Cast Iron Again - Pearson & Bennion / BUSMC A1

[Constabulary]

I never have seen one of them live and I never thought I would ever find one of these in Germany. When I showed up at the seller I was almost a bit disappointed - I was expecting something of the size of an 45K. Ha ha - totally amiss. Though I don´t need it I could not resist. The very nice decal and nice hand painted pin striping pretty much hit my eye so I could not leave it alone. Figured it takes 214x1 / 328 needles - well at least it came with a 328 needle insert.

Machine was not spinning so I soaked it in oil for a day. Meanwhile it is spinning again. Next is taking it apart for cleaning. Some pictures (oiled)

[RockyAussie]

Is just beautiful

[CowboyBob]

Nice find,I wish the old ones I find had such nice decals on them./

[Matt S]

Now that looks fine. What, if I may ask, are your intentions with this old lady?

[cdthayer]

Gotta love the old iron.

CD in Oklahoma

[Darren Brosowski]

Beautiful machine.

[Constabulary]

Seems the machine once had an accident, a few parts were slightly bent, a piece of the pulley was dented and finally fell of (still have that chip) and I had to reproduce the foot pressure thing as it was totally bent and thread was damaged - no way to rescue it. I have filled the worn screw heads with hard solder and cut some new slits.

Unfortunately I damaged the decal - I remember the owner said the machine was used as decoration on the window sill and shop window for decades (machine has not sewn for the fast 50 years he said). Maybe the permanent sunlight and my efforts of cleaning did not play well together. Really sad but I hate looking at / working with dirty filthy machines. So thats the price I paid.

Machine is sewing again but I need a new foot pressure spring. The old one was badly rusted and broke and the current one is too weak to sew leather with, for webbing its okay.

Some more pictures:

Edited December 18, 2016 by Constabulary

[Singermania]

Watch out for that decal and paintwork, its not normal paint and will dissolve if you put solvents on it.  I love these guys and are a good earl walking foot.   I collect machine manuals mate so if you don't have a copy I can email to you... regards Steve

[LumpenDoodle2]

Where? 

Stop toying with us and give us the pictures

A lovely machine, and so glad you have it working, and as to the decals, well, better working than decoration says I.

ah!  There they are!

Edited December 18, 2016 by LumpenDoodle2

[Constabulary]

small video - sorry not much space to place the cam properly - so my dirty fingers are in the way a bit.

 

1 hour ago, Singermania said:

  I collect machine manuals mate so if you don't have a copy I can email to you... regards Steve

Thanks Steve but I have an original manual. I actually had it before I bought this machine. I once bought it along with some BUSMC #6 HM parts I needed for restoration.

In the Video I use a 180 needle (metric) and some 207 cotton thread

Just checked the stitch length - seems to be approx. 4 SPI at max. - a pretty good score for a vintage machine like this

1 hour ago, LumpenDoodle2 said:

A lovely machine, and so glad you have it working, and as to the decals, well, better working than decoration says I.

I agree but its really a pity

Edited December 18, 2016 by Constabulary

[Evo160K]

Sure looks good to me, you cleaned it up well.

I just repaired a similar chip on my 45K25 wheel.  The welder filled in the chip with a blob of nickel I believe he said he used, he buried the wheel in sand while it was cooling.  I used a Dremel tool with double abrasive wheels to shape it.  It turned out well, hardly noticeable.

[brmax]

Hey you really got that cleaned up sharp, and music just hearing it sew, Great job!

Floyd

[Darren Brosowski]

When welding cast iron it is best to preheat the part and then weld with a high nickel content rod.   To avoid warping and localised fracturing you cool it slowly in sand and for large items you actually slow the cooling down with a blow torch

 

[SARK9]

I would investigate a low-temp cad-free silver solder for safest results on a thin section like that....welding may be overkill for the application. With care, the repair will be close to invisible (if you have the complete missing chip), and the high-percentage silver solders are impressively strong.

 

-DC

[trash treasure]

On 12/18/2016 at 4:14 AM, Constabulary said:

"Seems the machine once had an accident, a few parts were slightly bent, a piece of the pulley was dented and finally fell of (still have that chip) "

If you still have the pulley chip, and you're concerned about preserving the paint, you might be able to silver solder / braze the chip back in place. I've been able to do this sort of thing, but you must get everything nice and clean, the fit good, use good flux, and hold your mouth right (as my jeweler wife would say) - The solder will wick right in, and a little filing will clean it up. Use a lower temperature solder, a small torch, and protect the rest of the wheel from heat as best you can.

OTOH, since the side of the pulley is not really stressed (if everything is lined up right), you might just be able to fix it in place with some metal-filled epoxy, and call it done - I've used a brand we have here, called JB Weld, for this kind of thing - It's surprisingly strong.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Constabulary]

Yes I have the chip. Its just a cosmetical issue. I´m using the larger pulley anyway so I will try some JB weld. Mechanically the machine is in excellent working condition - zero issues. Meanwhile I have a heavier foot spring installed so I will try to sew some leather in the days to come.

I just love the clicking sound it makes   njaahahaaa old cast iron is freakin addictive

Edited December 21, 2016 by Constabulary

[LumpenDoodle2]

Old machines sound just wonderful.  I have threarened to record ans use the soubd of my 29K as a ringtone.

[Hansons Carriage]

Absolutely beautiful! You do nice work!!!

John

[Constabulary]

Thanks a lot. I really like this one, hope I´ll find a bobbin winder solution soon. I already have something in mind.

[RockyAussie]

The way it stitches so nice and if it were not so pretty I'd be tempted to mount it on some box channel and turn it into a cylinder arm machine of sorts.

[Matt S]

6 hours ago, Constabulary said:

Thanks a lot. I really like this one, hope I´ll find a bobbin winder solution soon. I already have something in mind.

Do you have a picture of the correct bobbin winder? I have acquired in a collection of No6 parts a bobbin winder which looks like it might be about right for the A1.

[Constabulary]

@ Rocky

I actually had this idea too but since I have a 45D I have not followed the idea. But it indeed is possible since the whole mechanism is quite flat and narrow. Most likely the engineers back then had this idea too. Very nice and versatile machine this old clunker is

@Matt

Not a big picture. ATM I have two options for bobbin winders, one is an automatic bobbin winder from an old shuttle machine I have to alter (I would prefer this but not sure if my idea is possible to implement) and the other is a most likely original A1 winder but without the table clamp. ATM I´m waiting for email responses. However would be nice if you could post some pictures of the winder you have.

[RockyAussie]

The 45D does not have that same beautiful top feeding foot though does it? I want one like this so bad.

[LumpenDoodle2]

22 hours ago, RockyAussie said:

 I want one like this so bad.

Get in line.

 

[Constabulary]

You don´t want to "force" me to sell it, right? No, you don´t - or do you?