Revamped 1905 Whites Treadle Sewing Cabinet in ASCP French Linen

Carole
by Carole
I bought this Whites Treadle Sewing Machine and Cabinet on ebay. It was badly in need of repair and makeover. It would date from around 1905 so you can imagine the state it was in. It came complete with the sewing machine inside, which I removed and promptly sold as this was to be a makeover/re-purpose and not a renovation job.
Whites is a US make and we don't see many of them in Australia. We tend to get mostly the Singer make. I decided to paint the cabinet in ASCP French Linen. I started with cleaning the drawers and painting them inside and out. They were full of cockroach poop! It was a bit icky but I go them cleaned and also noted that there was some evidence of borer in the woodwork underneath. As the borer infestation was not active but had left some holes in the thicker parts of the timber, I had to clean it up, treated it with meth spirit and filled the holes with wood filler. The inside of the drawers was then painted with ASCP Duck Egg, whilst the outside was sanded and painted with the ASCP French Linen. A light grey. The rest of the cabinet was quite daunting so I decided to focus on the drawers first and even got them waxed and distressed on the decals before I tackled the rest of the cabinet. Since the machine was not going back in, I removed the mechanism that lifts the machine and the springs from the inside. I then had to glue the WHITES frontage in place as it was hinged and was previously attached to move with the machine as the machine was pulled out of the cabinet and placed on top for sewing. I then tackled the drawer frames. Sand, paint and wax. I added a little dark wax to the decals. The veneer on the cabinet was all peeling off the top, so I used a wet towel ( a very wet towel) and a steam iron to loosen the glue on the veneer and then used a scraper to peel it all off. Sanded the top and that too was painted and waxed. The metal insert for the machine was also painted in Duck Egg. This cabinet had a nice ruler on the top under the flap, so I made sure not to cover that up. Much gluing of loose and damaged remaining veneer, more sanding and painting and then the whole cabinet was re-assembled.
The frame was painted in a spray on black matt enamel paint.
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  • Charlotte Ray Charlotte Ray on May 29, 2015
    Beautiful.
    • Carole Carole on May 29, 2015
      @Charlotte Ray @Hannah V Thanks Charlotte and Hannah. This has taken a while as the paint would not adhere to the frame for some reason. Dripped and bubbled up and would not dry. I had to strip it back, clean it up and try again with a different paint. I did put this frame in the 'too hard basket' for a few weeks due to that but bit the bullet a couple of days again and threw the thing into the back of the car and took it to the hardware store where they tried a few different paints on it and we finally found something that stuck and gave good coverage! Never had this problem before with the Singer treadles I made over so I think the frame must have had something on it that repelled the paint.
  • Shelly Holloway Shelly Holloway on Oct 12, 2015
    I just got my great-grandmother's cabinet, It looks similar to yours, only I am missing pieces, do you have more detailed pictures, so I can figure out what I am missing?
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