1925 Singer model 66 treadle gets a face lift

My wife heard me wishing "Out Loud" for a sand blasting cabinet back in early December. Being the super trooper that she is, Christmas Day included a totally unexpected large box, hiding in the guest bedroom with no name on it. I hope it was for me because I immediately claimed it as my own and no one said any different. Over the next several weeks I learned about "Sand Blasting" and just how big a mess you can make. After completely covering the entire garage with a fine, white dust, I have decided that this will be my last Sand Blasting project until it warms up in the spring. Cabinet or not, It should be done out side. Here is what the
cabinet looks like.

Just pour in some special sand, hook it up to your air compressor and commence to making a huge mess. I did have a project in mind. It included a 1925 Singer treadle machine which had a horrible finish. I had bought it for parts and really didn't have anything to lose if I destroyed it. I couldn't take the machine totally apart so I had some prep work to do before it went into the "Blast Cabinet".

I still think that Duct Tape is one of the greatest inventions ever. The sand just bounced right off of it. It worked out well. Below is the naked Singer after 4-1 hour treatments in the Blast Cab.

Now I have to get this primed as fast as I can to protect it from rusting in the 90%, Indiana  humidity. I used standard, spray can paint. A bare metal primer, an automotive gloss, and a clear enamel. Below is several coats of primer and a half dozen coats of the gloss. You may be wondering why I chose WHITE for the Face Lift/restoration project...........

The decals that I am able to produce with my home computer and printer require a white background. It will not work on Black.

In between all the paint sessions, I was looking for ideas for borders and graphics. I also had to match the standard Singer fonts (lettering). I ended up spending quite a bit of money downloading high resolution graphics that I could plug into my Corel Draw program I used for making the "water slide" decals. You can buy ink jet decal paper and it does work if you have the patience. It does not always want to cooperate.

I finally got my decals on but it was a struggle. I had to use some lacquer thinner very carefully to get them to stick. Now for the clear coat. I had a good 8 coats of clear and then I had to "wet sand" the decals with 1200 grit sand paper to get rid of the hump due to the thickness of the decal itself. Then another 6 coats of clear coat, 24 hours of dry time and a day of re-assembly....

 I spent another day just making every thing look right and adjusting it so it sews a Perfect Stitch!



The first sew test.