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10 September 2011

Odd Tools for Sewing Machine Repair

'Interesting' is a word I'll use to describe my findings while perusing other folks' vintage sewing machine repair blogs.  Maybe my juvenile 'Wow' is better. 

Besides the normal tools for sewing machine repair, today I learned I might or probably will need wood dowels, deep kitchen trash cans, egg cartons or ice cube trays, and patience.  The last one is gonna take me down, I just know it!  OK, the what for: 
dowels for knocking out some parts from inside the machine head; 
deep trash cans for soaking machine heads in copious amounts of either kerosene or Evapo-rust;
egg cartons or ice cube trays for keeping small parts in the order you took them off;
patience for waiting for chemicals like kerosene, break-free, evapo-rust, or various blasters to do their work when wiggling, pushing, lifting, gentle tapping and choice words won't work right now.

What are normal tools?  How about things like
screwdrivers - both long and stubby, straight and angled,
rubber mallet,
carpet piece or placemat,
wrenches, allen wrenches,
cotton tipped swabs - the industrial ones with wood handles are best,
pliers, leather scraps,
soft rags,
sewing machine oil, tri-flow,
plastic bags,
tool boxes or carry bags,
brushes, and a
camera - hopefully with close up capability.  

I'll add more when I remember them or look through my kit.  Now, if I can do it I'll try to post a pic of a hefty tool kit.  I took the Ray White repair class at Cathy Nelson's and I shot a picture of her tool kit.  You need muscles to lift it and that is just the little one.