Wheeler & Wilson No. 9, NC TOGA

This Wheeler & Wilson No. 9 has been waiting patiently for me to restore it.  And it has the potential to be a really dandy machine.  Just haven't gotten to it, and in the meantime more and more machines come to live here.  So I am going to offer this for sale at the NC TOGA.  See end of post for the fine print.

This machine, cabinet, and irons have NOT had the full 20 to 50 hours of spa treatment.  I did make sure that all was up and running well and stitching perfectly.  So maybe 5 to 10 hours, including test stitching.

Here's what has been done to the machine

I vacuumed off the spider webs and cat hair (not much but mysteriously appearing both on the top AND on the underneath side of the machine.  I'm picturing the machine tipped back for oiling and up jumps the cat to rub against it.  How else would cat hair get under there?  Leave your theories below in the comments.)

Oiled the machine and the treadle irons and installed a clear plastic belt.  With Singer irons I figure that if you get them turning and  they continue for 10 rotations after you take your foot off the pedal, they are turning freely enough.  These continued for 15 rotations.  Nice.

Removed the needle and polished it with 1000 grit sandpaper.  Did you know you can do this?  In this case it took off some light rust.  It will also remove burrs.  It will also take the modern coating off of a modern needle, but it is a handy thing to know if you have vintage and hard-to-find needles.

Sandpaper is even a quick fix for the modern needles if you get a burr and don't have a replacement handy.  And it is after midnight and you are finishing up your kid's costume, due tomorrow.   Or something like that.

Put a rubber band around the treadle belt groove in the hand wheel, a standard move for me.  Treadle belts are supposed to be loose-ish, just barely tight enough so that they don't slip.  The rubber band provides some nice traction.  They don't last forever but it is really easy to replace them.

Printed out the manual (Google it, the Needlebar site has it).  Threaded it up and started tinkering until I got a good stitch.  Adjusted both upper and bobbin tensions, and the presser foot pressure, and all three were way off.  I find that presser foot pressure is an easy thing to overlook.  In this case it was contributing to puckering (as was the too-tight upper tension).  I loosened up the presser foot pressure until a strong tug WOULD pull the fabric out from under the lowered presser foot.

Here's what has not been done to the machine

Lots and lots of cleaning have NOT happened. 

The next owner can decide how much (if any) cleaning to do on the decals.  They are really nice and I would hate to mess them up. Sometimes we have to know when NOT to restore a machine.  This may be one of those cases.

There is a strip of veneer missing from one side--and missing pieces are in one of the drawers. Not positive they are all there. Once this is fixed a quick session with Howards Restor-A-Finish would be great.  But I have not done that.

The once-lovely metal accessory box has some missing paint chips and a few dings.  And a magnificent collections of accessories.  I have made no attempt to sort them out, identify or test them.  Note the five extra bobbins (and one in the machine)

So, if you are looking for a restoration project where YOU KNOW IN ADVANCE THAT THE MACHINE WORKS and you will be at the NC TOGA, this could be the machine for you.  Not to mention that this is a legendary model, but you probably already know that.

Now for the not-so-fine print.

This will ONLY be for sale at the NC TOGA or at my home in North Carolina.  I will not ship under any conditions, so don't ask.  (Every year someone reads this and then pleads for an exception.)

I will only bring it if someone is seriously interested in buying it.  Seriously interested means that you really think that you WILL buy it if it lives up to the description.  You are NOT making a commitment in advance.  I WANT you to see it and try it out first.  If you change your mind there will be NO hard feelings.  This has been my policy every year and it works well.  It saves me from hauling heavy stuff to the TOGA and then back home again.

The asking price will be listed on the NC TOGA Yahoo group page but not here.  There are a lot of really good reasons for doing it this way.

I always offer a 30 day guarantee but you would be responsible for getting the machine back to me within that time frame.  And not by shipping it!   So the guarantee policy is really for my local CraigsList sales but if you can get it back to me I would certainly honor it.

see you in Monroe!