The Venus Project
 

Now that my Canadian mystery machine has been identified, I thought I'd start a thread just to record what I find as I try to clean away the rust and grime that have accumulated over 100 years of neglect. Just trying to get it clean is going to take me the summer, I think, but I'm going to take pictures as I go. People here are a lot more experienced at this sort of thing than I am, so I'll be asking for help along the way.

The throatplate still is giving me trouble, but I had one success: the rusty piece I'd loosened from the underside finally came out - it was the bracket for holding the shuttle, and I also found the shuttle with the tiny bobbin inside it! After a bath in EvapoRust, this is how it looked:

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You were blessed to find both the boat shuttle and bobbin with this machine. Looks like you are off to a good start lovin' on her!

I agree, very lucky to have the suttle and bobbin! Very old shuttles are almost impossible to find!

Thank you for the updates! I'm looking forward to this beauty coming into the spotlight.

P.S. please don't forget to give a light coat of machine oil to the parts after they dry from their Evaporust bath. Re-rusting happens so unfairly fast.

Amazing I will so enjoy watching your progress.

Thanks for the tip about the oil. Once I'd dried them thoroughly, I put them in ziplock bags to keep them out of the air while I work on other parts, but I definitely want to protect them from re-rusting again.

Great start to the restoration/refurbishment. And I found it funny that you had to use an American penny for scale - ours sure disappeared from circulation quickly didn't they!

A few more pictures: I got the faceplate off. Hunted everywhere for a screw that attached it, but couldn't find anything, so I finally guess that it must just snap on! I used an Exacto knife to gently pry apart the layers of metal at the corners - they were so grimy with old grease and rust that they looked welded together, but they finally loosened and as I'd thought, pulled off. Underneath - ugh! Lots of rust and crud. I haven't finished cleaning it yet, but I got the surface stuff off. The spring on the presser foot is flexible again.
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I used EvapoRust on the faceplate - you can see how nicely it cleaned up! No shine, of course, but it's 200% better than before.

I'll bet she'll be a beauty when you are finished cleaning it up.

A couple more pictures. I managed to get the balance wheel and the large gear wheel behind it off. Not quite sure how I did this. The bolt is still firmly attached to the balance wheel. I tried to move it with a wrench but nothing happened. The bolt head is round, so it's hard to grip. Even as I was trying, I felt that this wasn't the right way to go about it. Finally I gave up and decided to just have some fun and see if I could make the balance wheel spin so I applied lots of sewing machine oil and kept rotating the wheel. It was getting really loose and smooth when I was delighted to see the gear wheel behind moving too! Finally the whole thing just worked its way off. I must have been turning the wheel backwards and somehow unscrewed it.

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The gear wheel has all its teeth intact, but the lip is either chipped or ground down. Still seems to fit, but it's not perfect. There should have been gold decals all around the balance wheel, but I can't see any trace of them now.

Thank you for allowing us to experience this along with you AND for saving this machine.

I kind of giggled when I read about taking the summer. Yes, it will take some time. Enjoy the process. I know sometimes I will get involved in one little part that seems to end up being more and look up and it is two hours later. You will be amazed as you go back through the pictures at the transformation.

Janey - Neat people never make the exciting discoveries I do.