She’s here!

She came in the mail yesterday.

For today, her name is “old rust bucket”.  Here are some before pictures and then pictures after 2 hours of cleaning.

Before

after…

The spool case is still in pretty bad shape, tho.  But, I knew I was going to have a lot of work here.  That spool of pink thread is what came in her.  I have plenty of those little wooden spools, but might try to fit a plastic spool that has a thinner spindle and holds more thread in her, as well…when she’s feeling up to it and after that spool case is shiny and smooth.

Before

after.  I may eventually replace the end plate because there’s still plenty or rust and the chrome plating is a bit pitted, but not for now.

Before…enough lint to make a sweater.  That’s not just my hand shaking in excitement that makes the picture blurry.

after…ooh, sparkly!

And here’s the outside, after some dusting and cleaning.  The only missing part I’ve encountered so far is the needle clamp and I’ve found one of those and just need to order it.

She was completely frozen when I started.  Locked up tight.  So, I started pouring on the oil.  I nearly saturated the two heavy brown paper sacks that she was sitting on by the time I was done.  And, I was cleaning and wiping and gently trying to turn things.  I worked a while and then the handwheel moved just a fraction of an inch.  I kept working, and then I could turn the hand wheel half way, so I cleaned some more.  And then, suddenly, it just broke loose and went all the way around, roughly and slowly.  A little more work and then I found where it was still dragging and I cleaned and scrubbed until it is going almost smoothly.  I’ll get all the way there, but no hurry. 

The stitch length regulation is still tight, but I’ll get that solved, too.  Working, working, working.  Slowly.  Careful not to break or bend anything.

Honestly, I thought it was going to be much worse than it is.  Seems that most of the problems have rubbed away, but there’s still some more old gunky oil and lubricant to clean away.

My tools?  I’ve used a quarter of a bottle of sewing machine oil, a handful of cotton swabs, a rag, and a screwdriver.  That’s it.  Oh, and one thumbscrew was tight and needed a pair of pliers to loosen it.  But, that’s all.

It isn’t my intention to take her apart any more than I absolutely have to.  I’ll be removing the handwheel and getting behind there because I can’t get it out of gear.  The stop knob turns correctly, but the handwheel is stuck to the drive shaft and that will have to be worked out.  No problem.  But, that’s about all I plan to do.  I can already tell that somebody had tightened the upper tension all the way, likely thinking they were just tightening a screw, and it had been left that way.  But, that might have been a good thing because it kept the tension disks from getting rusty.  I know how to adjust tension. 

So, I’d love to call in sick from work today and spend the day picking up supplies and getting her all ready to rumble.  But, it is not to be. 

Off I go.  I think I’ll stick her spool case in my pocket, tho, just to be near.

Be well.  Have a great Wednesday.  Sydney had an appt with the surgeon yesterday and he bragged on how well she’s doing.  She still has work to do, but she’s far enough along in her range of motion that she can start working on strength training now.

Lane