Crazy week is crazy!

Hooray!

This has been a crazy week! I got the AQS's Blog of the Week, I got Faith-Ann back from my awesome repair guy Tom from The Treasure Cellar, I finished rewiring a 201-2 I picked up last week, and other fun stuff.

Meet Gideon!

Yes, I have another sewing machine! His name is Gideon. I know you're supposed to go with girl names, but he's just such a beast I can't imagine a girl's name that wouldn't be too ugly and cumbersome for his black frame.

He needs some lovin'.

He's rusting in a couple spots, and I spent a lot of time this weekend oiling and greasing and cleaning and oiling and greasing again in order to get him in working order. As a safety precaution, I went and rewired his motor, learned to solder, and managed to put everything back together without incident.

This is from before I did the serious cleaning;
all that rust is pretty much gone now.

There was a little poof of smoke when I started the motor for the first time, but I think that was mostly just the carbon dust that got all kicked up. No zaps, the motor is perfectly cool to the touch, and it only took a tiny bit of fiddling to get the tension correct.

Paint chipping and rusting a bit. :(

I wanted to find a 201-2 that would need some love, some work, and some elbow grease. At this point, now that his motor is all good and he works beautifully, I'm going to start prepping him to strip down all the paint and repaint him. I can't decide whether I'm going to stay with black, or go for something really crazy, but I need to get paint stripper, replacement decals, and the paint, so this won't happen for a little while. At the very least he sews, so I can quilt with him and continue to tinker in the meanwhile.

Yeah, gonna need to sand that down!

So while Gideon got all the attention from me this weekend, Faith-Ann was getting some love from Tom! I discovered him through an ad I placed looking for a 201-2, and he has been an absolute godsend. He buys, repairs, and resells all sorts of vintage machines, and he took one look at Faith-Ann and pointed out about a dozen things that needed tweaking, all of which he took the time to explain and show in detail so I'd understand what was going on. He's a wonderful gentleman, and frankly I refuse to let anyone else touch my machines from this point on. Here's a video he did detailing the change when he rebuilds the motors, featuring Faith-Ann!

Having spent so much time with Faith-Ann, I can absolutely confirm that the before was her top speed. I haven't unpacked her yet because, to be honest, I'm a little intimidated! She's going to be like a brand new machine, I'm so excited.

Next post I'll have some more sewing up, I promise, and maybe even a video comparing Faith-Ann and Gideon. Expect more updates on Gideon as I continue to restore him to his former glory!