Adventures In Aerospace Engineering And Some Painting/Cleaning For The 1935 Singer 221

As you may recall when we last left the newest 221 we were in a bit of a bind with the throat plate screws.

Emergency 221 Purchase. And Happy 50th Singer day.

 I've spent the last couple of days trying to get the blog entries caught up.  This morning I was working on the entry for the VS2 I picked up a couple weeks back.  When I'm at the computer I pop over and check Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist and Shopgoodwill just incase any 'must haves' show up.  In this case it was this guy popping up on Facebook for... $75!!  What the frack!?

I'm A Rocketman! (Sorry Sir Elton) - Singer 500A

 After getting the 500A apart I took some pieces down to Sherwin Williams (I read the reviews of their do-it-yourself phone app and they weren't good).  They guys were actually excited to try and mix some paint for something other than interior walls (one of them is a sewing machine fan as well).  They spent almost an hour experimenting and came up with these.

Craigslist Rescue - Singer 404

Like I mentioned in the VS2 post, I'm a avid Craigslist cruiser.  Yesterday while making my usual rounds I stumbled onto an ad for this guy.

Feeling The Power - Singer 103 In An Industrial Treadle

The 103 is finally back together. Temporarily at least.

Twofer Cleaning Day On The Singer 15-30s

The 1904 was in pieces on the floor and I got to thinking that I might use some of the pieces of Hyman Workman's 1927 to get the '04 back together.  When all was said and done I didn't, but I did use it as an excuse to clean both machines.

The Heartbreak Of Taking The 1949 221 To Market

Well the Goodwill 221 is listed for sale.  We'll see how it goes.  It's my first 'for sale' machine, so I made sure to get into every nook and cranny to clean it up.  Which it needed.  But dangit, it's so cute!  I'm not sure if I can really sell it. Even my wife is constantly commenting on how cute it is whenever I'm working on it. The 221s suck you in, don't they?  They are the tribbles of the Singer family.

Getting The 128 Ready For A New (Old) Hand Crank

If you read the post about the 128 my sister bought for me in exchange for the 221 I bought her, then you might remember this picture.

Cleaning Case For The 1949 221

The Goodwill 221 arrived a couple of days ago and is in pieces for cleaning.  I'm going to do a post about getting it ready to sale.  I thought the case would be just one part of that post but it became a day long job by itself and so I thought I would run through what I did in a quick initial post.

First Alternative Method - Cleaning the 1923 66-1

I've received tips on different methods for metal bits on the machines (rather than just dremelling the heck out of everything).  Since the 1926 66-1 was already sitting in the middle of the kitchen, I thought, "Hey! let's have some fun."

Yep it Took a While - Cleaning the 1883 IF

On Sunday I was looking at the 1883 and thought, you know I could clean it up a little.  So I broke out the Singer oil and started going over it.  Then I noticed how icked up the thumb screws were, so I pulled them off to dremel.  Then the throat plate and bobbin cover.  Then... well next thing you know I had this.

More Exciting News - Straight Leg Treadle Iron is Complete.

The Treadle Fairy Does Exist! Her Name is Melody.

Making Stitches with the Improved Family

Before we start can you see what's wrong with the first IF picture I posted?

You Will be Assimilated - 66-1

Yes I've gone and done it.  I cleaned up the 66-1.  Look a Red Eye! ooh aah.

27-3 Back Together. Finally.

Well it only took a year, but here it is.  The 27-3 from 1908 is cleaned up and back together.

Working on the IF

Spent the day cleaning on the IF.  That and putting away Christmas decorations.  The original pitman was busted up pretty good so I checked with a friend to see if he might have one.  He did and excitedly I went to retrieve it.  Neither of us thought to check the length.  D'oh.  His was a 14" pitman, not the 15 3/4" I need.  I figured that out once I got it on and saw the pedal at the top of its stroke while the crank was at the bottom of its.  $#!+.  So I'm going to work on the TreadleOn hybrid now.  I also broke down and bought a 15 3/4" off Ebay.

Well That Kind of Sucks

The straight leg treadle is going on the inactive roster.  Here's the last photo before it will be taken apart and stored at least through the summer.

Change of Plans

(Jan 20th, 2019 edit:  Needle+thread asked in the comments what the difference between a 15-87 and 15-97 was.  All in the bobbin winder.  Which I then noticed were the older style on both of mine so, tada, back to 15-87).

I posted before that I would probably start working on one of the 27s next.  And I was going to, really.  But then I was looking at the 15-87's wiring and decided to pull the motor off.  Then take the motor apart.  Then start cleaning the case of the motor.  Then start cleaning the mounting bracket.  Then cleaning the pedestal where it looks like the motor wiring caught on fire against it.  Well, then I just had 15-87 pieces all over the place.  The steel wood and Dremel came out.

The 27s are back in line as I tinker with the 15-87.  It has cleaned up nicely.  I don't know if I can get the badge discoloration from the electrical fire fixed, but I'll keep working on it.

Another Before And After

I was sewing some 1.1oz ripstop nylon and insultex again to day.  When I needed a break before setting fire to the whole project I decided to give the 66's badge a quick polishing with some Eagle One Never Dull.  I was pretty impressed with the results.  Here's the before and after, of course.

It's hard for the camera to really do justice.  The badge is not washed out like it appears, it has a nice brass glow.  Though the camera does pick up some areas where I can give it a bit more polishing.  I'm really happy I got the badge removal figured out and didn't have to damage it or the pins removing them.

Also if you like old sewing machines here's a link for a film to watch

- Birth of a Sewing Machine - 

It's seventy minutes of silent footage of the Singer plant at Kilbowie shot in 1934 and is hosted by the National Library of Scotland.

Back to sewing ripstop.  Grrr

We Have Pin Extraction!

The 66 is stripped.  Finally!  After a couple of weeks of trying overly complicated expansion systems for badge removal, including an attempt at locating the worlds tiniest hydraulic ram, today I was struck with a simple idea.  Why not use a c-clamp to press the badge pins out.  Now right away it's a non-starter because most c-clamps have too much of an arc in them to be able to maneuver around inside the pillar.  But those aren't the only options.  While at the hardware store today I found a small bar clamp that fits the bill perfectly.  It's has a 2 1/2" deep throat, which is just deep enough to reach both pins.  The brackets were only 3/4" high, which gave room to work them into the pillar with a little bit of play.