Singer Sewing Machine Base

[Weekend_Woodworker]

My mother in law has an old Singer sewing machine which was mounted in a table. Following some changes, she no longer wanted it in the table so I agreed to make her small stand alone base that could sit on a table. It is loosely based on one that my wife has.

I managed to find a suitable bit of oak in my odds and ends of wood in the garage which I ripped down to size on the table saw having done a quick sketch of what I was aiming to do.


I then set the blade up to cut at 45 degrees using a little digital angle gauge which is very good. Unfortunately my use of the phone to take the photos failed as this appears to be upside down!




The four sides seemed to fit together not too badly straight off the saw.

 

[Weekend_Woodworker]

The next task was to cut some small bits of wood for the inside corners of the box as the machine has rounded corners and needs something to rest on. Whilst I had the saw set up as 45 degrees I decided to cut these.



And this is what I ended up with.



I then had a go at clamping up the base to see how well it fitted. It wasn't too bad.

 

[Weekend_Woodworker]

The next part was to see if I could put some biscuits into the miters to make them a bit stronger and easier to glue up. I haven't got a biscuit jointer, but I do have a router bit for biscuits. For a previous project I had made up a 45 degree sled for the router table, so I used this.

This photo is looking down the sled with the wood clamped in place towards the router bit.



And this is a photo looking at the end of the sled.



Again sorry for the orientation of the photos. Maybe with a bit more practice I might get better at this!

I then got out my Record 050 plane to do some beading on the edges.



The beading went quite well and was quite nice to do. The main problem is when you are going against the grain as it is not easy to plane from the other direction (or at least I haven't figured out how to without adjusting the settings).

I then spent a bit of time with some offcuts working out how best to cut some hand holds in the base so you can pick the machine up by the wooden base. In the end I decided using a stopped cut on the router table gradually moving the fence back would give the best result.



And this is the result which was not too bad, but a little bit of breakout at the end of the cut.

 

[Weekend_Woodworker]

Next was sorting out the base of the box. Using a Record 044 with the one blade I have for it I cut a 5mm deep slot round the inside of the pieces.



I then cut out a bit of 5.5mm thick plywood which was roughly the right size. It took a bit of planing to get it spot on.



Unfortunately the board is slightly thicker than slot I had cut in the base, so I had to shave a little bit off round the edge of the ply with a Stanley 78, which is the one Stanley plane I have.



And that is where I will have to pause tonight. I will try and put the rest of the steps on tomorrow evening.

 

[AndyT]

From the title I thought this would be some trendy "upcycling" project where you throw away a useful sewing machine and turn the stand into a painted laptop desk or something.

But this is much nicer!

Using oddments put by, hand tools where appropriate - it's looking good already.

 

[Blackswanwood]

That looks good - thank you for sharing.

I like the beading and know what you mean about the grain direction. If anyone has any tips on dealing with it I would be interested.

 

[AndyT]

That looks good - thank you for sharing.

I like the beading and know what you mean about the grain direction. If anyone has any tips on dealing with it I would be interested.

Derek Cohen has said somewhere that he has had good results by adding a steep back bevel to the cutters. I can't find this on his website but he contributes to several woodworking forums so it would have been on one or more of those.

Otherwise it's down to stock selection.

It might help to run a marking gauge or knife along the edges of the quirks - that's where reverse grain can tear up very visibly, I've found.

 

[Malc2098]

Coming along nicely.

 

[Cabinetman]

Coming on nicely. Ian

 

[Weekend_Woodworker]

Thanks for all the kind comments.

So next after sorting the ply for the base, I decided on a dry fit up. (sorry my pictures are getting worse with this one upside down!)



And this is it with the sewing machine in.



Unfortunately I had gone wrong with the measurements (as well as the photos) as there was a gap at the end about 4-5mm



The only thing for it was to shorten the two side pieces. Unfortunately it would mean that the biscuit slots were in the wrong place. I glued in some biscuits to the holes before resawing the miters and then re-cut the biscuits in the right place and it was all much better.

It then looked much better.



This is then showing the end of the base before I glued it up. I had put some shellac sanding sealer on following the discussion on the forum about it making wiping off excess glue easier.



As it all looked okay it was time for a deep breath and to glue it up. I used Titebond original and some silicon brushes I bought from Axminster which are excellent for the job.





And this was the result. (At last a photo the right way round!)

 

[Weekend_Woodworker]

The next job was to fit the hinges which hold the sewing machine into the base. I bought some slightly different ones from eBay which would fit in the side walls of the box. The trick was going to be getting them positioned spot on, so as Steve Maskery would say a jig is needed. Mine however was very crude using off cuts and miter bond to stick it quickly. I adjusted the old imperial thread in the bottom of the hinges so they would take an M8 Allen key bolt by drilling them out slightly and re-tapping them.

Here is a hinge, with a dowel center point in it, and the other dowel center point next to it.



And this is the crude jig.



I then put it at the side of the sewing machine with the hinges in place and pushed to get two small dents where I needed to drill for the hinges.



I then founded I needed a few more reference surfaces on the jig to enable me to clamp it to the base before drilling it.



Then it was onto my trust Aldi pillar drill to drill out the holes.



And these are the holes. Not much for quite a bit of faffing about, but they were in exactly the right place which was important.



I then needed to notch out the inside to allow the hinge to fold down. So I started by marking it out. (still not winning any prizes for photography, it's almost sharp!)



Then with a little bit of sawing and some use of a chisel I was able to cut out the slot.





And then a test fit of the hinges which were a very tight fit as an imperial fitting pushed into a 15mm hole.

 

[Weekend_Woodworker]

Next it was on to the corner supports. First I cut them down by hand so they were closer to the final size needed.



Then it was a case of gluing them into the corners where I had avoided putting any sanding sealer.



When the corners were dry I planed them flush with my block plane, but failed to take a photo. Then it was time for a second jig to route out the curves in the corner supports which needed to be a bit below the top of the box. I marked the curve out from the sewing machine, and then used a scroll saw to cut it before giving it a bit of a sand to make sure it was reasonably smooth.



It was then a case of clamping the jig in place.



And routing it out with my Katsu trimmer with a top bearing straight bit.



And these are the finished corner supports.



You might notice a small hole on the right of the base. I'll explain that next.

 

[Weekend_Woodworker]

So the hole on the right is in case anyone tries to lift the sewing machine up by the top rather than the base. With the hinges the base would swing down. Therefore it needed a little catch to stop the hinges opening if it was lifted by the top.

I found a small offcut of the oak and started by drilling a large hole one side, then a hole all the way through and finally drilling a circle with a hole saw.





I then started cutting it down by hand.



I then trimmed off the excess bits with a chisel and this is the finished article on the box. I just tapped out the oak to attach the bolt in, and so long as it is not overtightened I think it will be fine (Fingers crossed).



Having put several layers more shellac on I then finished it off with some beeswax polish my wife had made as she keeps bees. If nothing else it gave it a lovely smell.

 

[Weekend_Woodworker]

Then these are a range of photos of the finished article. Please don't point out too many errors, I know it was far from perfect, but the customer was very happy which is all that really mattered.























Well I hope that has provided a bit of interest. I know I need to make sure that I am holding the phone round the right way before taking pictures in future, which I will try to remember. I don't think I am likely to be making anything similar again in a hurry, but any comments on the techniques I used or alternative approaches would be welcomed as I am still learning and this was a bit a case of make it up as I went along.

Thanks, Mark

 

[Malc2098]

Very nice job.

It so reminds me of my mum doing her dressmaking back in the 50s using first and old treadle Singer, then an electric model like this one. She was a seamstress between the wars and started aged 16 in an East End dressmaker's place, euphemistically called a sweatshop.

 

[Woodster]

Looks like a good job but as most of the pictures appear sideways or upside down so it was difficult to follow.

I’m assuming they were taken on a phone or tablet? If so in future take all your pictures in landscape mode and make sure the lens is at the top edge of the device. This normally prevents these type of problems.

 

[NickM]

That's a really good project. It looks lovely.

 

[Weekend_Woodworker]

Yes, sorry about the photos. They were taken on my phone and I need to remember to have the volume buttons at the top before taking the pictures in future. I have been spoilt with other software where you can just rotate a picture.