Saturday, July 2, 2011

Tom's Extreme Machine Makeover - Reassembled & Lovely!

Here's Tom's 891 after reassembly.  Tom thinks the machine is probably 20 or 25 years old.  He's currently knitting socks-


I spent the morning finding the ingredients to make my own batch of Tom's recipe and do my own extreme machine makeovers.  The 40-volume clear peroxide was easy to find - Sally Beauty Supply.  The Oxy Clean was at Target, and the checker told me how she loves the stuff because it launders out kid stains (I have never used it).  She said it salvaged a load of kid laundry that sat for a week while her washer was broken and developed mildew.  The glycerin was super easy - my husband had some in the garage.  The Xantham gum was a bit of a challenge, but I found it at the HEB Plus where we buy groceries - this is a specialty item not stocked at all grocery stores.  If they have it, it's with the baking supplies and it is usually purchased by people who do gluten-free baking.

Tom has also warned me that the goop expands and gets runnier in the sunshine.  I'm going to be ready with plastic wrap and tape, as he describes.  I need to keep it off the metal parts, and when I finish, need to rinse well.  Tom disassembled what he could reasonably easily, which looks like a smart way to go about this.  I also asked Tom whether he observed any loss of color (he has some red on the main carriage).  Tom says he puts the solution on everything, white and colors, and he hasn't had a problem.

10 comments:

  1. Xantham gum is also purchased by cake decorators. At least my mom did in the 70's. So, cake decorating store might be another place to look if you're having trouble finding it.

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  2. Diana, tank you for video of trança russa,
    kisses, Tathy
    visite my blog: http://tathy-tricoecroche.blogspot.com

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  3. Wonderful transformation - like new!

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  4. Wow!Fantastic! I love my knitting machines now I can make them look as good as they work, like new!

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  5. How Much of each ingredient do I use? Thank you!

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  6. It's here:

    http://diananatters.blogspot.com/search?q=recipe

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  7. I missed the exact quantities of each item. Please reprint recipe with exact amounts. Thankyou.

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  8. It's here: http://diananatters.blogspot.com/2011/07/toms-amazing-knitting-machine.html

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  9. please reprint the recipe. I missed the exact products and quantities of each item. thank you very much

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  10. Please note there is search box in the upper left area of the header.

    Update: Tom has a new formula, which he says is even better! Look here:

    http://tommachineknittingguy.blogspot.com/search?q=whitening

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