They Don't Make 'em Like They Used To - Part 2

I have been looking on eBay for another vintage sewing machine to fix up for about a month. I thought I wanted a 185k, they are small but powerful and I like the fact they aren't black. The UK ones are tan.

I looked at a few and nearly bought one nearby for £9.95 but it had no lead and no way of testing it unless I paid nearly £30 for a new lead. Then I stumbled upon this beauty;

It's a Singer 306K in a model 40 Queen Anne, walnut burr cabinet.

I saw the auction about an hour before it ended, it was at £20 and I waited for as long as I dared before bidding. I won it for £37.78 but paid £40 when we collected it.

Because of the age the sellers didn't give me the power lead, incase it wasn't safe electrically, they hadn't mentioned this in the listing but I still think it was a bargain. I managed to get a power lead on eBay for £14 but it meant I had to wait another week to try it out.

I only needed a power lead, not a foot pedal, because the machine is knee operated and the controller is held on a bracket in the cabinet. The lead arrived yesterday and I tested it out, it ran very smoothly and made a nice stitch but after about 10 minutes it suddenly started running on its own and I had to unplug it.

I did some research and discovered the problem was the capacitor in the control pad in the cabinet. Apparently, they used to fit capacitors in the foot pedals to prevent the machines from causing interference with TV signals but they aren't necessary now. I know, I found it hard to believe, too. Anyway, when they get old they can cause power surges which make the machine run when you don't want them to.

So, I removed the control pad from its bracket inside the cabinet, unscrewed the 4 screws that hold the cover on and looked for something that wouldn't look out of place in the Delorian.

I unscrewed 2 screws, removed the wires, rescrewed the screws and took out the 2 "battery" looking things. Then I put everything else back together and tried it again. It works perfectly! 

The 306K has 6 pattern cam discs that give different stitches like zigzag, satin stitch, blind hem, arrow stitch, domino stitch and waves. You change them by turning the large silver knob on the front.

You adjust the needle position and stitch width on the black dial and the stitch length is the lever below, which is also your reverse stitch lever. 

I did think cams would be fiddly and complicated but they are easy to use and work well. 

The bobbin for the 306K is vertical and is accessed by lifting the machine, which isn't as awkward as I was expecting. The serial number is located near the bobbin;

The 306K was made between 1954 and 1961 and mine was one of the first ones made in 1954. It was top of the range in its day and so was the cabinet. It would have cost a LOT of money in 1954.

 

I paid;

Machine cost - £40.00

Power lead - £14.00

Repairs (parts & labour) - £0.00

Total = £54.00, bargain! 

They Don't Make 'em Like They Used To - Part One

5 years ago I bought a 1972 Singer 413, in a table, for £1.00. I got it on eBay and it was only 2 streets away. It didn't stitch at all, which suited me perfectly because what I really wanted was a challenge. 

I certainly got one. I took off the top cover and found that one of the gears was totally perished.

That little brown thing is supposed to bigger and fluted but it had crumble to almost bare metal. A quick search online and £9.50 later and I had a lovely new one. Thank goodness Singer parts are relatively easy to get. 

Fitting the new one was a challenge, 2 hands aren't really enough to hold onto small parts and then fit them into a tight space, whilst holding other parts of the machine in place. I had to use pliers, a screw drive and haemostats just to reach into the machine. 

After much dropping and a bit of bad language I fitted the gear, put everything back in place and then had to adjust the timing. It took about 2 days of fiddling. The Internet was a massive help with this and I now have a fully working machine, with table for £10.50.

My Craft Room

We bought our house in 2006, it has 3 bedrooms (there are 6 of us), 1 reception room, kitchen, bathroom, conservatory and built in garage. I didn't have a sewing space for a long time, so I used the dining table and packed away every evening.

I do a lot of other crafts besides sewing. I spin, knit, dye, crochet, make rugs, weave and my main other hobby (& part time business) is making jewellery.

I also ran an online beads store for 5 years. I have a LOT of craft stuff.

In January 2010, after a very rough year nursing our 3 year old daughter through heart surgery, my husband suggested that we turn the garage into a craft room for me. We aren't great at DIY, so we relied heavily on Youtube videos on plasterboarding and building partitions, etc.

Before...

We worked solidly for a week in the freezing cold. First we had to clear the garage, sorting out what was going in the shed and what was going into the skip. Then we had to board the walls, build a partition with a door frame, level the floor, add membrane & floor boards, paint with special paint & lay carpet. We fitted a door into the new partition so that we had an 8' x 12' space for the craft room and a 8' x 5' space for storage (it is now a mini gym). We painted the walls and bought and built new furniture from Ikea. I had my own space to design and fit to my purposes.

 Building the partition...

 

Taking shape...

This is my sewing desk, with 2 Alex drawer units and desk top from Ikea. That is the tidiest it has ever been. That is my old Brother sewing machine, it didn't like stitching straight lines.

We made good progress but, while building the room we were called back into Southampton Hospital for our daughter to have another heart operation so things were put on hold for a while.

 

After we came home we added more furniture, old and new, including an Expedit 25 cube unit and desk and my 1960's Singer with table that I got for £1 and repaired. My brilliantly clever brother in law visited from America in March 2010 and fitted an extra strip light above the sewing table and some extra plug sockets, which have been extremely useful.

 

I also treated myself MASSIVELY to a new sewing machine. I got a brand new Pfaff Expression 3.0. After the cost of the new craft room and new furniture (about £900 in total) I had to take advantage of the 12 months 0% finance on offer. I wanted a sturdy machine that was well built and solid and I got it. Nearly 5 years later and she has never let me down. I LOVE HER.

 

My husband paints Warhammer figures so we now share the craft room and the kids use it occasionally too. Unfortunately I didn't take more pictures of the room when it was tidy and now it is rather full and messy and I am a little ashamed of how untidy it is. But, it was totally worth doing. We now have a usable room, somewhere I can start something and leave it for a week without it getting moved around and lost. I know where everything is (just about) and it helps me keep a bit more organised.

 

My daughter, Carrie (8), using her own sewing machine to make her first quilt...

As you can see, she has recovered well from her heart surgeries.