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.

Thank you, Rain!!

No, I’m not talking about the liquid stuff that falls from the sky periodically.  I’m referring to Nicholas Rain Noe at The Vintage Singer Sewing Machine Blog.  He made me feel like a superstar (which I am not, just in case you were wondering – Ha! Ha!) Not only does he follow my blog, but he also interviewed me and then apparently found it interesting enough for him to post the interview on his amazing blog today! 

Part of my shock stems from the fact that, unlike me, Rain actually knows what he is doing when he fixes up vintage Singer sewing machines.  I can’t even begin to tell you how much I’ve learned from him between his blog and his contributions to the Yahoo! groups on sewing machines.  In some ways it’s like Kobe Bryant interviewing an basketball fan!

So, I recommend you do one of the following:

1. If you want to learn how to work on a vintage Singer from someone with experience and knowledge, then you need to check out and follow his blog.  He also has a great tutorial on how to identify the model of a vintage Singer from less than ideal (i.e. crappy) Craigslist photos.
2. If you want to find more about me, a complete amateur with no experience and likely has a screw loose, then you should check out what he posted today on his blog http://vssmb.blogspot.com/2011/08/restoring-201-2-interview-with-elle.html.
3. If you don’t care about vintage sewing machines – What’s wrong with you!  Check out Rain’s blog so you can get hooked!

Naked Ms. Rusty

Well, I guess “naked” depends on your definition.  Is paint skin or clothing?  In any case, here are photos of my girl with just her paint and decals:

     

Here is a close-up of some of the rust lurking under her paint:  Yuck!!

To get rid of that nastiness, Ms. Rusty will be getting her own personal spa in Evapo-Rust.  The first problem is finding a container large enough to soak her in.  I had an old industrial sized mop bucket that fit the bill and Ms. Rust could lay on her side in the bottom of it. 

The second problem was finding enough Evapo-Rust to cover her.  I used 2 gallons, but it still wasn’t enough, so I filled one of the empty gallon bottles with water and put that in the the “bath” as displacement.  That worked well, but she still wasn’t quite covered, so I added some sand for further displacement.  Finally she was covered and could enjoy her bath.

Ms. Rusty Soaking:

I let her soak over night, or about 30 hours, and then took her out and hosed her down to rinse off all the Evapo-rust.  Here are some photos after her bath. 

   

You’ll notice that the clear-coat finish has quite a bit of hazing/damage after her bath.  I suspect that is because Evapo-Rust is water based and got underneath the clear-coat in the rusty areas.  I don’t much care in this case since I’m blasting it all off anyway.

The next time you see Ms. Rusty will be after her “facial” (aka – sand blasting).

Other parts

This post covers all the other miscellaneous parts that I removed from Ms. Rusty prior to her Evapo-Rust treatment.

One of the parts I tried taking out was the arm shaft busing.  To do this it  is necessary to loosen or remove the set screw holding it in place.  The photo below shows the location of this screw.

Once this set screw is out you have to use a brass rod or wooden dowel to tap on the back of the bushing.  The Adjusters Manual states it’s important that you don’t want to concentrate all the force on just one area of the bushing.  After quite a while of trying to tap this busing out, and using copious amounts of Bread-Away, the bushing just wouldn’t come out.  So, rather than press my luck I decided to leave this bearing in place.

The next part on my list was the upper bushing for upright gear shaft (see photo below).

Like any of the other bushings on Ms. Rusty, it is held in place with a set screw.  This one can be viewed, and removed through the hole under the balance wheel.

Then it’s a simple matter of using a dowel through the top of the machine to tap the bushing out.

Mid removal:     After removal:  

The next two photos show the view from under machine after the bushing is removed.

These photos also show the lower bushing for upright gear shaft, but I didn’t have any luck trying to remove it from Ms. Rusty.  Another thing I tried doing was to separate the Ms. Rusty’s arm from her bed by removing the three large screws under the machine (see photo above).  Unfortunately, these seemed to be welded in place and I also had no luck removing this buggers.

The last piece that I removed from Ms. Rusty was the needle bar post.  The first step was to remove the set screw holding it in place.

This part required several applications of Break-Away, and tapping it out with a hammer and a wooden dowel, but I was eventually successful in getting it out.  I really wanted this part out since it had a lot of surface rust on it.  Here is a photo of the part after it was cleaned with kerosene and Evapo-rust and had a little sanding with fine grit sand paper to smooth the surface.

Next time – Ms. Rusty goes for a bath!

Badge Removal

Now I can’t strip and paint Ms. Rusty with her badge still on, so it will have to come off.  Also, the poor badge is not in great shape so it will need some TLC also. 

See all that lovely corrosion? 

The badge is attached to the arm by two pins 

Before you can take off the badge, the pins need to be removed.  One way is to drill them out, but a less invasive way is to straighten the pins and pull them out.  I’m wasn’t sure the second option was viable due to the corrosion, but I gave it a try anyway.