River Rats TOGA Third Edition

We had a good weekend with the treadle aficionados in Lake City, MN, despite the heat and community celebrations. Coming from the Twin Cites to the southwest area of Minnesota, there were all kinds of motorcycle conventions and corn fests along the way to keep me focused on the road and get there on time. As per last year, I only attended on Saturday but it was great fun learning how to clean metal parts, heads with decals, how to identify feed sack prints, solving tension troubles, and the ever famous raffle late in the afternoon. I managed to bring three sewing machines and not take a single one home again. Oh wait, I did bring two in for repair consultation that did come home with me but that was the plan.

The Davis vertical feed came to me completely frozen up so the first thing was to get things moving again. With very patient cleaning and oiling it finally broke through and had complete movement. I continued to clean and put parts back where they belonged until I decided to thread it up and stitch. There was a part missing, just the first thread guide, but it looked odd. Since I have another Davis I looked at it only to find there was a small disk, just like the ones found in a tension mechanism held in place with a screw and spring. The bag of parts that came with this machine did have a small screw with spring but no disk. There was no solution at the TOGA and no additional parts but when I got home I looked in my boxes of parts and think I found one that would work:

Davis with top thread guide added

Next up was the little Ruby sewing machine head. She was a freebee given to me by a neighbor who is also a co-worker. It started with not knowing how to thread it, then finding a needle, so Cathy and Bill both worked on it with me:

Cathy and Bill debate how the tensioner should be functioning

There was something wrong with the top tension mechanism so it was taken apart and put back in the correct order.

Ruby with repaired tensioner

Cathy knew how to thread it but it would take a much longer needle. She showed me a neat little trick in lowering the needle to the right length and how to make a small guide to use each time the needle needed to be replaced:

Needle positioner

Once we had it all threaded up it kept jumping out of the take up lever so it was decided it needed some surgery. Cathy made up a new ring to replace the broken part using jewelry wire and her handy tools for making jump rings:

Ruby has some surgery

New ring in place

With only a small amount of tweaking it did stitch. The shuttle bobbin was adjusted until the stitch was perfect, at least for black bobbin thread, always a no-no when testing out stitch tension:

Ruby Stitches!

Now I need a table to put little Ruby in and I think that's going to be very hard to find. It's a standard small treadle opening but the back pins are spaced wider than usual. It did come with the wood top and tray so I can hope to replace the top of a standard treadle with this topper. Maybe?

I did go to Cindy's storage shed and came back with a cool machine but that's going to be another post since it is waiting for a belt: to be continued!

Cabinets, Again

What a fun sewing weekend I had, full of machines, sewing, interesting conversations, and even a freebee at the end. It all started with the outdoor furniture that needed to come down from the garage attic but, as usual, there were sewing machines in the way. Correction: there was a snow thrower in the wrong part of the garage so first it needed to be moved. There is space for it way at the back, at least during the off season, so that gives me hope for storage if not actual convenience when it needs to be used.

With that big baby out of the way I could see what was left: a whole lot of cabinets and all with machines in or on them. Before they got too tightly packed I took some photos so they are now ready to list for sale, at lease two of the treadles are now ready to go. The Davis in the stunning cabinet is going to be difficult to let go of since it has the vertical feed foot, very cool machine in a fantastic cabinet:

Parlor cabinet for Davis Vertical Feed

Davis vertical feed in treadle cabinet

Then comes the New Home treadle, with near perfect decals and a joy to treadle. I will be sorry to see it go, too:

New Home Vibrating Shuttle

New Home cabinet, a plain model but in excellent condition

Taking a look at the black metal box with accessories, it could use a little cleaning up so I took metal polish to them and the results were worth the effort:

Classic accessories for vibrating shuttle machine but now so shiny!

Some of this movement was made possible by the sale of a Necchi Mira in a compact cabinet. It held a near permanent spot in my kitchen:

Compact cabinet for Necchi Mira

Necchi Mira with Wonder Wheel

but it sold and not-to-let-a-spot-grow-cold a Brother in a similar cabinet moved from the garage into the kitchen:

Compact cabinet for Brother Sewing Machine

Brother (no model number)

There is a downfall to the Brother cabinet: it's missing the chair cushion. It is not just a matter of buying foam (already did that) but to construct a whole base for the seat and that's going to take getting out the saw and....well, my Power Tool for Women class last fall didn't prepare me enough to use my own power tools, just those in class. I have hopes of getting it out soon and finishing up this project but I'm so fond of that Brother model that I don't mind having it around a bit anyway. Cool cabinet, isn't it?

While I was home on Saturday I found an ad for a free sewing machine. No model number, no photo, but nearby. Turns out, even though I was second in line, the first person said it wasn't heavy duty enough for her sewing and took a pass on it. I buzzed on over but didn't have the Jeep so I knew I was going to have to take the head out of the small table. Without the proper tools, only have two screwdrivers with me, I ended up taking out eight screws in order to remove the hinges. But I got it all home, cleaned up and oiled, found a set of power cords and foot control that was missing, and away she went:

Elna 65C

She was very dirty but sound inside. The owner said he was actually going to toss the machine and burn the cabinet up in his backyard but just took the chance someone would want it. I sent him a text when it was all cleaned up with a stitch sample and he was amazed and glad it went to a good home. I'm happy, too, because it would be a shame to put something as fine as an Elna into a landfill. Another win-win for sewing machine nuts; if you are reading this, maybe you should join us, too? You would be in good company, very good company!

Treadle Abundance

Right now I have five treadle cabinets with machines in all but one. When it rains it pours! It all started late last fall when my neighbor had his mother's Wheeler & Wilson 9 up for sale. I managed to store it in the garage over winter, not a good idea, but it was in pretty rough shape. It is still in rough shape and I'm just not ready to deal with the cabinet problems as well as getting the bobbin to work so it will continue to wait for me.

Wheeler & Wilson #9

Next up was the adorable New Home in a compact parlor cabinet. It's one of those petite 3/4 sized machines but it also had to wait in the garage over winter. I've been working on cleaning it up, the cabinet and the machine, and think it's in pretty good shape. The threading is different with the top tension unit besides being a vibrating shuttle model.  I continue to struggle with setting the boat shuttle in the vibrating swing arm but practice makes perfect.

New Home treadle cabinet

New Home treadle cabinet open

New Home treadle: bobbin winder out for cleaning

 I got the two parlor cabinets without machines and they are now all cleaned up and working as noted in Whiplash. I have enjoyed showing them off, especially after I got the Davis treadle. It was an adventure after winning the local auction and picking it up by myself. It's not a big treadle and I figured since it would come apart into at least three sections and I would be okay to disassemble and haul it. It was easier said than done. The head came out easily but the wood cabinet was not all one piece but at least three pieces with the side drawers coming off first. My screwdriver was too long so that was a struggle and even to find the screws when it was so sunny outside and so dark under that cabinet! With the drawer sections removed I was now ready to take off the top, but not until I removed the large shield held on by three screws on each side. One of the screws just turned and turned so it had to be carefully coaxed out. Now the top could be unscrewed from the irons, held on by only four screws. It all fit into the back of the Jeep and made it home safely. With all of those pieces all over the floor of the garage I wanted to get it back together again but it was not obvious how it would all work. My husband helped me in this part but it was a struggle. Let's just say it is all back together and we are still married. It got cleaned up with Howard's Feed & Wax on the wood with Johnson's paste wax on the irons after a scrubdown. It got posted on Facebook Marketplace with a half dozen people interested and only one needed to show up to pick up.

Davis treadle cabinet

Davis treadle top

It was crazy how many people were interested in this cabinet that was far from perfect and contained no sewing machine. I finally broke down and asked one person why they wanted a treadle and they said it was for their TV. Is that all? No, she learned to sew on a treadle with her grandma and it would bring back fond memories. I said I would keep her in mind if I found another one...cheap.

As a final bit of eye candy, here is the Davis in her new cabinet. She is not only pretty, she runs like a dream. I think it was worth the struggle!

Davis in new cabinet: a real beauty!