James
James shared with us a machine that he recently acquired.
As I mentioned I won on Shopgoodwill a 1907 Singer 28 hand crank machine. It was not well packed and the hand crank broke off. The decal set is "Victorian" and the machine was made in Scotland. The decals are mostly there with most of the wear at the left of the needle. It should display nicely once I clean the old oil and grime obscuring quite a bit of the decals. The 28 is a 3/4 size machine and differs from the newer 128 in the location of the bobbin winder.
The first thing I did was to check the hand crank action. It moves well and should work very well once I fix the broken attaching bracket. The plan is to use the original JB Weld to bond the broken bits of the cast iron bracket together. I was thinking of using wax for a jig to hold the parts in place while the epoxy cured but removing the wax with heat might affect the epoxy. Instead I plan to use a oil based modeling clay that does not harden to hold the parts together during curing. For the broken thread sections I plan to take apart the hand crank and heavily grease the bolts with tri flow synthetic grease while the epoxy cures. This should allow the bolts to be unscrewed after the epoxy hardens. JB Weld will be used in 2 stages (base bracket to finger bracket then bracket to finger end gear cover). I thought of ordering a reproduction hand crank assembly and replacing the broken bracket part while keeping the rest. However from all the reproduction photos I have seen, the reproduction does not bolt into the finger end gear cover so I would not be able to use the original decals if I decide to go with just fixing the gear cover.
The side plates were mentioned as frozen. I managed to loosen up the front plate and I removed the bullet shuttle that was in backwards preventing the free movement of the hand wheel. I will use super iron out and Brasso to clean up the slide plates. With perhaps vinegar.
Part of the tension assembly was missing so I bought a complete tension assembly that came out of a 1906 Singer 28 that was parted out on eBay. That will be cleaned up with all the other metal parts such as the grape pattern of the faceplate and the pear shaped inspection plate.
I had someone at work print out the Elna Supermatic pulley pin extraction tool with his personal 3D printer. I still need to get the various bolts and pins that goes with it. As you can see the 3D printed pulley fits nicely in it. The 3D file with instructions for use can now be found at the groups Io Elna group although most of the old Yahoo files have not been transferred yet.
James' pictures are shown below:
(upper left) The front of the machine, (upper right) The serial number, (lower left) The broken bracket at the machine base, (lower right) The rusty slide plate that I freed up and removed the bobbin shuttle that was in backwards.
(upper left) The hand crank side of the hand crank, (upper right) The finger side of the hand crank showing the damage to the gear cover, (lower left) Broken section that attaches to the finger end cover, (lower right) The back side of the Singer 28.
(upper left) The underside of the Singer 28, (upper right) A 3d printed Elna Supermatic pulley pin extraction tool. There are some pins and bolts that I need to add to it, (lower left) Tool with pulley in it showing the fit, (lower right) Part of the missing tension.
Replacement tension assembly taken from a 1906 Singer 28.
In Closing
None of us have ever been through anything like this. It's unprecedented and a little scary. But it is an inspiration to see people contributing materials and time to produce all of the masks required to get us through this safely. We've seen so many stories of people giving quickly and without reservation in this time of public need.
We don't know exactly what the next month will bring. But, one way or another we plan to meet and we will post our next meeting here, as always.
We wish everyone the best, to stay safe and well. See you next month!