Help a total ignorant with her vintage singer please (Pics inside)

[artcat81]

Shiny! thank you for the help.

Gotta say I am very confused about the serial number dating it at this point, I have a 16 page pdf of singer serial numbers and it shows a date if January 8, 1910 and made in New Jersey, and another page seemed to show a date of 1913!

Buut thanks to those links yall posted, I definately am the proud owner of a 127- S 

[thisbirdsabsurd]

I am not knowledgeable at all about these things - but  I have a Singer treadle machine circa about 1920.  I guess I kind of thought all of them were treadle in that era??  In any case its  really beautiful - I'll be waiting to hear when you solve the mystery.

[artcat81]

Update! 

So, I spent part of my weekend, with my wonderful engineering minded bestfriend, and he sat down with me, opened it up and in some cases took it apart, we oiled it, and wow, now it really goes!  In his words, it was binding when we first started fiddlign with it, which explains why it was so sluggish when I first fiddled with it.  Now its oiled it rocks and rolls.  Now.. i just have to find a table for it

I get to try threading it tonight, buut so far so good, I have the missing screw now (it was missing the needle clamp screw).

[xiphmont]

Hi, just chiming in with some more information (since you seem to be geeking out about your new machine, I'm guessing more is always welcome :-)

Hmmmm 
The real Sphinx model is highly collectible and valuble, like $700- 900 range.

....not really.  $60 is about what I'd have expected (good price with shipping though). If it had been in a box since the day it was made and never used it might get > $500.  For the average Sphinx model with normal wear, it's hard to give one away.  Most that appear on auction sites don't sell. They were very common, though not as common as 66s.

That's actually one of the neat things about old Singers... there are literally millions of unused machines out there still in perfect working condition and you can usually find one for a pittance.  Then you have a bulletproof machine that will probably outlast you.

Unfortunately it was a model that reproductions were made of as well, at that price either a) you got incredibly lucky, or b) the seller knew it was a reproduction.

Now, the reproduction machines were done in the 50's (IIRC, I could be way off) and are perfectly good machines in their own right, so don't be terribly disapointed if it turns out to be a repro. k?

Versions of the original 128 were made by Singer into the 50s.  There were repros made of the model 15, which also used the Sphinx decals, in the 1980s/90s after Singer was broken up and sold off in 1987.  A Chinese company grabbed rights to the name and started pumping out repros, but only of the model 15. They're easy to spot: The decals read 'The Singer Sewing Machine Company' instead of 'The Singer Manufacturing Company' (as Singer had changed names int he 1960s, and the company had bought rights to the new name).  All genuine vintage Singers have 'Simanco' stamped on practically every part.  The other way to spot repros is the serial number is in the wrong place (under the bed instead of on top).

The irony of the reproductions is that the vintage machines are better made and usually cost alot less.

Many many many manufacturers based models directly off of the 27/28/127/128 from the 1870s through the 1930s.  They're not repros, they're contemporary copies.  Several companies famously advertised their machines as 'Improved Singers', which usually got them sued by Singer pretty quickly.  Some were closer copies than others.

Cheers,
Monty

[artcat81]

Oo thank you!   Yay for more info, and yes I'm soo geeking out over my machine!


Well, I have yet to sew with it, but this weekend it got a table   The same mechanically minded best friend, he brought me his grandmothers sewing machine, lovingly removing his grandmothers 1950 era pink singer, so that I can use the table.   It's a loaner table, as it has much sentimental value to him (his grandmother taught him to sew on that table). I am touched to get to use it.  As for his adorable massive pink sewing machine, in his 30 years he never saw her use that machine it has always been "broken"  his machine he sets up on the dining table.   

OK, so now I have a table, I can rock and roll! (I hope!)  As soon as I get my fiber optic project done I can start playing with my singer!


 

[xiphmont]

lovingly removing his grandmothers 1950 era pink singer, so that I can use the table.   It's a loaner table, as it has much sentimental value to him (his grandmother taught him to sew on that table). I am touched to get to use it.  As for his adorable massive pink sewing machine, in his 30 years he never saw her use that machine it has always been "broken"  his machine he sets up on the dining table.   

...Pink?... Singer...?  Hmmm... can't think of any that were pink although several werre a 'warm beige'. Anyway, it would say on it what model it was if it's from the 50s or later.  They all had model badges on the front of the arm from roughly 1950 on and every singer up till then had been black anyway.