If I had to do over again I would have worked in a singer sewing machine factory. I really enjoy these videos and I love sewing on a singer old timers they are the best. What an invention. Can you imagine sewing on a treadle singer sewing machine. No electricity. What a wonderful thing when your electricity goes out you can't do anything. With a treadle you can keep on sewing. I wish I had her sewing machine. I was five years old and watched my Italian grandmother see on a treadle singer. I was fascinated. The modernization of the American housewife lost the art of working with these machines. If you wanted a dress or coat in those days, you had to make it yourself. My dear grandmother Elvira was a genius. God bless her and God bless you.
Thank you very much for showing us how to do the cleaning of the wheel. Very informative and you have an excellent way of teaching us. Much patience and perfection..
Your videos have helped me a lot! I picked up a beautiful 1901 New Home sewing machine for $10 a couple days ago. It was filthy and the balance wheel and other metal parts were rusty, but it runs like a dream - seriously, so smooth. I used Gojo to clean the enamel and decals and it looks fabulous - virtually every decal is perfect. And today I tackled the balance wheel. I don't have a lathe, and the machine is not in a treadle table, but I wrapped a pencil in fabric, stuck it in the spokes and spun the wheel by hand. It took longer than using a lathe, but the wheel looks amazing, and it actually didn't take that long! I'm just so excited about restoring this gorgeous machine, and given what a great deal it was, I couldn't be happier. So thanks for showing the step by step. I did exactly the same thing (minus the lathe) and got a gorgeous result.
I know all the comments say it but ill say it again. You sir are a life saver. I am restoring a 66. I have never done this before and the the information I have found has not been helpful. This is the first in depth process on how to clean the handwheel i have found (that and the bobbin winder are the most rusted peices) so thank you for saving me a lot of time.
Thank you for your kind comment and you are very welcome! Hopefully I will get some more video time in soon and get a bunch more information shared. Check out our workshop schedule at sewpurtyworkshops.com/upcoming-workshops-1?olsPage=products You never know when I'll be holding a workshop near you and I can share firt-hand all the tips and tricks for unfreezing the frozen, disassembling, cleaning, de-rusting, polishing, reassembling, and making them sew again! :-)
Loved this one - adapted the technique since I don't have a metal lathe (and it was raining so couldn't use my wood lathe).... and my machine is in the process of rewiring. So, I just hand-turned it while on the machine. It's now GORGEOUS!
Wood lathe works better. My metal lathe is too slow really to generate the heat on the surface that really makes them shine! lol Just gotta be careful. these old iron wheels can blow apart when spun too fast if they have a tiny crack in them
Great video this information will be a great help. I'm restoring a treadle machine and was wondering what to do with the hand wheel. Thank you so much for taking time and making this video!
Well there is the right way to do things and then there is the half assed way. I'm like you sir if imm going to take the time to do something I'm going to do it right one time the first time. Good job thank you.
This was a great post. I totally agree with you on your point of making the video. I don't want a quick, cheap, "used care salesman" tactic to take care of a problem. Before you told about the used car salesman, it was exactly the thought that popped into my mind! HAHAHA! Great video. Thanks for the info.
I have a Singer 201-2 and love all the things you're teaching. I was wondering if you could electroplate it with a nickel bar after cleaning smoothing the surface? Thank you.
Thank you for making this video Ray. I am new at restoring my vintage machines and I want to do it correctly. I do have several Minnesota treadles and a couple of them have some rust on the wheels. Can I use the same process or do I need to use some different products?
I have hearing problems so can’t understand a lot of this. I have a nickel plated hand wheel on my 1908 model 66. Are you stripping the plating off and polishing the steel underneath?
Very good video and I agree...do it the best you can the first time. These machines were not built by people with a 'used car' mentality or they would not be 100+ yrs old and still fully functional. BUT...what do you do with a hand wheel that has lost 40%+ of its plating???
I use a more coarse paper (such as 80 or 120, depending on just how rough the plated area is) and remove all the plating that is left. Once the surface is beginning to smooth, the progress to finer papers (240, 400, 600, 1000, then finally 1500) until the base metal is nice and slick. Ue oil with all sandpaper, and be very careful with the old plating because it can cut you like a razor blade. It should have a nice satiny appearance at this point. Then I finish polishing it just like in the video. Most machines before the mid to late 1880's didn't have plated parts (with the exception of a few with either silver plating or bronze). The brightwork on those machines was all polished iron, steel, or brass. Steel and iron will polish to a beautiful shine without plating, it just needs to be done with oil and with enough speed and pressure to generate heat on the surface of the metal. Many of our early machines' parts were a dark brown but with just a little polishing they were bright again. Correctly polished iron or steel holds up very well and on many machines I have witnessed it in actually better shape than the painted parts after a long period of neglect
Great post! Can you share the products you used for shining and waxing? I was not able to hear you clearly except that you are using "Mother's" products. Thank you!
