Jeanette Frantz

As Rodney and JoAnn have said, be very VERY careful with your machine -- check out the person first, or you may woefully end up regretting it. Glenn has a wonderful tutorial on restoring the finishes on the old black machines with gold (mostly) decals. That tutorial is posted on this site and I think I saw a link to the tutorial or a copy of it actually incorporated in the thread. The folks here on this board, Glenn, Joe Miller, Miriam, Macybaby, Rodney (Washington State), Steve, Jon, are experts. I've worked with my husband on quite a few special woodworking projects -- he was a cabinetmaker, but I don't have the "gift" that my husband had.

Best wishes on your restoration project.

Jeanette

oldtnquiltinglady

As a PS here, thanks to all you folks who posted me all those sites to go to for information on working on FWs. My sister brought her "plumb jammed up, not moving" FW over last week and asked me to call our local SM repairman. I mentioned to DH that we could probably get all the info we needed off my QB if he wanted to tackle that job. He said OK, and y'all posted me some sites to go into (Glenn, Sew Classic, novamontgomery); I did it; he studied everything I printed off and set to work on the FW. It took him all week; but it kept him busy and not fretting because I had company and we were quilting out in my sewing room. So, in effect, he was out of my way and I was out of his way.....

He had the worst time on the timing, because he couldn't get the concept of the timing into his brain. I told him a time or two to go at it with no pre-conceived ideas that he is prone to come up with--got a couple of furry eyeballs for that one--but he tried it. I pulled out one of my FWs that works, and he kept comparing them (I told him he better not touch mine); and he got it to work--timing and all. I am sooooooo proud of him. I can't wait for my sister to come back and see what he has done. She thought she was going to have to pay our repairman upwards of $100 to get hers fixed.

SteveH

Sounds like he earned a dinner out!

oldtnquiltinglady

Got a laugh out of me on your comment, Steve. He takes me out to dinner--not the other way around. He does pay, but the treat is his (I don't do much cooking anymore, and what I do cook sometimes "ain't too good"----get this picture?

But, yes, I am proud as punch of that ol' man for being willing to venture into new things. He was and always has been, a bookkeeper/accountant/office/golfer/hunter/boater type. I guess having to pay the prohibitive repair/labor costs for all the remodeling, etc. stuff that we have gotten into since we moved to TN has finally gotten to him--and he has come to realize that "if that over-paid so&so can, I can", and doesn't hesitate to ask me to get on the computer for him.

jmabby

Hi,
I'm new to trying to fix old machines. So far all I've done is get the shellac off the body and the metal off where I knew I would't have trouble putting it back on. Last week I bought a motor from ebay. I was so excited to try to put it on, but it looked had a cracked footpiece and a cracked pulley, or thing that the belt goes on. The person said it "ran good". So---- I pugged it in. Flames came out all over the place, burned off the wires to the light and footpiece -- but the motor ran the 2 seconds I had it plugged in. Anyway when I wrote the person about the flames shooting out his/her answer was "You should'nt have plugged it in". And how am I suppose to know if it works (if I would have taken it apart they would have said I dismantled it and thats why it didn't work). I think I'm done buying electronics on the internet.

Anyway, the reason I'm writing is to ask if anyone knows how to remove or fix "Pit marks, the tiny paint bubbles with rust?? Can I just clean out the rust and use rust-oleum glossy paint??