Painting the town: part 5

Remember that list of steps for repainting a sewing machine? Ah, that's only a guideline because as you go through the process you learn and finally get a feel for when things are going in the right direction or not. I'm not at that place yet but I do think the light is just beginning to dawn.

How do I get a dust-free paint booth? I think this is key since so many of my delays are due to fine specks in what I hoped would be the last coat of paint. As I do my research I find the auto body guys say it's the paint, not dust in the environment. One says he even paints outdoors! They also think you could be adding dust with your wipes. Hummm. All that could be true so I continue to read advice from Eric who has his process fairly refined (read: he's done more than one successfully). Now I read I should use flat black spray paint because it's the clear coat that will give the shine. What? Should I go get a can of flat finish? I give it another coat under the arm tonight and the bed where the hair had landed (sigh) and will check in the morning.

There has been something niggling at the back of my brain that said "the motor doesn't need to be repainted" but what about the hand wheel? I finally go get the box and see what kind of shape the hand wheel is in (fine) but then I find these 2 pieces:

Bobbin winder and motor bracket

The bobbin winder has some fancy decal scroll work that has faded pretty bad but both pieces need a cleaning and painting. I can't get the bobbin winder apart so I'll have to tape it well and use stripper on it. Just when I thought I was done with chemical stripper! At least I caught it before I went to assemble the parts.

We are having ceiling tile replaced in half of our basement and half of that space has sewing machines in it. They all got moved to the other side of the basement last night and I don't need to tell you how well I slept out of sheer exhaustion. I'll count them when I bring them back into the room. Part of the deal with these workmen was for them to bring up two cabinets that were too heavy for me to carry since they have Singer 306's in them. I usually can manage to move things if I get them in pieces but this time that wasn't going to work. So now I have all the extra cabinets in the garage and I'm determined to find new homes for them before the snow flies. Here's the Singer 306 in an art deco cabinet:

Love the look of this cabinet and it has a
foot control lever on the bottom coming
out of the drawer side. Neat.



 But not only the top needs refinishing,
it just needs it the most!



Here's the latest coat of paint: (yup, I got up early just for you!)

Singer 66: coat 4

I think I've finally got it right and am done with the black coat. Stay tuned for the next episode of Sewing Machine Mavin when she applies the first coat of clearcoat!