I found the needle clamp parts that Randy needed, and got them installed. I’m sure glad that I “invested” what I thought was a generous amount of money in old sewing mechanic box lots the past few years just to have parts on-hand. I’ve bought 3 or 4 lots of old parts over the past 8 years. Paying good money for someone’s junk box of things that I may never use seemed like a waste of money in a way, but the number of times that I’ve went to the junk boxes in desperation and found what I needed has made it all worth it. It paid off once again.
With Randy’s new needle secured in the replacement clamp, clamp screw, thread guide and attachment screw, I hand-wheeled him through some leather and vinyl again. Everything went just fine, so I decided to put him in the power stand and give him a go.
Randy sews!!!! Waaa-hooooo!
He sews too fast for leather work or repair work, but by golly, he sews a good stitch. He’s getting about 5 1/2 stitches to the inch on vinyl alone, and about 6 stitches per inch on leather over vinyl. That’s not bad. I still need to run more thread through him to make sure everything is good, but he whizzed through my sample without a hick-up. Now, I can turn my attention to the power stand and see if I can figure out something to slow it down. With all of the farm machinery around this area, there should be a couple of old pulleys, a shaft, a couple of bearings, and a bracket or two laying around somewhere not being used.
With this posting, I declare the Singer 31-15 Spa Treatment Experiment complete. I’m sticking with my old method of using sewing machine oil to soak old machines back to life. I hope everyone enjoyed following this thread. Now, it’s on to the next project. I still have another “basket case” on my bike table right now, an Adler 205-64, and it’s coming onto time to get the motorcycles serviced up for summer. I’ve got to have the air table cleared off for them.
CD in Oklahoma