Singer 201K

Quite some time ago I bought a lovely Singer 201 from work.  However with study I never got around to cleaning it.  On Sunday I was bored and decided to get it out and play with it.  Every time I get this machine out I sit and look at it for a bit because it is just so beautiful and sleek.  This time was no different and afterwards I set in to cleaning it thoroughly.  There is no rust on it, excepting the hand wheel but a lot of caked on oil and dust.  This I set about removing, before oiling it and trying to set it up.  I started under the bed of the machine, because I always do.

Packed in its crate with its motor, as it has been for a year.

Under the bobbin area

Gear cover, to remove, remove circled screws.

Bobbin gear cover, to remove, remove circled screws.

Lovely metal gears.

Once I had finished under the bed I did the rest of the machine, starting with under the faceplate and moving through to the bobbin area and finally all the 'cosmetic' work, which isn't necessary for the efficient functioning of the machine but I like to know it's all shiny.

Under the faceplate, before cleaning

Bobbin and needle area, before cleaning

Hook, after the removal of the bobbin case.

Clean bobbin area

After some cosmetic work 

At the moment I have it mounted in the Singer 206's table, running off the industrial motor as its own motor needs a lot of work.  I am very pleased with it, it is very quiet and stitches very neatly.

Reassembling the Singer 206 Motor

As you may remember back in December 2013 (here)  I took the Singer 206 industrial motor apart in order to replace the bearings.  It sat around in pieces for a year (just over actually) before we got around to removing the bearings and replacing them.  I wish we hadn't put it off so long as it only took 2 days to do!

First we removed the outer, easier, bearing using a gear puller and then we removed the shaft, this left us with one bearing lodged inside the casting and held in with a circlip.  We ran a screwdriver behind the circlip and then we had all three bearings out.  It cost us $35 to buy replacement bearings but I figured it was cheaper than buying another 206.  Below are images:

First bearing removed, second still on shaft

Arrow pints to the circlip holding the bearing in

Using the gear puller to remove the end of the motor and the second bearing

The shaft of the motor, without the casing.

When it came to reassembling the motor and attaching the wires, I was glad I had taken so many photos before but I still could never quite find the right photograph!  While we were doing electrical work on it, we decided to shorten the power lead, so as to cut off a damaged bit.  This resulted in having to rewire the switch on the table.

Switch inside

Despite our concerns the motor now works fine and is MUCH quieter than it was before.  We are considering putting rubber washers on the bolts that hold it on to the table though as the table is hollow and acts as an amplifier.

In other news, I have been quite busy and managed to miss Tallulah Bankhead's birthday, however I thought I would still post a couple of pictures of her.  I love many of her quotes as they make me laugh.

When I stop being so lazy I should have a nice post about the beautiful 201K I acquired a while ago.

New Garments

I am technically on holidays.  I'm actually still flat out, however I took a couple of days off and did some sewing.  First of all I finished off a purple shift I had.  I found this shift half finished at work and I was about to send it out as a rag when I thought that as it was my size I could finish it and wear it.  The previous owner had assembled the dress and put the zip in, really only the hem was left to do.  However, they hadn't under stitched the armhole facings and in finishing the outer edges of these facings had stretched them out of shape so that there was no way they were staying tucked into the garment.  I ended up topstitiching the facings to the dress.  It looks fine and there is no chance of them rolling out.  I also had to refinish the outer edge of the neckline facing as it had been hemmed by hand and was undoing.  I then hemmed it and I had a nice new shift dress.  I used the pretty silver Godfrey for this task.

The next project was a very pretty 1940's blouse with a peplum. It is a Simplicity reissue and extremely lovely!  I made it in a lightweight seersucker like fabric on my adorable 99K knee control machine.  This fabric has a line of damage running down its centre and is only approximately 90cm wide anyway, it makes cutting things out very difficult.  I got it (all 5 metres or so) free from work as it was only going to be thrown out and it was rather pretty.  I managed to find a piece that was fault free wide enough to cut the back out but it was difficult.  The buttonholes were made on a Singer 71-30 industrial buttonholer and came out very nicely, after about 20 trial buttonholes!  Although a size 8 I think it is still too big for me, the fact that it sits comfortably on the mannequin pictured below which is set to a size 12 probably backs me up.

In other news I have a gorgeous new machine, although unfortunately it is unusable at the moment.

Saturday Morning

On Saturday morning I was recovering from a nasty cold and didn't feel particularly like going to work.  However, someone must have decided it was time I had a nice surprise because when I got to work there was a sewing machine table with a machine inside.  The pedal hanging out at the time told me it had to be an old Singer, so buzzing with excitement I lifted the lid and saw.....

This looked very interesting so I quickly set it up,

Yes, it is a 201.  I share Elisabeth @ mysewingmachineobsession.blogspot.com  passion for 201's.  They are fabulous machines although I have never seen the cast iron version before only Aluminium ones.  This one is very dusty but looks like it has hardly been used on the 60+ years it's been around.  The serial number dates it as approx. 1948.

Someone has stored this machine for a long time and it is covered on cobwebs, however there is very little rust, which is nice.

The face plate is stained but not too badly and is very like the one on my 206.

 

The chord must have been wrapped around it for years, when I unwound it, it was set in that shape.  The power chords will need replacing as they are only cloth covered and not in very good condition.  There is very little wear to the decals, which is fabulous!

 

 

201's have drop-in bobbins and this one has no bobbins with it.  However I have a heap of 201 bobbins that came with our Ali so that is fixed.  Now I just have to set about cleaning her, I can't wait!