1957 201K23 Electric - Cleaning Part 3

I've resolved my table problem for this machine! I'm sorry to say that I do not have any miracle solution for getting bad odours out of wood - I had to buy a new table.

I had been watching the local classifieds for several weeks and amongst a half dozen vintage machines I wanted to buy, I'd seen a Singer table advertised. It was expensive at $110. Then, I saw the ad again yesterday and the price had been lowered to $60, still pricey, but better. It was a two hour drive to collect the table, but I made a nice day of it with my 6-year-old, we had lunch and then went to the beach.

The table is clean, sound, and has no smell. It does have two problems:
  1. It has been sprayed it with varnish, quite thickly, on top and inside. I'll be using my trusty Citrus Strip to take that off in the near future.
  2. The arm which holds the tabletop when lowered, is missing. It was missing on both tables, so maybe it was weak part? The original table did have a spring still inside it, which I oiled and transferred to the new table. I'll have to devise a new solution to support the top. I wish I knew what the original looked like, but although I can find plenty of photos of those tables online, none show the support arm very closely.
The new table had no hardware on it for the machine head, so luckily I was able to use the hinges from the original table. As the original table had replacement screws for those hinges which were far too small, I took my chances and visited two local fastener stores, and got a very good match for a original Singer screw! I was so relieved. It is about 1mm longer, and thus sits out of the countersink hole by that much, but it doesn't interfere with the lid closing. It has just occurred to me that it might after I remove the thick varnish) We'll see.

My 201K23 looks great in it's new table!


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