I had looked on craigs list for the first time the other day and saw an old Singer sewing machine in a #40 cabinet in Decatur. I emailed about it thinking it might be good for parts. I found the 15-91 in the thrift store the next day and bought it. That night I got a reply to my email. The machine is $25 including the cabinet which looks good in the photo. I recheck the photo and can see the machine is a 15 class. The 15's have their tension knob on the left on the face plate not on the front like most machines. A few days on the internet and I've learned a lot about this kind of thing. Do I need another machine? That's not the point.
I'm going to get it. I have a bad feeling about the 201. Little things keep happening. In case it doesn't work I want the 15-91 to work. I am not bereft of sewing machines by the way. I have an old Elna that is fabulous and a Brother embroidery/sewing machine that my mother gave me. My sister got the Janome and my aunt the serger. I tried the Brother and for all the fancy stuff it can do (and that's a lot) I was disappointed in the basic straight stitch. Puzzled too. It should be better--shouldn't it? I got out the Elna which I've had for years--it has a nice straight stitch. But I want a sewing machine that stitches great and I can work on. These old machines are also so elegant and simple. I've always liked them, so why not use one (or two) (or three).
My husband says he'll go get the machine and does. He brings it in to the workshop and we open it up. It's shiny and nice. It works. Just beautiful. No attachments but it has the original manual in the drawer. I'm a little disappointed though. It doesn't seem to need much work and I've enjoyed taking apart and cleaning some of the thrift store machine. This new one looks perfect. I decide I'll go ahead with cleaning the thrift one to learn more and keep the Decatur one to the side for tidying up later when I know more of what I'm doing.
I started my cleaning in the head section. It seemed an easy place to start. I took off the face plate and checked the presser bar and needle bar. Not too bad. I took the presser bar regulating screw off to get the spring out to clean. It looked the worst but cleaned up easily. It went back together easily too. The face plate took a scrubbing but is shiny now. I'm going to save the tension knob for later.
I was a little nervous about removing the bobbin shuttle but I did--carefully laying out each piece in a row in the order that I removed it. Actually the manual shows how to do a lot of this stuff. I figure if the 1940's housewife could do this so can I. The bobbin area was the one area I was concerned was rusted but it turned out not to be rust but just brown oily dirt. The whole thing cleaned up nicely. That hook part is suprisingly sharp. I was careful with it--I didn't want any nicks on me or it. I don't have photos of all of this. Once I get to work my hands are too dirty to pick up the camera. Also I had the machine out for all of this--I took this photo a few minutes ago with the machine back in its cabinet and tilted back. And yes, I see the brown spot I missed. I'll tend to that shortly.
Remember the machine ran and then slowed down? I took the balance wheel off and looked inside. I was very technical and put an old sock over a screwdriver end and stuck it in the gear area--it came away with a thick gooey brown glob of grease. No wonder it slowed down. Gear cleaning tomorrow.
People have different opinions on what to clean sewing machines with. Many use kerosene and/or metal polish. I read one site that said sewing machine oil was safe to clean the easier jobs with--it works for me. I would stay away from WD-40, but that's my opinion. Also be careful of household cleaners. 409 apparently cleans some of the metal, but I'm not going to use it. Check out the sites on my previous post--those people know more about it than me.
Here's a download for sewing machine maintenance. It's for handcrank machines so it's a little different in some areas, but the basics are the same.
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