Singer Restoration ........

[Kunama]

My dear wife bought me another project ::mad2:

With the reflector finished, my wife thought it was a good time to get me to restore something for her. Long story short, she bought a 65 year old sewing machine in a non-working condition for $30.

With a bad head cold :sadeyes: I set to work on it this morning and just finished it. The motor brushes needed to be refreshed, all the wiring replaced, all metal surfaces cleaned and polished, woodwork was covered in paint droplets and other carp. Anyway a few hours later her $30 investment was tested and actually runs as smooth as a sewing machine and sews quite well :P

( Honestly, I would rather be building telescopes ....... but don't tell Jennifer )

Sorry, forgot to take the "before" pics, but here it is: 1951 Century Edition Singer 99K.13 Electric with knee actuator.

[FlashDrive]

Now that is ' style ' ........post a ' pic ' of the new ' frock ' you put together for Jennifer....:lol:

Poppy .....:D

[Kunama]

Cheeky bugger! Though I do admit to being able to sew, made quite a few yacht sails and catamaran trampolines in a former life ......... Now get back in your cave !!!!

[RickS]

Nice work, Matt. What's the focal length?

[AndrewJ]

Real men only work on treadles:whistle:
( singer model 66 1934, sews anything to anything )

Andrew

[ZeroID]

My father was a sewing machine mechanic all his life, in industrial situations, big clothing factories and the like. But he used to get asked to look at heaps of domestic machines like this one.
'Always very fiddly' he would say but he would get them going no problem. There was never really much wrong with them, built like the proverbial brick they were and he would just do the big clean up and lubricate properly and off they'd go again.
I still have a bit of a soft spot for what was a very useful home appliance and some of them like yours can be quite an artistic piece of work.
Nice ...

[LewisM]

Corn flakes spray paint...

Yes, Col does remind me of Captain Caveman :) :P :) :P

It is good to see you getting in touch with your feminine side Matt...

[LewisM]

Talking of Man Projects...

Got bitten by the antique rifle restoration bug again, and been buying up big. Found a rather sad, albeit thankfully complete, Remington Pattern 1914 .303 rifle (British WW1 contract rifle, made in the USA). Stock had been spoke shaved, or more likely considering it's last owner, shaved with a kukri... Thankfully - again - plenty of walnut "meat" was left for me to correct the well-meaning shaved look - rasp, sandpaper etc, keeping the original profiles (I have a few to follow the profiles and curves from). It is coming along well.

Long lineage with this one - British WW1, then to India, then Nepal...

[xelasnave]

My Mum had one and made most of our clothes.
Seems like only yesterday and I can still hear the on off buzz of that machine.
Nice work but really not a patch on that magnificent scope you built.
That was impressive.

[torana68]

amongst other things I have a Singer button holer, amazing thing to watch..... LewisM ,if you fall over an Arisaka T38 stock (rifle or carbine) let me know :)

[LewisM]

Roger,

How many do you want? T38 rifle is not a problem - https://www.libertytreecollectors.com/productcart/pc/viewPrd.asp?idproduct=4545&idcategory= or for all parts: https://www.libertytreecollectors.com/productcart/pc/viewcategories.asp?idCategory=83

If they won't export (sometimes the girls are a bit flaky on export), just let me know and I will either talk to C L Cogar (owner), or have them ship to my friend in Ohio.

Anyway, let me know. If you don't want to go the Yank route, I have a mate in Casino, NSW with a reproduction T38 stock set (with handguard).