Vintage Singer's - Surprise From My Son

My son surprised me with two vintage Singer sewing machines he had in storage - how did I not know about that?

Here is the oldest one - an 1895 King Tut edition. I think also called the Spinx. It is badly rusted on the body and the head is frozen up. But, looks like all the parts are in tact. Has the long shuttle bobbin.

1895 King Tut Spinx Edition

And here is the 1914 Singer Red Eye. Her body is in better shape, but she is missing the bobbin cover plate. She is also rusted and the head is frozen up. I have done some research on-line about restoring old vintage sewing machines. So, I decided to start on Red Eye since parts are readily available for this model. It was a very common sewing machine back in the day. Here she is before I started:

1914 Red Eye

The first thing I did was remove the bobbin winder from the machine. Scary. The picture on the left with light aqua background is the bobbin winder before I cleaned it up. Nothing moves on it. Frozen solid with rust.

I used WD40 to loosen all the screws and free up all the frozen pieces. Then I was able to take it apart to clean all the separate pieces.

The picture on the right with the pink background is after I cleaned it up and got it back together. I was so excited. The wheels now spin and all the pieces with springs now move freely. I just need to order a new rubber piece for the bobbin winder wheel and she'll be ready to wind bobbins. Already have the rubber piece and bobbins on order!

I cleaned it up with WD40 to loosen the rust and some steel wool and a lot of elbow grease. I had to make sure not to get WD40 on the painted area with decals as it will harm them. I took it all apart to clean each piece. I used sewing machine oil to clean the black painted piece then I rubbed it with some Turtle Car Wax to shine her up the best I could. I used a polishing compound on the metal pieces. They are stained from being rusty for so long, but all in all I am pretty happy how she looks now. Pretty good for being 100 years old and no telling how long she lived outside in the weather. And, she can move once again!