Goodwill Singer 15-88 Converted. But Does It Sew? (And Treadle 328 Gets A Cover)

Here is my quandary.  Right now getting more treadle parts is kind of not a happening thing.  I know where to get them.  My contact has plenty, but neither of us are all that excited about breaking home alone rules.  So I'm down to four sets of irons to mount machines in.  And two of those sets are Davis irons.  So while cleaning the new 15-88 I was also getting the black paint on a set of Singer irons (the boy does the gold after I get them painted).

The other Singer set is a Frankenstein kludge of straight leg and black iron.  I didn't want to use that until needed.  I was really wanting to save the last set of matched irons for the VS2, but I need a bobbin carrier for it and that's probably not happening until after I do see my irons guy again.  So I grudingly decided to use the last nice set for the 15-88.   That dilemma managed, the cleaning was ready to commence.

I had wanted to try and get the head spinning before breaking it down but a couple of coats of Blaster PB an letting it set overnight hadn't done anything.  I put it up in the sewing room intending on breaking it down several days ago.  I never got around to because we were really catching up on the construction of the room.  So it set for four or five days.  When I did go to break it down I found this:

Pretty sweet.  It was almost tempting to just call it good and mount it, but there was just too much crud coating it.  I broke it down and got out the cleaning supplies.

I'm really liking the Gojo for the head.  It gets better each time.  One the metal bits, not so much.  I really need to just buy a sonic cleaniner.

I spent last evening and part of this morning dremeling the metal.  Again a sonic cleaner would make this so much quicker.  Other than time, there wasn't much in the way of drama with the cleaning.  All the parts were there.

While reassembling it this afternoon I hit on a solution to the irons problem.  Sitting in a straight leg treadle by the IF was a 66-6.  Why not yank him out and put the 15-88 in the decent straight leg, then later on I can put the 66 in the Davis irons, or just shove it under a desk and ignore it like all the other 66s.  So the 66 was unceremoniously sent to the dugout in favor of the 15.

While mounting it I took a look at my cleaning job.  Not the best I've ever done. You can see where I missed some grunge on the bottom end.  Man, a sonic cleaner would be so sweet right now.

The Blaster PB helped with disassembly as well.  Everything came loose with just a screwdriver, no additional torque was needed.

I didn't bother using Mother's yet.  I was in a hurry to get everything together before it got too late. Tomorrow is back putting in insulation.  So maybe once the build it finished... and I get a sonic cleaner.

The belt the 66 was using was pretty ratty at this point.  So I dug out one of my 5/16" belts to replace it as well.  It's a bit thick, I need to order some more 3/16" belts and save the thick stuff for the industrials.

So, after all that, the question remains.  Does it sew?

Technically yes, it does sew.  It makes stitches (after a bit of adjusting), but they aren't '15 stitches'.  Probably 328K stitches would be the closet.  So it's still better than having a 66 in the rotation.  And I am chasing the tension.  I'm way under 20 grams on the bobbin tension, probably the only tension is the bobbin spinning.  So the top end is going to need some love, because I have it cranked down tight right now. The assembly was a little wonky coming off, and really crusty.  I'm sure there is some more service I can do on it to get the performance up where it should be.

While I was messing about with the 15, the boy decided to cut down the spare motor cover plate I bought for the 328K last year.  He has me beat by a long shot in the metal working department.

Well tomorrow is back to construction work.  I'm hoping to have the room done by summer.  Including the ceiling, floor and resurfacing the work table to be a cutting table.  Once I get it presentable the live streaming will commence.