Leonidas' Surgery - Part One

In case you missed it in the comments on my last "Spartan" post, my good friend Jimmy declared the "Spartan's Name should be 'Leonidas', King of Sparta!"

And so it is that my Singer Spartan now has a name and his name is "Leonidas".

Since my last post, I have been oiling him daily, hand turning his workings a few times and then running him for a minute or so.  On the third day he started to spin with no hesitation and was churning away when I started to smell something burning.  I stopped and looked at the motor and saw a bit of smoke rising out of it.  So I unplugged him and decided I would not run it again until I had a chance to open up the motor housing and clean it out.

The next day, I attacked the first part of my refurbishment - The Motor.

Let me start by saying, I am NOT AN EXPERT.  I know a enough about how an electric motor works that I am comfortable opening this up.  (Not to mention, if I destroy it, it can be replaced for less than $20).  I am sharing the process and what I have learned along the way... This is NOT A TUTORIAL.  Just my experience.

I took a lot of photos and a lot of verbal notes along the way, so I can reassemble by printing the photos and listening to my notes in reverse order...

Here is a photo journey of the dis-assembly and cleaning of Leonidas' motor.

The Motor

Mount Side of Motor

After removing the Belt Wheel and two nuts the back half of the
Motor Housing slipped right off exposing the innards of the motor.

Pictures like this help me remember where the small
bits go when it comes time to re-assemble.

A goopy motor fan, which I promptly cleaned up.

When I started cutting wires, I started marking wires and taking good
notes.  This is the only way I will feel comfortable putting it back together.

This little piece is curved and it holds the bearing in place for the motor
shaft.  It came out fairly easily, but putting it back in is going to be tricky.
I am pretty sure they made a tool specifically for this task that I don't own...

The foot pedal is in such poor condition I had to refinish it.  Unfortunately
in taking it apart, I had to cut off the pin you see on the right.  That pin
is like a rivot, except it is about 1.25 inches long with a smaller tip on the
end that is curled around the support pillar to mount the whole thing in
place.  With it cut, there is no replacing it.  I am going to have to find an
innovative way of fixing this little problem...

All of the "Little Parts", each covered in goo.

After cleaning all of the "little parts" with Goo-Gone my hands were
all white.  I had never had this happen with Goo-Gone in the past, but
then it struck me, "I don't usually use an eighth of a bottle at one time."
Next time, I'll wear gloves!!

So, that's it.  The motor and the foot pedal are completely disassembled and ready to be stripped.

I have decided not to go back to the original black.  I am going to build a "Theme Machine" to go along with his new name.  "Leonidas" was king of the Spartans.  His shield was made of hammered bronze and his cape was Maroon.  So, I am going to paint the machine with a hammered bronze paint and I am going to design some decals to go along with the theme.  The "Spartan" name badge will be replaced with "Leonidas" in a Greek font, and while the Spartan was sparse on decals, I am going to deck him out with some chains, a spear or two and maybe a Flail or two.  Right in the middle of the deck I am going to put a shield of some sort.

Let the fun begin!!

Until Next Time,
Paul