1928 Singer hand crank sewing machine

Wow, just discovered this site and these forums. I really hope someone can help me here. I purchased a 1928 hand crank Singer for a song at a local thrift shop. Mostly I wanted to have a machine I could use to teach my G-granddaughter to sew on while she is still to young/small to reach either my treadle or electric foot pedal on my new singer (1961 High School).  When I bought it I saw that the tension control knob was missing, but a short cruise around the internet showed me that replacing it was pretty straight forward and all the parts are readily available. Now the problem; the internal spring is still attached and I cannot remove it. I pulled fairly hard and it only stretched out the spring so I stopped immediately. One is supposed to be able to just slip it off. To add to the issue, I cannot remove the front plate on the machine to view the internal workings and the tension control spring where it is mounted. I found a screw driver that fits the fairly small screws on the plate, but they won't budge. I assume this machine has been the victim of prior attempt(s) to fix these issues and that is why somebody gave it to the SA. Anyway, I am not ready to give up and I know these machines are very durable but I need to know what I can safely do to remove that spring. I oiled it and everything moves as it should when I operate the hand crank so this seems to be the only problem. I would send a pic, but my phone is so old I can't update it and it won't let me post pictures anywhere except as text message attachments. Thanks in advance to anyone with ideas or advice!

Perhaps you could post some pictures for us?

How to post pictures.

Ooops. Now I see you can't.

Hope you haven't given up on your lovely machine yet!

I've had a look at my old treadle Singer and the tension spring isn't attached to the head of the machine or the tensioning disks in my model. Maybe try a little WD-40 or similar unsticking solution to try to remove the screws from the faceplate so you can get a better idea what's going on?

Let us know where you've gotten to! Happy to try to help if you're still struggling. Do you know what model your machine is?

PRETTY!

My main sewing machine is from 1919 and it works better than any other machine I've ever used.  These things are built to last!

Pictures will help.  What to do next depends on which model it is.  

Thank you both for replying. My main machine is a 1917 White treadle and I love it. But I wanted this hand crank because not being a major piece of furniture it could be carried into different rooms and windows. It is a 1928  model 28K, serial number Y5859488, in the ISMACS data base. That spring should just slip right out. At this point I am dripping WD40 onto the front plate screws in the hope that enough will seep in to get that thing off. Whoever worked on this machine in the past turned those screws in so tight the edges are below the face plate edge. It's going to be slow going and in the meantime I took some time off from fretting to knit some hats and mittens for the cold weather.

Looking at my blog, the 127 I worked on should be something like the 28K you're working on.  

I had to take out the post before the spring would come out.

photos and words here


My current self would probably use a bit of rubber from a broken bike tyre (bicycle repair shops usually give these away free) between the pliers and the post.  

Here's the post that preceded it to show there was an issue with the way the tension was working.

Wow, the idea of removing the post itself never occurred to me. It isn't covered in anyway in anything I read. This just looked like such a simple job! I still will get that front plate off first so I can figure out why that spring won't just slip out like it is supposed to. There may be more problems than I can think of inside the machine head. Anyway, time to drip some more lubricant on those screws. Thank you for the info.