A Tale of Brass and Ketchup

I'm not dead yet!  While I've got quite a bit to catch up on, I figured I'd do up a quick and dirty post on one tiny thing I actually accomplished this week.  And since I don't have the time to write a bunch of words, you get a PHOTO STORY!

This machine is in terrible shape.  But look at that cool round access plate in back!

Let's take it off!

Well shit, that looks pretty nasty and beat up.

Hmmm... all I have on hand is some chrome polish; let's see if that does anything.

Nope.

Hey, this is probably steel plated with brass, yeah?  That's probably rust that got to the steel through the worn off brass, right?  Let's drown it in Evapo-Rust!

Huh, still there.  Soooo, not rust then?

Wait, if a magnet won't stick to it, it must be solid brass!  That's not rust, it's tarnish and verdigris!  We need KETCHUP!

Well that helped somewhat, but looks like there's just too much damage for ketchup to handle on it's own. 

Time to bring out the big guns.   Go, hot vinegar, go!

Excellent; now all we need is a little elbow grease!  HAHA, forget elbow grease, we have a DREMEL and POLISHING TOOLS!

Well wouldja look at that!

WHADDA YA MEAN WE STILL GOTTA CLEAN THE REST OF THE MACHINE?

Getting Down And Dirty With Your Vintage Lady

 

Over the course of the last week I've been taking apart my little Singer hand crank machine to clean and repair it.  I was terrified when I started out, but with a good set of instructions there is absolutely no reason to fear this job!  In the links section of one of my recent posts I told you TFSR has a fantastic guide to completely breaking down, cleaning, repairing and reassembling your vintage Singer machine.  I can't stress enough how complete their instructions are; they show you how to take apart and put back together everything, and they point out what problems you need to look for and how to fix them.  It's intended to help folks clean up machines to send to Africa, but there's no reason you can't use it to help you clean up your own machine.  If you feel so inclined, you can always check out their how you can help page to give back a little.

As for how to go about prettying up the exterior of the machine, everyone seems to have a different opinion.  I followed a few of the instructions here and got decent results.  You can always test out a few products on an inconspicuous area to see what works best for your machine.

I won't be showing you what I did step by step; I'd only be badly repeating the information given in the TFSR guide.  I will show you what the guts of my machine look like, and I'll point out the things that needed a little extra TLC.  So without any further ado...

 

 Bobbin cover plate and slide plate removed, bobbin assembly pre-cleaning

I started out with the bobbin area.  I actually ended up doing this twice; the first time I was too afraid to take the whole thing apart.  I used tweezers and a small paintbrush to get out all the lint and bits of stuck thread I could see, oiled the moving parts and called it a day.  Later I changed my mind and decided to get back in there and do it right.  I'm glad I did!

 

 The second time around I actually lifted out the feed dogs to clean them.  Thank goodness I did, 

because I'd have missed a lot of grunk otherwise!  Look at all that nasty oily lint stuck under there!

 The rest of the bobbin assembly lifted out.  Check out the accumulated lint!  BTW, the red blob there isn't lint; 

when cleaning your machine don't pull it out by mistake.  It's a bit of felt meant to clear out lint from the hook ring.

Next I popped off the pretty faceplate and cleaned under there.  Lots more lint and grunk!  While I had the faceplate off I tried to shine it up with various things, but it stubbornly resisted being prettied up.  I'll have to poke about for something that will do a better job on it.  

I just pulled out all the lint and used a brush and rag to clean things up, then 

oiled all the moving bits.  I didn't end up having to take apart anything in there.

I turned the machine upside-down to clean and oil all the moving parts down there (no pics, sorry).  I moved on to the hand crank/balance wheel assembly. 

The handcrank pulled off the machine and opened up.  

The balance wheel took a little tugging to get off.  Old oil had caked up in all the parts here and needed to be cleaned out.  After I removed all the grunk I shined up the stop motion screw and the silvery part of the balance wheel with chrome polish.  I had my doubts about that stuff, but holy crap did it clean and shine metal parts up well!

 

Stop motion screw half cleaned with chrome polish.  What a difference!  

While the balance wheel was off I pulled off the bobbin winder too.  The guide says you shouldn't take it completely apart unless there's something wrong with it; otherwise just clean it up, oil the parts that need it and put it back on.  Except for an old, crumbly rubber tire, mine was fine.  I ordered a new rubber tire from Sew-Classic (BTW, love them!).  When it came it was as simple as popping the old one off and putting the new on.

 

 Bad crumbly rubber tire

 

 The bobbin winder reassembled and halfway through winding a fresh bobbin.

Before I put the bobbin winder, balance wheel and handcrank back on I cleaned and polished the exterior of the machine.  It's hard to get into some of the tight corners with all that stuff on, so best to do it while it's off.  After gently cleaning the exterior with a little dish soap and water and letting it dry, I rubbed it down with a light coat of sewing machine oil.  I wiped the oil off and tried a little Turtle Wax, but it didn't really give me the shine I was looking for so I stuck to the oil.  Remember to be careful of your decals when cleaning!  

Once I got it all back together I gave the handcrank a test spin and just about had a heart attack.  The wheel had spun more or less freely before I cleaned it, but now it was sticking and starting to freeze.  I was sure I had screwed up royally somewhere.  Turns out I didn't do anything wrong at all; the moving parts were just finally getting around to protesting the little bit of grunk that couldn't be gotten out and the lack of lubrication.  While I had already liberally oiled all the parts that moved, it takes a while for the oil to penetrate everywhere it needs to go.  The solution was to just continue to gently turn the crank so that the moving parts could distribute the oil to where it was needed.  A short while later I felt everything release and the wheel spun perfectly freely. 

The first time I disassembled and cleaned things I didn't touch the upper tension assembly.  I didn't want to mess with it unless I had to.  Once I had reassembled the machine I gave it a test run.  After some fiddling with the tension settings I was able to get a good stitch with even tension, with just one issue.  Every inch or two the stitches would form a big ugly loop on top of the fabric.  

 Ugly loops, but only every inch or two.

I could see the take up spring seemed to be sitting at a funny angle and was catching on the thread regulator every now and again.  Figuring that was the issue, I decided that this time I had to take it apart.  

 

 Seriously, does this damn thing have enough parts?

Sure enough, the spring was sitting at a funny angle because the tension mechanism housing was turned too far downwards.  All I had to do was turn it slightly, then reassemble everything.  

 

 Just needs a little clockwise turn

That completely fixed the issue!  Of course, now I had to totally reset the tension.  Bah.  

 

 Lots of test stitches to reset and tweak the tension.  At least there aren't any big loops!  

When all was said and done, I had a beautiful, perfectly running machine.

 

If I can do it, so can you.

Part 2- Getting the 411 on Your Vintage Lady: Who She Is, Where She's From, Her Age (GASP!) and More (Non-Singer Edition)

Finding loads of information on my Singers was easy, but two of the machines that followed me home last weekend weren't any brand I'd heard of.  New Home?  Jones?  No clue.  To teh interwebs!

 

 My New Home comes complete with a treadle!  I just need a new belt.

 The New Home close up

I started off looking for a serial number.  There wasn't an obvious one like the Singers.  I looked all over the darn thing and finally found the only thing that could be a serial number on the bobbin cover slide plate.

 

I searched through many of the sites I mentioned in yesterday's blog and was lucky enough to find a few entries about New Home on the ISMACS website.   Their page on New Home serial numbers is here.  If the number on the slide plate is indeed the serial number, then this lady was made in 1919.  The slide plate also bears the following inscription:  "New Home" S.M. Co. Orange, Mass U.S.A.  A quick check of another ISMACS page covering the company's history verified that the New Home factory was indeed located in Orange, Massachusetts during the year this machine was made.  So far so good!

Until I tried to find a manual that is.  ISMACS has a page here with some New Home manuals, but my excitement didn't last long.  Their manuals cover machines with rotary type bobbins, and a quick check under the slide plate of my machine revealed something I'd never seen before- 

The heck???

More frantic searching revealed that this machine uses a vibrating shuttle to carry a long, thin bobbin spool.  You can see photos of this type of bobbin assembly and get a lesson on how to wind and load them here (his is for a singer, but they look very similar).  So now what?  

The Smithsonian to the rescue!  The Smithsonian has collected a vast amount of literature concerning American made sewing machines and has made much of it available through a searchable online database here.  There are manuals, trade cards, catalogs, warranties and more!  Many of their items haven't been scanned yet, so they're only described.  However, they seem to have made special effort to get the manuals in their possession scanned; I was able to view pdfs of at least one manual for every brand of machine I looked for (well, except the Jones, but that's because she's British).  They had only one New Home manual that was for a slightly different model of machine, but it is very similar to mine and includes the same type of bobbin shuttle so I'm calling it close enough.

Satisfied by what I'd managed to gather so far, I confidently turned to researching my last vintage machine, the Jones.

Sadly, she's missing her treadle.  It was broken when the antique dealer's van blew a tire, causing 

another piece to slam into it.  I'm keeping my eye out for another treadle base for it.

The serial number is prominently displayed in the same location as the Singers; on the right hand front side of the bed.  The beautiful decals elegantly proclaim that this machine was made in England.

The bobbin cover plate even helpfully reads "PAT. OCT. 4TH, 1889, No 15597". 

Even more ornate decoration proudly proclaims that it is a "Spool" model.  With all this wealth of information already handed to me, surely I'd be able to date the machine and find a manual!  Off I went to search...

...and I came up with almost nothing.  Oh sure, I found some histories of the company here and here, but my efforts to date the machine or find a manual came up dry.  I couldn't even track down the patent.  The Smithsonian sewing machine literature collection was no help; they've only got records pertaining to American machines.  I found a manual for a Jones Family C.S. model, but its thread path is very different than the Spool and it uses the vibrating shuttle mentioned earlier.  My Jones has a round side loading bobbin.

I pulled her out of the cabinet and removed the slide plate so you can see the bobbin housing

I finally found this minimalist set of instructions for the Spool at the ISMACS site.  It's super short, but it will do!  How I missed it in the first place is a mystery. 

Somewhere along the line (don't recall where) I stumbled across a page that mentioned that all the records pertaining to the serial numbers of these machines were destroyed by one of the Jones brothers.  If this is indeed true, it's unlikely that I'll ever be able to date this machine exactly.  But while I was browsing through the few private collections and museum pieces I found I began to suspect this gal was older than any of my other machines.  By comparing her serial number to those of other Jones Spool machines that have dates associated with them I found that this machine was likely made in the early 1890's.  Whoa!  

Further supporting that theory is the fact that the words "Her Royal Approval", "Royal Approval Queen Alexandra" or "as supplied to HRH Queen Alexandra" do not appear anywhere on my machine.  According to various histories, the Jones brothers received a testimonial approved by the Princess of Wales lauding the performance of their machines.  They got permission to mark future machines with references to the Princess (later Queen).  So far as I understand, all of their machines, no matter the model, bore some variation of the Royal Approval inscription from the mid 1890's on.  You can see an example of one type of inscription on the shoulder of this machine, surrounding the "Family C.S." decal.  Since mine doesn't have any mention of royalty anywhere on it, it supports the theory that it was made in the early 1890's.  

The last bit of supporting evidence is the center rose decal on the machine bed.  The rose design appears to have been used on early versions of the Spool and Family C.S. models, but was quickly replaced by a medallion style decal.  

None of this conclusively proves anything, but the more evidence I accumulate, the more sure I can be when guessing when my machine might have been made.  I've got some more poking around through museum collections and digging up of histories to do, but hopefully I will eventually be able to say with some confidence that my Jones is a late Victorian sewing machine!

To date other types of machines or find their manuals, check out these links-

www.sew2go.com/wgdate.htm- Manufacture dates for Wilcox & Gibbs machines

www.treadleon.net/whitesm/whites.html- Dating White machines

www.singerco.com/admin-support/machine-serial-numbers-  Dating Singer machines

www.singerco.com/accessories/instruction-manuals-  Singer manuals

www.sewmuse.co.uk/bradbury/bradburyindex.htm- Bradbury machines

www.sil.si.edu/digitalcollections/trade-literature/sewing-machines/CF/index.cfm- The Smithsonian's collection of sewing machine literature.  Find manuals here.

www.sewalot.com/sewalot_index.htm-  Large index of sewing machine brands and related things

www.ismacs.net/home.html- Fantastic searchable site with loads of information on all sorts of machines.  Try out multiple variations of your search terms for best results. 

Remember, if there are no serial number lists available for your machine, get creative with your search!  Collect all the information you can and cross reference it every which way.  Examine your machine for clues.  Bobbin cover slide plates are often engraved with company names and logos, patent numbers, serial numbers, etc.  Words entwined in the decorative scrollwork offer more clues.  Compare your machine to others of its type; how are they similar or different?  Search through museum catalogs and private collections.  Look up the history of the company to verify that they had active factories where and when you think your machine was made.  You may never be sure, but you'll have far more information that when you started!

Now that I've got the 411 on my lovelies, it's time to start fixing them up.  Next I'll be showing you the guts of my little Singer 99. 

Getting the 411 on Your Vintage Lady: Who She Is, Where She's From, Her Age (GASP!) and More (Singer Edition)

I've officially given up on getting any actual sewing done this week in favor of playing with my "new" sewing machines.  So if you're looking for more on the lattice gown or the leather squid corset, you'll have to wait, because I declare this Vintage Sewing Machine Week here at The Laced Angel!

Whether you have an old sewing machine that was your grandmother's or you picked one up at a yard sale or antique store, you might be in need of a little information on it.  Maybe the manual is lost or damaged (only one of my four came with a legible manual), maybe it came with weird attachments you've never seen or maybe you're just curious about when and where your machine was made.   Through the awesomeness that is teh interwebs, you can often find answers to all those questions and more!

I'll start with the brand of machine you're most likely to have: Singer.  Singer didn't necessarily make the best machines out there, but they had the most effective marketing campaigns.  They sold millions of their machines, and many of them survive today.  Since there's so many of them they aren't worth much, but they're often quite pretty and still useful.  Properly fixed up they will sew for a long time to come, and because so many of them exist it's not too hard to get replacement parts if needed.   Here's my first Singer-

My first pretty lady (pre-cleaning), a model 66 Singer red eye.

She belonged to my great-grandmother.  When I got her she was in a cabinet and had a little electric motor clipped her back.  Unfortunately the manual she came with was ruined and illegible, and I didn't even know anything about her other than the brand.  Thankfully, getting info on Singers is crazy simple.  First, locate your machine's serial number.  It will be on the right hand front corner of your machine bed, and will either be all numbers, one letter followed by numbers or two letters followed by numbers.  In the photo above, it's on bed of the machine just below that large circular gold seal.

The G is hard to read here but you get the idea

Singer has helpfully included a page on their website where you can look up your machine.  Go here and select the link that corresponds to the type of serial number you have (no letters, one letter prefix, or two letter prefix).  It will send you to a page with various charts you can use to look up what year your machine was made and where (mine was made in Elizabeth, New Jersey in 1922).  You'll also have the option to download a pdf of serial numbers with models and dates.  Check that pdf to find out your machine's model number (different than your serial number).  ETA:  Since I wrote this, Singer seems to have pulled most of this info off their site.  Go here instead to find when it was made, the model number and more)  You'll need it to find a manual!  Once you've got your model number (mine's a 66), go here to get the manual for it. 

You now know where your machine was made and when, plus you have a model number and hopefully a manual.  If you want to know about the history of your machine or Singer in general, or you're trying to figure out how to use one of the accessories it came with, the International Sewing Machine Collector's Society has a great website with a variety of information on lots of different types of sewing machines.  Go here for their Singer stuff.  I found that the 66 came in treadle, hand crank and electric varieties and had different decals depending on where and when it was made.  Mine features so called "red eye" decals, one of the more common designs.  Red eyes were made for the US market (common European versions featured a lotus design) and are so named for the exotic red eye shapes in the decal pattern.

Thanks to these websites, I was able to quickly piece together information about my second Singer acquisition.  She's a model 99 hand crank made in Clydesdale, Scotland in 1932.  The 99 models are the nearly identical little sisters of the 66 models; they're 3/4 of the size and come in little carrying cases.  They have a less ornate decal pattern.

 

 The little sister to my first Singer, pre-cleaning

 Serial number on the bottom right hand corner of the bed

 

 No electricity for you!

 Sweet little portable case

Tomorrow we'll have a look at a few other brands of sewing machines that don't have quite as large a web presence as Singers.  Until then, here's a few more useful links!

www.treadleon.net-  Great site with lots of information on restoring, using and maintaining vintage machines, mostly treadle versions.  Check out their Sewing Machine Shop section.
www.tfsr.org/publications/technical_information/sewing_machine_manual/-  Dedicated to refurbishing Singer machines to send to Africa.  They've got an amazingly detailed step by step breakdown of how to take apart your machine to clean and repair it.
www.sewalot.com/sewalot_index.htm- Loads of articles covering machine histories
www.sil.si.edu/digitalcollections/trade-literature/sewing-machines/CF/index.cfm-  This Smithsonian website gives you access to all the sewing machine literature they have in their database (includes manuals, trade cards, catalogs and more).  Keep in mind that they only have literature relating to American made machines.  Most of their stuff hasn't been scanned yet, so many of the entries are just descriptions.  They do have pdfs of many of the manuals I've tried to look up so far though!
www.a1sewingmachine.com/parts.html- They claim that if they can't find the part you're looking for, it's not to be found.  Haven't used them, so I can't validate their claim.  I'll likely be putting them to the test soon!

What Happens When I Go Antiquing With Mom...

I snagged a late Victorian jacket/bodice, three pairs of gloves, three hankies, some lace and 

a kitchen tool for edging ravioli.  The trio of sewing machines were an added bonus from my mother.

I brought home three new (to me, obviously) sewing machines yesterday.  My mom insisted on buying me the New Home treadle machine when I mentioned I really wanted a treadle, and who was I to say no?  As often happens when shopping with my mom, we ended up with free stuff with our purchase- the lady threw in a Jones treadle that lost its wrought iron base to an accident and a Singer hand crank in a traveling case.  The Singer just needs some light cleaning to be ready to sew, so I'm spending the next day prettying her up so I can do some work on her.  I can't wait to use it!  The other two require slightly more TLC and a part or two (the Jones needs a new base and I need to find a shuttle for the New Home and replace the belt) so it will be a short while before I get them up and running.  I now have FOUR vintage cast iron sewing machines.  My boyfriend is gonna kill me :P