IT'S A BEAUTIFUL MORNING

It was a beautiful morning.  

I love this view.  We walk all the way to the top then cross the field and walk back.  If I could, I would build a house up there.   One day, though, after the leaves are down and before hunting season Steven and I are going to hike to the top of that highest hill, closest in the photo.  It will be a bush wack, but with the leaves down we might be able to look back and see this field.

By the time we took this walk, I had finished the new zipper leaders for the quilt frame.  I wanted to replace the pink leaders with woven, cotton, ticking.  The stripes, I hope will provide a nice straight line to which I can baste the quilt edge.  It doesn't matter for this muslin practice piece.   I'll know if it was worth it when I have a real quilt to install.  The scrappy quilt went on pretty straight.  The other two were wonky.

 I did not order enough ticking.  It is on the way this week.  That is why you still see the pink leader.


 Betsy came over yesterday.  Oh it was a miserable day.  It was cold and rainy.  We needed chill chasers in the house,

and in the sewing loft

 We worked on the 500A.  It is a filthy, dirty, disgusting, machine.  I tried cleaning the hook with q tips and alcohol but just couldn't get it clean.  I knew it would never sew if the hook wasn't clean.  So we decided to pull it out.

The most intimidating part about pulling a hook on these machines is matching the gears up when you put it back together.  The service manual recommends scoring the gears  first.  So we did.  We used a sharp pick and just scratched  one tooth  on the bevel gear we were removing and its corresponding groove. 

Then we followed the directions in the manual.  It is pretty straight forward.  We have a parts machine (503) so we practiced on that.  Betsy wanted to put that hook right back in so we would know how, but I wanted to keep it out in case I needed to replace this one.

We had some difficulty getting the bevel gear off.  It was pretty stuck.  Lots of oil, heat and PB Blaster and a bit of persuasion with a screwdriver and the persuader and we managed to get the bevel gear off.  The hook was pretty stuck, too, but it didn't take as much effort to finally get it out.  I am glad that we made the effort.  The position finger was filthy and I never would have managed to get that clean.

position finger

While I got out the ultrasonic cleaner and cleaned the parts, Betsy scrubbed the machine.  There was a lot to do.  Still more, to do, yet.  She cleaned the needle plate lever

 and managed to get it back together so that it works.

Once the parts were cleaned we put the hook back together.  We lined the scratch marks up just fine and tightened everything down.  There was, alas,  a catch when we turned the hand wheel.  Betsy thought it was coming from the needle bar area.  I thought that it had to be coming from the gears.  There seemed to be a wobble in the hook when it made a full revolution.  So we looked at the gears again and noticed that the screw (S1) was not lined up with the flat (F1).  A quick adjustment of that and all was well.

 This morning, before the walk, I wanted to put the hook back in the 503.  I had it in my hand when Wrigley barked to come in the shop.  He and Frannie joined me but Wilson did not care to come in.  I enticed him with a treat, but no way.  Then I became distracted by a Bentwood case we have on the shelf.  Next thing I knew I had it down and was checking it out.  Nope, not one for a 15-91,201,66.  Just a plain, simple case for a 128 or a 28.  Bummer.  But, more importantly, I lost that hook.  I had it in my hand, set it down somewhere in the shop and it is gone.  Solid gone.