bkay

I got home early from my visit. Both the knobs are working today. The right one is still a little sticky. I stuffed small pieces of paper towels under the areas I wanted to clean to catch the alcohol drips, then later, the tri-flow drips. The needle still won't move appropriately. It will move if you push from the top of the needle bar, but not from the bottom. I'll keep working on it.

After reading some of the old posts, I pm'd Joe Miller about taking out the cam stack. He said do, even if I am reluctant. He said it's not hard to put back or to time.

So, onward and upward. I'm printing out the service manual for this one, though.

Thanks for the help and links.

bkay

bkay

Alyce, get it out. A challenge is good for your brain.

bkay

miriam

When a needle doesn't move it can be any moving part along the way. You need to clean and oil every single little moving part. One time a 7 year old boy was watching me sew. He would not leave. He was intrigued. Finally he asked if he could look inside the machine. He looked on the bottom and the looked in the nose. Then he said, "well, that ain't nothing but levers and pistons and gears." I would do like Cari says with cleaning. I never spray anything in a machine. It is way too messy. You cannot control spray. I have had chemical poisoning before and never want it again. That spray goes in your lungs as well as anywhere else. But it most likely won't go where you really need it to go. The page we did on the 401 has good info. You should read every word of it. I have made a lot of posts about cleaning up a 401. There is a lot of work to getting one of them working properly. You can take off the cam stack but you can get it clean and running with out doing that. Don't do it unless something is broken.

Mickey2

I shall have to buy some rubbing alcohol, or surgial spirit would be much the same. I think it's in the direction of ispropyl alcohol, or ethanol blends, I don't know really.

The 401 threads are good. I have to admit I have used spray can stuff, they tend to dissolve dried up oil and grime faster. I use the straw, aim at a particular point and it's usually not messy. These oils are very thin, wipes off easily and don't leave much behind. They are solvents though, a large part of them tend to be hexan which evaporates rather quickly. Open a window and use them in a ventilated room is the standard recommendation. Triflow and Finish Line Ceramic Wet lube are very safe in this regard, they aren't much different than the basic oil, but I find they loosen up gummed up parts a bit quicker than other oils on bottles. It's probably the teflon that's made me stick with them in the long run though, they make machines run a notch smoother :- )

OurWorkbench

Some more reading material

http://archaicarcane.com/stuck-in-th...lant-o-matics/
Singer 403a

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