Old singer sewing table transformed + acetone question

laurentyvan

Available to me at a relatives estate was a singer sewing desk-looks like a good-sized 9 drawer desk but has a singer sewing machine mounted under a removable portion of the desk top which swings up from underneath and locks into place. The wood was so nice (walnut I believe) and the piece was in such good condition that I brought it home and spent the weekend transforming it into a coin desk.
Removing the sewing machine and the wired-in foot control pedals was no problem. I mounted a velvet covered shelf into place where the sewing machine was. Now when I remove the swing-up desk top portion the velvet covered shelf swings up into position, ready for use. When I'm done it swings back down and disappears. Eight drawers for storage and organization (center drawer is false front) and it didn't cost a red cent. Well, Eric (my twelve year old) got excited and wanted to use it, so I gave him permission to degrease an Ionian piece I hadn't gotten to. This little *&%#@!! takes a metal cup, places the coin in it with the Acetone (he knows what he's doing there) and pushes it around with a Ku-tip to agitate it. Needless to say this here-to-for pristine copper coin now has shiny edges at the rim top from being pushed around over a metal surface-ruined!
In his defense he said that he didn't want the acetone combining with the plastic to ruin the coin-does he have a point? What do you guys use for the acetone when de-greasing coins-plastic? And yeah, he meant well-I didn't scream, just remonstrated a bit...

cosmicdebris

Small Glass bowl. Like one of those little ice cream dishes.

CIVITAS

We've got an assortment of pickle jars that we use.

Any well rinsed, glass food jar should do the trick.

historygeek

I 've found that any bowl can cause wear. So I just put a piece of cotten or paper at the bottom of the bowl.

1jester

Definitely small glass bowls/jars. Like a low jam jar or something.

Be careful about spilling acetone on that walnut too!!! I can guarantee that whatever finish is used, acetone will make a mess of it, and may stain the wood too. Please don't even use acetone around it, if you can find somewhere else (like a workbench in the garage) to do your acetone work. Plus, you'll want good ventilation. Save the beautiful table for looking at and working with the coins, but no chemicals. By the way, walnut is my favorite wood. I love the three dimensionality it displays.

You can search the Open Pit for a recent thread about sewing machines; there are quite a few pictures too. Coincop is a collector of them, I think. So is vrtech.

Have fun with the nice table, and sorry about the coin. Your son will no doubt make a good collector yet.