Hello! I'm new to your blog and to sewing and I enheireted a (I think) Domestic Rotary 153. It was my great grandmothers and I do not have a manual for it. I was hoping you might save me from possibly destroying it out of ignorance and have some advise on getting started?
Oh gosh, I started answering this in January and saved it as a draft and then forgot, I'm sorry!!
Hello!
(Link to the post that presumably prompted this ask.)
(Also, I mostly try to keep this blog for dino comics, and my sewing blog is here.)
Ooh nice! I hope you can get it cleaned up and working! That's not a brand of machine I've ever met personally.
While I've been sewing on a Singer 15 my whole life, it's only recently that I've really gotten into cleaning & restoring machines, so I'm not super knowledgable but I do have some advice for starting.
There are a LOT of resources out there for vintage & antique sewing machines out there. Tons of blogs and youtube channels, various forum sites, and the International Sewing Machine Collectors' Society.
A lot of machine manual scans can be found online. In addition to the users manual, sometimes you can find the service manual, which shows how to take apart and adjust & replace things.
I can't find the service manual for the Domestic Rotary 153, but the users manual is right there at the top of the google results and you can download it as a pdf!
My experience is limited to the 6 machines I have, but I've found scans of users manuals for 5 of them, including my 1885 White treadle. (And the 6th one is nearly identical to one of the others due to being a "15 clone", so it's ok that it has no manual.)
And I've found the service manuals for 4, (though again 2 are so similar they share the same manual).
I've also found loads of useful stuff by googling [name of machine] [specific problem], and watching the videos that come up. There are a lot of old people on youtube who make long mostly unedited videos walking you through how to fix various things.
I searched "singer 99k timing" and found a very clear video showing how to fix the timing, which turned out to be wonderfully easy.
(It does depend on how common the machine is though. The Singer 99k is very popular, but I couldn't find much of anything about the White VS2.)
I have no idea what kind of shape your machine is in but hopefully it's not missing any major pieces and also the wheel turns?
A lot of the time the bobbin winder tire needs replacing, and maybe some felt discs, and the drive belt if there is one. The soft bits that break down if it's been in poor storage conditions too long.
Sometimes they're still ok though, it depends a lot on the storage conditions, or if they've already been replaced somewhere along the line. One of my vintage Singers came with a perfectly soft rubbery drive belt, and another came with one that is stiff & crispy as a potato chip.
As with any old electronic device it's important to examine the wires first to make sure they aren't damaged before you plug it in. It's possible to rewire things if necessary - I had my father do that to one of my Singers last year, and I only helped a little and don't have the knowledge to give any advice on that but it did look like it wouldn't be too hard to learn, and any electrician ought to be able to do it.
(One thing I would like to learn about is taking apart & cleaning the motors - scrubbing off any residue that shouldn't be there and replacing the brushes or oil wicks or whatever. I don't know how yet but I know it's possible.)
I'd suggest watching some cleaning videos, and getting a jar of metal polish. I was recommended this stuff, so I got some and am very pleased with it.
Get a whole box of q-tips just to keep with machine stuff, you'll need a lot of them. I use them for polishing in small places, and cleaning, and wiping oil on bits a rag can't reach.
(And a sewing machine cleaning brush is useful for more regular maintenance.)
Fine sandpaper is good for rusty bits if needed. A removable small rusty piece can be soaked for some hours in a vinegar/water mixture and scrubbed with a wire brush, but you've got to slather it in oil as soon as it dries or the rust will come right back. Or, slater for moving joints and things with small crevices, but wiping down with an oily rag is good for more easily reachable surfaces. An oily q-tip is also useful for reaching things.
I like to use rubbing alcohol on q tips to dissolve dried gunky grease but ONLY on bare metal, don't do it on paint or shellac because it dissolves that too!
Wood and painted metal can be cleaned with a damp rag, and an oily rag is also good for painted metal. Actually, with the old lacquered machines the general advice seems to be to rub a light coating of oil all over the painted surface. Not enough to make it greasy to the touch, just a thin little protective shiny barrier.
It can also help remove dirt, though as washing methods go it's very slow. I did manage to get a whole strip of old tape residue off the bed of one of my machines using just oil and a lot of rubbing with q tips.
A bit of fast orange is useful to have for washing it off your hands more easily if you get really gunky, but for just a bit of oil you can wash them off fine with dish soap.
Oh speaking of oil, if you find a vintage bottle of oil that's gone brown don't use it, it'll be so stinky! New sewing machine oil is clear as water and hasn't got much of a smell at all.
For anything requiring rags I use either paper towels or soft cotton rags. Old cotton flannel pyjamas make great rags.
When you start taking stuff apart to clean & polish & oil stuff be sure to take photos as you go so you know how to put it back together, and keep things organized! I group my machine bits on paper towels on various trays. Sometimes you put something back together wrong and have to disassemble it and reassemble it a few times before it's right. (Going back and looking at the manual or any videos you might find can help, of course.)
Get an oil bottle with a long spout so you can reach every place you need to, and oil everything that moves. If metal is rubbing against metal you want it to be greasy. (Excluding anywhere the thread goes, of course, don't oil the tension discs.)
Good luck! With a solid metal machine you're unlikely to accidentally break it as long as you don't try to force anything, so don't worry too much, and enjoy learning as you go!
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