Anybody Else Collect Sewing Machines?

Those are like a travellin' machine!!

Any of the old style Singer machines that has the spokes in the flywheel can be converted to a hand-crank. Singer sells them so they bolt onto the right side where the motor would go...it has about 3 to 1 reduction, and you can take it anywhere and sew!!

The Pfaff 130 is one of the best!! My fave I picked up in a Goodwill As Is for $5! It had no less than 5 instruction booklets with it! We used parts of another we had, to get it going, as well as another one a friend has....sort of like a Model T!! ....Purrs like a kitten....

just picked this up this week...

Thanks for Singer 306 User Manual Link!

TackCollector said:

Found a free download of the Singer 306 manual, too. 206, 306, and 319 are the original singer zig-zags, called the swing needles. Based on a Wheeler & Wheeler machine design, I believe. (they might be either a K or a W, as in 206K, or 306K or 306W...)
http://web.mit.edu/xiphmont/Singer/pdf/singer-306k23-manual.pdf

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Thank you, thank you, thank you! I had already looked at all my usual places and could not find a free download for this manual. I was about to give up when I found the link to this site on a Webcrawler search.

BoPeep said:

Charbeau what a wonderful story. Don't ever sell your machine or stop using it!! My mother has two Featherweights and uses both of them for classes. Singer's are pritner indestructible! Attached is my sewing corner (alcove off the dining room). On the left is my grandmother's 1946 Singer - I use it every day - and on the right is my great grandmother's 1911 Singer treadle. Have never used it, but will keep it intact for now.

EDIT: Forgot the "little black box" tucked in the corner is my traveling 99K. Love my Singers!

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My Maternal Grandmother had a Singer that looked a lot like the one on the right, in the pic above.

In the late 70s/very early 80s, she paid someone $10 to haul it away. :eeek:
My mother about killed her.

I had to legitimize my collection by hanging a shingle. I went from collector to part time repair guy about 2 years ago.

I think we need some pics of that collection . . . Mr. Repair Guy.

Maybe the ones that I have with me hahah. I'm currently in the process of relocating. We'll see what I can come up with :O)

Just picked up this beauty! I've been wanting one of these for a very long time...

Singer 29-4

Hey Poohbang,

I just picked up one of those (29K-2) a few weeks ago! Still experimenting with it, but it's great old beast, except for the blue and orange paint job somebody put on it.


In addition is a Singer 221 Featherlite, probably from the late 40's


Brian

Nice pick ups Interbak! And that color.... What were they thinking?

I've had a couple of the 221's... they're really tiny workhorses... But found I like the bigger machines better so I sold mine.. I can only have so many machines.

I actually picked up 3 machines yesterday... The 29-4 was my top piece, I also got a Singer 47WSV14 from around 1911-1919.

it's a darner... I haven't cleaned it up or tried it out yet, and also a mystery machine... Probably another Singer that was re-badged at one time.

Cool collection. The orange on mine won't be around for long. It will get a more traditional black paint scheme over the summer. I had to go out and find a good 221, my Mom is still using the one she bought new, and she won't part with it.

Brian

Hey Pooh, I happen to have an old 29-4 just like yours, minus the light. It looks like there may be some smaller parts missing though. I can't tell for sure. I searched the Singer site and countless others to try and find some sort of pdf file for instruction manual and threading of the bobbin, with no such luck. Seeing this, I'm hoping you can help me out. Thanks.

BTW, I snagged it for $30.

bolthead said:

Hey Pooh, I happen to have an old 29-4 just like yours, minus the light. It looks like there may be some smaller parts missing though. I can't tell for sure. I searched the Singer site and countless others to try and find some sort of pdf file for instruction manual and threading of the bobbin, with no such luck. Seeing this, I'm hoping you can help me out. Thanks.

BTW, I snagged it for $30.

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$30 bucks is down right criminal!

Here's a pdf of the parts...
Here's the manual on pdf

The light was an add on and not a singer part, as electricity wasn't an option on when this machine was made.

I haven't threaded up mine yet, as I still need to clean it up and oil it. But it's already threaded from a the past, I know you need this long wire thing to push the thread down through the head part....

I'll know more when I get to it.

and I'll offer twice what you paid for yours...

Hey Guys,

I ordered the threading needle and a thread tensioner nut that I was missing form heavysew.com. They carry a few other parts including new leather drive belts.
Here's the link http://www.shop.heavysew.com/produc...A3CC9E6.qscstrfrnt02?productId=8&categoryId=6

Brian

and I'll offer twice what you paid for yours...

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I'm sure you would. lol

Thanks for the pdf's, and let me know how you make out w/it.

We have a very nice 221, but after some redecorating and painting, we're letting it go. Hopefully to a good home. If we used it more, I'd say keep it, but it's not getting used. They are beautiful machines.

Nice machine, mr bieler.

HELP!! The treasure-chest is LOCKED!!

After talking about it on the Fedora Lounge for EONS, I have finally decided to go spelunking into the basement in search of the oft-mentioned heirloom.

Now that I've found it...I CAN'T OPEN IT!!!!

I am of course, talking about my grandmother's Singer sewing-machine.

She used it for DECADES as a professional seamstress and tailor, and she brought it with her to Australia when she moved here in the early 1980s. I well remember her using it almost daily when I was growing up.

I found it tucked away in a corner of the basement covered in nearly ten years' worth of dust!!

I carried it out, bentwood case and all, and put in the floor (and trust me, it's every ounce as heavy as I remember it used to be!)

Having secured my grandmother's precious Singer, I then tried to open it.

Only I realised...I can't.

Because the damn thing's locked!

I KNOW my grandmother used to have a key. I even know what the key LOOKS like. But that was over 10 years ago now. I doubt if I could find it.

I've been informed by a couple of websites and blogs about old sewing-machines that I can unlock the case using a small, 3mm flathead screwdriver.

Well, as luck would have it, I happen to have a set of miniature screwdrivers (a 3mm flathead amongst them). But I still can't get the damn thing open!

Can anyone suggest ways that I can get this thing open? The machine means a lot to me and I'd really like to try and get it out of its coccoon and into the light of day once more.

This link mentions the 3mm screwdriver trick:

http://oldsingersewingmachineblog.c...hine-case-lid-without-the-key-and-how-not-to/

It says that if it doesn't work, then I should try and lubricate the lock with some oil.

What oil should I use to crack this baby open? Will ordinary W-D-40 do the trick?

I also have dry lubricants, such as graphite-powder, which I could easily squirt into the keyhole.

Help me!!

EDIT---EDIT---EDIT

I got it open!

A squirt of oil and a bit of pressure with the screwdriver, and the lock is working perfectly!

For the sake of everyone else, in case you don't know this trick (and that possibility seems unlikely), this is how it works, to unlock a Singer with a bentwood case without a key:

Keyhole in horizontal position - LOCKED.
Keyhole in vertical position - UNLOCKED.

Tools required for keyless entry:

1. Strong flashlight.
2. A decent pair of eyes or a magnifying glass.
3. A can of general-purpose lubrication oil (eg: WD-40).
4. Long-shafted micro-screwdriver. Flathead-tip. 3mm width.

Locate keyhole (left side of case).

If locked, keyhole will be in horizontal position.

Insert screwdriver. Twist in CLOCKWISE direction, applying increasing pressure.

If lock refuses to yield...obviously, don't force it.

Remove screwdriver. Squirt lock with lubricating oil (this works best if you have one of those little plastic direction-nozzles that stick into the aerosol-head).

Leave alone for a few minutes (go and blow your nose or stroke the cat. It doesn't take long).

Reapply the screwdriver, twisting in clockwise motion. The lock will give way and twist into the vertical "OPEN" position (if it doesn't, apply more oil and let it sit for a bit longer, these things could take time).

Lift off the lid trying your best not to damage what lies beneath!

Screwdriver is also execellent for locking the lid back into place as well.

Anyway...my grandmother's sewing-machine:

Personal History

Gran was born on the 14th of May, 1914. She was raised in British Singapore and the Straits Settlements of the Malay Peninsula, then under British colonial rule as part of the British Empire.

Gran was raised a christian and was educated in a British christian mission. She could speak - English, Chinese, Malay, Cantonese, Tamil and Hokkien. She could read and write fluent English. Impressive when you consider she only had a fourth-grade education.

Gran, along with my late grandpa, my uncle and my late aunts, witnessed the fall of Singapore in 1942 to the invading Japanese Army. My uncle still tells me about how hard it was to survive under Japanese occupation. The Japanese were ESPECIALLY hostile towards the local Chinese population. My family is originally from China (grandpa immigrated to Malaya from China during the early 1900s, probably in the 1920s).

Shortly after the war ended in 1945, my grandmother set up her tailor's shop where she altered and measured and made clothing for both men and women, in a town in Malaysia called Batu Pahat. Her shop had the poetic name of The Golden Star. I still have three of her old business-cards from the 1950s.

She ran that shop until 1983, when my grandfather died of cancer, a week after my older brother was born, in April of that year. She was a professional tailor and seamstress for nearly 40 years, which was almost half her life.

She moved to Australia with my father to help raise my brother and I, as she had raised almost EVERYONE ELSE on my father's side of the family. Her sewing-machine, the enormous old Singer, came with her. It was her personal treasure, her pride and joy.

She continued to use that machine regularly, on an at least weekly, if not daily, basis, for the next 20 years. She repaired and altered clothes that were given to her by members of her local church, and she did all the repairs for my clothes and my brother's clothes on a machine that by then, was nearly 50 years old (Serial # EG-417400 = circa. 1951).



Dad believes that gran's old Singer was a present to her, back when she was running her shop. We have no way of verifying this, but it's a nice story. It was certainly her most treasured posession.

Whenever she needed to use it, it was my job to set it up for her. She'd clear a space on her desk and I'd carry it up onto it, reel the thread through to the needle, plug it in and set up the knee-bar for her to commence sewing. The ONE thing I remember about that machine was HOW HEAVY IT WAS!

Fifteen years later...nothing has changed. It still weighs a ton!

I remember when I was a young teenager, my dad decided to give gran a surprise. He bought her a brand-new, modern sewing-machine (the brand of which escapes me). I think gran was very offended! If I remember correctly - she sold it! And went right back to her old Singer.

Grandmother died on the 28th of November, 2011. She was 97 years old and was loved and missed by everyone in our family. Her Singer is one of her few personal affects that we still have to hold onto.

*Sniffle*

Grandmother's Singer Sewing Machine - Photographs

The Bentwood Case:






The socket for the knee-bar.




The tiny keyhole!




The accumulated dust of years of abandonment in the basement.

The First Look!


The case on its own.


"The Singer Manufacturing Co."


The kneebar. I'd totally forgotten this thing existed!











There happens to be a sewing-machine repairshop in the next suburb. Hopefully sometime soon, I might take it there and get the thing overhauled.

EDIT --- EDIT --- EDIT --- EDIT

I wiped the dust off the bentwood case and photographed the machine in the full light of day. Here she is: