SteveH

I do sweeps with a strong magnet on a string. I swear it seems like things just appear on the magnet from places I looked several times...

Jeanette Frantz

Miriam, I don't know if you can buy them or not. When my son worked on SMs, if ever there was a spare screw because some new part was installed, he saved the screws. put them in groups in empty prescription bottles! I'm sure he's got hundreds of them somewhere, but I don't know where and I don't think he does, either! Those screws just don't want to be found! LOL

Jeanette

miriam

I'm going to have to see where I can find some kind of prescription bottles - I like that idea.

Mrs. SewNSew

Right now I would settle for lost screws! I want to play with machines in the shop but Christmas and birthdays have taken a front and center position! The most I've been able to do is spray more Kroil, add some heat every couple days to the 403 out there and work the wheel a bit trying to get the beast to loosten up! The movement is still tight and it's not ready yet to throw a motor on it so it's just a daily treatment for now.

I'm also doing a mystery quilt this Winter and trying to get caught up since I got a late start. I need to go cut some fabric strips!

ArchaicArcane

Some screws are still available. I usually look the parts charts for the machines up then either Google the part number with "Singer" or "Simanco" or I look in the inventory list from the supplier I use here in Canada. In most cases, I can get tension screws, I think I lost the latch spring from the FW bobbin case and managed to get a replacement - that was probably an alpha sew replacement, but the spring is completely surrounded, so I didn't think it would be a problem. I have a screw showing up today for a lady for a 78-3. Most of the really common screws should still be available - the 31-15/20 Bcases, the 15 Bcases, 221/22/301 Bcases etc. ETA: The tension springs too. I've ordered them for the 401 cases, the 15 cases, FW cases, etc.

I keep the screws in the ziplock baggies that most of my parts are sent in. Then they all live in a parts drawer organizer. If I "part" a bobbin case, I usually just mark it with a sharpie and throw it in the same bin. If it's a good case, I put it in with its corresponding bobbins in another drawer.

ThayerRags

I did some more jeans mending on my Singer 319W Treadle today. I’m still using the mechanic’s rolling stool at it, and trying to make up my mind if it’s better than a rigid non-rolling stool or not. There are things that I like and dislike about both stools, and I’m still deciding which will be best to live with and without.

Just for fun, here’s how some of the younger folks are having us mend their denim jeans these days. I repaired the area below the left hip pocket today. We have strict orders to not trim off any of the strings! There’s about 7 or 8 mending sessions in this pair of jeans. Their value is increasing, but hey, when they’re your favorite jeans and you want to do a little stylin’......

CD in Oklahoma

miriam

air conditioning....

ThayerRags

More like “frilly-dillies”. The dark blue denim is layered in behind the holes, and it’s some of the old Wrangler denim that we got out of a factory that closed down. It is really thick and heavy, and will let less air through than the fabric that the jeans are made out of, even when they were new. We try to take the new fabric from seam to seam when we can to give the jeans a little strength back. They’re getting pretty thin and will rip again next to the insert if we don’t. A few more sessions, and they’ll have a new pair of Wranglers hidden in there.....

BTW: The photo of the machine is from a week ago when I was working on a different pair of jeans. I used it to show the mechanic’s stool and the 319W machine.

CD in Oklahoma

miriam

I like your stool I had a drum throne I loved - someone wanted it real bad when they bought a machine... I should have kept it.

miriam

I have a Singer 301 I took apart - it has been in time out - frozen needle bar. I kept adding T-F or Kroil every few days and rocking the wheel a little every time I oiled it. Well. It moved tonight so I felt obligated to clean it up. That needle bar was coated with dried oil... I spent quite a bit of time on that machine - tension is rebuilt, lots and lots of cleaning. I still have to take apart and clean up the bobbin area - it looks pretty icky to me. Anybody got pointers? Come to think of it there is no bobbin so I'll have to see what can be done about that, too.