Monday, January 2, 2012

Tidy Workspace


Originally I was going to trek over to Marcellus to fetch a Singer 30-15 treadle today.  Plans changed.  The Jetta Turbo diesel has been having issues with moisture condensing in the air intake chamber, freezing and causing havoc with starting and accelerating.   The tire pressure warning light also came on (despite 37 psi in all tires) and so I decided to stay home.  Betsy said she would come over to play.  So while I WAITED for her (she made it around 2 )  I cleaned the shop.  It is winter and the shop stays above freezing most of the time.  On sub -zero nights I thought that I should have the option of bringing the liquids into the house.  I packed them all up so that they are easily portable.  That freed up the Round  A Round (Betsy's term for it and I like it better than Lazy Susan) for all those chicken liver containers.  I drilled a hole in the bottom of each one and into the RAR  and screwed them down tight.  All of my tools are easily accessible. The screw drivers are in their own box or on the wall.  I still have stuff in the tool chest, my pliers and vice grips,  my timing tool, some miscellaneous stuff.   But all of my cleaning tools, scissors, Kelly clamp (aka Hemostats), tweezers,  dental picks, mini screw drivers are all our and easy to find and PUT AWAY.  I love self made organizers. 

Yesterday Betsy came over with her 401.  She wanted to work on the motor.  I showed her what I knew and we found that the field core was in good shape but the tape stabilizing the brush connectors   was frayed in one spot.  (Expletive deleted)   Where can we get THAT on a Sunday?  And what kind of tape is it really?   The internet provided some help, but we don't have access to specialty stores around here.  No body had it in C'town today and Oneonta was too far to go.  So, we thought that maybe we could switch out a motor from another machine.
New found skills on Adobe Photoshop Elements 10

Betsy spent the morning taking out a Touch and Throw motor and cleaning it.  Then she brought the motor over so that we could see if it fit. It didn't but we used the field core from it for the 401 motor and that puppy sews beautifully.  I learned how to sew on that model Singer.  Now I am inspired to get mine as clean as she got hers and try some of the stitches.

From that paragraph it sounds as if things went very smoothly.  It didn't but let me just say this, Betsy can take apart a 401 type motor and reassemble it in no time, now.  Practice makes perfect.









3 comments:

  1. Just in case you think Betsy was talking to herself, i really was there and yes we did talk and swear at ourselves while getting the old baby to run. who like that machine anyway, "too many steps' she does hav a nice stitch, alright maybe she's pretty cool.
    tobsmf2

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  2. great..I agree with you, Practice makes perfect..

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