The Unsinkable Molly Brown

I picked up a project machine as an experiment at a local estate sale that was in an old antique store that had been closed for quite some time. I was there late, and I saw a treadle sewing machine walk out in front of me, much to my dismay with a tag of 25- on it. I went on a quest looking for a treasure to bring home from this dilapidated building in downtown Forney, Texas.  I could not find anything, but my Spidey sense was ringing loud and clear. I knew there must be something. 

I found Molly Brown in the outside area, where they had put all the items they wanted to "weather". For some reason , It was popular a few years back to have old rusty items in your house and yard for a country effect. I need  no country effect at my place. I struggle with rust daily, no thanks. But, tucked in the corner , there she was.  

A Singer 27 model treadle head sewing machine. I smiled as I walked closer, knowing this was the project I had been looking for.  A measly five bucks and she was mine.  Deep down, I knew I would have paid ten for her, just because the condition of Molly was unthinkable to me. To say she was rusty, was putting it a bit mildly.

Holy Cow, is another way to put it.  

I first washed her down with water and Mr. Clean. No reason to be gentle. She needed scrubbing. Then, I pulled all her external pieces off. Wheel,plates, everything. I then worked on trying to get some of the rust off using products I already owned. It actually worked pretty well. 

From the great folks at Treadle on, and two of my favorite Facebook groups Vintage Sewing Machines  and Texas Vintage Sewing Machine Collectors, I found some useful products to help Molly out. 

Evaporust. Now, I am no expert, but this does a great job. Not only for Molly , but many of my tools and machines have some rust, it has done a fantastic job of removing it by soaking. It is also biodegradable and safe. The First bottle did a fantastic job, but turned black before the machine was totally unrusted. 

Did it get all the rust, No. Since the machine was so bad, I am not blaming the product. Once the product turns black, It is pretty much exhausted.  It turned black pretty quickly, I let it soak for about 30 hours. I could not figure out a way to completely submerge the machine. It I do another one, I will get two bottles or 2 gallons , It will make it a lot easier. 

My plan was to save for another bottle, and do it all again, It has been two weeks since I washed Molly off and let her sit while the weather did its thing. You need it to be at least 70 degrees for the stuff to work properly.  

I bought the other bottle, but when I looked at the machine again, I realized it may not need another, and I oiled her up like she was a 2 dollar whole. Then I gave her a good soak in Liquid Wrench, and put the wheel on. Needless  to say, she moves 1/16th of an inch, except for the needle bar. That does not move at all.  

I am at the point where I have tried everything to get her to move. She is still frozen .  I want to say I have used force, as my patience wore thin, I did result to violence and used a hammer, not just a tack hammer either. I am not proud of this.   No avail. No difference. All the parts , when turning the handwheel move together about a quarter of a quarter of an inch, except for the blasted needle bar. That is stationary and stuck. Not with old goo, I am afraid, but with rust.  I will try to gently be patient and use my oil and liquid wrench for a few more days. by the weekend, if nothing is happening, I am going back to the evaporust and let her soak in it , especially the needle bar and front gearing. 

As of today, she is back soaking in the evaporust, concentrating on the needle bar and the parts that surround it. I am pretty determined. Of course, once I get her moving, I will need to sand down the smash I made on the top of the needle bar from the hammer. Once I soak the front end, I may put her bed back in and maybe the back end too, just to be sure I got everything.

Elgin S-1145 Sewing Machine National Sewing Machine Company

I have been trying hard to find out just what company Elgin really is. Is it White Sewing Machine Company ? A Singer Clone?  Morse? Janome?

Which ever company this machine is from, I can say they did an excellent job of putting it together. Unfortunately, the owners of this machine , or maybe the second owners of this machine did not have much respect for it, and my machine has a lot of rust, chipped paint and hard years.  I have spent the last 2 day working on it, cleaning and polishing and trying to match the paint for touch ups. I did have to replace some pieces of the bobbin case. There is just to much rust inside to make these worthy of the machine it belongs in. I had some pieces from another machine and they match, so I changed them out.

From looking at the color scheme of the machine, I think it is from the 1960's, Elgin was made by National Sewing Machine Company. But, According to the articles I saw, National was bought out by Janome in 1960.  Leaving me still up in the air about this machine. Is it an older model Janome? If so, I could date it at 1960.

One thing I do know is that with the machine cleaned up and serviced (It still could use a new belt, but the old one looks okay for now) It runs really well. Strong, also. Another Elgin I saw had a 1.5 amp motor, from what I understand is unheard of. I cannot see the ampage on the motor, and I cannot get it out, as the nuts that hold it in are on too tight for me to budge. I was surprised at the speed and power the machine put out.

It sews excellent. It has straight and zig zag stitches with lots of adjustments. It also has cams that can go with it to give you many more stitches. I do not have these, and I do not really know what they look like at this time.

It is all metal, The only pieces that are plastic are the knobs and the shield cover. For now, All I have are the pics of the machine before clean up. I have not gotten the machine touched up with the right color paint yet, so the end pics will have to wait.

The stitches are wonderful,I think the tension is slightly off, but other than that, they are beautiful.

Here is the set of pics I took when I brought the machine home. Stay tuned for the pics of the machine after being cleaned,serviced and touched up.

This is the image of the top hood and the hood turned over

These are the pictures of the machine now that it is finished. I do now realize I am no artist when it comes to touching up these things, but I know that the paint that I have put on it will help keep it from rusting and looking beat down. 

I think this is a high shank machine, but I will need to measure. The tension is slightly off, although I was able to sew some beautiful stitches with it. It purrs like a kitten, when it gets to the long zig zags , that is the only time I see it have any trouble with the tension. Strong, nice machine. Easy to use, easy to thread, Bobbin winder works perfectly.

 These are what will come with it when I sell this one. I think I am going to add some extras , and a CD of the closest manual I can find.  Maybe put new needles and thread in also.

 The pedal works great. The screw had come lose inside  and I tightened it. Now it is wonderful.

 The sticker on the neck is now gone. It took some work, but I finally got it off. First tried Goo Gone, but finally had to go with goof off.

 Everything works great, including reverse.

 You can still see the scratches in the original finish, the touch up paint was not great , but it will protect it from further problems.

 Kind of ugly on the inside. Those are just marks from the environment it was in, and does not affect the way the machine operates. The door is closed almost all the time. This is where the cams would sit.

Here is the inside of the bobbin case. As clean as I can get it without total disassemble.

Bobbin winder did a great job.