bought a second a couple of weeks ago, during the 320k extravaganza of the Winter of 2014. The first one was more than perfectly adequate, but the second was listed as not working, cheap and had both the darning and straight stitch plates that mine didn't have.
Seems the only way you'll ever obtain anything as rare as these plates is to buy the machine too, so I bought a second one.
I used the first quite a bit, then when readying it for sale I made it like new again (as you do). The lady who bought it last Saturday was extremely happy with her purchase. I told her she could get her money back if she ever sold it. She narrowed her brow as if I'd just sworn at her. "I'll never sell it" she said. I absolutely love selling to people like her, who value them like I do.

I gave her one pack each of sizes 12 and 14 needles, darning foot, embroidery hoop, twin needle, the latter 3 are extremely rare.
The replacement came with a litany of problems. It had been set up for a 15x1 needle, which meant the hook timing would be out (which it was) and until re-set it wouldn't stitch properly, one of the motor brushes was broken in two, it had been re-wired wrongly so it would never have worked and someone had disassembled and reassembled the motor, but left out the part that stops the motor from flopping about and killing itself (that's what it sounded like - very loud banging as it worked). As if that weren't enough he took ages to send it and when he did, the packaging consisted of having a broken down cardboard box wrapped around the outside and nothing at all to prevent the insides from moving, so the fashion disc box was broken in transit. Miraculously nothing else was broken. After a few days of working at it, it sews quite well (although not perfect yet). Both machines were made in 1959.
Something that puts a lot of people off these Singers is that they use the 206x13 needle. Only Schmetz makes them and today they only make sizes 12 and 14. My friend's OSMG (old sewing machine guy) said that he modifies them to take a 15x1 needle. When my jaw dropped he said he doesn't change the hook timing but removes a small amount of metal from the bobbin case - the part the needle hits. Good idea, and this is the only way you could get away with using a 15x1 needle without ruining the stitch quality.
I'm now thinking of getting him to do this on a spare bobbin case and trying it out. There are no needles available for this machine if you want to sew heavy fabrics like denim (although I still have about 5 size 16s, they're not replaceable), but the machine is more than capable of handling it, so such a modification would be worth testing. Obviously I'll let you know the result.

The Mystery Cabinet

A couple of months ago (21/3) I bought a 319k on eBay. Why I'd buy such a common machine when I have a 320k is that it was sitting on a very interesting looking treadle table. It had plywood nailed on top and obviously no cover. Luckily I had a coffin lid from a VS2 I bought a year or so back.
My dad did all the work and my friend provided a set of semi-usable treadle irons. Put it all together and we just needed to know what sort of machine went in it. I'd assumed it was for a VS2. Well, it did look the same, but dad discovered that the hinge holes were too close together. I was going to drill and saw it so the VS2 would fit but decided against it. Did a load of research on it and found that the VS3/28 was a 3/4 size VS2 so waited until one came up and bought it. Of course it didn't fit. At around the same time as the 319 purchase I'd discovered the original version of the Singer model 15 was from the 1800s. Imagine an 1800s machine with a round bobbin. Even better was that it was originally a fiddle base. I'd thought then that I wanted one. So... my friend (also an enthusiast) pointed to an auction for two "museum pieces" just two weeks ago. She only wanted one of them but the other, a Singer, was unknown to her "which model is this?" she asked. My eyes widened, I got excited, you guessed it: An 1886 Singer 15-1 or "Improved Family" fiddle base.
We planned the auction strategy, won both machines and split the booty appropriately.

You see that hint of decal? I'd assumed it was painted over but it seems that really old machines with a shellac exterior go very dark when left exposed to dirt etc. Seeing as this one came with no cover or cabinet (or bobbin winder, or upper tension mechanism, but that's not relevant), it was safe to assume this is what happened. I've been applying kerosene (recommended for gentle dirt removal) but no dirt is coming off the machine's exterior, although plenty came from the inside. I've since fitted it with a tensioner from a model 66 but the bobbin winder might be a problem. Since the machine was made in new york there are a lot more of these in North America. I'll just have to be patient and wait until the bits come up. After all, what are the chances I'd have won this incredibly rare machine and just happen to have won its even rarer treadle cabinet a few months before?

A very old lady having a bath - oo-er!

Oh and I fully intend to use this machine. It was the first sewing machine in the world to use 15x1 needles, which were invented and named for this very model and the world's first circular bobbin. Cyndy Kitt imports and sells the little bobbins. It also uses normal Singer low shank feet, so my attachments and feet will all work.
I'll put her into the cabinet very soon and take some more pictures. Here is one I took just after popping it in as a test: