Singer Cabinet Inside

So here we are; the singer cabinet in all its glory before I went to business on it with the sander, I was really surprised at how easy it was to get this cabinet looking decent, I used a fine sandpaper on the sander and after I sanded all of it I wiped it down with a cloth with some old English almond oil.

BEFORE

AFTER

No more flaky varnish, nice and smooth.

The mug rings have gone!!!!

I was really worried about getting the sander on this cabinet, but what did I have to lose, it looked pretty nasty so I thought I would give it a go, I am so glad it did, as it turned out so much better than I thought it would. Tommorow all being well I will share the outside of the cabinet legs and all.

Working on the Singer Cabinet

It was a lovely sunny day sunday so I decided to have a go at trying to do something with the singer cabinet! It is in rough shape but I am hoping with some elbow grease, hard work and time I will be able to improve her looks. I have started sanding the whole cabinet to get rid of the flaky varnish. It has made a big improvement so far, will share some pics soon.

She Works - singer

Previously, I mentioned about the dodgey cable on the singer 5-91. Well I was going to order one of the internet and got dh took take a look. He decided that all it needed was a new wire, so off to Ace Hardware and back, he changed the wire, plugged it in and it worked. I am so pleased, I thought I might need a new foot pedal and have to sort out the light, but they are both fine. Now off to go and give her a really good clean.

I still need a name for her, any suggestions are welcome.

Singer Accesory Box

The black Box!!!!

Contents of the black box just as I found it when I came home!

Lid of the box showing all the stitches

Contents of the box, I am not sure what most of these accesories are for, so as I figure out what they are I will add to them. If you know anything about them please feel free to drop me a comment and let me know.

This is a Standard Singercraft guide #2's with a bulb shaped end, they were produced with two different finishes, bronze and aluminium (or aluminum!!!! as you say where I live :-).

I think this is a Ruffler, but cannot find a number on it!

121318 - Sewing machine gripper

I have no idea what this is??????????????????????????

Hemstitcher

This box contains a few different things:

120842 - Foot Hemmer
1214 64 - Binder attachment
121441 - Gatherer
35931 -Adjustable Hemmer

Singer Sewing Machine

In a recent post I blogged about the treadle singer sewing machine that I scored on craigslist for only $25. Well it looks like I have a small addiction to singer sewing machines and I just cannot help myself!

I was just browsing craigslist last night like you do!!!! and came across the singer sewing machine pictured below, with the following advert and pictures:

Beautiful Singer Sewing Machine With cabinet, button holer accessories, case of accessories, and stool with storage under seat which matches the cabinet.

so a quick email was sent and I went and looked at it this morning. The wiring on it looked completely dodge, even though they told me their Aunt who it belonged to said it worked. There is no way I would plug this into a electrical socket in my home. But it did come with its own stool and some accessories they told me! It was up for sale for $30 and with my newbie bargaining skills I managed to get this for $25. So with the help of the sellers I loaded it up into my car and she came home with me.

It was not until I unloaded her from car that I actually realised that I really did score one amazing bargain. The box of accessories they mentioned, which I never even took a look at in my excitement to buy her is unbelievable and are probably alone worth the $25 so I am as pleased as punch. In my next post I will share pics of some of the accessories that she came with.

I also managed to find some information online about where she came from and how old she is.

Factory Name: Elizabethport
Elizabeth, New Jersey


AE 343285
Register Letter AE- 325041 - 365040
Class (Model No.) 15
Quantitiy Alloted40000
Year Alloted December 29 1936

I found all the above info from the following website: sewing shop com so if your looking to date your own singer sewing machine check this website out and you should be able to date it. I also found another website ISMACS International - International Sewing Machine Collectors' Society where I found a wealth of information from sewing machine models to the cabinets, accessories, manuals and a whole host of other things useful to finding out more about a antique/vintage sewing machine.

Treadle Singer Sewing Machine

Look what I managed to score on craigslist! I am doing a happy dance right now. It was advertised at $40 but I got it for much, much less!!! Can you believe I got it for $25 ????????

When I picked it up it was in much worse condition than this. The actual machine was all seized up and the needle wouldn't even move, some WD40 and a husband got it moving smoothly. We got the dremmel out to polish up the metal parts in certain places, and it started to shine a little bit with a good old clean.

I also applied some Old English Furniture Almond Oil and this has really helped with the cracking veneer. But it still needs a lot of attention and tender loving care.

The bobbin cover is missing so I need to hunt down one of them and as it is a treadle machine I also need to find a belt for it, so if anyone has refurbished one of these cabinets/singer machine I would really appreciate your feedback/tips/tricks.

The cabinet the sewing machine is housed in is another story, the close up shows how the wood is blistering and cracking, it looks much worse in real life.



I first thought about completely removing the veneer from the top and maybe just sanding down the wood underneath and re staining it. But, I asked Katy over at Mom and her Drill for some advice as I had seen that she refurbished a piece of furniture with a similar problem and she offered the following advice:
"put a sheet on the desk and apply a hot iron, it *may* reactivate the glue and make the veneer lay down flat. You would pile something heavy on top til it dries.
If this doesn't work there other methods, involving cutting the bubbles and squirting glue underneath.
I was too lazy for all of that, so I just refinished it how it was and I'm going to try the hot iron trick".

Any suggestions on how to repair, replace the missing pieces of veneer?