Another lesson learned

With the touch-up paint task behind me, I thought “why not use the silver paint on some of the parts that lost their chrome”.  Sounded good at the time, so I tried it out on a small piece, like the bobbin winder lever.  Here is what it looked like before I attempted to apply the silver paint:

Putting the paint on made the lever look better, in my opinion. Certainly not back to it’s original condition, but more aesthetically pleasing.

The next day I decided to check out how the painted piece would hold up to cleaning and oiling that Ms. Rusty would endure after she is back in operation (assuming I can get her there!).  So, I took a cotton swab and dipped one end in kerosene and the other end in oil.  Unfortunately, the paint DID NOT HOLD UP!

Evapo-Rust to the Rescue!

Remember these very rusty bobbin winder parts?  Well, I decided to these to test out my new bottle of Evapo-Rust. 

 

After only a quick 40 minute soak it was already clear this product was working well

 

Soaking them for an additional overnight soak, the difference was nothing short of amazing!

 

I then turned my attention to my chrome trim pieces.  I had previously used Turtle Wax Chrome Polish And Rust Remover and was reasonably satisfied with the results.  However, it required a ton of elbow grease and I still couldn’t get all the rust off the nooks and crannies of these pieces – especially the rear plate cover.  After taking these pieces and soaking them in Evapo-Rust for a few hours they look nearly brand new!

Before:        After: 

If you look really close you will notice that there is still some residual rust on the edge of the face plate, so I may give it another soaking just to evaporate the last bit of rust

I am now officially an Evapo-Rust fan!

Bobbin Winder Disassembly

Some of you might have noticed the bobbin winder was missing off the motor in the last few posts.  I’ll walk you through how I did it, but first here are some “before” photos so I can remember how to put it all back together again later.
Front View (from the balance wheel side of the machine)
Side view  Top View 
and views from the Back side (side where the motor/balance wheel attaches to the machine) 
You may be wondering why so many photos.  It’s because there isn’t instructions in the Adjusters Manual for this part of the machine.  Also, when I cleaned and replaced this mechanism/assembly on my 15-91 I didn’t take that many photos and I had a bugger of a time putting it back together again.  Eventually I did get everything working again on the 15-91, but not without a lot of cussing, disassembly, reassembly, trial and error.  I’d really like to avoid that this time!
Anyway, the first step is removing the screw that holds the bobbin winder wheel in place.  My bobbin winder tire ring (fat gray thing) is not in great shape so it will need to be replaced.  Fortunately my local sewing machine shop carries these in stock.  If you aren’t so lucky they can also be found online at a very reasonable price (<$1)

The next step was removing the bobbin winder tension bracket screw that holds the bobbin winder tripping arm (silver thing in the shape of a foot) in place.  When I took that off I could then remove the bobbin winder spring.  Unfortunately that spring had sprung and was in two pieces.  The rust had eaten all the way through the metal here  

Finding a replacement spring turned out not to be very difficult.  In fact, you can purchase an entire bobbin winder assembly or just the parts you need from places such as Sew Classic at very reasonable prices (Woo hoo!)
The next thing to do was removing the bobbin winder stop latch which is done by simply removing a single screw.  Note, this part is supposed to be shiny with chrome – not red with rust.  In the next two photos I attempt to show you with the end of a toothpick that there is a tiny hole in the ring portion of this stop latch.

I learned the hard way with my 15-91 that this is important because this hole is used to hold one end of the spring in the recess below the stop latch. That little spring has 2 tiny ends on it – one end fits into a hole into the spring recess and the other end fits into the hole of the bobbin winder stop latch.
 

Hopefully my Evapo Rust will arrive tomorrow, because I am just itching to try it out on these poor rusted bobbin winder parts!