Chrome Powder Coat

I recently tried out my chrome powder coating material.  Here is a picture of the parts that I’d like to refurbish.

I decided to tackle the needle plate first.  The reason for choosing this piece is because a) I can easily find a replacement part if I mess things up too bad, and b) it’s pretty scratched up and could use a facelift. 

The first step was to bead blast it and rough up the surface so the powder coating would adhere better.  Also, I wanted to smooth the plate out as much as possible.  Unfortunately I forgot to take a picture of this step.  Blasting this part was not very easy, but I’m not sure if it’s because the blasting media needs to be changed, or if this part is just really tough.  Eventually I was able to scuff up the surface enough to do some powder coating on it.  Here is the after photo -

I can’t say that I’m thrilled with the results.  After thinking things through more, I think the chrome powder coat may work better on the nickel parts better than the polished steel.  I think I’m going to try one of those parts next, like perhaps the bobbin winder lever. 

Now I’m debating with myself what to do with the needle plate.  The way I see it I have three options, live with chrome powder coat as-is, buy a new needle plate, or take off the powder coating and try polishing the surface.  Right now I’m leaning towards the last option, but I need to change out my blast media first so I can cut through the powder coating easier.  I’m also going to get a polishing wheel attachment for my drill so I don’t have to polish the surface with just elbow grease (not my idea of fun!).

I’ll think about this more while I prep Ms. Rusty for her final stripping.

Ketchup Anyone?

This post is all about cleaning up the nasty looking badge I removed from Ms. Rusty.  Initially I cleaned it up using the usual kerosene but it didn’t do much to improve the appearance.  I then  purchased some metal polish, specifically Eagle One Nevr-Dull because it is supposed to work well on all metals.  One a side note – I wonder why all these automotive type agents have hyphens in their brand names? (Evapo-Rust, Break-Away, Nevr-Dull, WD-40, etc.)  Is it a requirement that I don’t know about?

Using the Nevr-dull improved things a little bit, but the badge still didn’t look very good and this new product was taking more elbow grease than I’d like.  So I searched online for ways to clean tarnished brass.  Several different recipes of salt/vinegar combinations came up in my Google search, but my favorite “remedy” was to use ketchup!

So, I took the badge and soaked it in a dish of ketchup overnight.

mmm – tasty

After rinsing the badge it actually looks pretty good!

Front  Back 

It was after the ketchup treatment that the Nevr-Dull really showed it’s stuff.  I spent about 10-15 minutes polishing the badge and it looks much better.

Front  Back 

Now the badge isn’t perfect, so it will need a bit of tinkering to get it bent back into the correct shape around the edges.  I also need to spend some extra time to get the tarnish out of the crevices on the back.  Hopefully I can figure out how to do that, and get it done, by the time Ms. Rusty is ready for her “new” badge.

Touch-up Painting

In this episode I’ll be putting the finishing details on the lamp shade/housing, the tension disk indicator, the stitch length indicator, and the bobbin winder.

Here is the set of paints and brushes used for this part of the project.  The silver and black paint are enamels and the white paint is acrylic (and it was on sale!).  All three are Testors model paint.

Lamp Shade –

The inside of the original shade was painted silver, most likely to aid in reflecting the light to the work surface.  Since I had previously powder coated this piece entirely black, it was necessary to paint the inside the shade with silver to restore it to it’s original condition.  One coat wasn’t enough as the black showed through some streaks, but 2 coats did the trick.

One coat:  2 coats: 

Tension disk indicator –

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!

Trim Piece Removal

I tackled an easy project tonight – chrome trim piece removal.  In the first picture you can see all three of the chrome pieces (side plate, back plate, top plate) after they have been removed.  There is a lot of rust that will need to be removed.  I’ll probably do that one night in front of the TV so I have something to keep my hands busy

Here is a picture of the back/top side of the Ms. Rusty without the top and back plates.

When the side plate is removed you can see all the inner workings of the presser foot and needle bar.  Call me crazy, but think this part of the machine is just beautiful.