Yea, I was just being smarty. I try not to have parts left over. I put the cover screws into tiny ziplock bags before I take another cover off, and then place the cover and bag together in a tub. As the covers come off, they get stacked up in the order of removal. For internal screws, gears and pieces, I put them into small microwave dishes that I have. They don’t hold much, so I can put just a few items in them that are associated with each other, and get another one for the next few items that I take apart. I have about 10 of the dishes, and I can stack them in many cases to help keep track of the sequence that I used in disassembly.

But I have completed reassembly of a machine and lifted it off of the bench, only to find a small piece of plastic gear or plastic thrust washer laying where it had been sitting. The question then is, did I miss something, or did the last mechanic not get all of the broken pieces out of the machine last time? There was a dime laying there a couple of weeks ago after working on a machine. I found out it was her needle clamp screwdriver, and she’d dropped it down into the machine one time when she had the needle plate off. She has it back to drop it again sometime....

CD in Oklahoma

Wilbur, Mom and I fiddled with a Standard Rotary machine today. Anybody know what needles it uses? Wilbur was showing off for his Great Grandma. He cleaned and cleaned that machine. That machine should feel really loved. He discovered that the hand wheel turns back instead of forward. It had a 'new' motor screwed on it. When we started the machine didn't turn well at all. We pulled a long thread out of the bobbin area and we cleaned and oiled. When we took the motor off that thing really turned sweet. We had no left over parts or screws. Then Wilbur and I went to the grocery store and I rewarded him with ice cream. It was very cute to watch him explain the sewing machine to my Mom. She perks up when she is around machines but she doesn't use one very often. I try to do a few repairs or what ever with her watching every once in a while. She seems to enjoy watching me.

OK, well I think I spent about 6 hours on this machine today! Howard's Feed'n'Wax on the case til I figure out how to remove the spilled and splattered paint. It sure sucked that right up! Cleaned the machine, including confiscating her fur coat. *shudder* Decided to put a couple of coats of Shellac on her to protect what's left of the decals. I did lose some definition in about a dime sized spot of her decals, under the bobbin winder trying to remove all of the old oil. It was so thick that you couldn't even tell there were decals under it. I figured a tiny it of loss was better than 1/32" of standing solid oil. Between the cleaning of bright work and prep for shellac, I went through more than 2oz of Everclear.... on the machine... I'm still sober. ;) I'll wait a week and polish her up. I need to source some DBx1 needles too so I can test sew, unless I just use the old one for now. I need some anyway because for some reason the only ones I can get here are too thick to fit the needle clamps of any of my German machines and I'm going to guess this one too. Oh, and I have to figure out threading for bobbin winding. This one looks different than my German machines and the Singer VS machines. In the meantime though, here she is:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]518439[/ATTACH]
[ATTACH=CONFIG]518440[/ATTACH]
[ATTACH=CONFIG]518441[/ATTACH]

Oh, and I got 2 more coats of shellac on the 201 too, so that one's pretty much ready for polishing and reassembly in a week too. :)

OOooh pretty! Is this after the shellac went on?

It's after the shellac was dry to the touch and I wiped off some of the oil that's applied with it. I'm getting better, it usually doesn't look like I pulled a concrete trowel through it anymore. :thumbup: I find it's better to have less oil on it when putting it back in the base because I'm already a natural Klutz!

That looks great! Sure did shine right up! I love those Jones machines.

Today, I’m on the hunt for a replacement belt for my machine....

CD in Oklahoma

Thanks Steve! I was lucky, she was a very willing accomplice! I can't wait to see her polished up. I finally figured out why I could tell it was Jones even from a back photo. That pillar... it's shaped like the hind quarter of a horse. It's quite distinctive.

I think next, I'll go through Glenn's restoring cabinets stuff and see what sort of remedial work I can do there while I'm waiting on the shellac.

Tammi, you did a wonderful job! I am envious! I have so much refurbishing of the shellac coat on these machines I have here, and right now, I can't stand for 10 minutes! Great job!

Jeanette

Nice job Tammi! I've been messing with a mid 70s (I think) Kenmore free arm. Model 158.xxxxx with built in decorative stitches. It's by far the most complicated machine I've opened up. It's a friend's machine who inherited it from her grandmother. It had sat long enough that it was pretty frozen up from dried oil. The bobbin winder was stuck along with the feed dogs wouldn't lower on their return stroke, the buttonholer drive was frozen and it wouldn't change stitch patterns. A lot of disassembling and wiggling things until they were free. I had to tear the bottom end apart to get to the parts of the feed dog mechanism that were stuck. 2 drops of oil and a little wiggling back & forth and the main problem was solved. Trouble is I had to tear it down far enough that I messed up the timing. I've got it back together and the timing is close now but I'm still getting a few missed stitches especially on the decorative stitches. On the plus side I've learned a lot from it and it's keeping me out of trouble. I'm hoping to have it done by
Monday when I see them again.
Rodney