Irony

So......remember this?

It's the manual for a sewing machine I don't....er....didn't own.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

 I wrote about this manual and the machine it came with in my previous post. 

Do you believe in fate? Sometimes I think I do. This weekend was one of those times. Saturday I found myself in an antique store helping a student find a reasonably-priced treadle machine (we found her one!) As I scoured the store, I found this:

barn-fresh and uncleaned - irony, coincidence, or fate?

Yep - it's an ACTUAL 128. 

Made May 26th 1925. 

the serial number tells me so: ISMACS serial numbers

My arsenal of cleaning supplies - missing in this pic: Murphy's Oil Soap. I have great luck using Murphy's to clean machines without damaging the decals. After they are clean I polish them with a thin coat of sewing machine oil. This machine was sticking a little bit when I turned the handwheel - a few drops of oil, and she now moves nice and smoothly.

Beautiful bentwood case - the scratches are actually very minor - the flash makes them look worse than they are. No missing veneer

Check out that key - the dealer I bought this from filed down an old house key to fit. I love weird, quirky things like this that individualize a piece. 

And like this - the original owner's name and phone number engraved on the plate covering the shuttle

even came with a second filed-down key. I think I will buy an actual replacement, but these rigged keys just make me smile

The knee controller - no foot controller here to clutter up the floor. Very serious and industrial looking. Was this machine originally on a stand, or were you meant to put her on a table? The knee controller is throwing me. Any ideas?

 And now, the caveat:

The scariest wiring I have ever seen (and that is saying a lot!)

I have no idea if this baby works - the wiring scares the crap out of me! Not only is the insulation shredding, it is brittle and hard, No way am I plugging this in!

the weirdo plug is actually in really good condition. I still don't trust it, but it looks cool!

the weirdo plug plugged into the machine (NOT plugged into the wall). ever see one like this?

but she's soooooo preeeeetty!  here's the front plate all shined up

And here she is - all cleaned up and ready for.......

 Ready for what? Do I re-wire? Do I turn it into a hand-crank? Right now I'm leaning toward hand-crank. It might be cool to have a portable hand-crank machine. The decals on this little lady are beautiful, and she seems to work pretty well. Next step is to thread her up and see if I can get her to stitch by moving the handwheel manually. If she stitches well enough, the next step is to decide what the next step is.

What do you say - stay electric (update the wiring), or go people-powered (turn into a hand crank)? The nice thing is, neither step is exclusive of the other. If I go hand-crank, I can always go back to electric if I decide I want to later.

The very best part? Once I get this baby working I can use it to wind bobbins for my fiddle base since the mechanisms are identical - except this one actually makes contact with the handwheel.

I swear I don't collect sewing machines.

Not on purpose, anyway.

Opinions? Give them to me in the comments below.