Wednesday, February 02, 2011

Singer 99 - knee powered!

It's a good thing I went to feed the chickens before attempting to remove the red felt from near the bobbin. Thank you everyone for your help.

Things I learnt today: This is a Singer 99K-13, made in 1924 in Scotland. They made 50 thousand of these exact machines in one run. I'm just baffled by how many machines they made in that factory that year.

Considering how long these machines last (a hundred years is just a teenager for these old work horses) and how many they made, no wonder they are a dime a dozen. But if I can get this thing working, then I'll have a totally awesome portable sewing machine to show off to my friends. I'll just have to invent some sort of drool guard for it.

What else did I learn?

Oh yes, I discovered why sewing machine manuals always go on and on about not storing the machine without cleaning out the lint. Apparently lint left in the machine gathers moisture (especially when machine is stored in out building) which can cause rust and in my case, mould! I hate mould. Mould makes breathing difficult.

So, a person with mould allergies would be well advised not to try to clean an old anything in their house! Ug Spores!

But I did get the gears moving in the sewing machine. It's just stiff as anything. So I think, more cleaning followed by lots of oil.

2 comments:

Josiane said...

Knee powered! I love that! Most of the (very little) sewing I've done in my life was done on a knee powered sewing machine: my grandma's lovely Pfaff (circa 1951, a child compared to yours!). Grandma has always said she could sew for hours on a knee powered machine, but her leg got tired extremely fast on machines operated with a foot pedal thingy (the electric ones, not like your lovely treadle-powered Singer). So, of course, her bias in favor of knee powered machines has rubbed off on me! :)

Unknown said...

I have one of these that I am JUST starting to restore. It is a 1924 99 and that is all I know, it looks JUST like yours. I was wondering why so many of these that I see have the foot pedal and not knee powered. Any tips on HOW would be a tremendous help as I have never done this. I don't even know what to clean the beautiful outside of this machine with. The internals should be easier to clean, having worked in a machine shop some. I plan on using it, not selling it but I still would love to bring it back to all it's glory.
Thanks

Yours is a VERY beautiful example.