Glenn,
The reason I wanted to disassemble the machine is I was going to use electrolysis to clean and remove the paint. I've had very good results doing this with the Craftsman 109 lathes I rebuild. It cleans the lathes to the case iron. It even removes all the rust. All I have to sometimes do is fill pin holes in the cast with Bondo and sand before priming. I really wouldn't even think of going this way if the finish on the 31-15 wasn't such a homegrown mess

ArchaicArcane, About the Army manuals that detail care and feeding, could you tell me where to find them.

Thanks
David Hair

I do agree with Glenn for the disassembly. I have a featherweight in pieces - for painting as well - and I'm not looking forward to putting it back together (I can but it will be a chore) I'm about to leave the house right now so I can't find right away the docs and search the names but it was a weird site, I remember that - actual army site if I recall. I'll try to remember when I'm home again.

David,
The choice is up to you. If it is going to be a heavy work machine and it sews well why bother redoing it. I do understand the need for a nice looking machine though.

I've seen a few factory machines - paint goes from scraps of paint and bare metal to repainted with a brush. All they wanted was to move fabric. I'm not sure some ever had shellac....

Mirlam, I think you just described mine. If I knew how to attach photo's I'd post a couple. I think I may have it.
David Hair

Well I'm betting it passes the 5 test. At 5 feet away walking 5 miles an hour it looks great... But I'm betting it isn't very picky what goes under the feet. Those are like roaches... You can't kill them... Use it and make something very cool. Some of them don't have shiny finish. I don't know why.

I'm also admiring your table legs. Neither of mine look that cool.

The only problem I find with the table legs is rust and the D&D is broken on the right side. Part of the wood table that supports the left back of the machine is broken. I'm gluing it back and sanding the table before putting a coat polyurethane. I also plan on replacing all screws with flat head bolts as most of the holes are near stripped. As far as the paint goes I may just sand a little and wax for now. It all depends on how well the 31-15 sews now. I have the old style clutch and a 1/4 HP motor that came with the table and the machine turns freely. Before I do any thing but fix the table top and oil the machine well I'm going to do a little test sewing.

Alright. They used to be here:

https://www.logsa.army.mil/index.cfm...tion=home.main
Publications -> ETMs On Line
Use the "Pub Title Text" field to search for "Fabric Repair""

It looks like they're gone now though. I don't get anything for that search.

Soooo,... the titles you're looking for are: _Navy Sewing Machine Repair Manual.pdf, _Navy Sewing Machine Repair.pdf, _sewing machine adjustment survival.pdf,
_USNavySinger111WConsew225REPAIR.pdf and _Industrial Machine Maintenance.pdf

ETA: Some of them are in the Industrial Sewing machines Yahoo group
Also: 4 docs specifically related to the 31-15.

Google/Bing some of those names in quotes and hits do come up. More than this though, I think we should take the rest out of Glenn's finishing thread. If you start a thread though, PM me with a link or I won't see it for a couple of days til it shows up on the digest. I recently re-wired my 31-15 and others here have taken things on more recently than I have. We'll all have input.
Well by that standard even MY french polishing looks good. ;)

I'm so glad you added the word table in there. I missed it the first time and it was.... weird. ;)

https://books.google.com/books/reader?id=2P8XAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output= reader&pg=GBS.PP1

http://keysew.com/Webpages/DemoImages/USNavySinger111WConsew225REPAIR.pdf

I would send the manuals, but too big. So here are links.