MeganMills

I got it working! Happy, happy.

I thought you might all like to know I got the old dunger working and have re-named her Black Beauty. No small thanks due to all of you, by the way. And I've given you credit for it.

My journey isn't over. I wanted a carry case for her as well for when I want to take her places without the treadle. (I have a hand-crank and am a volunteer at a historic home where I dress up in period costume and actually do and make things rather than just decorate the place.)

I could find a suitably long bentwood case but it had a Singer 201 in it. In really bad shape - cosmetically pretty nice on the outside but a rust-disaster inside. It took days to get out the rear throat plate screw and when I got it off - rust everywhere. The top arm is full of rust-dust too and it just keeps shaking out and down and into gears. Ugh. I'm contemplating taking out all the shafts and gears which I didn't do with Black Beauty in the end. I just cleaned in there as best I could with a long skinny bottle-brush thing and wiped and oiled and wiped and oiled until everything kept coming out pretty clean.

So any advice any of you have on ways to really clean in those pillar and arm areas when there's a ton of rust in there so I don't have to more-or-less fully dismantle her would be great! Thank you... Megan
p.s. Nobody warned me this was addictive. Ahem - I've now got a Singer 28, 1914 lined up in the wings so I can learn how to do those too. Unusally its bobbin winder is up top, not on the bed. I guess that's something that happened on later 28s or was an "upgrade" someone did later. Any advice or tips on good threads on here, manuals, refurbishment info, online tutes etc for that model will also be hoarded, studied and treasured for that project.