How to stay on a roll…

I’ve been on a roll for quite some time now.  I’m not even sure how long it’s been… since pilot season I guess.  That would be last spring.  In my estimation, I’ve had approximately 11 days off since then. Today is not supposed to be one of them and I’ll likely start working right after I’m finished writing this, but, for now, I’m calling it a day off.

What does a person who works that many hours do on a day off? Glad you asked. 

I’m one of those crazy seamstresses who likes to use a rolling office chair at the machines. That way I can roll back and forth between machines to save time. It’s all about saving time you see. So, when the rolling begins to become more like work, I know I have to take some action and do some cleaning. Don’t get me wrong… I sweep my workshop out at least once a day and sometimes 2 or 3 times a day, depending on what the project is. I vacuum the entire shop at least once a week as well. I like a clean shop.  

Why refer to myself as a ‘crazy’ seamstress?  It’s the wheels…  the thread of a thousand garments is wrapped around each of the five wheels, binding them in place and making it impossible to roll any longer. What shall I do? 

Actually it’s not like I haven’t cleaned the caster before… I do it about once every 8-12 months…I think…. I don’t know… I lose track of time.

Today I have a window of opportunity…. I seize the moment, hoist my chair up onto my table and begin to hammer the casters of with my rubber mallet. Five in all, giving them a cursory inspection, I find that they’re worse than I had anticipated. 

                                                         

Thread Stuffed Casters

This would call for the ‘caster de-threading tool kit!!

Caster De-Threading Tool Kit

I took everything out to the back porch, where I began to work away at each wheel. First with the razor blade, then the pliers, and exacto knife.

Jammed Caster

Exacto Knife in Action

I just kept jamming the knife in along the side and pried it upward to cut the threads, then I gently pulled the threads out. If you pull too hard the thread wraps tighter and is tougher to get out.  When you finally get it all out, you can use a lighter to burn out the last few threads.

Use a lighter to burn/melt out the last bits of threads.

I was finally finished…

Five clean casters

Can you believe the amount of thread I got out of these five casters? Amazing, right?  Ahhh… brings back memories…

Mound of thread removed from wheels

I hammered the caster back into the chair legs and my faithful rolling chair is ready for action… which I’m about to take, by starting another project right NOW!

Back on my roll!