Case Restoration

I've written a few posts about my new addiction to Singer Featherweight sewing machines. My first was an eBay acquisition, and the second was found locally.

When I picked up the local machine I realized that the bottom of the case was split and would need to be repaired. I began working on the case bit by bit.

You can see the split on the bottom of the case on the left side of the picture. The split went all the way across the bottom.  As I have acquired more machines (I think that might be another post in the future.) I have discovered that many cases need restoration as they have suffered water damage sitting in damp basements. Mr. Dreamy even bought a machine where the bottom and the lower edges of the case were missing and eaten away by carpenter ants??? termites???)

In order to restore the case, the first task was to get the hinges and the other hardware off of the case. They are put on with split rivets. (They remind me of the old brass paper fasteners I used in elementary school.) Those on the hinges were larger and had a heavier gauge wire than those on the latches. 

Looking online I learned the you can use a small screwdriver to wedge under the ends of the rivet on the inside of the case to bend them up. Once both ends are bent up, you can hammer it out a bit, or pry the hinge or latch off. Hah! That didn't work so well. After gouging my hand a few times I pulled out the Dremel and used a burr to grind away at the "legs" of the hinge, and then used an awl and hammered the rivet out.  This was probably the toughest part of taking the case apart! (You can see the remains of a few split rivets near the Dremel head.)

The next step was to remove the vinyl covering.This was easy, as Mr. Dreamy divulged the secret. The cover is glued on with animal hide glue. (Post about hide glue is here.) This glue is water soluble and readily softens with warm water. I had a large roasting pan that I placed on the stove. I heated the watered and dipped the parts of the case, one side at a time, into the water for a few moments, then peeled a bit of the covering off. Dunk, peel, repeat.

The residual glue was easily removed with a warm, wet towel and a plastic scraper. The case is made from a soft wood and has beautiful tongue and groove construction.  I discovered I had dented the wood in trying to clamp it as glue was drying where I added adhesive at the corners. Next time I clamped it, I used small wood blocks to avoid this happening again. I used a wood filler to patch up dents, those I made as well as others, and dings.

This case was used for a 1938 vintage machine. The case had a leather handle, which was in poor shape, and in addition to prongs that go through the case to hold the handle on, it also had leather tabs that are sewn through the vinyl and then through the case. I used a razor blade to cut the threads, straightened the prongs holding the handle and hammered it out, and then used needle-nosed pliers to pull the threads out of the case. The handle was in poor shape and would not be safe to use in the restored case. I had a Bakelite handle from another case that I used. But new handles are available through the Internet. 

I purchased some 3/8" plywood and cut it to size to replace the bottom of the case. I used hide glue to secure the bottom to the case, and sanded the corners and the edges to round them similar to the original. 

The next step was to cover the box with Tolex. Tolex is a vinyl fabric that has been used since the 50's to cover books, amplifiers, and... Featherweight cases! There are a number of suppliers of Tolex 

on the Internet. 

I chose a lightweight vinyl and it went on quite easily. I stuck with the traditional black, but in hindsight wish I had picked something wild and crazy!,. I mixed up some hide glue and water in a large can, and kept it warm in a rice cooker/slow cooker. Using an old paint brush, I applied glue to the outside of the case, wetting the case first so it wouldn't suck all of the moisture out of the glue, and then applied the Tolex cover, one side at a time. I taped the seam where the Tolex lapped near a back corner, but later had to reglue the vinyl on vinyl area using a modern craft glue. I tucked the vinyl around the edges at the top, and put it top down on the table to work on the bottom. 

After 'wrapping' the case in Tolex I reattached the hardware. I could not find split rivets in the correct size, so settled for small black screws and nuts.

I found a jazzy cotton/silk blend of fabric at an upholstery fabric shop and glued that on the inside. 

It is far from perfect, but it is now serviceable and looks tidy and clean. I am sure that the I will find the next case I restore to be much easier and proceed much faster!

Hiding

I have been looking high and low for something that I just knew was hanging around. In fact, with my knack for spatial memory,  I was confident that it was on a shelf on the west wall.... somewhere. Or, at least I thought I knew that. With each foray out to the barn, down to the basement, into the garage (and believe me I kept going back to those places over and over again just hoping that it would suddenly pop up on a second, third or fourth visit) my conviction lessened. Mr. Dreamy told me that we had thrown it out two moves ago. I wasn't so sure. But.... not having found it on a west wall anywhere, I gave up. I was ready to order more. It isn't that expensive. I can buy a pound of it online for about $20. It's just the principle of the thing. Dag-nab-it. We have it. Why should I buy more?!

I don't know about you, but I can stand a certain amount of mess around me (OK, my mother would have told you I live happily with a lot of mayhem and disorder surrounding me) and then I can't hack it any more. The garage has gotten to that point. I decided I would tackle the garage, doing a bit of arranging, rearranging, tossing and cleaning every day.

That's when....

Ta... da.....

I found it! 

On the west wall, 

Just as I had envisioned,

Behind some paint cans!

I have been looking for this very bag of Hide Glue. (You'll find out just why I wanted it in a later post... after I've had a chance to use it.)

Hide Glue is ancient. It was used back in ancient Egyptian days, and maybe even by Neanderthals. It is made by boiling connective tissue of animals. It is the collagen that is collected after boiling that forms the glue. In fact, the word collagen comes from the Greek word koala which means "glue".  (Have I impressed you with my knowledge? Well, to be honest I did know some of this but I checked my facts on Wikipedia.) The glue was used in furniture manufacture and most antiques are held together by this glue. When Mr. Dreamy did furniture repair he often used this adhesive (which is why we had it in the first place). The great thing about hide glue is that it is water soluble when warm water is applied (or a longer time if the water is cold). Thus, if you have an old chair, you can use warm water to undo the glue, so to speak. The glue will also crystallize with alcohol. So you can shoot alcohol into the join of a chair, and the glue will "let go". The other great thing about the glue is that when you apply warm water you can get all of it off. You can get back to bare wood. And, if you don't want to do that, hide glue is the only glue, according to my woodworking hubby, that will adhere to itself.

Now that I have found my glue,  my project can move forward. I can't wait to show you the end result!