Victoria's Guts

I've been threatening to take Miss Victoria apart and have her cams brazed and reshaped.  She runs a bit rough, and when I took her apart and cleaned her, I had to use a lot of self-control to not grind her innards down with my trusty Dremel right there and then.

Eric maintains I should have her guts brazed and then reshaped instead, and I am hoping that in repairing the wear to her parts, she'll run as good as new again.  The skeptic in me wonders if she'll wear down in the same manner again, or if she'll run like a finely-tuned machine?

Well, this morning, I dug out my trusty Teeny-Turner screwdriver (everyone should own one and bonus fact:  they're made in Canada!), and took ole' Vickie apart.

I also wonder what caused the wear?  Was it years of neglect?  Was it improper oiling?  Probably a combination of both, I'd guess.  She was a crusty gal when I got her, as evidenced in my first post when I brought her home and took her apart.  All that felt under her up-throw cams probably contributed to her uneven wear, and the fact her cylinders were jammed with broken needles and years of felt certainly didn't help, either.

Let's have a look, shall we?  (Click on any photo to enlarge for detail.  Click again and you can really see my sad excuse for cuticles.  It's gardening season, okay?)

Her up-throw cams are both unevenly worn.  It's so tempting to grind this down and buff the hell out of it...

The other cam shows the same kind of wear, but the point is worn down to a near-sharp point.

Here's a view of the other side.

Her V-cam shows uneven wear as well, so this will have to be remedied as well.

And yet another view of the wear.

So Vickie's guts now reside in a Ziploc bag.  If Eric gets the time this week, he'll run her innards over to our machinist, who's promised to take a look at the parts and let me know what can be done.

I am keeping my fingers crossed that with a bit more TLC, Miss Victoria will be new-and-improved before long.