Miriam - Thank you for your post. There are things that are done better out of the stand. An example of this was a White Rotary 11 I recently was working on, which had a large screw in the middle of the hand wheel. I needed a very large screwdriver, about 16 inches long, to get it loose. That never could have been done otherwise.
Most parts of a machine are in the clear. At the two ends is where any restriction might be. Except for the White, hand wheel locking screws have never been a problem. For any tight areas, Janey has several cute little screwdrivers that we use quite effectively. Here are just a few.
(Small screwdrivers)
[ATTACH=CONFIG]523175[/ATTACH]
The top two are genuine Singer tools. I used the very bottom one recently to get the screw out of the power socket of a 201 to get it apart. About the time that the baseboard I just made was ready, Janey got us another 201. Right off the bat I had to modify the baseboard to allow a space for the bobbin access area along its left edge. I also misjudged the position in the frame, so I cut 1" off the left side of the baseboard and moved it to the left. It now has more equal space on both ends of the machine.
This 201-2 has motor brushes stuck deep down in the brass guide tubes. We're trying to figure out how to get them out without completely disassembling the motor. The work stand is very useful in positioning either brush tube upside down so that the brushes can fall out. They're just not falling out!
I hope this helps. If there is a specific machine or type of operation you are thinking of, maybe we can figure out what space there would be to work on it.
John