Fleamarket find - Singer VS2 fiddleback
 

I found this tired old gal at a fleamarket yesterday. I've been wanting a fiddleback to add to my small collection. She's 125 years old, and no longer a beauty queen, but I think she is a good candidate for Glenn/Miriam's rejuvenation process. Its all complete and everything moves freely, so that is a very good sign. I recently bought a Harbor Freight ultrasonic cleaner for other uses, but would like to try it out on the gunked up bits as the come off for cleaning. Has anyone else tried this?

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It looks very nice, even in the state it's in! What a fantastic find, the cabinet looks very nice too. I hope you can get to look nice again. I'm in awe of what Glenn and Miriam can do to restore old machines like this.

Yes, I have tired ultrasonic cleaners, and they work very well. It's ideal for items with very intricate surfaces, hard to clean, lots of tiny grooves and indentations. They make the job effortles and very thoroughly. I have a tiny battery operated version of it for my contact lenses. You will love this thing, but I'm not sure how handy it will be for sewing machine parts. I get parts just as clean with out it though, by finding the right stuff that does the job. Sometimes it's the last polishing up that makes the difference. I have soaked smaller metal bits like chromed plates and feet in white wash laundry powder and hot water (not for long though), it loosens grime very well and when rinsed in hot water and dried off immediately there's no chance of rust. Hard to reach place turns out very clean.

She is a grand old lady. I would love to hear the details and see pictures of how and what you use to clean her up. I have a 27 that needs some tender loving care and have been hesitant to start because I just don't know what I am doing. Not everything moves on mine, but one day it will.

Thanks for the encouragement. I don't plan to document each step here, but I will show some highlights as I go. Today I started taking it apart and cleaning the bits and pieces. I used the ultrasonic cleaner with a 50% solution of Simple Green. I must admit that I was very pleased with the results. Here are two examples. The bobbin winder frame and the tension discs. The bobbin winder went through three 8 minute cycles and the tension discs had one 8 minute cycle. I'd say it removed 90-95% of the dried oil and grime. What remained was softened and easily removed with a toothpick or Q-tip.

Very nice. Two disks like that shine up in 1 minute with a good cream polish, and usually cleans and shine up a step further. Some metal polished does a good job on rough surfaces too, like Quick-Glo, others can leave a residue in the pitting or rough parts.,...some are better on tough grime than others, Pol Metal Polish and Autosol are two I have bought again and again, as well as Quick-Glo. I'm sure there are equivalents easily available most places.

Yes, I will polish all the nickel before reassembly. The ultrasonic just saves a lot of time and effort in the more mundane task of degreasing and cleaning. This is only the beginning, there is much more work ahead!

Beautiful! I can't wait to see how the rest of it goes!

Can't believe how it looks now. Be sure and show before and after photos.

Will do!

Here is my ultrasonic cleaner. Here I'm using a jar with the solution to hold the little screws and other bits. The jar is just sitting in water. For larger parts, I fill the tank with solution and lay the parts inside. The machine also has a heater that gets the solution hot which helps break down the hardened crud.

Ultrasonic is a really good tool for lots of industries. Dentists use it to clean crowns, bridges and dentures. It doesn't harm what's in it, I understand. However, chemicals can do harm in an ultrasonic.

All I can say is that I'm amazed at how well it works. I'm familiar with the tool, but never considered using it on sewing machine parts.

bk