Dreamt of autoclaves and art

Yesterday was all shopping online for parts. I found the motor friction pulley, the bobbin winder tire (smaller than standard, so a bit tricky), bobbins, polishing compounds that will work for the variety of metals I’ve found in this thing, a set of felts for the dremel, and then. Knobs. What a doozy. The originals were plastic skirted cylindrical knobs with numbers on the skirt. I have the original to tension knob, but the stitch length knobs were replaced with arrow indicator knobs so who knows what the number arrangement was on them. Firstly, number skirted knobs aren’t really used much anymore, probably since people figured out that knobs get broken and need replaced so it’s easier to put an arrow on the knob and your custom numbering on the body of the device than sell a bajillion different numbering scales on knobs. Secondly, one of them has to be itty bitty— top tension knob no larger than 0.81”, stitch length knobs no larger than 1.14”. Very few options at that size, vintage or new. I’ve found a variety of new generic 1-10 knobs that will fit, but they’re all $10 each; I might be better off getting some wee unskirted old or new old stock knobs and making my own skirts. Or, jeez, getting some bushings and set screws and making the whole ass knob out of moldable epoxy.

I also did some more research on rheostats and solid state motor speed controllers. There seem to be tons of promising options around, so the next thing to do is take a closer look at the knee lever and the motor to figure out what the actuation and power requirements are. Nnnnnot a lot of people outright replacing the rheostat in a vintage machine with solid state, that I can find. Hoping the reason for that is preservation rather than technical.

I failed to set timers for meals, alas, but I did get the laundry done and made another batch of nut and seed bars. Finished Ancillary Mercy, watched more DS9.