Black Swan is purring like a kitten now. But it wasn't easy.
A little backstory. When I bought her, she had a broken needle. I had just assumed that sometime during the years of neglect something came along and randomly snapped it off. I assumed wrong.
But first there was also a user created problem. Last night I just ran paper practice targets though her. This morning I actually loaded her up with thread. And... no stitches. The hook turned, the needle went in an out, just the threads were not locking. I was bummed. Something was seriously wrong with the machine. I KNEW! I had done everything correctly. Well I hadn't. In my excitement I had managed to put the needle in backwards. D'oh! Once that was resolved, with much blushing, the stitches came out just the way they are supposed to.
Wednesday, December 30, 2015
Tuesday, December 29, 2015
Monday, December 28, 2015
201 Cleaned Up
Well it took just over two days, but here she is. All clean, new grease and oil. Just got an eight amp electrical cord for the pedal I'm going to put on and then give her a few revs to get the lubrication flowing.
Saturday, December 26, 2015
It Followed Me Home, Honest. Can I Keep It!?
So I stumbled (while digging maniacally) across a little treasure today.
Monday, December 21, 2015
Taking Out The 66 Needle Bar Cap
After spending the evening pining over some 201's for sale that I can't let myself buy until I show progress on the 66 rebuild I decided to take out some frustrations on it. Specifically the needle bar cap, which has stubbornly refused to budge even after repeated drenchings of Blaster PB.
End Of The De-rusting Phase
I finished with the Evaporust yesterday. I admit my expectations are probably a bit high. But since I spent more on the Evaporust than I did the actual machine I'm de-rusting I figured I'm allowed. Just to be fair though, for folks out there who might not be expecting miracles, here's what the bobbin winder looks like before and after Evaporust only treatment.
Saturday, December 19, 2015
66 Derusting Begins
With the 15-30 put back together I had a tray's worth of Evaporust just laying about. So it begins. Still don't have a plan for the repainting; it's getting cold in Connecticut and I don't have a proper indoor painting space identified yet. Also I'm waffling on what to do for decals. My options are: Wait till I'm back in Oklahoma next summer and see if a printing company a friend owns can handle it, print the waterslides myself on a cheesy laserjet (not very likely), order a set of the mixed reviewed waterslide decals that are on the expensive side or buy a set of NOS Chinese decals. The last option would be the right one except the Chinese decals I've seen for sale are only Sphinx or Seagull style. I have yet to see NOS Filigree. Decisions, decisions. I'm leaning towards the Chinese Sphinx. Maybe.
Oh yeah came this close (' ') to buying a 1200 last night. It was beat to death and even though it is basically a 201 with an presser foot mod I just couldn't see paying a hundred bucks (or 70 quid) for another machine that isn't exactly what I want and that needs restoration when I have the 66 in pieces and the 15-30 on deck. Still keeping my eye out for a later 201-1 though. I would love to have a machine with reverse on the treadle.
Here's the Evaporust doing it's thing on the first batch.
Oh yeah came this close (' ') to buying a 1200 last night. It was beat to death and even though it is basically a 201 with an presser foot mod I just couldn't see paying a hundred bucks (or 70 quid) for another machine that isn't exactly what I want and that needs restoration when I have the 66 in pieces and the 15-30 on deck. Still keeping my eye out for a later 201-1 though. I would love to have a machine with reverse on the treadle.
Here's the Evaporust doing it's thing on the first batch.
Thursday, December 17, 2015
A Little Cleaning on the 15-30
I've been using the treadle pretty constantly. It gave me a chance to really get annoyed with how dirty I'm leaving it. Yesterday I decided that as a test of how I'm going to do the cleaning for the 66 I should do a pre-run with the 15-30. Made sense at the time.
I didn't do a complete breakdown on it. Just the bobbin area, the face plate, oil cover and bobbin winder were what I started with. Here's the before picture of the parts I expected to see the biggest change in.
I didn't do a complete breakdown on it. Just the bobbin area, the face plate, oil cover and bobbin winder were what I started with. Here's the before picture of the parts I expected to see the biggest change in.
Tuesday, December 15, 2015
The Herd
I've been doing underquilts for our hammocks today. Insultex and 1.1oz ripstop are pretty annoying to work with so I decided to take a bit of a break and post photos of the machines. The 66 is still in pieces and the treadle 15 is in the last post so I'll skip them. Here are the rest.
The Sew-Maid. A Japanese reproduction of a Singer 99. I call her "Imouto-san" (Little Sister). It was old when I got it in the 80's but I don't have a year on it. It's a solid sewing machine I've done tons of work on it. Would even go back to it instead of using the 328K at times just because I can trust it to do a dead straight stitch. Boxed up with everything it comes in at 19lbs.
This one is the wife's. A Singer Sewhandy 50D. When someone talks about their Featherweight I imagine them paying a couple hundred dollars for this.
Next up is the 328K. We have two of these. Each of us had one before we got married. Not sure whose this one is. The second one is in storage or lost in a move somewhere along the line. It's a workhorse. The only two complaints I have about it are that it will never do a truly straight stitch and it requires more pampering that all the other machines combined.
And now the 403A. I got a deal on this one because the zigzag and the needle position selector weren't working. Took some doing (I had never worked on a zigzag machine before) but after a day of wrestling with, including a retaining clip shooting across the room at one point, it decided to zigzag and let me set the needle. It has pretty much replaced the 328K as my primary zigzag machine. Doesn't see constant use though, just not perfect on straight stitches and a little on the loud side.
And finally The Wicked Queen, Grimhilda. The 15-91. Even though she's cruel and tortures me at every turn I can't help but love her. Since I bought her I have done two tops for the wife and three camping hammocks, about a hundred yards worth of stitching. I keep her on 12 stitches an inch so that's right around 45,000 stitches and not a single miss. The only mistakes are when she punishes me for not giving her my undivided attention. I bought her from a Goodwill auction for $50, including a bentwood case. I was expecting a project machine to rebuild. I was stunned when I unwrapped the box and she still had a receipt and test stitch cloth on the bed from the last time she was serviced in the 1970's. Other than a quick oiling I did nothing. She looks like a museum piece. She's in the cabinet that the 66 came in right now. I toyed with the idea of converting her to use on the treadle, but it just seems wrong to take a drill her and tap a hole for a belt drive.
The Sew-Maid. A Japanese reproduction of a Singer 99. I call her "Imouto-san" (Little Sister). It was old when I got it in the 80's but I don't have a year on it. It's a solid sewing machine I've done tons of work on it. Would even go back to it instead of using the 328K at times just because I can trust it to do a dead straight stitch. Boxed up with everything it comes in at 19lbs.
This one is the wife's. A Singer Sewhandy 50D. When someone talks about their Featherweight I imagine them paying a couple hundred dollars for this.
Next up is the 328K. We have two of these. Each of us had one before we got married. Not sure whose this one is. The second one is in storage or lost in a move somewhere along the line. It's a workhorse. The only two complaints I have about it are that it will never do a truly straight stitch and it requires more pampering that all the other machines combined.
And now the 403A. I got a deal on this one because the zigzag and the needle position selector weren't working. Took some doing (I had never worked on a zigzag machine before) but after a day of wrestling with, including a retaining clip shooting across the room at one point, it decided to zigzag and let me set the needle. It has pretty much replaced the 328K as my primary zigzag machine. Doesn't see constant use though, just not perfect on straight stitches and a little on the loud side.
And finally The Wicked Queen, Grimhilda. The 15-91. Even though she's cruel and tortures me at every turn I can't help but love her. Since I bought her I have done two tops for the wife and three camping hammocks, about a hundred yards worth of stitching. I keep her on 12 stitches an inch so that's right around 45,000 stitches and not a single miss. The only mistakes are when she punishes me for not giving her my undivided attention. I bought her from a Goodwill auction for $50, including a bentwood case. I was expecting a project machine to rebuild. I was stunned when I unwrapped the box and she still had a receipt and test stitch cloth on the bed from the last time she was serviced in the 1970's. Other than a quick oiling I did nothing. She looks like a museum piece. She's in the cabinet that the 66 came in right now. I toyed with the idea of converting her to use on the treadle, but it just seems wrong to take a drill her and tap a hole for a belt drive.
Monday, December 14, 2015
Addition to the quiver
So I use the machines to making camping gear. One problem I was running into was control at low speed, just a couple of stitches per second. With the 15-91 and 403 I tend to get a little heavy on the foot pedal after a few seconds and start racing. Well to fix that, today I picked up at 1915 treadle model 15. Sweet.
It took about 8 hours of work to chase away all the spiders that had moved in, give it a good cleaning and oiling. Lots of rust on the working parts had to be worked off. Yeah the rope-drive isn't period correct. But why spend 20 bucks for a leather belt when 15 cents worth of Home Depot rope does the same trick. No slips yet. Sews solid, holds tension and stitch length perfect so far.
It took about 8 hours of work to chase away all the spiders that had moved in, give it a good cleaning and oiling. Lots of rust on the working parts had to be worked off. Yeah the rope-drive isn't period correct. But why spend 20 bucks for a leather belt when 15 cents worth of Home Depot rope does the same trick. No slips yet. Sews solid, holds tension and stitch length perfect so far.
Friday, December 4, 2015
Adjustable Hemmer Foot Demo
Did a quick video for the adjustable hemmer foot I've been messing around with in my quest to make DIY hiking gear.
Tuesday, December 1, 2015
When worlds collide
Picked up the Evapo-Rust this morning. Getting my plan of attack together for the cleaning that's next on the agenda. Besides sewing machines I also tinker around with my motorcycle. I decided to combine the two and here's what I came up with
Monday, November 30, 2015
Finishing parting out the 66
Another supply run today. One thing I knew that I needed was a gallon or two of Evapo-Rust (makes me thing of Rusteze from Cars). The blog http://mysewingmachineaddiction.blogspot.com sings the praises of it, so I'm going to give it a go. I went to the local (somewhat) Fastenal. They were out of stock but ordered me two gallons to pick up tomorrow.
Back to the machine. Working on removing the arm assembly today. First thing was to get the stop motion cam bushing off. I have a three arm puller that made short work of it. It's always nice when you find a new use for tools you bought for a single purpose years ago. The photo here is of the puller attached to the bushing.
Next I loosened (with a hammer and a couple of dowels) the feed cam. I had removed the set screw yesterday and it had a good soaking of Blaster PB over night. Still, it split two dowels before breaking free. I ended up wedging a piece of wood between it and the arm rock shaft then tapping lightly on the end handwheel end of the arm shaft to get it completely loose.
Next came time for the arm shaft itself and today's lesson. Never blindly follow someone else's directions. They might leave out little things like... oh... set screws. For half an hour I tried tapping out the arm shaft. It would always get to the same point then completely seize up. I would tap it back and try again. I began rotating the arm thinking maybe the arch in it was binding somewhere along the machines neck. Same results. I looked back at the instructions. I accounted for all the pieces in the instructions. Finally I took the whole head back onto the porch and gave the bushing that sits behind the needle bar crank a good spritzing with the Blaster PB, thinking something was binding with it. I came back inside and pulled out some original Singer documentation to see what they say about the arm shaft. While looking at the Form 20004 Points of Wear sheet I saw a strange little smudge. Zooming in, sure enough, the Bushing has a set screw! D'oh! Apparently the writer of the instructions I followed was missing his, he called it an oil hole. After digging the smutz out of the hole I was greeted by the slot for the screw which came out remarkably easy, probably loosened from the thirty minutes of banging the bushing against it I had just finished.
With the set screw out, a few taps on the hand wheel end of the arm shaft popped the bushing out. Though the feed cam became snug on the hand wheel end as the arm shaft slid though. This one is a bit trickier. The arm shaft is loose now, so just whacking away at it won't do anything but jostle things around. But there's really no place for the puller arms to grip to slowly force it though. So it's back to tapping, just with lots of wood wedged around to hold things steady. And just let me sing the praises of Blaster PB once again here. A few spritzes, let set for an hour and the arm shaft more or less slipped through the feed cam with moderate taps from the hammer. The trick is, since the feed arm is free and sitting at angles to keep turning it between taps so I'm not wedging it the same angle constantly.
Once the arms shaft was pulled through the needle end of the machine I was easily able to remove the needle bar set screw. I highly recommend waiting until the shaft is out before attempting to take off the crank. I tried to do it through the screw-hole while it was still in the machine and could never get a good purchase with the screwdriver. I'll need to buff down some burrs I created in those attempts. With the screw out I used the puller again to pull the crank free. Then once more to get the bushing off. The bushing just needed to be turned with my fingers to get it over the ninety years of grunge build-up.
So here's the 66 all parted out. The only pieces still in the machine are the tap in spool pin on top and the upper arm rock centering guide inside. I haven't seen any information on removing the guide and since unlike later models this one doesn't have a screwdriver slot, I'm thinking it wasn't meant to come out once installed. I didn't include every little screw in the photo. Mostly because I didn't want to lose them all.
So tomorrow will be cleaning up the small bits. The probably a break for a while until I find a place to work on the with the toxic sludge stripping and painting will create. To be honest the machine came apart way faster than I thought it would when I first started looking at it.
For paint I was thinking about royal blue with red flames and "Singer Sewing Machines" done up like a Harley bar and shield. The wife and other interested parties rejected that idea. So it'll stay black.
Back to the machine. Working on removing the arm assembly today. First thing was to get the stop motion cam bushing off. I have a three arm puller that made short work of it. It's always nice when you find a new use for tools you bought for a single purpose years ago. The photo here is of the puller attached to the bushing.
Next I loosened (with a hammer and a couple of dowels) the feed cam. I had removed the set screw yesterday and it had a good soaking of Blaster PB over night. Still, it split two dowels before breaking free. I ended up wedging a piece of wood between it and the arm rock shaft then tapping lightly on the end handwheel end of the arm shaft to get it completely loose.
Next came time for the arm shaft itself and today's lesson. Never blindly follow someone else's directions. They might leave out little things like... oh... set screws. For half an hour I tried tapping out the arm shaft. It would always get to the same point then completely seize up. I would tap it back and try again. I began rotating the arm thinking maybe the arch in it was binding somewhere along the machines neck. Same results. I looked back at the instructions. I accounted for all the pieces in the instructions. Finally I took the whole head back onto the porch and gave the bushing that sits behind the needle bar crank a good spritzing with the Blaster PB, thinking something was binding with it. I came back inside and pulled out some original Singer documentation to see what they say about the arm shaft. While looking at the Form 20004 Points of Wear sheet I saw a strange little smudge. Zooming in, sure enough, the Bushing has a set screw! D'oh! Apparently the writer of the instructions I followed was missing his, he called it an oil hole. After digging the smutz out of the hole I was greeted by the slot for the screw which came out remarkably easy, probably loosened from the thirty minutes of banging the bushing against it I had just finished.
With the set screw out, a few taps on the hand wheel end of the arm shaft popped the bushing out. Though the feed cam became snug on the hand wheel end as the arm shaft slid though. This one is a bit trickier. The arm shaft is loose now, so just whacking away at it won't do anything but jostle things around. But there's really no place for the puller arms to grip to slowly force it though. So it's back to tapping, just with lots of wood wedged around to hold things steady. And just let me sing the praises of Blaster PB once again here. A few spritzes, let set for an hour and the arm shaft more or less slipped through the feed cam with moderate taps from the hammer. The trick is, since the feed arm is free and sitting at angles to keep turning it between taps so I'm not wedging it the same angle constantly.
Once the arms shaft was pulled through the needle end of the machine I was easily able to remove the needle bar set screw. I highly recommend waiting until the shaft is out before attempting to take off the crank. I tried to do it through the screw-hole while it was still in the machine and could never get a good purchase with the screwdriver. I'll need to buff down some burrs I created in those attempts. With the screw out I used the puller again to pull the crank free. Then once more to get the bushing off. The bushing just needed to be turned with my fingers to get it over the ninety years of grunge build-up.
So here's the 66 all parted out. The only pieces still in the machine are the tap in spool pin on top and the upper arm rock centering guide inside. I haven't seen any information on removing the guide and since unlike later models this one doesn't have a screwdriver slot, I'm thinking it wasn't meant to come out once installed. I didn't include every little screw in the photo. Mostly because I didn't want to lose them all.
So tomorrow will be cleaning up the small bits. The probably a break for a while until I find a place to work on the with the toxic sludge stripping and painting will create. To be honest the machine came apart way faster than I thought it would when I first started looking at it.
For paint I was thinking about royal blue with red flames and "Singer Sewing Machines" done up like a Harley bar and shield. The wife and other interested parties rejected that idea. So it'll stay black.
Sunday, November 29, 2015
First Post
My first post on my first blog. I'm starting this to document the refurbishing of vintage Singer sewing machines I perform. I've just started my first full disassembly and rebuild of a very icky 1926 Model 66 (show in the photo). I picked it up Yesterday (November 29th). I just about have it fully taken apart. Once I do I'll post the complete machine laid out. My first lessons learned are this:
1. Get penetrating lubricant. I was stopped cold last night when I got to removing the presser bar assembly. The bracket was frozen solid to the presser bar. I went to Autozone and picked up some Blaster PB. I gave the entire front of the machine a fair spritzing and let it set for five hours. I was planning overnight but curiosity got the better of me. I used two dowels, one to hold the bracket from shifting and another to take the impact from a hammer. I started out with just the mildest of taps and the bracket let go immediately. It didn't fly out, but it was no difficult at all to work it out with some tugs and twists.
2. Get a organizer. My wife took me to Jerry's Artarama and we picked up at artist's box with lots of little cubby spaces and a few long ones that looks like it was made for holding the innards of an old Singer. Everything is nicely organized and easy to close up/put away at the end of the days session on the kitchen table. Home Depot has some nice cases as well, though I couldn't find one with spaces for the long parts from the bottom of the machine.
3. Get ready for a mess. I picked up two machines this week. One was a Singer 15-91 that is immaculate. I might give it a little cleaning but that's it. This thing still had the receipt and test stitches in it from it's last service. The second one I picked up was the 66. Great Scot! what a difference. The 66 was coughing up hairballs just loading it. Add to that the lubricant to loosen the bolts and there is a steady stream of sludge dripping out of it.
4. Have documentation of the specific model you are working on. I've spent weeks planning a rebuild. I looked high and low for my first candidate. I was planning on it being a 15-91 and had found lots of stuff online about working on them. Then I got one at a great price and it turned out to be a great machine already. The 66 kind of fell into my lap and I jumped on it. Yesterday was mostly a game of catchup once I got home, trying to find the right instructions. Like I said, this is the first time I've ever taken a machine this far apart and I have no idea what I'm really doing. So documentation is key. Luckily someone from http://www.thesewingforum.co.uk pointed me to Steven Dingle's step by step instructions on assembling a 66. They are a life saver.
5. You'll need more tools, even if it's just an excuse. I've been to Home Depot a couple times already. Tomorrow I'll be going again to get a bearing extractor. Sweet.
So that's my first post. It's late and I need to get to bed. Once I get the 66 fully broken down I'll post some photos of the parts spread out on the kitchen table. (I told my wife she should be happy it's not an old Shovelhead motor, which it easily could have been.) I won't promise when that will be. I'm hoping tomorrow, but who knows what gotchas are still inside the machine.
Until then here's what it looked like before I started in on it:
Cheers,
Dave
1. Get penetrating lubricant. I was stopped cold last night when I got to removing the presser bar assembly. The bracket was frozen solid to the presser bar. I went to Autozone and picked up some Blaster PB. I gave the entire front of the machine a fair spritzing and let it set for five hours. I was planning overnight but curiosity got the better of me. I used two dowels, one to hold the bracket from shifting and another to take the impact from a hammer. I started out with just the mildest of taps and the bracket let go immediately. It didn't fly out, but it was no difficult at all to work it out with some tugs and twists.
2. Get a organizer. My wife took me to Jerry's Artarama and we picked up at artist's box with lots of little cubby spaces and a few long ones that looks like it was made for holding the innards of an old Singer. Everything is nicely organized and easy to close up/put away at the end of the days session on the kitchen table. Home Depot has some nice cases as well, though I couldn't find one with spaces for the long parts from the bottom of the machine.
3. Get ready for a mess. I picked up two machines this week. One was a Singer 15-91 that is immaculate. I might give it a little cleaning but that's it. This thing still had the receipt and test stitches in it from it's last service. The second one I picked up was the 66. Great Scot! what a difference. The 66 was coughing up hairballs just loading it. Add to that the lubricant to loosen the bolts and there is a steady stream of sludge dripping out of it.
4. Have documentation of the specific model you are working on. I've spent weeks planning a rebuild. I looked high and low for my first candidate. I was planning on it being a 15-91 and had found lots of stuff online about working on them. Then I got one at a great price and it turned out to be a great machine already. The 66 kind of fell into my lap and I jumped on it. Yesterday was mostly a game of catchup once I got home, trying to find the right instructions. Like I said, this is the first time I've ever taken a machine this far apart and I have no idea what I'm really doing. So documentation is key. Luckily someone from http://www.thesewingforum.co.uk pointed me to Steven Dingle's step by step instructions on assembling a 66. They are a life saver.
5. You'll need more tools, even if it's just an excuse. I've been to Home Depot a couple times already. Tomorrow I'll be going again to get a bearing extractor. Sweet.
So that's my first post. It's late and I need to get to bed. Once I get the 66 fully broken down I'll post some photos of the parts spread out on the kitchen table. (I told my wife she should be happy it's not an old Shovelhead motor, which it easily could have been.) I won't promise when that will be. I'm hoping tomorrow, but who knows what gotchas are still inside the machine.
Until then here's what it looked like before I started in on it:
Dave
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