Vintage Canadian looper bike, no brand nor model, est circa 1950s. Photo by Don Tai
A neighbour here in Canada gave me this bicycle. She had started riding this when she was 8 years old, and the bicycle was well used and handed down at that time, so this bicycle could be over 70 years old.
This bicycle is a “loop bike”, for its classic swooping top bar, single speed with a coaster hub, a reverse pedal brake. The bike runs on 800c, 28×1.5″ tires. Vintage it is, with a slew of problems. Overall I do like the look, but the ride is pretty bad and somewhat scary. For cruising around in a flat are this might be Ok.
Tempo baritone ukelele, unknown origin or date, Toronto, Canada. Photo 1 by Don Tai
This Tempo baritone ukelele came to me very broken, with the back ripped off the sides, both top and bottom, and discarded. I had to do a somewhat significant glue-up in order to stabilize the neck and get the action back to normalcy.
Vintage Paramount sewing machine: How to fill the bobbin
Morag wrote me to ask how to fill the bobbin of her vintage Imperial sewing machine model 703. I could not find a photo of a front facing Imperial 703, but found a similar Paramount. Nevertheless filling the bobbin is common among most sewing machines, though the parts might be in slightly different places.
Filling the bobbin is necessary for any sewing machine. The bobbin needs to be filled with even and the right amount of thread tension, or your sewing line will come out uneven. Otherwise filling the bobbin is pretty easy.
