Well it has been over a week now since I took the feed dog lever off and think I better post the pictures.
After getting the lever out,there was a bunch of crud at the end in the hole
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and the washer looked like this
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this is the side that was next to the lever
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The screw, spring and washer after cleaning and polishing (with silver polish & 0000 steel wool)
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The screw still looked like it had some crud in the threads. I tried the brass brush on the Dremel with the screw clamped into the vise. Still cruddy, so I took some dental floss and was able to get more out.
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Upon further inspection I decided that the washer was in the correct position so that it prevents the spring from getting twisted in the oblong hole at the end of the lever.
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This past week I haven't been taking many pictures. I have cleaned some more at the joints trying to get the dried oil off. I mainly use my fingernail or a cuticle stick or a plastic scraper. I have oiled multiple times and then go back and try to scrape off some more.
I guess it is time to move on to the irons and table top. I have been re-reading posts about restoring wood & irons. So many things spinning around in my head. I do have boiled linseed oil and vinegar. I also have Kiwi shoe polish. I also was doing some research on Briwax and found that there are two formulas. Also, something that I read about the Briwax was that because of the solvent used (I think in both - but different solvents in each) that it will clean as well as polish. Should I decide to go that route (Briwax) that probably "Tudor Brown" would be what would work well for the black walnut wood. I took some pictures of the table late yesterday afternoon, but haven't downloaded, yet. I went and looked again in brighter light this morning and found a date of
Dec. 28, 1875 on the bracket for the extension leaf.
Now it is one hundred forty years old (or at least the bracket is).
Janey - Neat people never make the exciting discoveries I do.