Servicing a 1930s Singer Hand Crank

21:28 Renée 5 Comments

I haven't been in the mood for sewing at all for the past few weeks. I've made some attempts, feeling like I should be doing something, but fortunately I was wise enough to stop myself before I screwed anything up. Sewing when you're not in the mood is never a good idea. I learned that very quickly in my first year of sewing.

Instead I have found two other projects to keep me busy: One is to find a good vintage sewing machine to replace Sy as my main sewing machine (or multiple machines that will compliment each other). The other is to clean and tune up an old Singer hand crank.



This beauty came to me (well, us, actually) when my boyfriends grandmother passed away about a year and a half ago. It originally belonged to his great-grandmother. We had no idea how old it was but thanks to the Singer database we discovered it was manufactured in May 1930 in the UK. There was no model number listed anywhere but thanks to the serial number I was able to identify her as a Singer 26K. Apparently there were only 5000 26K's ever made.



The machine was very dirty and clearly hadn't been used for years. The stitch tensions was completely off as well. At first I considered having the machine serviced by a dealer but when I looked for a video on how to thread the machine I found this great video on YouTube on how to clean an old machine like this. So I felt confident enough to give it a go myself. It seemed like a fun project to take up.



I forgot to take pictures before I started cleaning so these where taken when I already gave her a good dusting off and polished a few bits. But she's far from ready! I'll show you the result when I'm finished!

5 comments:

  1. Hmm, that reminds me: Both my grandmothers gave me their old sewing machines (one hand-crank and one with a motor which was added on later. The latter one was still in occasional use until about a year before I got it, but I've never trusted the wiring) but I've only ever used them for decoration.
    Do you plan on sewing with this machine?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes I do plan on sewing with this machine, I will probably add a motor to it (you can get new ones cheap on ebay), or maybe a treadle some day.

      Delete
  2. Hi, I'll be taking a look at this video. Bizarrely only last week I dug out my old hand crank Singer that is just like yours. It was a Christmas present from my parents when I was nine - lots of years ago ;-) I was so happy to receive it and used it all the time. For the past twenty years or so I've used my electric one but I can't ever get rid of my old Singer! It works every time and I've never serviced it. Maybe it's time I should? So, thank you for the info.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Servicing is always a good idea! I'm glad my post was useful :)

      Delete
  3. What a lovely old Singer. It's so nice to have a project like that to care of it. The video is excellent! It will be handy with my old Singer too. Thank you :-)

    Beta x

    ReplyDelete

Please don't hesitate to leave a comment or ask any questions - they are very much appreciated!