Vintage Sewing Machine Repair

I have become a collector of vintage sewing machines.  It is an easy hobby to get hooked on as normally vintage machines are quite cheap. Most of them are not in working order and the people who have them don't really know what to do with them. The first one I bought was a Singer 401A for $7.50 in a thrift shop.

I now have: 2 Singer 401A's, Singer 15-90, Singer 128, a vintage Necchi, a 1913 White Rotary, a vintage Sears/Kenmore,   a 774 Singer Touch and Sew. and a Singer 215G.
None of these machines worked to begin with but none of them were really "broken". They just had sat unused for so many years that they had seized because eventually oil goes bad and without oil these machines don't move.  I spent about an hour oiling and greasing that first 401A before everything was moving good again. The light on it was the only problem as it blew every bulb and I finally bought a replacement on eBay for $10.
The Necchi came next. It was in a thrift store in NC by where my son lives. The cabinet was very dry and the legs fell off when you picked it up (they are supposed to come off) and they gave it to me for $5. I absolutely love this machine and I think it is just that pink color that I adore. It was also seized and took about an hours work to oil and grease. I used linseed oil on the cabinet and it is beautiful now. It had the wrong bobbin in it and once I got the right one it sews fine.

I won't go through all the machines I have bought but all but one was seized. Only three of them had more serious problems. The second Singer 401A was missing the front door plate entirely and the knobs on it were also seized, the Kenmore had its needle in the wrong position but that also had to do with a knob that was seized on it. The Touch and Sew had the most problems. It needed the bobbin winding rubber replaced, the cam and a lever inside replaced and adjusted and the presser foot bar lowered.
Now keep in mind, all of these machines I have repaired and oiled before I even got a book on sewing machine repairs. The vintage machines just really aren't that complicated.
Finding books about sewing machine repair is a lot more difficult. I found one, very expensive book that I did buy because it was the only one I could find. It is called "The Complete Handbook of Sewing Machine Repair". It is anything but complete because it only goes through 4 different kinds of machines (none of which is Singer) and it was written in 1980 so all the information is quite old. It is also very technically written with few easy to see pictures so hard to get through the information and actually understand it. Still...I am trying to get through it.
I have also bought a few more modern machines. These really had nothing wrong with them and I cleaned and oiled them and re-sold them at a profit.
Last night I took apart my main sewing machine which is a computerized Brother CE-4000. Very different inside from a vintage machine but I could still see what needed to be cleaned and oiled. It was very dirty as I have had it over 10 years and never knew how to clean and oil it. It was all back together an hour later and working fine.
I don't know if this little "hobby" will turn into something more or not. We'll just see how much more I can learn.

White Rotary

Singer 15-90 (Centennial)

Singer 128 (Centennial)

Sears/Kenmore 158...

Singer 215G

Singer Touch and Sew 774

Peaches This Year....Many, Many Peaches

I know, it's really hard to see because everything in the background is green too, but this is my peach tree (with some roses in the flower garden to this side of it). It is loaded again with peaches this year. I haven't done a thing to the tree, no pruning, no fertilizing, no nothing. It is just out there growing on its own beside the house. We haven't even used the peaches I already canned. Three people apparently don't eat many peaches...I really don't know why we haven't eaten them. When there is only three of you, big meals aren't necessary or meals that take a lot of time --when you all work, so we just haven't done anything with the peaches.
I must say that at one time I thought to be self sufficient as far as fruit went, you would need several trees of each kind of fruit to get enough to last you a year but now I think one of each fruit you really like with maybe a couple apple trees (since apples are used for more things) and a few berry bushes (if you don't have wild ones to pick) would be more than enough.

I will be lucky if the branches don't break and I know you are supposed to take some off if they get heavy enough to break the branches. The rain we have had lately has bent them down quite far and I may have to take some off soon but I usually don't. We'll see how it goes. 

Recipes from Gram's Recipe Box- Cakes/Candy

A lot of the recipes in my grandmother's recipe box tend to have ingredients with no or very few, instructions. That is because she already knew what to do with the ingredients and didn't waste time and space writing down what she didn't have to. Today I'll share some of the dessert or candy recipes from the box.