Originally Posted by
miriam
Sounds like you can not turn the machine by hand at all. Try taking the needle out - take out the bobbin. What have you already done to the machine? Did you use sewing machine oil or Triflow to oil it? Did you open up the bottom of the machine and oil down there? Did you open up any access holes to the top and end? Pay special attention to the parts that look like wrenches or forks - if those gunk up there is no moving. How much dried up oil can you see inside the machine? I like the Triflow because it will loosen up the old dried oil. It is not the oil that you can see that will gunk it up. It is the oil dried in the cracks between moving parts - sticks like cement. Heat will help some, too. I like to oil a drop and then attempt to rock the machine just a little any movement that will get the Triflow into the cracks will help. You need to oil all of the potentially moving places - look at another machine as you go if necessary. I also turn machines upside down and on end to the get the oil to go into the cracks.
I have oiled the whole machine. I took it apart, bit by bit, to discover what moved and what did not. I have narrowed it down to the middle rod that runs from a gear on the right side over to the bobbin spinner on the left. The bobbin area does not move at all. All of the other parts move slightly when I move the hand-wheel, gently, back and forth. The needle bar was...is...stuck in the down position, but when I removed a few screws, I was able to unstick the needle bar, wiggle and lift it and removed the needle so it is no longer stuck in the bobbin area. That gear, that rod is the only thing that does not move. There wasn't a lot of lint, in fact, the machine looks pretty clean. The hair dryer sounds like a possibility. It does look, however, like a mouse had moved in for a while and stashed his seeds, but I got all that out. I really want to sew with this machine. The treadle runs SO smoothly.....
Question...when I do get it going...does a thicker lubricant go in the gear area? I think that's what I've read...or is that just for the newer machines with the plastic gears?