Mona's Knitting Room

There was a crank-in in Marblehead today and I made it my goal to get all of the knitter parts from my sock machine cleaned. It was my thought that I could put it together in the company of other sock machine enthusiasts while learning more from watching others knit. With the help of a few friends, I not only put the machine together, I knit my first tube! Very exciting! On to ribbing next.











But first I should share some of my work this morning. Here are before, during and after pictures of the cam shell. You can see that although the grease and dirt were effectively removed with the Dawn dishwashing detergent and a paint stripper brush, there is still a significant amount of build up on the outside of the cam shell. Using a paste made of Bar Keepers Friend and water, I used an old tooth brush to scrub all of the nooks and crannies. For the larger smooth areas, I used the same paste with a cleaning pad cut to a manageable size. There were some areas of significant rust that required several applications of Naval Jelly to dissolve the rust. The end result, though, is beautiful.

After obtaining advice from a number of sources, I decided to try WD-40 to clean the sock machine parts. I bought a galvanized steel bucket and a gallon of WD-40 and soaked several parts in it for an hour after which I scrubbed them with a nylon paint stripping brush. The worst of the gooey grime came off but the rust and discoloration on the machined surfaces remained. Next!


After consulting yet another person, I decided to try Dawn hand dishwashing detergent with my stripping brush. This worked much better. As these before and after photos of the side cams show, Dawn removed all of the goo as well as the surface rust but did not remove the discoloration. Next!










I next decided to check with the experts at my local True Value Hardware store. They recommended Bar Keepers Friend, a cleanser containing oxalic acid. I bought a green scratchy pad, meant to be used as a paint stripper, and that combined with the BKF did the trick. As you can see in this photo of the knitting cylinder, the BKF nicely cleaned the right side. Success!

I'm beginning a new adventure. I purchased a circular sock knitting machine (csm) on eBay and it arrived today. It's a Legare 400 and I'm excited to learn to knit on it. But first things first. The machine is filthy and covered with surface rust. I have not been able to find any tutorials on the web for mechanically restoring these gems so I'll have to experiment with various products to see what works best.

What is a circular sock machine? Check out this website.

The box arrived and I heard "clunking" as it was placed on the floor. Not a great beginning. The seller didn't do a great job packing the machine parts. Most of the parts were wrapped in bubble wrap but because they were free to move around inside the box, the wrap wore away in many places. I opened the box and here's what I found:












Yikes! This is the worst of the parts!












Now it's time to start cleaning...