Twofer Cleaning Day On The Singer 15-30s

The 1904 was in pieces on the floor and I got to thinking that I might use some of the pieces of Hyman Workman's 1927 to get the '04 back together.  When all was said and done I didn't, but I did use it as an excuse to clean both machines.

When I went up to the sewing room to get the 1927's parts I figured I should take a look at the 1915 as well to compare them.  I looked around and couldn't find it!?  In a panic I called my daughter.  I had taken a machine to her in Florida a while back.  I thought it was a 66-6.  It wasn't. It was the 1915.  Whew.

So with just the two 15-30s to deal with, already broken down I decided that I would take the opportunity to use one of the alternative cleaning methods.  This time it would be the Gojo method, actually Goop was what was recommended but I could only find Gojo readily available here in the shire.  And once again, because who doesn't love Youtube, I video'd the entire thing.  Lucky for the world I'm very happy to cut massive chunks of it out.

The Gojo didn't do well in removing the layers of gunk.  But it did soften it up enough that dremelling went very quick.  It also didn't leave as much flash rust as washing soda.  Still I think out of the two methods, the washing soda is the better choice for me.  I'm keeping a look out for a cheap sonic cleaner.  That will be my next cleaning experiment.

In the video and pictures you might have noticed I pulled the arm shaft out of the 1904.  I usually don't do this when I'm cleaning a machine, but on this one it was binding up something terrible.

I was afraid the shaft was bent from a drop or something.  Luckily it was just that the rear bushing was not slid far enough along the shaft and it was rubbing against the Clamp Stop Motion Flanged Bushing.

Overall the cleaning took a total of four days.  One day for the heads.  The parts soaked in cleaner for two days before I started with the Dremel.  Then each machine's parts took a day each to go over with the wire brush and polish with Mother's where appropriate.

Hyman's 1927 will get put back together right away.  The 1904 is in flux.  My son says I should paint it before putting it together.  It's just that I don't know when we will see a string of 60 degree days here and I really don't want to watch the paint freeze before it has a chance to dry.

Oh well, it's not like I don't have 30-some other machines I could use while it sits aside.

Now I just need to get back to focusing on the 103.