You were right Steve, overnight loosened everything and my newly acquired W&G is purring like a kitten. Yippeeee!

Thanks Mizkaki. Hopefully, I or the previous owner never got oil in the automatic tensioner.

is anyone else having issues with the last page loading??

I was having a terrible time yesterday; today it's loading fine. Gremlins?

Must be but it is the posts from April 30th and May 1st that it won't load. Updated my profile a bit and today's messages come right up. Weird - I must have forgotten to feed the gremlins.

Yes, it takes forever so I usually go on and do other things.

usually the gremlins are busy messing with tensioning adjustments on some of my more recalcitrant SM's! once in awhile they wander into the world of tech.

I just wanted to share some news. In another thread I mentioned acquiring an old Singer a couple of months ago and since then I haven't been able to do anything with her. I'm studying for my Master's oral examination here in Germany at the moment, so I haven't had much time to look at her yet. But one thread talked about the first most basic step: figuring out what machine I've got and how old she is....soo, I looked her up:

She's a Singer Model 15, Serial Number: B1347528 which means she left the factory floor on Sept. 5, 1905. She needs a bit of work, but not too much, I suppose. Two round plates are missing on her backside (she's blushing a bit, because of it ;-) ). Her treadle and table top and cover are in great condition. No wood worm damage anywhere to be found. I promise to post pictures of her after my exam on Tuesday...but I was just so excited to find out how old she was, that I had to share the news here in advance!

I have a 1902 Singer 15 and I just love it - mine has the heavier balance wheel. It turns very freely and will go through about anything. Mine was buried in dried up oil - it was a lot of work to get it cleaned up. You could start by oiling it and see if leaving it a couple days helps.

Thanks for the advice Miriam! She turns without too much resistance, squeaks a tiny bit. I'm gonna tackle cleaning her up first thing after my test...I can't wait. But for now, back to studying! :-/

Congratulations on your "New" machine Fuzzykittenbutt. But so you know, the date of September 5, 1905 is the date it was ordered into production.
~Grant~