Merry Christmas (2018 - 1) - Centennial 201-2

I made a few trips to Oklahoma this fall.  My father had some health issues.  All very minor so no worries, but my brother and sister were doing yeoman's work getting him to appoints, pool tournaments, etc... since the doctors didn't want him to drive for a couple of months.  So I went back a few times to give them a break.  Before going back for a few weeks in this month my sister called me up from one of her auctions. Two 201s were going to come up for bid.  One was a Centennial in a bentwood case.  This is the picture she sent.

She didn't have much more information.  She's not really into spec'ing out sewing machines.  So I couldn't ask her a bunch of questions.  In reality she doesn't even know the models (other than Featherweights - *sigh*), just old black Singers.  I gave her my price.  Basically I told her to get what she could for $120.  I figured a 201 Centennial in a bentwood case would probably go outside my price range.  She called back about 15 minutes later and gave me the news.  I won this one for the price of $10.  Seriously.  At that price my sister covered it herself and called it a Christmas present.  Even better!

Overall it's not in quite as good of shape as Black Swan.  Most noticeably it has some gouges in the japanning that go down to bare metal.  Luckily the damage doesn't touch any of the decals.  I'll be a lot more gentle in cleaning it up than I was with Black Swan.

I did a bit of cleaning while at Dad's place.  I took my Dremel with me so some of the metal received an initial buffing. I also did a little bit of gentle cleaning with the Turtle Wax rubbing compound.  Making sure to avoid graphics.  You can go back and read about Black Swan's cleaning to see why.

I didn't get to test the motor and you can probably tell why from the above picture.  Just the slightest bit of barbecuing of the wiring. The motor screws were seriously torqued on and I didn't have my potted motor size screw driver to get them them out.  I tried with a couple of my dad's but they were just too darn tight.  The next picture gives a different view of the wiring in case someone is interested.

Like I said, the cleaning in Oklahoma was pretty cursory.  I still need to get up into the pedestal and remove all the cute little dead critters who called this home over the last 68 years.  Maybe a Shopvac with a really narrow nozzle to really get some good suction going.

Truthfully I thought I had done an okay job on the bottom end, it wasn't until I looked at that picture that I saw all the dusty places I missed and the carcasses.

The serial number was allotted in February of 1951 so this machine was probably not involved in one of Marge's Black Friday death-match purges at Your Singer Sewing Center.

And finally the Centennial badge.  Which makes this machine one of the mostest rarest things in existence and easily worth a bajillion bucks, yes?  Um, no.

I think the centennial badge is worth maybe adding five bucks to a 1951 201's price.  But honestly if I had to choose between a centennial with the pinstriped covers and no tapped holes for a non-potted hand wheel and a 1930s machine with the scroll work covers and the tapped holes at the same price.  The older 201 would win every time.

All that said, a 1951 201 is an awesome Christmas present.