At the Humane Society thrift shop I found this Viking 6030 machine that was in parts. There was a plastic bag with all the pieces that someone in their intake shop had taken off the machine.  The story I was told  was that it didn’t run and they tried to fix it and decided to sell it for parts.  It was also very dirty, a slight cigarette smell…but it was only $5 and I knew that if I couldn’t get it back together and running that I could easily sell the carry case, foot control and extension table for a lot of cash on Ebay.

Since I had rescued a similar machine I knew that the biggest problem with the older Vikings is oil and grease that solidifies in the gears. If you try to run them it will crack the cam shaft and then it will only do a straight and zig zag stitch.  Sometimes they get stuck in reverse so someone will think there is a big problem.

As soon as I got home, I covered the dining room table and spread out all the parts. They had taken apart the bobbin winding mechanism that is also the reduction gear and attaches to the belt that drives the hand wheel. I had nothing to look at or figure out where all the parts went. There was even a tiny little ball bearing the size of a pin head! I was so lucky they put all these parts in the bag and nothing was lost.

After a few hours of putting it together and taking it apart just to put it back together a different way, I was ready to plug it in. The motor ran, the light worked and the controller gave it power. But none of the stitch dials moved and it ran hard. I quickly unplugged it and took the covers off so I could reach all the gears and drive bars. I liberally coated all of it with a silicone oil that melts the old grease.

This morning, I put thread in the reassembled machine and crossed my fingers. It runs perfectly!! I wish I had taken photos of the machine in parts but I hope you can appreciate that this wonderful machine was headed for the dump and now it has a new life.

Ron is so funny….he said I was the only person he knew who could spend $5 to have hours and hours of fun repairing and rescuing an old machine. It is cheaper than a movie and popcorn or even renting a DVD. I asked him if he wanted me to see if I could fix that damn light on the vintage Buick Regal that the mechanics can’t seem to fix. He told me to have at it! Hmmmmmmmm……

**** This is from another site but is basically what the parts looked like that I had to put back together. The guy who did this one at least knew where each part was supposed to go and didn’t have to do a hit or miss puzzle like I did.