Greg's Not So Crinkled 66

What seems like forever ago when it comes to the shop my friend Greg dropped off a couple of machines. One of these was an electric Singer model 66. The finish on that 66 was so bad that it almost appeared as if it had been a crinkle finish. After close inspection I wondered if it wasn't a rebuilt machine that had been repainted to look like a crinkle, but alas neither of these were true.

The condition that had given the machine the strange look was what you might call alligatored shellac - if it was a wooden piece of furniture. The shellac coating on top of the Japaning had crystalized which is what gave the paint such a strange look.

I had made every attempt at the time to clean off the fogged layer using a combination of denatured alcohol and sewing machine oil. It was a combination I had stumbled upon by accident cleaning a filthy model 27 Sphinx. The Sphinx had come out beautifully clean... but the shellac coating on that one had been intact and my cleaning method was a very light touch.

When I tried a little denatured alcohol on Greg's 66... I found that I couldn't get anywhere near the decals for fear of silvering. All I could do was clean off the bad shellac in runs and paths around the decals. This left me with a much better looking 66... but it was still a strange beast. I began to search for a way of making it look nicer that didn't ruin the finish any more.

It was during my Brown Recluse spider-bite recovery period when I wasn't feeling all that intelligent that I searched the internet looking for a solution.  On a forum website called Quilting Board under the subtitle of Vintage sewing machines I found a sticky post on how to refinish your old black machine if the shellac had gone bad. It was a method of what they call re-leveling. The post was written by a subscriber that volunteered his method and experience with machines of a bad finish to perhaps assist someone with their machine.  There are several posts and replies and photos and I found it really helpful and thought I'd give it a go. It would probably be best if I just gave everyone the link:

https://www.quiltingboard.com/vintage-antique-machine-enthusiasts-f22/cleaning-repairing-shellac-clear-coat-vintage-sewing-machine-heads-t193635.html

The information was fascinating and eventually I talked myself into it. If I had to add any single comment to the way he described how to re-level shellac... it would be that perhaps this method should be done in a place that was a little less humid than my garage. When I went about my attempt to re-level it was smack in the heat of July and August in Pittsburgh Pa during a summer that had been one of the wettest on record. There was never any dry air... so my first coating took days to dry.

The other warning that I should give is one that seems to be all over the news as of late. The volunteers over at QB are great. There are many Vintage Sewing Machine people there to help with methods and advice that it's a decent place to get a question answered. However... this comes with a price. The site is a very slick for-profit endeavor with commercial sponsors and therefore all the forums are heavily moderated. From my experience it is not a place to express an opinion; The First Amendment does not exist there. I have personally had a lot of experience with being a forum moderator myself, and I've never experienced anything like what's going on over there.

If you want or need an online forum about VSM's with a huge knowledge base and wonderful people that have a sense of humor... I'd highly recommend The Victorian Sweatshop.  There are people there that write Wiki and ISMAC articles and are just a whole lot of fun. They understand community building, and there is a thread over there that Glenn helped with as well when it comes to re-leveling shellac:

http://www.victoriansweatshop.com/post/hey-skipper-8183319?highlight=shellac&pid=1292881321

Anyways, back to the paint. As people have noted, this is not a method to completely restore your machine. It is an attractive choice when it comes to cleaning up a machine that might not be worth a full restoration. It is a way to make an otherwise ugly finish look a whole lot better - but certainly not new. Here are the photos from my experience with Glenn's re-leveling method.

As far as I'm concerned (hopefully the photos will speak for themselves) this somewhat easy method does a great job making a dull and dreary machine look very nice indeed. I think Greg will be pleased - if he even recognizes the machine because it's not at all the same dull and dingy 66 that he dropped off. =)


-Jim