Wednesday, March 7, 2012

Singer 301 Long bed continued

 I worked on the 301 long bed some more today.  This machine is a keeper if only because I have spent HOURS cleaning it up.  Today I took the hand wheel off and the motor out.  The brushes still have some life left in them, though the commutator is filthy.
I promise that I will take this motor apart and clean it up.  Someday.

I discovered some very creepy stuff near the well of the hand wheel.  I call it spew.  It was crusted on the body of the machine but dissolved with denatured alcohol. 
I think that it came from the hand wheel because the texolite gear is discolored with similar stuff.
I also am a bit freaked out by the appearance of the base of the machine in one of the corners.
I think the gray stuff is a rotted rubber foot. I am worried about the white stuff.
I posted a querie on Vintagesingers and hopefully I will be allowed to post a photo there.  If not, perhaps some one will take pity on me and check out these photos and help me out.  I think I am on my way now to search for a schematic of that hand wheel mechanism.  Could be something in there died and got "spewed" out. 

I did have to set "Sal" aside today.  I wanted to work on the Featherweight I bought on eBay from the Northern Catskills.
She smells of mold but her stitches are sweet .  (Gosh maybe I missed my calling; that is another Country and Western song FOR SURE).  The foot controller is not the button controller and I don't like the way it handles.  But the motor sounds fine.  It runs great. I just had to sew today so I made a grocery tote bag with it.  The bobbin winder does not wind tightly enough.  I am waiting for Tri flow to do its thing on the bobbin winding  tension discs adjusting screw.  I don't know how long it took me to go through the whole machine and clean, oil and grease the gears.  I did take the tension assembly apart to clean it.  Next time I will time myself.


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