OT - sewing machine repair

I have heard/rumor that they use Teflon bearing surfaces. Don't know how this would be done. The machine (Husqvarna) that I've stuck my nose into looked much the same as any other that needs lube. I did use some Singer Sewing Machine oil in this same machine (most any store carries this, try the Walmart sewing area). As far as I can tell it didn't have any ill effects. It really bothered me to see all the dry bearing surfaces in it...

According to SteveB :

Interestingly enough, I use my little Singer 221B (folding portable) occasionally for sewing leather, and it works quite well for the task. (Granted, it is not particularly thick leather which I sew, but it is still leather. ;-)

Enjoy, DoN.

Never heard of it.

Q: Is sewing machine oil thinner than penetrating oil?

Was it LaSorda or Yogi who said, "It ain't bragging if you can do it"?

Steve

Hey, cool down Dave. Sorry if you feel offended, just thought I'd bounce you back, fair enough?

It's clear that you're not qualified to "fix" the machine you're tinkering with. Do yourself a favor and pay someone competent.

Thanks Ed. I was trying to suggest something that might unstick the OP's stiff reverse lever. WD is something you can find anywhere easily, and he might have had some to hand. Lubrication wasn't the issue, initially anyway. Both you and Dave have kindly helped with many little queries I've posted here in the past. Keep it up!

Jordan

To answer your question, no, sewing machine oil isn't thinner than penetrating oil. But it's the lowest-viscosity oil you're likely to see for a consumer application that still has the ability to lubricate. Penetrating oil, like WD-40 and lots of other oily things, has almost no lubricating ability at all.

Any sewing-machine store will have it. Buy the most expensive kind you can find. It's the only thing to use on your sewing machine.

Having said that, I'll tell you that I cheat a little and use Starrett Instrument Oil, which is just slightly heavier, on the bearing surfaces in my old Morse machine that I have identified as high-load bearings. I've gotten away with it for over 20 years now, oiling about once a year, and it seems to do a fine job. But I would not use it in the lightly-loaded bearing surfaces that move at high speed. Unless you have a very good sense of bearing loads and lubrication, stick to the sewing machine oil throughout.

All the references I find point to Dizzy Dean.

The Featherweight is a great little machine, Mom found several in her wanderings - in some ways she Out-Gunner'd Gunner by a mile. ;-) Walks in with a Ridgid #2 pipe cutter in pristine condition ($160), and she had the balls to say "It was $2 - did I pay too much?"

(Good night Mrs. Bergman, wherever you are.)

The one I grabbed to see "which model is he talking about..." was the sole 221K White (Made in Great Britain) she had. There's at least two each of the Green and Black variety around here somewhere. But I won't say where here is, in case there are any rabid quilt makers waiting to mug me for a sewing machine.

(Satire Alert - put down the Mountain Dew before reading further, unless you want a good excuse to go buy a new monitor.)

Remember The Rules: Guys don't make clothing - and we sure as HELL don't make matching His And Hers outfits - matter of fact it's your sacred duty under the Man Code to burn anything resembling them if found, and never allow yourself to be seen in public in same. :-P

But we are allowed to repair holes and ripped out inseams in work clothes, and hem our Levis and Carhartts, make sails and spray covers and light covers and shifter boots and upholstery, and do other Guy Things with a sewing machine. It still qualifies as a Power Tool, but only when used properly. ;-)

-->--

We have a Singer 132K6 walking foot leather and canvas machine which my grandfather bought for the carpet business he founded in 1936, although I don't know how old the machine is - be around then. My father used to show off and sew 3 ply plywood with it... Found the original packing crate under the house when granddad died... I used it the other day to fix a sun umbrella that came from the rubbish. Geoff

Now you're talking - that's a classic motor trimmer's machine. Built simple and robust, massive bobbin, easy to use and service. Alas, they're also pretty expensive, so I bought a Seiko walking foot instead. Not bad but with a much smaller bobbing I have to reload it more often. Will stitch 5/16" vinyl, leather, etc FAST.

On Thu, 08 Nov 2007 00:08:09 -0800, with neither quill nor qualm, Bruce L. Bergman quickly quoth:

I'm glad you didn't say "audacity". That took balls. ;)

Only wimmenz make quiltz.

Nah, it's the keyboard which gets ruined by sugary crap like that.

Amen!

I make my laptop glare guards with mine. And manly pillow cases. (I needed one for a reading wedge I bought which was naked.) I also used it for curtains in the gar^H^H^Hshop. We can't have people peeking at all the tools now, can we?

----------------------------------------------------------------- When I die, I'm leaving my body to science fiction. --Steven Wright ----------------------------

If you keep making your pillow cases out of awning canvas and your curtains out of rawhide, people are going to want to peek anyway.

-- Ed Huntress

Not even that, I just hose it out with 99% isopropyl alcohol followed by compressed air. Of course you might have to vacuum out the cockroaches first.

At least three times over the 12 years I worked away from home and occupied a rented room during the week, I answered phone calls from SWMBO while showing my landlady how to operate her sewing machine (which happened to be located in a corner of her bedroom)

Gerry :-)} London, Canada

On Thu, 8 Nov 2007 09:22:47 -0500, with neither quill nor qualm, "Ed Huntress" quickly quoth:

That sounds like an S&M shop, not my house, Ed.

----------------------------------------------------------------- When I die, I'm leaving my body to science fiction. --Steven Wright ----------------------------

I managed to talk my wife into making a cover for my tig welder. If she reads this, she'll make me make it...

Mine came from a dealer at an antique dealer cluster. He was a dealer in clocks, and I happened to notice the black box with a carrying handle, and ask what it was. (It looked like it might do as a case for a small button accordion, and I was buying concertinas and the occasional button accordion in those days.) Well ... I decided that it might prove useful, and bought it for a quite reasonable amount. It turns out that he had bought it for his wife when they got married or not too long afterwards. Then, she never used it, and he used it only to repair his Masonic regalia a time or two. His wife was no longer with us, and he decided that he had no more need for it, so that is why he was selling it. By now, I presume that he, also, is no longer with us, as I am now about the age he was when he sold it.

Nice! My wife finds tools for me on eBay -- but she doesn't

Mine is black, with some gold decorative trim over the black enamel.

I had to go back to the bedroom to check mine. I apparently mis-remembered. It is a "221-", but whatever character follows the '-' is hiding under the head of a drive screw. It might be a 'G' or an 'O', or perhaps anything else. I guess the 'B' came from Sherlock Holmes' address -- 221B Baker street. :-)

FWIW -- the serial number (if this helps any) is "AM402355", and the copyright date in the manual is 1955. Can that serial number refine the date of manufacture any better than that? It appears to have the full standard set of accessories -- as well as *two* of the buttonhole attachments.

So -- I should guard mine against raids by quilters?

:-)

Aside from using it to stitch up the leather thumbstraps for English system concertinas, I've used it for various repairs of everyday clothing -- including repairing what my niece calls a "blowout" (the rear seam of the pants). :-)

Oh yes -- also to put blood red buttonholes on the red-lined black vampire cape prior to some Halloween in the past -- since I got married.

Oh yes -- and I have to do all the sewing in the house, since my wife just won't do that kind of thing. :-)

Enjoy, DoN.

thanks all for your replies.

i have now been told that they were claimed to be an impregnated style bearing. Based on everyones responses, I am moderately confident that it is not likely to be an 'exotic' lubricant, so i expect it will wash out with an ordinary type solvent, and just straight sewing machine oil will do.

(i have also tracked down a suggestion to try heating it with hair dryer/hot air gun/ for a little while. I guess this would help an impregnated bearing leak a bit of oil out onto the bearing surface to wash and relube. A sewing machine mechanic suggested 'Prolon' a 'foaming teflon spray oil used for turbos- but i cant locate anything like that.)

regards

russ