I have several machines that I've never cleaned. Sometimes they come in the door, and I don't have time to clean them, so they get put away and forgotten. Well, this machine came in the door way back in March 2016. It came in a cabinet with a knee control. I gave the cabinet away shortly after I got the machine. I seldom keep cabinets unless they are in really good condition. Cabinets take up too much space.
Here are the before photos. I'll add in a few of the photos after I've cleaned, to show the difference. I've spent about 7 hours cleaning this machine.
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| dirty machine |
The wiring on the motor was in shreds.
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| rust on the motor where the belt would attach |
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| shredded wiring on motor and light |
Someone had added a light at some point. Instead of how Singer attached motors, using the round metal plate on the back of the machine, they had drilled a hole in the back of the machine and screwed the light directly onto the machine.
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| drilled into the cast iron to attach the light |
The light rubbed against the decals on the back of the machine each time the light was turned on/off. Thank goodness it didn't do more damage to the decals. The word 'Singer' is scratched up.
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| cleaned machine, showing scratched decals on the word 'Singer' |
The bobbin winder was really rusty. When I started, the bobbin winder was frozen stiff. I had to oil it before I could clean it. Thank goodness the oil worked quickly. I managed to get it mostly dissembled so that I could clean the metal parts. Here are photos of before and after cleaning.
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| showing rust, before I oiled the parts |
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| I took photos as I took this apart, so that I could get it back together again. |
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| more parts taken off |
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| rusty and pitted metal |
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| rusty, and old dirty oil on the metal |
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| cleaned and re-assembled bobbin winder |
The tension unit was really rusty, too. I took it apart and cleaned each part.
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| rusty tension unit |
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| rusty tension post |
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| dirty tension parts (always take them off in order so that you can put them back on in the proper order) |
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| cleaned tension parts |
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| clean tension, re-assembled |
I cleaned up lots of other metal parts, too.
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| rusty bobbin area |
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| filthy and rusty bobbin case |
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| bobbin area |
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| cleaned parts |
I don't remove the presser bar or the needle bar when I clean. I did clean these while they were still on the machine. The only rust was on the part that is next to the base of the machine.
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| dirty presser bar and needle bar & foot |
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| clean presser bar and needle bar |
The bobbin cover plate was missing on this machine. I used one from another machine. It also cleaned up nicely.
The previous owner used masking tape on the bed of the machine. The tape was still stuck on in places (and brittle). I cleaned the tape residue off the bed, but the adhesive had damaged the paint. You can see in the photos where the tape was (in front of and behind the bobbin cover and also across the middle of the bed of the machine. I'm glad it didn't damage the decals. I've been adding sewing machine oil, letting it sit, then cleaning, then adding oil....repeat, repeat, repeat, for the past few days.
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| masking tape on machine bed |
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| the tape was across the decals in the middle |
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| pitted paint where the tape had been (adhesive has been cleaned off) |
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| this part had less pitting |
Now you've seen why I spent 7+ hours cleaning this machine.
Remember this dirty machine?
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| before cleaning |
Here she is, all cleaned up and converted to a hand crank.
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| 1922 Singer 66 hand crank, clean and shiny |
I got nice stitches as soon as I tried to sew on her. I was expecting to have to fiddle with the tension, since I'd removed and cleaned it.
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| pink is bobbin thread, blue is top thread |
Not bad for a 99 year old machine.
Now to get some sewing done!
