Sunday, May 18, 2014

An Old Singer 128-13 Sewing Machine in Combination Table

My first antique sewing machine renewal project.
Back of case - Before
 Case Front - Before
 Case Right Side - Before
 Case Left Side - Before

And then the machine table:  Before -

After



This little machine is the 3/4 size machine with electric and the light. The Singer 128 Model is the electric and more 'new-fangled' version of the Singer 28. It has a vibrating shuttle in it instead of a regular bobbin that most of us are used to sewing with. I don't want to plug it in until I get the wires covered that run from the machine to the little covered box on the side. The plug that goes into the machine and plugs into the wall is in pristine condition. So after this machine is cleaned up and the wood is repaired and a solid piece again, I'll plug her in and see if the light works or if the motor still works. 

A little background checking for this machine were found with these links: 






A History/Biography Lesson on Isaac Singer (neat read)

Polishing Nickel plated parts DIY

Sunday, May 11, 2014

Re-birth of a Vintage Japanese Branded Sewing Machine



Okay, I did another garage sale thing yesterday and brought this baby home. Her cabinet is in bad shape and she is a little dusty with quite a few cobwebs. It's another Japanese Branded Sewing machine where many badges of all different names are put on a sewing machine. This one has embroidery cams to make designs while stitching. So first things first we will take it out of the cabinet and fix the leg that has become unattached. Then the machine will be totally cleaned and re-oiled. Then we'll put her back in and test her out.

For those of you hitting google trying to find these machine manuals and parts, it is a tough ride. We rely on one another to post the information we find to save us days or even weeks of research. So anyone looking for the Coronado, manual or info... go to the Singer website and type in W231 for the manual in the manual search page. Apparently I have a White machine after all.

A big thanks to Yahoo Group - vintagejapansewingmachines for the information I received so I can get done with this latest venture. :-)

The FREE manual for this machine can be found HERE

Monday, May 5, 2014

I Think I Want to Fix up some OLD Sewing Machines

This past Saturday I went out to the local citywide garage sales. I ended up bringing home THREE older sewing machines and only spent $2.00. NOT A TYPO! I bought one and two of them were free. The one free one needs just a bobbin case... $6.00 or so. The other freebie was an OLDER Dressmaker model in a cabinet that someone threw out at the curb. I'm spending gobs of time online trying to find what parts will be needed for which machine and joined even more Facebook & Yahoo Groups to find information on all of these since Google hates me and just wants to sell me more sewing machines or manuals. :-(

So everyone knows that the blog will be kind of quiet for a bit while I dig up some info. I'll try to feature each machine I have that I plan on working on for the topic of a post. I figure if I can learn to fix bicycles when I was a kid... what will it kill me to learn how to DIY a few sewing machines? LOL! Famous last words I'm sure!

So keep your eye out on the following players:

JC Penney Model 7057 Cat Number 868-4698 (I need to take a pic and will post it later)
It supposedly has a bobbin tension issue, but I'm going to clean it and check it out when I get a bobbin to fit it as it isn't the 15 style/size of bobbin.

Manual can be found here: http://www.singerco.com/uploads/download/1278_4538.pdf

Montgomery Ward UHT-J 1934 

 
All this baby seems to need is a bobbin case so as soon as I find one for the best shipping price AND price, I'm getting one.

Then I have the oldest machine that needs some major TLC

Dressmaker


This poor baby was thrown out to the curb and will require the most work so far to get her all fixed up. I need the shank, feet, bobbin winder tire and some bolts to attach it to the hinges in the cabinet so I can put it away. The cabinet has some paint splatter on it and I will work on getting that off as well. If anyone reading this blog post today has any GOOD resources for any of these machines or sellers of parts... please comment with info as I'm getting angry at google about this search stuff. I even used the UK version of google to get away from the eBay sales and nonsense things. I know there are free tutorials, manuals, and low cost parts out there. I just don't want to dig through 100+ pages to find it all.