Posted 3 years ago
J0eHerbert
(1 item)
Looking for some help to get a few questions answered about an industrial singer sewing machine, serial#: AA924376.
- How do I get more information about the machine?
- Any recommendations to get it restored, reliable and honest restoration specialists?
- Are there contacts you can guide me to to discuss options?
Not sure what I want to do yet, so any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks.
Hi, J0eHerbert. :-)
So, a vintage industrial model Singer sewing machine. Cool.
Let's start with: what exactly is it?
Per the Singer serial number tables at the International Sewing Machine Collectors' Society (ISMACS) website, serial number AA924376 was one of a block of 2,000 consecutive serial numbers allotted by the central office to one of the factories January 26 1926, and all were destined to be stamped into the beds of model 96 machines:
AA- 037001 039000 96 2000 September 16 1924
AA- 150651 152650 96 2000 November 25 1924
AA- 379986 381985 96 2000 April 28 1925
AA- 635336 637335 96 2000 September 8 1925
AA- 923961 925960 96 2000 January 26 1926
http://ismacs.net/singer_sewing_machine_company/serial-numbers/singer-aa-series-serial-numbers.html
FYI, the reason I excerpted so many lines from that serial number table is that I was trying to get a feel for when your machine might have been manufactured. Allotment dates are not necessarily manufacture dates.
It does look like your machine was probably manufactured some time in 1926.
All AA prefix serial numbers were manufactured at the Elizabethport factory:
*snip*
ELIZABETHPORT
AA series 1924 1926
*snip*
https://ismacs.net/singer_sewing_machine_company/singer_dating_by_serial_number.html
FYI, those weren't the only Singer model 96 machines ever made. I took a quick look in a spreadsheet I made from all the serial numbers concatenated into a single file, and there were over a half million made between 1911 and 1959.
About the Elizabethport factory:
https://www.singersewinginfo.co.uk/elizabethport
https://www.ericwilliamsblog.com/left-behind-in-elizabeth-the-singer-manufacturing-company-part-1/
https://www.ericwilliamsblog.com/left-behind-in-elizabeth-the-singer-manufacturing-company-part-2/
Skimming through the charts at ISMACS, it seems that the model 96 was mostly used for stitching and trimming light, medium or heavyweight clothing in one operation (scroll down):
https://ismacs.net/singer_sewing_machine_company/model-list/classes-1-99.html
Here's a picture of a model 96:
https://ismacs.net/singer_sewing_machine_company/model-list/images0-99/96K.jpg
As to getting one restored, it probably would be best to find somebody in your local area, because cast iron sewing machines are heavy, and shipping could be prohibitive.
Ordinarily, I'd tell you to contact a local sew & vac store for advice, but they might not be able to advise you on an industrial machine.
You might want to contact this forum, because numerous users there have experience with some flavors of the Singer model 96, especially users Wizcrafts, cdthayer, and Marcusstratus:
https://leatherworker.net/forum/
Be advised that the users in that forum will tell you the Singer 96 is really not suitable for leatherwork.
If you want to take a crack at restoring it yourself, parts are available:
https://www.singeronline.com/model96.html
Here are some manuals (sorry, I didn't find a free copy of a service manual):
https://www.manualslib.com/manual/364643/Singer-96-10.html
http://pdfstream.manualsonline.com/8/84565631-ecf8-bd84-cd90-b68dd59bcb02.pdf
Wow! keramikos, this is amazing! I really appreciate this... I would love to restore it myself, unfortunately, the wife gave me an ultimatum! I'll definitely reach out to users Wizcrafts, cdthayer, and Marcusstratus about the Singer model 96 when I'm ready, and after I do a little reading. Thank you again!
J0eHerbert, You're welcome. :-)
So your wife won't let you attempt a restoration yourself, huh?
Dunno what's up with that, and I won't pry, but should she relent, here is my collection of vintage sewing machine links, which includes some for restoration:
https://www.collectorsweekly.com/stories/285089-vintage-sewing-machine-help
Sorry about the lack of service and parts manual links, but ISMACS has a lot of broken links on their free downloadable manuals page.
I just finally sucked it up, and found the problem. It was probably a case of the purveyor (Ralph's Singer) reorganizing their website.
Here is the main page at Ralph's for Singer parts (and they have plenty of manuals for Singer parts, including model 96):
http://singerco.net/Parts
As it turns out, Ralph's also does servicing, and even manufacture of discontinued parts (the latter for a handsome fee, I don't doubt):
http://singerco.net/Servicing
It looks like it's time for me to spiff up my collection of links. };-)