OurWorkbench

Thank you all for the encouragement. One good thing about all the dried oil is that it really protected it from rust.

Yesterday John wanted to take the "work stand" apart, so I took advantage of having the machine out of the stand to take the shuttle carrier and feed dogs out. The shuttle carrier moved freely through its normal track but when I went to remove it there was a lot of dried oil at the ends of the track. I tried to scrape some out but still wouldn't easily come out. I ended up using a wood dowel and rubber mallet to the wood dowel, much like getting stuck plates off a Singer 27. The feed dogs were sandwiched between some connecting rods. Here it is after taking out the screws.

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Needless to say, the feed dogs didn't slide out easily. I used a cuticle stick and the rubber mallet and was able to move it. Almost out -

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This is the side of the feed dogs that is facing the shuttle.

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The other side - It isn't real noticeable in this picture but one of the screw holes was barely visible as when removing the screw it must have pulled in a bunch of dried oil.

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The shuttle carrier after I got it out

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I decided to try to remove the dried oil as much as I could, as easily and quickly as I could, by giving it a bath in Oxi-Clean. (Maybe a half hour soak) I brushed some of the crud off with a stiff bristle brush.

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Looking better -

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I will do a bit more polishing on these before going back into the machine -- I still have lots of cleaning of the parts still on the machine, especially where these parts go.


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

SteveH

a trick to clean the threads of the screws, add a drop of oil and pinch the threads in your abrasive of choice (scrubbie, steel wool, etc) and then screw it out and in to the abrasive. I use a fingernail pressed into a groove on some while i turn it. (I have lost too many to a bench wirewheel....)

OurWorkbench

I used this trick with the needle plate screw on the previous page. I use a screw driver, as it is a little easier on the finger nails. I have found another way to clean screws - at least the bigger ones like the feed dog and shuttle carrier. I used a vintage, pre-1978 PanaVise with nylon jaws and my 770 type 1 Dremel.

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Here are the screws. Left to right: after oxi-clean; after brass brush and Weiman polish; after oxi-clean; after just brass brush.

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The feed dogs polished up nicely, too.

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and the side after polishing that had been the "gunkiest"

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I also cleaned off some of the connecting rods and 'pad' for the shuttle carrier. It was kind of a cross between the shuttle carrier and the gunky feed dogs. I thought I had taken some pictures after I got the shuttle carrier off, but didn't get any before I cleaned it up. I just used the alcohol swabs, so far, on them to get the dried oil off.

I think that is about all, for now.

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

OurWorkbench

I have gotten a little bit more of the dried oil off, including the track that the shuttle carrier travels. The carrier will travel smoothly ALL the way through without any resistance at the ends. I didn't get very good pictures of the area where the feed dogs go. It has been cleaned up a bit more than what is shown below.

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I found a place that hadn't gotten cleaned up before I took the shuttle carrier out. Before ..

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and after ..

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What I found after cleaning the dried oil off the backside of the stitch length assembly - ( I still have some more to go with this. I still can't turn it.)

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Something I found kind of interesting is that the key that I have for my 99-13 and will work on my 27 (serial number allotted in 1903) will work on the bonnet for the Weed. I wonder how many different sizes of 'square' keys were made.

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to be continued

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

SteveH

It is truly wonderful to see what is under the years of accumulated neglect...

This is especially true with the early machines from the major manufacturers, the simple elegance and quality that they made these with is just simply not available today...

Enjoy your treasure!

Justsosew

What lovely results. So satisfying.
Maggie

OurWorkbench

Ain't that the truth. I certainly am enjoying my treasure.

Thank you. It really is looking better. I never thought I would see one this old in person, let alone be able to "work" on it. Actually, it is more like "playing" with it.

As much crud as I've gotten off, I'm really kind of surprised that it moved as freely as it did when I first got it. I worked on a couple of oil holes on the main shaft. The oil holes for the feed dogs were pretty clean as I could see metal at the bottom of the hole. The oil holes on the main shaft were filled with crud. I know sometimes oil doesn't go into the oil holes and the only recommendation I have seen was to stick a toothpick in to release the oil to where it is supposed to go. The toothpick broke. I tried the small dental brushes and that didn't work. I tried the airbrush cleaning brushes and a little bit stuck to the brush. I tried a dental pick and that got a little bit. I ended up using a broken needle to dig the gunk out.

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SUCCESS

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Now to the next one --

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I also worked on the hand wheel last night and will look at in day light. There does seem to be some paint that has been worn off, but I forgot to take a "before" picture. I will take a picture later of the after. It appears that there is some sort of press fit hardware and a nut that cleaned up fairly well.

Stay tuned folks - more to follow

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

sewbeadit

I love reading the progress of the Weed machine and how you are doing all of it. Keep it coming. HOw long do you think all that crud had to be on the machine for it to look like that? I have a hand crank that needs cleaning like this but it isn't quite as bad as this one. Will start on that after the holidays.

OurWorkbench

I don't have any idea how long it has been like this but my guess is that for a really long time. I kind of wonder if it was oiled every year - even if it hadn't been used. Like a lot of us with old machines - one wonders about the history of these machines - when it was last used/serviced and by who. Considering that the needle that was in the machine was an actual "WEED" needle, I would think that it hadn't been used for over 70 years. I hope your hand crank goes smoothly. What will you be using to clean?

I finally got the stitch length regulator screw off. I tried the spark plug tool shown earlier, but it kept slipping off. I ended up using some thick rubber that I had found specifically for this type of thing with a regular pair of pliers. I also have an old flat vacuum belt that would have worked as well.

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John had noticed some notches on the nut and the piece with the number on it (red arrow in picture below). We figured out that that was to hold the stitch length. I was kind of afraid that when I started unscrewing the nut that things would spring apart. It didn't. I threaded some SM oiled crochet thread through the spring to try to clean the spring with the threader as indicated by the blue arrow and shaft behind it. It was kind of crowded in there and kept trying to get it cleaned up but didn't seem to spring out.

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This morning I sprayed some Kroil next to the threads and the top of the spring. I turned the hand wheel a bunch of times and noticed that the spring was pushing the numbered piece out. I finally got it out to where the notches matched.

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Some other things that I have gotten cleaned up - the cleaned up rod where the feed dogs screws into as shown in the first picture on this page.

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The hole where the feed dogs go.

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The oil hole between the hand wheel and cam, even got some of the shaft cleaned off.

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Worked some and cleaned off the net in the hand wheel.

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It's a good thing that I don't have to take it off. I would have to get an offset wrench as the nut is kind of inset from the outside of the hand wheel. Seems like I have seen them for antique machines but don't remember which one. I do have 20586 for the 27. Just for grins, I went and got the 20586 wrench and tried it on the nut. If you turn it on edge one of the openings will work - I didn't take it off but was able to move it.

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More later --

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

Rodney

Great progress and great attention to detail!
Thanks for sharing your progress with us.
Rodney