And earlier... I just thought it wasnt elegant enough. In a pinch you van wedge a piece of popcorn under the pedal.Ask me how I know.

If you use caramel corn (Cracker Jacks) it wont fall out or get smooshed as qwik!

So much for paying attention. Maybe I should switch to Sudoku and leave SM alone.

See the quote in my signature. Dah!

ROFL !! No. Hang in here. Get a lot from your posts.

Use a length of hose to locate noises. Put one end in your ear and move the other around your noisy sewing machine until the noise is loudest, then you're less than an inch away from the source of the annoyance.

On occasion I have 2 of my DGKs help me clean the dirtiest of machines. They have to share their own tool box. They know where it is kept. They know it is theirs. Wilbur likes a couple of the same screw drivers I do so I learned to look there for screwdrivers if he has been around... :thumbup: He is very partial to Tri-Flow so I have an empty bottle just for him. (He is a bit generous with oil.) The tool box has pipe cleaners, artist brushes, tooth brushes, mascara brushes, big paint brush, little paint brush, Qtips, tooth picks, 1 screwdriver, measuring tape, ruler, pincushion (I'm not sure how it got there), forceps, tweezers, bits of t-shirts cut into rags, empty condiment bottle for blowing out lint, and I am looking for more ideas. They fight over the same brush I don't know why. I only have one screw driver in there because I'm afraid if I'm not looking Wilbur will use it when he is not suppose to. He is pretty good most of the time though. I have a machine the kids can pull screws out of to their hearts content. (no it is not a T&S) Next week Wilbur will be coming over to help pull parts off a machine for Joe - Joe doesn't want a whole machine he wants parts... Joe was concerned that Wilbur would strip threads and tear up screw slots. We all do that but he isn't that strong yet. He is only 4 so it is all he can do some times to just get the screw in or out. He loves to try. It will be great practice for him to remove parts with out losing pieces or damaging them. We will have better screw drivers and little zip bags added to his tool box for that occasion. It amazes me how seriously the kids take the work on the machines and it's parts & their tools. It amazes me how much they have learned. While they can't physically do everything they sure have looked and watched and talked about what things do. Last time he was here, Wilbur helped me clean out a bobbin area. He was speechless as we did it. I had to make him talk about what we were doing so I could know if he was understanding. He can also take apart and put a balance wheel the right way if he can get the screws loose... He only can do those things with me around. He is very good about keeping his hands where they are suppose to go.

Mike, I am going to add HOSE to Wilbur's tool box - I know Wilbur already listens to every machine but he will love the hose idea. Thank you. Early on I taught him how to oil by listening as well as looking for moving parts and oil holes. He heard his rocking horse squeaking the next day so he tried to 'oil' it with a bottle of Dawn. At least he was only trying to put one drop on each little crack and hole so we assume he was oiling - the Dawn did come out a bit fast for him though...

Glad I could add something, Miriam. I assume Dawn is washing detergent? Even a small amount of that would dissolve a lot of oil away!

Yes Dawn is dish soap and I use it to get rid of oil some times but not directly on a machine - I hate to think what it would do... The Little Tikes rocking horse in question has no moving parts - it is all pure plastic and just rocks. He thought it was noisy for some reason. He has also gotten a condiment bottle and dropped one drop of water on each stem where petals of my petunia plant meet the stalk. He loves to oil things....

So I have a cord question. How do you all corral your cords? I'm currently in the middle of my room, and I need power for the iron. If I leave the cord on the floor, I trip over it at least 20 times a day.

I've seen a "system" where people use bungies to keep the cord above them and tame the excess. Of course I can't find a good picture of it now that I'm trying to duplicate it. I suppose the retractable reels would work, but I have a drop ceiling and I wonder how it would hold up to that sort of pulling. Maybe it wouldn't be any worse than the bungie system.

The way I have it now, the cord is strung up above the ceiling tiles then it hangs about 18" at the middle of the table. I'm less comfortable with that since I found the cord warm to the touch the last time I pressed for an hour or so.

If it got warm, either the cord was not heavy enough gauge, or the receptacle connectior wasn't tight enough. Also the longer the ext cable, the greater the resistance, and the greater voltage drop across it.