Treadle Sewing Machine Refinish

Client brought me an extremely worn Singer treadle sewing machine that she wanted brought back to life if I could. We talked about the challenges with the piece (deep scratches, water damage, initials carved in the top with a heart, paint splashed on the legs and more) she understood the chances of it not being perfect but was comfortable with me "doing the best I could". Here are the pictures when I got it to the shop.

Dissembling the piece went very smooth...Singer mass produced these machines over many years and they did a fantastic job of streamlining the build. Here we have all the pieces laid out ready for repair and refinish.

I started on the metal legs, treadle mechanism and wheel. Luckily there was no rust but I needed to remove all the original brown flaking paint and some "added"splattered black paint so its shiny new black enamel could do its job. As an added feature I decided to highlight the metal "Singer" name on the actual treadle, leg brace, and the belt wheel in the original singer gold enamel.  Here is a before and after on just the Metal work.

During reassembly you need to be sure that you grease all the fittings and ensure that they are torqued so to spin freely before locking them in place.

On to the woodwork now. The majority of the pieces were skinned with veneer so taking ones time with sanding out the imperfections was important for a good final product. A few spots of the veneer had actually begun to peal away from the base wood so I needed to reglue them and clamp till dry. It was apparent that the original finish Singer required of their machine cabinets could be expanded to cover all faces and interior spaces...some of those nooks and crannies are a pain to prep but I know it will be worth it later. Here are the pieces after all repairs and prep were done.

I re-stained all the pieces attempting to retain the original look of the cabinet...It is fairly difficult to perfectly match the past finish colors but with a bit of mixing and tinting you can get very close. I have seen some woodworkers out there that are masters of this process and I hold their work in high esteem...I have not reached that point in my learning as of yet. Once truly dried I fully coated all  pieces (even drawer and cabinet insides with polycrylic for a enviro-friendly final finish.

After getting the cabinet back together I noticed that the bobbin rewinding wheel and the leather belt that runs the machine were so dry rotted that they would have to be replaced. Luckily, a top notch go to for vintage machine parts is right here in Loveland Colorado. A quick call to Steve's Sewing Machine Repair and I had my new parts (A+ for Steve and crew). A quick clean out of the actual sewing machine and a reoil of all the internals and she was working amazingly well and looked great.

Thanks for stopping by and I'll try to get my next project up a bit quicker for ya. Have a great day.

Donald Duck Bookcase/Displaycase

I just finished a commission that I wanted to share with you all. I was was able to create a really fun Donald Duck themed display/book case for a very reasonable final cost. In order to keep the costs as low as possible (required by the client) I started searching Craigslist for a inexpensive bookcase. Within a week I found a gal that had a nicer flat pack bookcase she had tried refinishing that was for free. Here is what I brought back to the shop.

Unfortunately, there had been little prep done before it piece was spray painted purple and it was coming off everywhere. Thankfully, the piece was solid and should be easily lend itself to a bit of fun. Time to start sanding off the purple and get a good starting point for the piece. 

Finally after getting off all the purple and getting a good surface for the primer to grab onto I gave it a few coats of a basic white primer.

Now that In had a nice clean canvas to work with, it was apparent that the decorative feet needed a dressier top to go along with it. With a quick trip down to the local hardware store I was able to pick up some rosettes and trim that I was hoping would do the trick.

With some slight modifications I was able to get everything dressed up and looking a bit more "respectable". one more coat of primer to get everything on the same page and we should be ready to get to introducing the "Donald Duck Design" to the piece.

I had seen many pieces in the past that had been reproduced with a cartoon/comic theme but I wanted to do something a bit different. In my mind I pictured the cases itself as Donald with a fun backing to the interior of the piece. When you think of Donald Duck (at least when I do) you think of the sailor suit and hat. I wanted to create an actual hat for the bookcase/Duck to wear.

I began with a small wood base  with cardboard support that I could apply spray foam to  which would be light enough to not be a tipping issue for the final bookcase and also easy to "sculpt" into a realistic shape. I choose to have "Donald" wear the hat cocked to one side so the hat was easier to see and I thought it would give the final piece a bit of Donald's attitude.

At this point I got a bit remiss in my picture taking...please forgive me. I applied bondo (yes, automotive body filler) to the hat to create a sand-able final layer that would easily take paint. I tossed out the original cardboard like backing to the bookcase and replaced it with a much stronger paneling. To the paneling I created a collage of reproduced comic and story book pages for the interior back. This turned out extremely well but needed a bit of lighting to be seen as well as I wanted. I decided on a rope light for cost savings and ease of future care. Finally I painted the piece with the appropriate colors and attached the hat.

Here is the final piece. Hope you like it, client was amazed at what I was able to do and I hope to have a picture in the future of the case filled with her collection of Donald Duck memorabilia. Again, sorry for dropping the ball on the second half of the builds pictures but I kinda got to rolling and was having a bit of fun creating.

Stay tuned for more