British United Shoe Machinery Co

[celticleather]

Here's my BUSM A1, that I bought a few months ago for a very reasonable price. It came complete with spare shuttles, bobbins, about 90 assorted needles and a manual!

It hadn't been used for about 20 years, and was a bit stiff to turn; I stripped it down, cleaned out accumulated wax and thread balls, and it runs like a dream. Unfortunately it didn't have the original stand, so I've had to adapt an old Singer treadle stand, but it works well.

[cem]

Thankyou for posting them Jon, I love to see old machines cause where I live I'm extremely lucky if I even get to see a new leatherworking machine somewhere.

Cheers,

Clair

[amuckart]

Greetings,

Thanks for posting these.

Did you ever get the chance to scan the No. 6 manuals in full, and is there any chance I could get copies if you did? I'm just about to get one of the machines.

I'd be very interested in high-resolution copies of the catalogue if such a thing were possible too.

[amuckart]

Here's my recently acquired A1. I bought it on TradeMe (NZ's auction website) ages ago but only managed to co-ordinate the 500k round trip to pick it up last weekend. It was a nice drive though up through a bit of New Zealand I've never seen before. It cost me more in petrol to drive up and get it than the NZ$70 I paid for the machine. I bought it with the intention of restoring it to as close to its original condition as I could, whether or not it would ever actually sew. I think it will though but some parts are going to need shimming for the feed to be consistent.

The fun part was stopping in to the Central Hawkes Bay Early Settlers Museum in Waipawa on the way home and seeing this machine, which is just like my one only newer

The paint on the museum machine is in much better condition than mine so I took a bunch of photos of it so I have some reference for the pinstriping even though it's a later livery.

According to the person who sold it to me the saddler who owned it before her used it to sew the horse covers for the first NZ equestrian team to go to the olympic games which was in 1964 so it was a fairly old machine even then. Other than that I know nothing about its history. It is marked Pearson & Bennion rather than British United Shoe Machinery so it's a relatively early one. I can't see anything resembling a serial number on it anywhere though. Various parts on it are marked "16" for reasons I don't know.

Thanks to Celticleather I've got a scanned manual for it and I've started the process of cleaning and restoring it. It was seriously caked in gunk. A mix of old grease, dust, oil and horsehair several mm thick over much of the machine and I'm going to have to go after some bits with a brass pick to get the dried grease off.

The big surprise for me was cleaning it and discovering that what appears to be its original japanning was a rather striking shade of blue!

I can't be sure of course, but given the state of the machine, the fact that the varnish has gone black the way old oil-based varnishes will, and the fact that it dissolves easily in methylated spirit I suspect this is its original japanning and not a more recent repaint. The colour is consistent on all the originally japanned parts, including the flywheel and the various actuator rods and the stand is the same colour. Once I've photographed it I will check under the remaining pin-striping on the lettering on the stand to see if that's blue too. The blue only really became apparent when the top varnish layer was removed.

I plan on getting it soda-blasted back to bare metal and I was going to paint it with automotive spraypaint but I'm seriously tempted to make up some blue japan and re do it in as close to the original finish as I can. The only problem is that I don't have an oven big enough to put the stand in

The other nice surprise was emptying out the drawer and discovering that there were five different presser feet (including two pricker feet), four guides, four shuttles, eight bobbins two different feed dogs, two different feed dog plates and a tin of needles with it! The original bobbin winder was screwed to the table when I got it.

None of the shuttles are in great repair though so I might need to buy or make a new one before the machine will sew. One of them has had the point built up with brazing and the other three are variously dented and blunt but now that I've seen the mechanical condition of the rest of the machine I think it's worth getting going. I've extensively documented the disassembly process so I can put that in a new thread if anyone's interested.

[Moore Leather]

Here's my recently acquired A1. I bought it on TradeMe (NZ's auction website) ages ago but only managed to co-ordinate the 500k round trip to pick it up last weekend. It was a nice drive though up through a bit of New Zealand I've never seen before. It cost me more in petrol to drive up and get it than the NZ$70 I paid for the machine. I bought it with the intention of restoring it to as close to its original condition as I could, whether or not it would ever actually sew. I think it will though but some parts are going to need shimming for the feed to be consistent.

The fun part was stopping in to the Central Hawkes Bay Early Settlers Museum in Waipawa on the way home and seeing this machine, which is just like my one only newer

The paint on the museum machine is in much better condition than mine so I took a bunch of photos of it so I have some reference for the pinstriping even though it's a later livery.

According to the person who sold it to me the saddler who owned it before her used it to sew the horse covers for the first NZ equestrian team to go to the olympic games which was in 1964 so it was a fairly old machine even then. Other than that I know nothing about its history. It is marked Pearson & Bennion rather than British United Shoe Machinery so it's a relatively early one. I can't see anything resembling a serial number on it anywhere though. Various parts on it are marked "16" for reasons I don't know.

Thanks to Celticleather I've got a scanned manual for it and I've started the process of cleaning and restoring it. It was seriously caked in gunk. A mix of old grease, dust, oil and horsehair several mm thick over much of the machine and I'm going to have to go after some bits with a brass pick to get the dried grease off.

The big surprise for me was cleaning it and discovering that what appears to be its original japanning was a rather striking shade of blue!

I can't be sure of course, but given the state of the machine, the fact that the varnish has gone black the way old oil-based varnishes will, and the fact that it dissolves easily in methylated spirit I suspect this is its original japanning and not a more recent repaint. The colour is consistent on all the originally japanned parts, including the flywheel and the various actuator rods and the stand is the same colour. Once I've photographed it I will check under the remaining pin-striping on the lettering on the stand to see if that's blue too. The blue only really became apparent when the top varnish layer was removed.

I plan on getting it soda-blasted back to bare metal and I was going to paint it with automotive spraypaint but I'm seriously tempted to make up some blue japan and re do it in as close to the original finish as I can. The only problem is that I don't have an oven big enough to put the stand in

The other nice surprise was emptying out the drawer and discovering that there were five different presser feet (including two pricker feet), four guides, four shuttles, eight bobbins two different feed dogs, two different feed dog plates and a tin of needles with it! The original bobbin winder was screwed to the table when I got it.

None of the shuttles are in great repair though so I might need to buy or make a new one before the machine will sew. One of them has had the point built up with brazing and the other three are variously dented and blunt but now that I've seen the mechanical condition of the rest of the machine I think it's worth getting going. I've extensively documented the disassembly process so I can put that in a new thread if anyone's interested.

Nice find

Will see about scanning the catalogue in a better resolution & will try to find time to scan the No.6 manuals too

IF the planets were better aligned I'd be typing this from the Ch-Ch area so we'd almost be neighbours!!

[amuckart]

Nice find

Will see about scanning the catalogue in a better resolution & will try to find time to scan the No.6 manuals too

If you can that would be absolutely brilliant, thanks!

IF the planets were better aligned I'd be typing this from the Ch-Ch area so we'd almost be neighbours!!

It's a shame that didn't work out for you, Christchurch is a nice city to live in. I moved there from Edinburgh nearly 20 years ago and lived there for 16 years.

[Moore Leather]

If you can that would be absolutely brilliant, thanks!

It's a shame that didn't work out for you, Christchurch is a nice city to live in. I moved there from Edinburgh nearly 20 years ago and lived there for 16 years.

Interesting

I live just outside Edinburgh in Haddington...not too bad a place (only been here a year or so...)

Lived in the Scottish Borders for a few years & had a workshop in Coldstream for a couple of years or so.

Off to visit a mate tomorrow in Pencaitland so will drive past the Glenkinchie distillery to his house

[janistan]

are you still on here it was some time ago, tring to find the name of the machine i have.

[PeterMain]

....just saw this posting....the images from Moore Leather for the HM6 manuals seem no longer available. I would love to have copies of these.

I love my Pearson.

 

Peter

[Constabulary]

On 28.7.2017 at 11:04 PM, PeterMain said:

....just saw this posting....the images from Moore Leather for the HM6 manuals seem no longer available. I would love to have copies of these.

I love my Pearson.

Peter

Hey Peter - this also is a very nice restoration. I´d like to see some more detailed pictures if possible.I already admired you A1.

If you don´t mind could you post some good pictures of the flat bed attachment. I´d like to make one for my DVSG / BUSMC #6 and it should be as close to the original as possible.

 

On 8.3.2010 at 3:07 AM, amuckart said:

Here's my recently acquired A1.

Al, and if you don´t mind could you post some close up pictures of the A1 bobbin winder please. My A1 unfortunately came w/o the winder.

THANK YOU both!