Mrismary

Hello everyone - newbie here
I bought a lovely little hand crank Grain Mk1 miniature sewing machine from a junk shop a few months ago, my first vintage machine as an adult. It has a little bit of rust on the slide plates etc. I really don't want to dismantle and soak it as I've seen a lot of people recommend in evapo rust. I really just want to be able to gently remove the rust with a gentle chemical and a q tip or something to that effect. Do you have any advice?

Thank you so much!!!

bkay

Without a picture, it's hard to give advice. However, on the slide plates, etc. (unpainted surfaces), I'd try metal polish first.
bkay

Mrismary

Great point! I didn't even think of adding pics! here are some https://photos.app.goo.gl/cpYTe6VBF3Lo8PFj7 (the site said I couldn't upload to the post as I was missing a security token...). What do you think? Do you have a recommendation on brand as I just wouldn't know the right one to get....

Thanks again

Mrismary

and actually one mReplyore question..... am I absolutely crazy to think about making a quilt (my first ever) on this little tiny hand crank machine or do you think I can manage it? I am planning to use flannel (old shirts)

OurWorkbench

Welcome. Cute machine. I had to look it up and found some links regarding your machine and found
https://www.grain-sewing.com/grain-history
https://www.singersewinginfo.co.uk/toys/grain/
https://www.singersewinginfo.co.uk/t...ain1threading/

I don't see much rust. The needle plate could be removed and polished. The upper part before the tension could probably be removed, polished and replaced easily. The pictures are too small to see much more.

I would not recommend a quilt on it, unless maybe a doll sized quilt. Flannel can have its own set of difficulties, as it tends to ravel more than good quilting cotton.

We like pictures. In order to post pictures on Quilting Board, you will probably need to reduce or compress the picture to a file size that is smaller than 2MB. How to post images can be found at https://www.quiltingboard.com/attach...020-01-17-.pdf
Don't forget to scroll over to the far right to find and click on the "Upload" button.

I have found that only the big red "Reply" button works to give me the paper clip icon to work for adding pictures.

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

Mrismary

Thank you so much, really appreciate it! Do you think quilting would damage it or just that it wouldn't be as easy as working on a bigger machine?

Is there a metal polish you would recommend?

Thank you so much again

Mary

OurWorkbench

It would be easier on a full size machine. If you are just piecing the quilt on the machine, then you just want to have support on the sides and back as you are sewing longer pieces together so that it doesn't pull and possibly break needles. You also want to clean the fuzzies out, frequently. If you want to stitch the whole quilt, it will not fit, My feeling is that you don't want a chain stitch for that anyway, I have seen moving pads quilted with chain stitch, but I would think that for a quilt, one doesn't want chain stitched quilting. I tried to make a mask with chain stitching and when I went to put it on, I pulled out the stitching.

I have used a variety of metal polishes. I really like Simichrome.Polish, but am having a hard time finding it locally. I did get some Flitz, but haven't tried it, yet. I have also used some Brasso. I haven't used anything, unless it is off the machine.

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

Mrismary

ok perfect, I was just thinking of sewing together the half triangles on it (is that piecing?) and then sewing them into a quilt on my electric Brother machine. I just wanted to have a project to work on it with so that it had a nice purpose. I guess I can give it a go and see what happens. I will have to find out what kind of needles it takes in case I do break one!

Thank you again for all the advice and recommendations, truly appreciated

OurWorkbench

From what I read, it will take 15X1, HAX1, 130/705H which are the same that the Brother uses. If you are using a pattern, I would suggest that you cut larger and possibly taking a larger seam allowance (for flannel). I don't know if you can change the stitch length on your Grain, but it has been suggested to use a shorter stitch length with flannel.

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