Oil, Polyurethane, and Elbow Grease

My sewing projects are on hold as I've been repairing and conditioning two sewing machines and refinishing the sewing machine cabinet that came with the Singer 201.  I wish I had taken more photos of the cabinet before I started working on it.  I suspect it was recently used as a plant stand given the water damage.  You can see how bad the left side was, and the right side (which I had already removed) was no better. 

A sorry start, pulling apart the top, and after a little light sanding

The underside of the leaves were also in poor shape.  The rest of it looked better, including the drawers and the stool.  I did not want to pull the whole thing apart to restore - I just wanted to spruce it up and fix the horizontal surfaces. 

We had removed the machine already and I pulled off the hinges.  The veneer looked thick enough to sand.  I hit the whole thing with a bit of sandpaper, then focused on the leaves.  It took no time at all to get the top down to bare wood.  It was clear I'd need to get some matching stain.  The inside surface was mixed - some of the old finish flaked off, but wasn't going to come off without some real work.  I decided to leave most of it as is.

Any proper woodworker will cringe at my approach.  Time will tell if I curse my long-term results.  But I'm pleased with the results so far. 

The magic of some stain and the shine of layers of polyurethane

I found a matching stain.  The results on the top surfaces were so amazing, I rubbed a bit of it all over the cabinet.  It evened out much of the wear and covered a bunch of the scratches.  It's no thing of beauty, but now it looks well loved rather than decrepit.  

The whole cabinet and the stool got a few layers of gloss polyurethane.  I didn't realize how dry it all looked until the poly went on.  The sewing surface received a few more layers than the sides, since that will get a lot of use.  The shine looks so nice!  The leaves are still soaking in the poly, so those need even more layers to catch up.  I had hoped to have it all done this weekend, but it looks like it will be several more days before I can reinstall the sewing machine.

In between layers of polyurethane I tinker with the machines.  The 201 has a new belt and a new light (which required us to break and pry out the old one).  It will get a new power cord, too, once it is reattached to the cabinet. 

In March I was given a Singer 478 that I promised to give to a good home (either with me or elsewhere).  I could power it up, but it didn't want to run.  It was a lot cleaner than the 201, but it was dry and some spots had gummed together.  A little cleaning, a lot of oiling, and voila!  It rattles a bit when it runs, but it stitches and zig-zags.  The only disappointment is a feed dog throw-out nob.  I managed to free the pin that had seized, but the dogs won't lower.  I suspect the prior user never used this functionality.  I may give up on getting that to work - I'd need a full user manual to tell me how to take that section apart to repair it.

I have spent way more time on both the machines and the cabinet than I had intended.  I'm pleased with the results.  My goal is to get two of them out the door before Thanksgiving, and to be up and sewing on my newest acquisition.  More space in the drawers and the stool - I can't wait to start using them!