I was working on a old beastie and had one very stubborn screw. Wiggled parts around and it got looser. Oh , It was left hand thread.. You might check yours. Funny to see Canada Dry on a post from Ontario. Looks like you are doing it right. Patience pays off.

Something cute: [ATTACH=CONFIG]556171[/ATTACH]

The surface of the upper part of the machine is in terrible shape, as you can see: rough and pitted. But some of the gold decals have survived against all odds, and while swabbing off the arm I realized that the name of the machine was actually visible! I think this might have been an early version of the Venus; the decoration is not nearly as elaborate as on the picture of the one in the St. Catherine's museum.

Crikey, you were right! A left hand thread! When I think of how I tortured that poor screw trying to get it off. The part was so loose by the end, it could practically swing, and all I had to do was turn it the other way - aaarrghh!

Oh well, I got off another piece: the bit that connects to the wheel on the underside and moves the shuttle from side to side. It's actually 2 pieces, joined like an elbow with ANOTHER stubborn screw, but I put the whole thing into EvapoRust to clean, and I'll figure out how to detach them later, if necessary.

Bonus: I've gotten the lower rod to turn! I can make the big wheel go round and round on the underside now, and hadn't even gotten around to removing the rust from the rod! Once again, it was good old sewing machine oil that did the trick.

I'm SO close to being able to pull the entire bed off the machine. It was only held on with a couple of small screws. If only I could a) remove the needle plate or b) raise the presser foot a few millimeters, I could slide the whole thing off. So far no luck, though. (That's probably a left-hand thread screw holding down the needle plate too, which has defeated all my attempts so far.)

glad it worked for you. It will be such a joy when you get it to stitch.

What a great project! I've got a lot of respect for those sewing machine inventors 100+ years ago. It's amazing how they figured things out -- and without computers or modern machinery. Thanks for sharing your progress in pictures!