Frozen Stitch Length Regulator - Consew 226 (Singer 111w clone)

[RWL2]

I have a completely frozen Consew 226 I picked up at a yard sale.  Neither the top shaft or the main lower shaft can be turned.  I removed the belt so it's not just one shaft holding the other back.  The freezing is a combination of dried lubricant and rust, although so far, no rust on shafts in areas encased in a journal / bushing / bearing.

The lower shaft is bound by the stitch length regulator which will not rotate to create the eccentric movement it should.  Although I have liberally soaked it in both Kroil and Ed's Red I can see no way to free this without further disassembly.  I have not tried heat because my limited experience with other projects is that you almost have to heat things to red to make any difference, and I don't want to soften any heat treated parts.  It's possible I might be able to free it if I could loosen the small collar that holds a spring against the regulator.  If I release the collar and spring tension, what am I up against in getting this back in proper position?  It is probable that I may need to completely disassemble the machine and reinstall things component by component.  Getting the feed dog eccentric and the large hook gear off this shaft is the next problem.

Edited July 28, 2020 by RWL2
Add photos for orientation

[shoepatcher]

Spray the entire bottom of the machine with penetrating oil and let it set for a couple of days.

glenn

[DonInReno]

I second what shoepatcher said!

Often what appears to be rust will turn out to be old dried oil.  It’s going to take a little while for the old oil to loosen up, but it will, and most of your problems will magically go away.  
 

Many things will dissolve old oil and it probably depends mostly on where you will be working on it - many penetrating oils smell a lot so if I’m scrubbing indoors wd40 isn’t too overpowering.   Something like SimpleGreen will dissolve oil, but it does corrode parts so not a great choice for anything that can’t be completely disassembled.   Automotive brake cleaner is often just acetone - it will clean fast, but will take off paint when used on really dried things like you have there.   Mineral spirits are easier on paint, but also evaporate so not the best choice for soaking sticky parts.

Heat will speed up the process as you work on individual parts - a blow drier is perfect since it won’t peel the paint. 
 

oh yes, and it’s better to keep oils or solvents away from the rubber belt - alcohol is a good cleaner to wipe any oils off the belt.
 

 

 

[dikman]

The problem with Ed's Red is that the primary solvent is acetone, which will evaporate too quickly. Soaking with WD-40 (or similar) is probably a good start, just give it time to work, and maybe use a toothbrush to scrub the parts. Heating with a hot air gun won't hurt the parts, or you could try one of those small pin-point flame burners, that will concentrate the heat into one area without being able to overheat parts.

[CowboyBob]

I think the best thing to do is loosen the screws that hold the cam in place,each screw has a locking screw,so loosen the locking one first & then you can back the other one out 1/2 a turn,do this to all 4 & it should break loose.It would be pretty hard for any penetrating lube to get into the correct spot ,so this will work.Then of course you'll have to snug the screws back down & re-tighten the lock screws b4 you run it.It looks like your machine has allen screws in it.

[RWL2]

16 hours ago, dikman said:

The problem with Ed's Red is that the primary solvent is acetone, which will evaporate too quickly. Soaking with WD-40 (or similar) is probably a good start, just give it time to work, and maybe use a toothbrush to scrub the parts. Heating with a hot air gun won't hurt the parts, or you could try one of those small pin-point flame burners, that will concentrate the heat into one area without being able to overheat parts.

You're right about the acetone evaporating very quickly, but Ed's Red is equal parts Dexron transmission oil, Clear Kerosene, Paint thinner, and acetone so there are other solvents that hang around a little longer, particularly the kerosene.

[RWL2]

Thanks for all of your comments.  After three days of soaking with Ed's Red and Kroil I was finally able to tap out the lower drive shaft and get to the feed eccentric.  A little tapping on it with a brass mallet and it separated into parts that I could clean.  The spring loaded collar seems to regulate how difficult or easy the eccentric is to change rather than the tightness of the dovetail's gib, per one of the pages in either the army or the navy repair manual. 

I also discovered the value of good allen wrenches vs the Harbor Freight kind.  I tried the wrench that fit from both the SAE and metric sets and both were a little loose in the hex head.  I tried it anyway and the wrench just spun in the head.  Thinking that maybe the hex screws were an odd size, I checked around in my little collection of unorganized allen wrenches and found a few candidates, one of which fit substantially tighter in the hex heads and I easily turned them out so I could get the gib out and clean the dovetails.  Afterwards I measured across the flats of the allen wrench to see what size it was compared to the Harbor Freight one and discovered that they were all legitimately 1/16" wrenches, but the one that fit/worked was .063" and the Harbor Freight one was .060".  That .003 of an inch difference in size made all the difference in the world.  It's not as important on bigger sized allen screws, but having had this experience I need to find a good set.

The bottom of the machine is pretty well under control - until I eventually put it all back together and the timing is off, but I'll start a separate message about that if I can't find what I'm looking for here in the previous messages.  Now on to the top part of the machine, which is still solidly frozen despite an equal number of days soaking in the penetrating oils. 

[RWL2]

I forgot to add the photos that may be helpful to the next person to need help with the feed eccentric and lower shaft.

 

[Handstitched]

@RWL2 Just out of general interest, how much did you pay for it? 

The issue I would have if I tried what you're doing is getting the timing right. 

One of the many passing thoughts I've had is to get a machine head  ( like my STW  Seiko) just  to learn how to pull it apart and put it back together again ...and get it working, timing and all  

Hope yours  all goes well  in the end  

HS

Edited July 30, 2020 by Handstitched

[Constabulary]

My preferred solvent for "frozen" machines is paint thinner - not kidding. Or applying heat with a gas blow torch or electric heat gun.

Edited July 30, 2020 by Constabulary

[RWL2]

9 hours ago, Handstitched said:

@RWL2 Just out of general interest, how much did you pay for it?  

HS

Lets just say below market.  Frozen and rusted machines aren't worth much unless you're interested in reselling parts and I'm not in that business.  I think the machine had been out at the seller's yard sale last year and my guess is that he got tired of moving it - it's heavy!  Check your message folder.

[RWL2]

8 hours ago, Constabulary said:

My preferred solvent for "frozen" machines is paint thinner - not kidding. Or applying heat with a gas blow torch or electric heat gun.

Thanks for your vote of confidence on paint thinner.  This is my first thoroughly frozen sewing machine.  I've also been dripping paint thinner on some of the joints as well.  I have resisted putting a torch to anything for fear of annealing any hardened metal parts but I may try a hair dryer or cautiously a heat gun.

I'm thinking that limonene (Citrus strip / xylene substitute) might be worth trying.  That stuff ate the O rings on our tissue processor that had been designed for exposure to xylene, which dissolves wax (and a host of other old organic materials).  What I really wish I could use is spray on Easy Off oven cleaner but I don't want that in any moving parts since it's water based which will cause rust.  When I get greasy metal working machines and motors, oven cleaner has proven to be the easiest way to degrease them, including old dried on oil.  Oven cleaner has worked better than kerosene, paint thinner, lacquer thinner, gasoline, or xylene.  Leave it on for about 5 minutes and wipe the old oil off.  Leave oven cleaner on too long and it will soften and remove some paints.  Although some are partial to WD-40 as a penetrating oil, I'm not a fan because it leaves an oily film that becomes sticky / gummy over time.

[Gregg From Keystone Sewing]

This is an excerpt on how to adjust the gib of the feed eccentric.