Black Swan 101 Wheel Guard Installed and Darn-it!

Happy New Year!  So what did you do for New Year's Eve?  As for myself I spent the evening cleaning the 101 wheel guard that came in the mail yesterday.  It wasn't in too bad of shape, but it needed a bit of Turtle Wax Rubbing Compound to not look completely decrepit attached to Black Swan.  Once it was polished up I noticed the 15-30's hand wheel, which I had just given a quick nylon brush cleaning to previously, was looking a little grungy.  So at 12:00am New Year's 2016 I was hand rubbing a spoked hand wheel.  Par-Tay!  And yes, I have the most understanding wife in the world.

It was apparent that my hopes for an easy match were to be quickly proven futile.  The 101 wheel guard does not match up to the 201 in any direction.  With the front mounting screw in I can at least get the curves to match, though I had to remove the bobbin release latch to mount it.  The pillar to wheel depth is off about 3/8" and the screw hole alignments are way off.

Never fear though, there is a plan.  It's going to involve a 3/8" length of 2 1/4" pipe, black paint and some offset brackets.  I just have to wait for the hardware store to reopen.

Every now and then when I pick up a machine I get the little extra goodies with them.  So far this is what has been collected.

If you look hard you see see that no where in there is a free-motion/darning foot.  I've been brushing up on my clothing repairs as of late, using the standard foot makes it a bit of an adventure.  So my brushing up has so far included just old t-shirts.  I have a new free motion foot on order from Sew Classic.

One of the nice things about Black Swan (and The Wicked Queen as well) is the ability to drop the feed dogs for free motion work.  I know, if you are looking at this page, you know how to do this.  But still, here's the pictures of how to position the feel dog height using the lever under the base.

Feed dogs up:

Feed dogs down:

Yes, it's very messy under there.  I still haven't finished flushing out all the old crusty oil with new.  Daily oilings for the foreseeable future.  Once the 66 is finished and the 15-30 as well, Black Swan will get a full breakdown and rebuild also.  I really need to stop buying fixer-uppers... right.  There's a 27 from 1898 I've been eyeing.  D'oh.