Sunday 10 September 2017

Another new toy

This is a long-delayed post.  Back in May, my fabulous sister found this old Singer machine at a garage sale.  Apparently she immediately thought of me, and asked if I was interested. Of course I was!  From the photo it looked like it was in great shape, so she picked it up for me. Then the challenge was to figure out how to get it from Vancouver to Ottawa.  Fortunately for me, my mother was heading this way, so she became our "travel mule", accompanying the machine on the flight.

This little baby is way heavier than it looks, so carry-on was not an option, but stars aligned to allow my sister to take my mother & the machine to airport and get them checked in (comfy seat for one, and checked luggage for the other). And I met them at this end to retrieve both :)

I tried to restrain myself, but unpacking happened that night, despite the late hour.  Overall, the machine was as good as it looked in the photos. Except for the power cord and drive belt - both of which disintegrated in my hands.  So unpacking is as far as it got that night.

The next day, after some online research, we headed out to pick up parts for a new cord (fortunately the connector at the machine end was in fine shape), and a new belt - both obtained locally. Once those were in place, I powered her up, and the machine stitched wonderfully. No sticky bits or other issues. It was obviously well-stored, despite not being used for years (given the state of the cord, I assume it was in storage for 40 years or so).  A little oil, a little tweaking, and except for the clutch not disengaging for winding bobbins, everything works perfectly!

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