Mrs. SewNSew

LOL Miriam, I usually do the before pics but forget to do the after pics. By then I am on to a new machine and excited to puzzle out it's problems. That 403 I grabbed this weekend sounds like your 301. It was not beat to death by a gramma. It was neglected, abused, over-oiled and dropped. There was oil in the motor, in the plug ends, throughout the machine and yet it was frozen. They must've been oiling all the wrong things. The motor struggled to rise and fall outside the machine and the handwheel paint is seriously chipped. Once cleaned up the machine looks pretty new. Aside from the gunky oil inside the bobbin case there wasn't the usual heavy clumps of lint. Poor neglected thing.

I would rather see a machine beat to death by gramma than a machine that was shoved in a corner and neglected.

miriam

Oh well, some times you just need a parts machine - right???

Cogito

Miriam,
i love your little poem. Sure looks like you've done this before. With your permission I'm going to save this great little poem for future reference.
I do have to mention....when I read the first line the tune "Gramma got beat up by a reindeer" jumped into my head. Lol! I mean Gramma got run over ​by a reindeer. Right? Well you get the idea!

miriam

Grandma's sewing machine got run over by a reindeer - I think I have that machine, too...

ThayerRags

Granny drove that old Singer hard’n long,
(to not mend what you have is just wrong).
With no money to buy,
proud women would try,
to keep mending things to get along.

CD in Oklahoma

miriam

CD you have the right idea of it anyway... I'm hoping it was rode long and hard and not put away wet...

ArchaicArcane

OK, here's my contribution today. Found this in the local buy and sell. Man, this family was hard on machines! The plastic bag barely visible on the right side is "full" of replacement (alphasew) parts.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]522697[/ATTACH]

No bobbincase, no pedal, no light, untimed but the hook is intact and lots of the parts they bought didn't need to be replaced. Weird. Got the Spartan as a "spare" too. The original pic of the spares:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]522695[/ATTACH]
[ATTACH=CONFIG]522696[/ATTACH]

The motor doesn't belong to the machine, the pulley is from the original motor (still on the machine), and various other bits and bobs are original (the winder, a couple of screws) and the face plate is present so someone just bought half an Alphasew machine for nothing...

And under the throat plate:
[ATTACH=CONFIG]522698[/ATTACH]

Couldn't even see the rightmost 2 rows of dogs!

I'm going to clean her up and see how she sews - I bet it's nicely, she looks well broken in, but there's a good chance she'll be a parter after that just because I'd have to spend 3 - 4 times what I paid for her to make her complete. Yeah, I paid money for this one - it was a rescue - I felt so bad for her!

miriam

I was wishing for another machine beat up by grandma. All I got was a Singer 66 in pristine condition and a Singer 503 with a rotted powdery bobbin winder tire that caused it not to turn. I cleaned up the 503 and it is a fine machine. It needs somebody to love it or beat it up. Maybe me for a while. I have been thinking about refashioning some sweat pants for the DGDs. I'm sure a serger would be better but those fall into the category of something to hit with a sledgehammer or throw off tall buildings.... The red eye is beautiful and cleaned up fine - looks very nice... It just doesn't have any personality IMHO. But then the next person might really thin that one is the coolest thing they have ever used...

Sewnoma

I like pretty machines but I like the hard-worked beaters too. I have room in my heart for all sorts of machines!

When I finally gave in and bought my FW (on eBay), I deliberately picked one that had wear patterns showing on the decals. I wanted one that had been well used, but not abused. Fortunately that's just what I got!

I have a beaten up 15 that I've started stripping to re-paint, but I stopped halfway through and she's gone a bit rusty. (I know, I know...) I'm sure I can clean her back up but I'm starting to agree with my DH that the rust is really cool looking and maybe I should just clearcoat her as-is...

Glenn

I just got another very will used 27 with the pheasant decals. I cleaned it up and saved what decals I could. Yes you can't beat these old beater machines. This one turned out to be the smoothest and quietest VS machine in my collection and yes I have about 60 + of them. What a perfect stitch this one makes. Ugly is good... I love sewing with the old well used machines without the worry of hurting it. I have pretty machines but the best sewers are the ugly ones and I tend to use them more. I will post a pic when the wife gets back with the camera. This 27 has the big heavy spoke hand wheel and treadles like butter just wished it had a motor boss.