Black Swan's New Parlor Cabinet

I had mentioned this cabinet earlier.  I was planning on putting the 66 that came with it back in to take photos, but I've been using it so much that it doesn't make sense to take it out of service for what would probably end up being a week or so given all the stuff that gets me side tracked.  So here is Black Swan in her "new" cabinet.

We received the cabinet, a Number 21 Drawing Room Cabinet, from a couple who were moving from CT to North Carolina after retiring.  They had it as table piece and never really used it for sewing.

If you know cabinets this next bit isn't that big of a deal.  But still I think the drop shelf for lowering the machine into the cabinet is pretty cool.  If you get one, just remember, without the machine to weight down the spring when you release the latch, this thing would love to eat your fingers.

It took a few days to clean up.  At this point all I've really done is swept out about a century worth of crud.  I also had to modify the drip pan to put the 201 in place of the 66.  The tin plate came out easy enough, but the notched out holes in the wood base were way to small to allow the 201 to seat properly.  I ended up cutting out a good chunk of the wood drip base and had to sand some of the surrounding frame away to make room for the 201.  It would have been much neater if I would have cut it with a powered saw, but I was over excited and went with what was in the house rather that walking 50 feet out to the garage where the tools are.  *sigh*

In my defense to anyone offended by my hacking up the drip base, I do only purchase machines and cabinets on the cheap, meaning most of them have some 'issues' and would most likely be heading to landfills of not rescued.  This cabinet is no different.  Getting the doors to remain shut for the 'closed' photo at the beginning took some doing.  All of the hinges are either flat out broken or have been reattached without much effort in aligning them properly.  While the cabinet is fully functional, it's going to need a lot of work to be show piece.

On the plus side, the treadle mechanism was complete. It only took some relatively minor adjustments to eliminate the play and squeaking in the pedal and flywheel.  The cabinet is surprisingly less difficult to work around in than I expected.  Most of the panels open or come off easily to allow adjustments.  This is my first parlor cabinet so each time I found something that swung open or unscrewed I would have to gather the entire family around to show it off.  After a while they would just call back "we'll see it later" when I would yell out about something.  I don't have any photos of all the panels off yet, but I'll get them up when we start restoring it.  For now here's a picture with the front side doors open to show the drawers and flywheel.

Though it didn't come with the cabinet, my sister found it at auction, I do have a new kinda favorite accessory.

A rubber cover for the treadle foot iron.  I guess it was so ladies back in the day could wear their high heels with their pearls while they sewed as Marge would expect.  For me it means I can treadle in my socks like I prefer for hours without wearing grooves in my feet.  The back even has nubs to hook onto the iron lattice of the pedal.  Has anyone else ever seen one of these?  I haven't seen them in any of the Singer catalogs.

Finally, to prove I have been using it productively and not just out drag racing it on the weekends, here's a bird cage snuggy I made for the wife's little friends after I got it set up.