Restoring a Singer 66 Treadle Head: Research and Disassembly

Welcome back, friends. I believe last time I left you at the game plan for my restoration project, which is to restore the sewing machine head, the legs, then the cabinet. I went in that order so that I can get to sewing on it quicker. Plus, the cabinet is actually in relatively good shape except for a couple chips here and there. I also am not skilled in wood furniture restoration... yet! I'll do my research when I get there. 

Getting the Machine to Move

At this point, I already found and read through all the user and service manuals related to this machine. ISMACS or archive.org are good places to look. I want to make sure this machine does indeed move before I sink in all the time of restoration. Armed with some tools, PB blaster and Tri-flow/sewing machine oil, I took the machine head off and oiled moving parts with Tri-Flow/sewing machine oil. Lucky for me, the machine is moving again after oiling - YAY! Just a friendly caution, be careful of where the chemicals touch... You want to steer clear of the decals. TRUST ME. I made the mistake of getting Tri-flow on the decals and they went from gold to silver. The reason based on my research is that the alcohol content can silver the decals. It's not the end of the world because there are several methods to correcting that. I'll talk about that in the next post. For now, let's focus on the mechanisms.

Organized Disassembly

I carefully took *almost* everything apart so I can clean and inspect the parts. I already know I will need to purchase a bobbin case coverplate and a treadle belt to start. By the way, please don't force anything and be mindful of stripping the screws. Some are easier to find than others. My partner, being the engineer that he is, is convinced that we could just sketch up a CAD of the screw and get it machined. Theoretically, it is a viable solution, but one that requires a specific skill that I definitely don't feel too confident to tackle. 

At this point I haven't taken EVERYTHING apart yet. Only the bobbin mechanism area and the presser and needle mechanism area for cleaning. I am debating if I want to take all rotating shaft and the stitch length selector shaft apart. I really should given how dusty it is... but one half of the machine at a time. 

Organizing the parts with some origami bins and a baking sheet

Decades old lint bunnies.... ew. 

As you disassemble, I highly recommend taking lots of photos and keeping track of all your parts. I organized the parts on a baking sheet using some origami bins (made out of scrap paper) and labeling everything. I won't go into the details of how I took everything apart as there are plenty of resources out there and also very machine dependent. I will, however, share some resources I found super helpful. 

Helpful Resources

Here are some restoration resource in the wild I have found so far: 

Vintage Singer Sewing Machine Blog - Vintage Singer Specific 

Lizzie Lenard - Vintage Sewing Machine guru, includes machines that have been taken apart.

My Sewing Machine Obsession - FULL of information about Vintage Singer, Kenmore and more! 

AndyTube - YouTube Videos of Singer Sewing Machine Repair, for visual learners :) 

Old Singer Sewing Machine Blog - I love this blog, it's full of interesting tidbits of information such as cabinet models and spool pins

Victorian Sweatshop - Forum full of VSM collectors and sewists. Lots of great knowledge and you can ask just about anything regarding VSM restoration

Chatterbox Quilts - Surprisingly, they have a section on choosing and buying VSM. 

The Elusive Bobbin - I found really thorough posts specifically about Singer 66 restoration 

That's all for now

I'm still working on cleaning and polishing the parts, but other house projects are heavily requiring my attention. The garden is in full bloom and my assistance is required with the house re-siding project. Hopefully, I'll have an update after I put everything back and re-timed my machine. Please look forward to how to touch up and polish the sewing machine head next!