Quiltgranny

Hi Everyone,

I recently purchased a Singer 301a from FL that has some rust here and there, including a little on the feed dogs. The machine sews pretty good, but when I went to lower the feed dogs to try out FMQ, I couldn't get the thumbscrew (to the left of the bobbin case) to turn away from me with a screwdriver as the manual says to do.

Can anyone tell me the correct way to free up the thumbscrew and if there's anything I can do to clean the rust off the feed dogs?

I've attached two pics to show you just what I'm looking at.

Thanks in advance, :D