Originally Posted by
miriam
It is very hard to tell exactly what what point a machine will be stuck. It is best to generically oil every single movable friction point. Tammi I believe out of desperation I used break cleaner or xylene to get one unstuck. Those have to be used out doors nowhere near flame. spray some in a can - plastic will go poof - then brush on with a natural art brush. Do not leave metal over night with out re-oiling anything that stuff touches.
The gold you see on that needle bar is more likely dried on old oil not rust. Usually rust doesn't find its way into a joint because there is a protective coating of oil. If you try to force gummed up oiled parts to move you may have so many gummed up parts in other places that are being forced that something will move but it may not be what you expect or desire. You can tell the difference between rust and dried on oil by scraping on it just a little. Rust will be rough. Dried up Oil will feel gummy or oily of course. Oil will dissolve with solvent. Rust will not dissolve with oil or a solvent. It takes an acid like vinegar to dissolve the rust. If an acid is left on a rusted part the part will continue to rust even over night rust will grow. If someone put some kind of stuff to clean off rust down your needle bar then unless it had good coating of oil, you will have rust somewhere and the needle bar will have to come out and be cleaned of rust as will the sleeve it rides in. If you take out the needle bar you will need to reset it and time it. If you pry on the needle bar you could bend the needle bar. If you pry on the needle bar you will very likely have to retime it. I'm sure there is an Igor reading this. Note to Igor, use oil to do your work as much as possible. Use gentle taps and then big force as a last resort.
I should mention at this point - the rubber mallet was to introduce vibration to the handwheel bolt that I know is stuck in my case. I don't advocate the use of force under most circumstances. The worst I do is a tap here and and a gentle bump there. A smack to the top of my screwdriver sometimes to convince a screw to let go.
Ugh. Melting plastic is why DH still only buys the "bad" brake cleaner. He used the "safe" stuff on something here that was near a plastic part - I can't recall what - and melted it. It wasn't a plastic lid and it was a costly mistake.
The reason I thought the needlebar was rusted is that it looks darker than any other dried oil on the machine and looks "textured". Of course, I'm only working from a photo and photos do lie.
Originally Posted by
miriam
Tammi, more often than not I see stuck hand wheels on a rocketeer. There is nothing to grip. I've also seen a few where Igor hit it with a hammer and made notches all over the place. I never have the strength to get those off. After I've tried I get DH to do it... He gets a kick out of doing it. One time he tried to free one up for me but I hadn't oiled it up yet and he broke something under the bobbin area. Boy did he have egg on his face.
I got enough grip to tweak something in my wrist yesterday (it's swollen today) but couldn't get enough grip to actually turn anything. I think the owner of this machine was Igor-ette. She'd lost the nose piece, the top cover, there were chunks out of the handwheel, not just chips... I suspect she or Igor had a lot to do with the handwheel being that tight. Once I,.. er DH got it off, there was nothing wrong with the assembly which is why I often see the clutches over-tightened.