![](\"http:\/\/www.rollingonone.com\/blog\/wp-content\/images\/2006\/03\/flywheel_off.jpg\"\/)
<\/p>\nAn unexpected bonus of our Maine house was a non-functioning antique sewing machine in the garage. The previous owners had picked it up at some flea market, I think, never done anything with it, and it weighs a ton. They didn’t want to move it to their new digs. I, in my naivete, am hoping to rehabilitate it. Last week I got a can of spray liquid wrench, something like WD-40, a very light lubricating oil that’s supposed to be good for loosening nuts and bolts that are rusted together. I sprayed it on some strategic points of the sewing machine and wished it good luck.<\/p>\n
The first problem with the sewing machine was that the treadle and flywheel were stiff and didn’t much want to turn. I had put some 3-in-one oil on all the bearings I could see of the flywheel and treadle last week, but it still didn’t want to keep turning. I could turn the wheel by hand, and push down on the treadle once, but it wouldn’t keep turning far enough for the next push on the treadle.<\/p>\n
This weekend I took a solid wrench to a setscrew and a nut that seemed to be holding the flywheel in its bearing. Leaving the liquid wrench to penetrate for a week seemed to have been a fine idea. With some effort I pulled the flywheel off the frame.<\/p>\n
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Take a closer look at that bearing shaft. That gunk was once lubricating oil, but now it’s gum that’s keeping the wheel from turning.<\/p>\n
![](\"http:\/\/www.rollingonone.com\/blog\/wp-content\/images\/2006\/03\/gunk.jpg\"\/)
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A few seconds of quality time with some 000 steel wool on the shaft and inside of the bearing and the shaft was shiny, smooth, and clean. A few drops of 3-in-one oil on it, and a tightened up setscrew, and the treadle assembly went back together.<\/p>\n
![](\"http:\/\/www.rollingonone.com\/blog\/wp-content\/images\/2006\/03\/flywheel_back.jpg\"\/)
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The treadle again makes the wheel go around and around! I wonder how many decades it’s been since it last did that.<\/p>\n
I’m not guaranteeing I can do as well with the rest of the sewing machine, or that I’ll maintain interest in the project, or that it will ever run again. If it does, it’ll be months from now. About all I know so far is that machinery works lots better if you clean the gunk and rust off all the pieces. But I’m hoping.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
An unexpected bonus of our Maine house was a non-functioning antique sewing machine in the garage. The previous owners had picked it up at some flea market, I think, never done anything with it, and it weighs a ton. They didn’t want to move it to their new digs. I, in my naivete, am hoping … <\/p>\n