Singer 99 Conversion from Electric to Hand Crank

 

Yesterday, I showed you the Before:

Ta Daaaa! So what do you think? (Please enlarge all pictures to see details better.)

I went to my spare parts case, and pulled out a straight stitch foot, and I even had a spare bobbin cover plate. I also had a spoked wheel that we ordered and didn’t use for something else, so I put that on, and I ‘borrowed’ the hand crank kit off of my Red Eye. I bought another crank last night, so when that one comes, it will go back on the Red Eye. I changed the bobbin tire, as the one on there was HUGE, and it was dragging the cranking down when I put it in the bobbin winding position. I even had to take the whole bobbin winding part off the machine to loosen the screw so I could adjust it. I ‘cleaned’ the surface of the machine with baby oil. Why? Because the ‘painted’ finish is lacquered and ‘japanned’, and cleaners would not work well. It would make the finish cloudy. Baby oil, or regular sewing machine oil is a wonderful thing to clean the finish with, and it makes it really shine. Most of the decals are in good shape, but the ‘S’ is kind of scuffed up. Maybe it has something to do with the brackets on the inside of the lid?

I stripped off all the veneer on the base of the case, then Louie sanded it all down, stained it, and put tung oil on it this morning. It hasn’t been polished yet, as the oil is not completely dry yet. We haven’t done anything to the lid yet. It needs some veneer glued, and then we will clean and polish it and see how it looks. Later.

I test sewed (cranking) with it last night, and it sews well. (Sorry, I didn’t keep the sample. I sewed on a paper towel, and ended up wiping off the counter with it today and then threw it away.) I had to do a little adjusting of both tensions, but not a lot. I really have not figured out why the decal is on the back of the arm of the machine, and not on the ‘inside’ of the arm, as there was a motor that covered it. After ‘Googling’ similar machines, I see that some of the ‘newer’ models had the decal on the inside, and not on the back.

The certificate with serial number states that the machine was born in 1923. The decal on top of the machine says Great Britain. I wish I could find that chart I used to have that said exactly which day!

Update! I did find the site with more information, and this machine was born on June 27, 1923. I found another site telling me it was made in Clydebank, Scotland.

Sew…….Before:

Wooden base in bad shape….

After: Not too bad, if I do say sew myself…and I do!

Have a great week!

Michelle

ps. If you look at the very top left of my blog banner, you will see my other Singer 99 hand crank machine. That one is newer, as it has stitch length and back tack lever. I just think the 99’s are SEW cute!!!