Resurrection Update 3a

As promised here are the pictures.

This shows everything that we got, I think we were lucky to get the tension mast. When we got the machine the tension rig wasn't in the lid storage clips and hadn't been for a long time.

The needle retainer -- the one in front with the orange tip is the old one.  As you can see it is totally dead.  Commonly called a sponge bar, a dead one like this is one of a handful of do not knit with this in your machine check points.

Here I've removed about 20 needles to soak years of grime off of them.  This is one spot where it is nice to have expert help.  Ileen from Ravelry was a great help.  After reading for a while I had become convinced that the needles were pretty fragile.  Surprisingly there is enough flex in the needle that they can be removed from the machine without removing anything except the sponge bar.

Removal is pretty simple pull the needle forward.
Push the hook down.
Grab the butt (far end) and lift it up.
Pull the butt backward and up until the needle clears the bed.
(Helpful hint - make sure that the needle latch (metal flap) is closed. This keeps the hook from catching on the bed.)

This is the first batch of needles that I removed from the machine.  They are sitting in rubbing alcohol which will remove most of the congealed oil, dust and grime.

The final score on this phase was 22 bent needles.  Bent needles are another of the don't knit with the machine like this stop points.  For proper operation of the machine each needle has to go to the correct location.  Bent needles don't and since there are a number of needles in various stages of moving into and out of the bed during knitting.  Bent needles will create only frustration and trouble.

More later.