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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