Charlee

No I was wanting to compare it to mine...which is at home and I can't look at what the serial is right now. I was told that mine was an earlier model, about 1877 by a guy that loves and researches them, but that there are no real records.
I'll look when I get home and we'll compare!

Charlee

I think I'd save it as she is...touch up paint for the spots that need it to keep from rusting, and try to maintain the integrity of the remaining decals. At least until you know if it is a rare item?

vintagemotif

YES! Glad to see it go to a good home! Congrats!

vintagemotif

She rolling in her grave. Poor cabinet, it needs a Glenn treatment.

vintagemotif

I only clean my machines with sewing machine oil. If there is rust on metal parts, then Bar Keepers works.
I don't take machines apart to clean unless it a total must do to get machine working correctly. That said, I have never taken any of my machines totally apart to clean them; sections yes, entire machine no. Somehow with a good bathing in sewing oil and many wipe with cottonballs and q-tips, a machine gets clean. Hard to move parts gets Tri Flow ( Thank you Cathy for showing me this product).

I once followed directions to clean with GoJo non-pumice, only to have decals silver and disappear on me. I was pissed when that happened. I NO longer use that stuff.

In my many wanderings of google searches on cleaning vintage sewing machines, I came across one blog were that blogger only cleaned with sewing machine oil. He had the most gorgeous machines I have ever seen (wish I had bookmarked his blog, cause I can't find it now). He stated it would sometimes take him weeks to remove layers of old oil and dirt that had layered up. The decals on his machines were pristine. That sold me on just using sewing oil to clean these poor ladies and gents.

MUVs cleaning is what I would follow if I were a newbie to cleaning vintage machines and I was totally scared of what if...

annthreecats

Thank you for the link. I learned somthing new today.

JabezRose

Any suggestions, have discovered upon close inspection that this has been "glued" back on at one point in her long life. How can it be fixed permanently?

Crossstitcher

I have a machine and cabinet just like this one usued to be. Mine is in a lot better condition. Bought it from the orginal owner who was in her 80's and moving to FL. Left all the goodies in the drawers also.

vintagemotif

Crossstitcher, That's a nice looking machine and cabinet. You got lucky inheriting all the sewing notions. It's always fun going through the drawers.

Crossstitcher

Went to visit a lady the other day and got to talking about sewing machines. Welllll she said she had a few downstairs she was just going to get rid of. So we took a look and there were 9 machines. There were 4 singers 4 kenmores and 1 pink atlas. Needless to say they came home with us. Hubby cleaned oiled and I threaded and all the machines but one sews good. Don't know yet why she wanted to get rid of them. They are newer machines but still they all sew. The Atlas is the only one that doesn't because the tension parts are missing. Any way here is a picture of one of the machines and it zig zags and can be put into a treadle. Singer even has in there manual you can put to a foot treadle. It's a Singer Merritt. We tried putting it in an old treadle cabinet but will have to modify one to make it fit right. I think that turned out to be a lucky day for us.