Hasta La Ideas

If my Part 1 talk with Collin Antos sounds like a commercial for the Singer 15-91, that’s because originally that was the goal: When I first came across Antos and read about his extensive refurbishment process for these sewing machines, I thought “Man, we gotta ask him to sell these through Hand-Eye Supply!”

I figured our readers who’d want a machine like this would want to avoid the frustrating eBay bidding process, where victory is often snatched away at the last minute. It’s even more painful losing a bid on an Antos machine, as I have, because they’re so individual–he does extensive write-ups on the specific process for each machine, gives the machine’s serial number (which you can then look up on Singer’s website to see where and when it was made), and even shoots an individual YouTube video showing the specific machine sewing through a variety of materials. You can see the one he made for the machine I eventually bought from him down at the bottom of this entry, and my machine itself is pictured here going under the knife.

(Despite our wooing efforts, Antos is skittish about turning a hobby into a business. Unless we can get the guy to change his mind, if you want to buy one of his machines you’ll have to go through the bidding process on his eBay wares.)

Now for Part 2 of our interview, where Antos gives us the breakdown on breaking these machines down, then building them back up. It’s a heckuva lot more involved than cleaning out half-a-century-old gunk and replacing World-War-II-era wiring.

The guy makes his own springs, for chrissakes.

Core77: Please tell us about your repair process.
Collin Antos: My repair process is very intense. I remove 163 pieces from the machine and clean each one with rubbing alcohol, and on metal functional pieces (like the thread tensioning plates) I use 00 grade steel wool.

There are two springs in the bobbin winding assembly that, if broken, no replacements exist for. So I actually bought 12-inch spring stock of the same wire diameters and opening diameters and I form replacement springs myself.

I remove and resolder in, new, all of the wires from the motor, the foot controller and the light. Then I crimp and solder on electrical O-Ring-style wire terminators so that if something goes wrong on the machine in the future it can be serviced easily…

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