My new machine

Well, it's far, far from "new" actually! My beloved boyfriend Ed bought me a gorgeous Singer 201 sewing machine made in 1938! Amazingly, he got it at Goodwill for a princely sum of $50. To those on a budget you know that is a splurge, but in this instance, well worth the money! It came with the table and works off of a knee controller. It worked when we tested it in the store, but upon bringing it home we noticed that the wiring is completely shot. Once we started fiddling with it (and after consulting a vintage Singer sewing group I've been in since I got the Stylist), we've decided to re-wire the motor and controller. The wires to the light and switch seem to be ok for now, so rather than make more work for us, we're leaving it alone, unless those start to disinegrate too. The other wires just crumble to the touch.

We're going to do some before and after pics of the parts. The metal plates on the front and the back (not pictured) were just filthy!

Here is what the cord that goes from the machine to the controller looked like. You can also see the motor wires above that (they look like a join in the machine). We've already bought some replacement cord/wire. The friendly sale guy at Ace Hardware told us we might want something a little more heavy duty than simple lamp wire, so we got a 6 ft power cord we're going to use instead. Apparently it can stand a higher temp if this machine runs hot. We are going to try and find a service manual, in addition to the regular manual, so we will kind of know what we're doing. There seems to be a seller on ebay that has a copy of a service manual that I'm thinking about getting.

We sure got ourselves into something with this baby! But, it will be a fun project we both can work on, and not too much of an investment. Since it doesn't seem to need any other replacements that I can tell, and the finish of it is in great condition, I think that Ed got me a pretty sweet gift! Though, I think he now has a "thing" for these older machines. He seems to spot them faster than I can.

I'll keep posted about the progress, for those that are looking for the same information. I'll try and document what we do as well. I've searched high and low for instructions on how to rewire this thing, and haven't found anything. A very helpful member of the Singer group I'm on has given me a wealth of information though. So, with trial and error and hopefully a serivce manual, we'll get this thing done!