Treadling on Tuesday

I am having a grand time with my Treadle this week. I watched a Youtube video on how to clean and oil a Treadle. 

I only watched about the first 5 minutes because that is as many steps as I could handle at a time. I plan to go back and watch/do the rest another day. I like this photo because it shows Miss Molly supervising in the background and it looks like she is saying "I wouldn't do that if I were you!"
How many tools does it take to open the side of a Treadle sewing machine? 
More than this apparently! 
I couldn't get the side panel off. 
Do I need different tools or a stronger person?!?

When oiling the parts under the machine, I found a lot of thread wrapped around the... um, around the "whatchamacallit" (that's the technical term!)
I removed all the snarled thread with some tweezers.
I put oil into all the little holes, and on all the moving parts.  Miraculously I got the machine put back together (with no pieces leftover!) and the belt back in place. 
Then I tried to sew/treadle. 

The machine developed terrible tension and I was starting to regret my decision to take the hand wheel off in the cleaning process, 

but then I saw this...

the thread had jumped out of the tension disk. 

Easy peasy problem to fix (phew!) and I was back in business with perfect tension again.  I enjoyed some relaxing crumb sewing from my scrap box. I put a towel underneath the machine to catch any oil drips. Then once I got going and the oil got worked in,  I didn't need the towel anymore.

My daughter took these cool photos of me treadling. It works best for me if my right foot is forward to the front of the treadle, and my left foot is at the back. So fun!
It is inexplicable and completely illogical why I love this so much!