Cecilia S.

Fascinating. Thank you! I just did a moderately okay job on a small plate (the one which is above the upper tension business.), by using sewing machine oil and 320-followed-but-600-followed-by1000 sandpaper. I think I see what you mean, Steve, about the steel being able to polish up nicely. The trick will be to keep it from re-rusting. Oil? Beeswax? Something else? I don't need to know yet... first, gotta clean this girl up!

Does evaporust simply loosen the rust, or also take it away? As in, are you left with a lot of finicky reachy polishing, still? The bobbin-winding business, as you know, is full of tiny joints and bits. Normally a simple girl, I am not above the use of chemical warfare in this case. Please advise as to the process of using evaporust, and I'll certainly consider getting some!

Flitz, I happen to have some, in a storage locker. If I can wait a week and a half, I can get to it, as well as a dremel tool. If using a dremel to polish away rust, what sort of bit would you use on the dremel?

Thanks!

SteveH

No Problem, glad to help.

Evaporust is actually a chemical reaction which converts/dissolves the rust (Google it and there is a TON of writeups on exactly how) it leaves alight "haze" which is easy to remove/wash off.

for the dremmel, if you can find decent brass wire cone brushes or steel ones if not will do.

Cecilia S.

Tomorrow I will be near a shoppe where I can likely buy a tension spring; the one near the upper tension dial is utterly hooped.

Can I just buy a general one suitable for Singers of that era, or is there something special about what I need for this F&R?

As the present one is broken off, I have no way of knowing what it looked like.

Also, bugger of a thing, I cannot get it out! Is there a trick? I see no set screws or such, but I -must- be missing something incorrect. The springy sproingy coily portion is well and truly stuck in there. I am certain there is an easy way to release it.

Have been busy with work and study and have resisted tending to the F&R until now, but as of tomorrow I have some Free Time. So, tonight I buy some Evaporust, and tomorrow I reward myself with hours of tinkering. :-)

BTW, when youuse Evaporust, do you leave a part in there for minutes? Hours? Overnight? I know it will depend on the part and the amount of rust, but just a ball-park idea?

Cecilia S.

Thank you to all who have helped me so far with the old Hand Crank F & R, both on-forum and off. This is the first "restoration" I have done, and it has stumped me at several points.

The Evaporust was fantastic! All parts are now clean as a whistle; the only part which is still seized is one part of the bobbin winder, but I expect to do that very soon.

That seized presser foot lever (from the beginning of the post) is free as a bird now, having Tri-Flowed it and doused it with patience as well. I was able to disassemble/remove every bit of the presser foot assembly/bar and give it a thorough cleaning.

I will post some photos of the whole machine very soon! Stitch-n-ripper, I think it is very close in era to yours, so I would really love to know how yours is coming along as well! My whole machine was quite rusty, and I found that fine wet/dry sandpaper along with sewing machine oil was My Friend. :-)

I purchased a new tension spring, and I do hope it is suitable. I finally figured out how to gently/firmly remove the threaded bolt which is part of the tension assembly in order to access the spring; with leather protecting the threaded shaft, I gently vise-gripped it off, having first annointed it with Tri Flow and Patience. I should have remembered this, for I did do it once before on another machine. Anyhow, I am attaching two photos here and I would like to know two things:

1) I am pretty sure I threaded it correctly, but -please- if it appears as though I have missed something, could someone point it out to me? Most sewing machine have more threading-points, so I am wondering if I have somehow missed one?

2) The tension assembly: I put it back together just as I removed it, and I am quite sure that this is how the spring was oriented, even though the original spring had been broken. The thing it, as it is threaded up, the spring is not engaged in the thread-stitch action whatsoever. So, I am thinking I may have done something wrong, either in the threading of the machine, or in the tension assembly. I would-really- appreciate help, or maybe even a photo of someone else's F&R tension business? Pretty please? :-)

As the bobbin winder is as yet incomplete, I am going to see if I can wind a bobbin on a similar-era Singer machine. I am so keen to try stitching with this F&R! If it works, I plan never to use a stapler again! I recently sewed an assignment together rather then stapling it... the prof rather liked it. ;-)

Cecilia S.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]440748[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]440749[/ATTACH]

P.S. Steve; I just could not quite make out the details on your threading and the tension spring on that first photo, when you posted to show me the presser foot shaft etc. Sorry... it is -almost- discernible but not quite! (of course it was not the purpose of that photo...)

Mom3

Cecilia,

I don't have the machine you are discussing here but that tension "J" spring (the one that looks like a bent paper clip) doesn't look right to me. On a Singer model that spring is facing 'up' whereas you have yours facing 'down'.

Cecilia S.

Thanks so much Mom3, for your input on the tension. The clerk at the store sold me the incorrect spring; two actually. That one in the above photo fits in nicely but is oriented the wrong way (silly me for not grasping that immediately...) and the other one, which is now in, is oriented the correct way, but is not finished off on the inner bit nicely enough to behave as it is meant to.

On a separate note, here is a photo of some fun stuff which came inside the Loot Drawer. [ATTACH=CONFIG]441586[/ATTACH]