Started cleaning my machine yesterday. Yikes, what a lot of gunk. I'm only 1/3 of the way. So much gunk. Unfortunately the decals are not in very good shape and there is a lot of road rash as Billy calls it on the bed. Guess I will have to decide about the paint pen or just re-painting the whole thing.

Billy-several of the screws are frozen up. I used panther p (as DH calls it) several times and no go. How do I get them loose? One is on the scroll plate . I may have to drill it with my Dremmel. I know there are some lubricating/penetrating sprays other than what I used. Guess I will have to purchase them and try it.

One more thing I would add to the list of items needed to clean/repair your machine are latex gloves. Have ick under nails I can't get out. Oh well, I had fun.

You get all the best toys........will you take me shopping with you?
Have fun cleaning and restoring.....I am going to start on one of mine this week.....now, to choose the lucky victim---I mean lucky, lucky machine.....

I should add that if you're going to shopgoodwill.com you can check for "local" listings...they tend to have rather high shipping rates...I lucked out on these two because they were in Portland...

Luckily the Singer treadle works great! No challenging electricity to worry about :)

The one with the bobbin/treading problem is an electric New Home from the '40s. Maybe it is a needle problem still. I have to figure out what needle it needs. Otherwise I have no idea what the problem is! Frustrating..... but thank you for the advice, it is more than welcome! Any tips are appreciated!

I hear you! I spent hours yesterday cleaning the Singer treadle. There is a lot of soreness in my fingers and hands now from pushing hard to get the grime off. I still have another day's work left. It looks so much better already though! Keep at it!

Heres some pictures of my new machines,,,hope this works!

Yes you can try some other penetrating oils if you want or take a hair drier and warm up the area and then take a hammer and tap your screwdriver while its in the screw to jar the rust and it should back out.

I used a torch to heat up my Singer 24 to get some of the screws out of it. heat it up and let it cool a few times then pop it with a hammer and they came right out.

But if you use heat on the machine when it has the penetrating oils on it be careful and do it outside and make sure you have a way to put out a fire just in case.



Billy

Oh yes I love them!!! I was thinking you had the same 15 as the earlier ones but was the mint green before they changed the body styles. That would be one of the rare Singers, but yours is not seen that much either. It favors the 185J and is such a nice machine to own!!

The White is such a fantastic machine to have. I love the fact that it still has the majority of the decals and after you clean it up you will be amazed at how nice it stitches!!!

Thank you so much for posting photos of your babies!!

Billy

I found a Davis Sewing machine today at an antique shop. They are asking $45. It is mounted in a wooden base but it didn't have the wooden top. It is in pretty good condition. Does anyone know anything about this machine?

Davis is a great sewing machine you should get it if it is all there and not all deteriorated and missing decals.


Billy