Old Singer sewing machine

[Bibio]

you'll end up like this Garry. BTW your vile of oil is probably likely worth more to the mad yanks than what you paid for the machine, they go nuts for stuff like that especially if you also have the wax.


bet there is a few websites full of nutters dedicated to old sewing machines and their restoration.

[garynortheast]

Originally Posted by Bibio

you'll end up like this Garry. BTW your vile of oil is probably likely worth more to the mad yanks than what you paid for the machine, they go nuts for stuff like that especially if you also have the wax.


bet there is a few websites full of nutters dedicated to old sewing machines and their restoration.

There’s a forum I’ve joined which is full of folk restoring some of these old machine. It seems a fairly sensible bunch of folk asking practical questions and getting practical answers. Generally a useful resource.

I might have to call in and see the museum one day if I ever go that far south again.

[garynortheast]

Just had this in to be serviced. It's a lovely old 1904 Singer model 27K. It was working but filthy and needing a good clean and service.



I had the whole lot apart, took the machine out of the table, the table off the frame, and then dismantled the whole frame down to it's component parts. There are no bearings in this one, it uses pointed pivot bolts, all of which were bone dry and in need of a good greasing. Interestingly the pitman rod (the rod which connects the treadle to the flywheel) is made of wood, whereas the rod on my 1927 Singer 66 is a metal rod. The wooden rod does the job though and shows no signs of degradation even after 121 years of use.

It feels and sounds very different to my Singer 66. This 27K is a vibrating shuttle machine, and using it after my 66k round bobbin and hook machine feels like driving someone else's car!

I'm currently just waiting for a bolt to be delivered to replace the missing frame bolt, and I need to find some of the correct nuts for one of the drawer handles, and then this beautiful old machine can go back to it's owner to be used again. She's waiting for it to come back so she can make some curtains with it.

Having this machine in prompted me to look back at the original thread I started back in 2020, when I bought my first machine, a hand cranked 28K from 1940. It was the later, three quarter sized version of the 27K shown above. I've just rehomed that original machine of mine with someone else. While I was looking back through this thread I saw these comments from Ruffy and Embee.

Originally Posted by Ruffy

We still have a hand cranked vintage sewing machine that gets occasional use (inherited from wife's grandmother). I agree they're fascinating machines when ticking along.


My operational challenge is that I generally need two hands to control the material so I struggle to crank and sew with any sort of accuracy. I acknowledge my low skill level!

Generally, for sewing in a straight line the handcrank machine is fine as long as the machine is properly set up and clean, as the feed dogs will pull the fabric through in a straight line. But I agree it can be tricky when you want to sew curves and corners. This is where the treadle machines score as you have both hands free to manipulate the material.

Originally Posted by embee

I have a Frister and Rossman, dates from mid 1920s, lovely thing.

I'd be really interested to see a picture of your Frister and Rossmann Embee as I have my sister's Frister and Rossmann model K here. It's a transverse shuttle model K from 1927. I've had it here for the last year and it's been a bit of a project to get it working. My sister has had it in her possession for some 54 years, bought for her by my brother in law before they were married 53 years ago. She was never able to get it working properly, a combination of thread tension and incorrect positioning of the needle. I have now managed to get it working but it is quite tricky to set up. The needles for these machines are a particular type with a slim shank and are like rocking horse poo to find. I've managed to get hold of two needles from someone who was reluctant to let me have any more as she has so few of them herself. Setting the needle in place is really fiddly too as the needle is so slim, it's tricky to keep it facing the right way when it's being clamped to the needle bar. However, it does now sew quite nicely, so it'll finally be going back to my sister in the next few weeks.

I have three machines now waiting to go back to their owners; the 27k treadle, the Frister and Rossmann, and a very nice 1924 Singer 99k which I've recently finished cleaning and servicing, and for which I am waiting on hinge grub screws to be delivered.

It'll be nice to have a bit of space back in my living room!