Quick micro videos showing the cabinet for my lovely Lada treadle sewing machine.
The nifty leaf/cover
The retaining chains. Why there is one for the wooden frame, I don't know.
Machine storage.
And now, the beautiful base!
Monday, September 16, 2019
Lada treadle cabinet and base
9/16/19
Quick micro videos showing the cabinet for my lovely Lada treadle sewing machine.
The nifty leaf/cover
The retaining chains. Why there is one for the wooden frame, I don't know.
Machine storage.
And now, the beautiful base!
Quick micro videos showing the cabinet for my lovely Lada treadle sewing machine.
The nifty leaf/cover
The retaining chains. Why there is one for the wooden frame, I don't know.
Machine storage.
And now, the beautiful base!
Tuesday, September 10, 2019
Lada Tension Woes
9/10/19
As an earlier post mentioned, the upper tension assembly on my Lada treadle is not complete.
I made a video detailing my thoughts so far.
Including trying (failing) to swap in a Singer 15-30 faceplate.
If the embedded video does not work, here is a direct youtube link
As an earlier post mentioned, the upper tension assembly on my Lada treadle is not complete.
I made a video detailing my thoughts so far.
Including trying (failing) to swap in a Singer 15-30 faceplate.
If the embedded video does not work, here is a direct youtube link
Whole Lada Love
9/10/2019
Lada? Don't you mean Lotta?
Why, no. No I do not. I mean a fabulous vintage sewing machine by Lada. Made sometime after 1918, it is a lovely hunk of metal, with Lada Sobĕslav Made in Czechoslovakia stuck on the front. Interesting that it might have been made for export? (Sobĕslav is the town where the Lada sewing machines were made.)
I know nothing about this machine. I have no manual, nothing via internet searches (I can tell you it is not a Lada 77. I can tell you it is awfully similar to a Singer 15-1 or 15-30).
It is also incomplete. Not much is left of the upper tension assembly, and there was no bobbin case with it. However - drumroll please - I took along a Singer class 15 case and it fit!
Despite the missing parts, it really really wants to sew. I managed a few stitches with my handheld upper tension (I will never have a job controlling the top thread tension. Not in this life or any foreseeable one).
I also managed to work out how the bobbin winder functions. Trying to wind a bobbin while 1) holding the modern class 15 bobbin on the spindle (modern ones are a bit loose) and 2) turning the balance wheel by hand was ... difficult.
I have ordered a replacement belt. It will make future tests easier.
But before any of the fun sewing-adjacent activities, I had to haul it home and figure out what I had.
It fit in the back of the SUV. (The seller's husband helped me load it up, and my husband helped me unload it). It spend about 24 hours in the garage, where I started by taking the machine out of the cabinet, and the cabinet off the legs.
That was when I noticed that one of the legs was on backwards. Because both legs, and the bit in the middle have an enchantingly industrial LADA welded in. But the LADA on the left leg faced in, not out.
So I started applying WD40 to the stubborn bolts, and took the base apart. Look at these cool bolts!
These are all metric bolts. 16mm for most of the base (one 14mm to make life interesting).
AND I discovered under the grime the LADA logos are in gold. And there was the barest trace of red paint on the bottom part of the base. I'm not one to try to restore stuff to original condition. I like the sense of age, history, and use an antique embodies. So I just cleaned off all the metal, greased the bolts, and stuck the whole thing together again. I wiped the base down with sewing machine oil. Boy, it looks good now!
At some point in the future, I will take the bearings for the treadle apart and re-grease them. I first need to believe that I can actually get the machine sewing before I spend huge amounts of time with it.
I will say that the treadle mechanism is in great shape: it treadles easily and coasts to a stop very slowly. It is also nearly silent.
Then it was time to apply some Howard's Restor-a-Finish to the cabinet and then some wax. Looks good. And - there is a centimeter ruler inlaid in the cabinet!
Now, I was unable to get the machine completely out of the cabinet - the frame that holds the machine when it is folded into the cabinet, I could not remove. Because some hamhanded fool wrecked the grub screw for the lefthand bolt. It was not me. Repeated lashings of penetrating oil and various tools yielded no results. It is very close quarters in there. I do not want to further chew up the head. So, I'll worry about that later. I did remove the whole frame from the cabinet. Which meant I could carry all three components up to my sewing room. One. At. A Time. Huff. Puff. Gasp.
I plan on taking it apart more extensively and giving it a good clean, but my focus now is to solve the upper tension puzzle. I have a drive belt, various springs and tension disks, an entire (hopefully intact) very rusty 15-30 faceplate coming. I hope that these things will get me on my way to a properly tensioned upper thread.
I will post about the tension later.
Lada? Don't you mean Lotta?
Why, no. No I do not. I mean a fabulous vintage sewing machine by Lada. Made sometime after 1918, it is a lovely hunk of metal, with Lada Sobĕslav Made in Czechoslovakia stuck on the front. Interesting that it might have been made for export? (Sobĕslav is the town where the Lada sewing machines were made.)
I know nothing about this machine. I have no manual, nothing via internet searches (I can tell you it is not a Lada 77. I can tell you it is awfully similar to a Singer 15-1 or 15-30).
It is also incomplete. Not much is left of the upper tension assembly, and there was no bobbin case with it. However - drumroll please - I took along a Singer class 15 case and it fit!
Despite the missing parts, it really really wants to sew. I managed a few stitches with my handheld upper tension (I will never have a job controlling the top thread tension. Not in this life or any foreseeable one).
I also managed to work out how the bobbin winder functions. Trying to wind a bobbin while 1) holding the modern class 15 bobbin on the spindle (modern ones are a bit loose) and 2) turning the balance wheel by hand was ... difficult.I have ordered a replacement belt. It will make future tests easier.
But before any of the fun sewing-adjacent activities, I had to haul it home and figure out what I had.
It fit in the back of the SUV. (The seller's husband helped me load it up, and my husband helped me unload it). It spend about 24 hours in the garage, where I started by taking the machine out of the cabinet, and the cabinet off the legs.
That was when I noticed that one of the legs was on backwards. Because both legs, and the bit in the middle have an enchantingly industrial LADA welded in. But the LADA on the left leg faced in, not out.
So I started applying WD40 to the stubborn bolts, and took the base apart. Look at these cool bolts!
These are all metric bolts. 16mm for most of the base (one 14mm to make life interesting).
AND I discovered under the grime the LADA logos are in gold. And there was the barest trace of red paint on the bottom part of the base. I'm not one to try to restore stuff to original condition. I like the sense of age, history, and use an antique embodies. So I just cleaned off all the metal, greased the bolts, and stuck the whole thing together again. I wiped the base down with sewing machine oil. Boy, it looks good now!
At some point in the future, I will take the bearings for the treadle apart and re-grease them. I first need to believe that I can actually get the machine sewing before I spend huge amounts of time with it.
I will say that the treadle mechanism is in great shape: it treadles easily and coasts to a stop very slowly. It is also nearly silent.
Then it was time to apply some Howard's Restor-a-Finish to the cabinet and then some wax. Looks good. And - there is a centimeter ruler inlaid in the cabinet!
Now, I was unable to get the machine completely out of the cabinet - the frame that holds the machine when it is folded into the cabinet, I could not remove. Because some hamhanded fool wrecked the grub screw for the lefthand bolt. It was not me. Repeated lashings of penetrating oil and various tools yielded no results. It is very close quarters in there. I do not want to further chew up the head. So, I'll worry about that later. I did remove the whole frame from the cabinet. Which meant I could carry all three components up to my sewing room. One. At. A Time. Huff. Puff. Gasp.
I plan on taking it apart more extensively and giving it a good clean, but my focus now is to solve the upper tension puzzle. I have a drive belt, various springs and tension disks, an entire (hopefully intact) very rusty 15-30 faceplate coming. I hope that these things will get me on my way to a properly tensioned upper thread.
I will post about the tension later.
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