AmBraCol , The Center Of God's Grace
Here's a gun related story involving a similar machine...
Tuesday, February 27, 2024, 07:27

Way back in the last quarter of the 20th Century my Dad went with one of the elders of the church where I grew up to visit the area where Lucas (the elder) had grown up. The VW bug Dad was driving was the first personal transportation internal combustion engine vehicle that made it that far back into the middle of nowhere. That was quite a novelty to them. One old vaquero, dressed in leather from head to ankle (his feet producing their own kind of leather) walked around it trying to figure out what it was for. "Can't fit a cow in there, not even a calf. Can't haul more than maybe 10 bags of rice. What's it good for?" was his observation. But I digress.

The lady of the house where they stayed had an old Singer that wouldn't work. So dad got his tool kit out of the bug and dismantled the machine, cleaned it up, reassembled it with a bit of lube here and there (he used motor oil, IIRC) and the Singer sang once more. The lady's husband had watched it all with interest. Once he saw the positive results he asked, "I've got an old rifle that's been giving me problems. Do you think you might be able to fix IT?"

So Dad broke the rifle down into it's components (sure wish I knew what rifle it was), laying them out on the table. Then he said, "What if I can't get it back together again?" Later, as he related the incident, he told us "You should have seen his face!" All the fellow knew was that HE sure wouldn't be able to reassemble it! Dad, of course, knew he'd get it done but had to get his laughs first. Again, a bit of cleaning and lubing and proper assembly and the rifle was back up and running.

When my wife and I moved to that area later in the last quarter of the 20th Century, we came across a LOT of old sewing machines. Ones like yours were the new, modern, up to date models. We saw quite a few with hand cranks and a few with oblong bobbins instead of the more modern type. I always wanted to find one of the older ones "just because", but they mostly are incomplete - or not for sale. I've no idea where I'd put it, but admire the ingenuity and the robustness of the design.

Good job on that refurbishment. An electric motor makes a BIG difference in the usability of these old machines, but it's also amazing how much work can be done with them using the old peddle power.

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I'm a peaceful man and prefer the pursuit of peaceful sports. Those involving teams and balls of any sort tend to be deleterious to one's body and promote violence by both spectators and participants.