Way back in 1945 you created the model 125 and it sold incredibly well because it was a beautifully designed free arm machine, it was portable, reliable, and could do a zig zag stitch… and it also had some generous harp space which rivals many of the machines made today.
It was the template for the 530 Record and all the machines that followed.
It has no electronics, computer chips, or flashing led lights or displays but still works day in and day out, without fuss or bother.
2025 would be the 80th anniversary of it’s introduction, and an anniversary model would be spectacular.
My suggestion would be to cast it from it aluminium with no internal or external plastics, to keep it true to the wonderful original design.
We’ve been away for a wee bit as some health issues have laid us low but we seem to be on the mend now… because of permanent disability issues I will never be at 100% but getting back to where I was a month ago is the goal.
Anyways…
The garden is starting to come back to life and the Creeping Jenny is always the first thing to emerge, some consider it a weed but it fills the edges of the beds and walkways and is not too hard to manage. It also seems to be very attractive to slugs so they can graze on this all they want, and they seem to leave other things alone.
A few weeks ago I picked up a wood lathe to further add to our shop’s restoration capabilities, although I can turn wood on the metal lathe having the right tool for the job makes things so much easier.
It is a 25 year old Craftsman 12 inch lathe that never saw much use through two owners and aside from not having a drill chuck, it was otherwise complete and even came with a 6 inch chuck, which was an extra originally.
One of the first projects was to turn out a new hand crank handle from some maple stock I had purchased a while back…
I also had a few orphan table legs and have been turning these down to use as they are made of Mahogany and here I am making a new handle for our stovetop popcorn maker which is about 90 years old.
I never took woodshop in school and most of my turning experience is in working with metal but there are a lot of transferable skills, it is still all about feed, speed, and tool pressure and angles, with a wood lathe you are much more involved and are part of the tool.
It is a good workout… whereas with a metal lathe it does most of the work for you.
Pearl is probably the most thrilled that I am getting back to work as she loves the shop and the music that sewing machines make when they are running.
