RESTORING A SINGER 66: Oiling and Cleaning the Lacquer of a Treadle Sewing Machine

Welcome to the second installment in my series on restoring my 1918 Singer 66 red eye treadle sewing machine This video is on how to oil treadle sewing machine. In addition, I show one of the best methods for cleaning the lacquer without damaging the decals or the surface. This method just uses machine oil. The lacquer and decals on these old machines were formulated to coexist with machine oil as it was inevitable that some oil would end up on the lacquer, therefore it is safe to use it on them. I was surprised by how well it worked

The story of how I acquired my machine:
Several years ago I stumbled across this machine in a local thrift shop. I wanted it quite desperately as the idea of having my own sewing machine that was powered by a foot instead of electricity appealed to me. Unfortunately at the time, I had nowhere to put such a piece of furniture. Logic said “you don’t need this,” “this is impractical,” but it was one of those things I would have regretted not purchasing. My parents ended up getting it for me for my birthday which was still several months away. They stored it in their guest room for the next year or more until I finally had a place to put it. The machine itself is in great condition considering it is over 100 years old. At the time I knew next to nothing about these machines or what a deal this one was. I’ve been slowly gathering information about how to restore it over the past year. True to form, I plan on doing everything myself. This is both due to the amount it would cost to get it fixed by someone else and also because I know I will derive so much pleasure and satisfaction from having done everything myself when the restoration is finally complete. I look forward to sharing this adventure with you as I attempt to restore this beautiful sewing machine, and finally having a sewing machine with which to sew all the myriad sewing projects that have been rolling about in my head.

For realtime project updates follow me on instagram!
Instagram:   / intuitive_artificer   (@intuitive_artificer)

MUSIC: Improvisation in C minor by Laura Early