PatrickTweed

Can anyone tell me if the white wire covering on this Singer Featherweight picture is asbestos? Does anyone know if the dark fabric wires contain asbestos? I've wanted to purchase a Featherweight for some time but I've been concerned about this issue.
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Mrs. SewNSew

No. The white is not asbestos. It's oxidized lead. Another little thing to be careful of! The foot controller might still have two asbestos washers inside between the ceremic and the external casing. I usually replace the washers with phenolic ones while wearing eye protection, a dust mask and gloves. I use kerosene to clean the lead tube as well as possible. You basically don't want the oxidation to be falling into the gear beneath and getting ground up.

J Miller

Neither the lead oxide on that lead sleeve or the little asbestos washers in the foot controller are a problem unless you ingest them or inhale dust from them. That means you handle them then lick your fingers, or crumble them and breathe the dust.

Wash your hands after handling them and you're OK fine.

Joe

PatrickTweed

Thanks, that leads into another question. Do the old domed portable 128's with the knee bar controllers also have asbestos washers on their controllers?

Rodney

They might, I haven't been inside one to look. Asbestos is funny stuff. Some of the old ads listed it as a major selling point. People were around it for many years in far greater quantities than we see today with no ill effects. I wouldn't expect to see asbestos in sewing machine wires. There wouldn't be a need to insulate them from heat.

I agree with Joe. Although some might say I'm too casual about it my thought is as long as you're careful you're not likely to have any ill effects from casual contact. Just wash up afterward.
It's a far different story if you're handling the stuff every day though. Then you need to take all available precautions.
Rodney

PatrickTweed

Thanks Rodney.

quiltsRfun

The danger with asbestos is when the flakes become airborne. If you're concerned, be sure to wear protective gear and probably do your work outside. Otherwise those flakes can settle and become a problem again when disturbed. Vacuuming and sweeping are also a bad idea for the same reason. We had to hire an abatement company to remove an old furnace that was covered in asbestos. The whole house had to be sealed off from the area where the removal took place. Of course, you'd be dealing with much smaller amounts but better safe than sorry.

PatrickTweed

The furnace clean up sounds like it was a real big project. I live in an old house and I'm always worried about running into potential problems like that. I found this information online (link below) because I'm thinking about buying a Necchi Supernova and wanted to find out if any asbestos was used in the insulation of the motor or the foot controller. This link has a paragraph in italian but you can translate the page with Google. The reason for my concern is twofold, I found a layer of white fabric in the foot controller of my Singer 223 which my sewing machine repair person said is asbestos and I have had the lung disease Sarcoidosis so I'm really overly careful with anything that could potentially damage my lungs. Of course I didn't find anything out about the supernova but this link is interesting as it mentions asbestos used in the clutch motors on industrial machines.

http://www.mattioli1885.com/onlinejo...icle/view/1713

Mickey2

QuiltsRfun, major clean up project there, always a bit worrying before the work is complete. We know asbestos is one of the silent killers still in action today, it can be hard to detect it. Used various places in buildings like in the ventilation shafts and fire retardent materials up until around 1970 I think. There are still those roof and exterior wall plates around, not many left though. These days I think it's banned everwhere, asbestos gloves were use by firemen up until 1990s. I still don't think they have found a fire retardent material equally as good. From the days when asbestos were used almost like a new from of plastic, we know there are some left lurking around. I don't know about industrial machines, but I think we should be able replace what ever parts that were made of it. I think I would identify the typical grey ash colored substance, but where could it be lurking, it what types of material? I'm not afraid of handling old sewing machines. Thank's for the warning though, I would like to be aware of it to be able to identify and replace it with something better. The worst is, I think we have new silent killers around, it takes us a few decades to identify them and do something about it. Traffic fumes, smog and tobacco kill people daily, it's a sort of silent killer we know are there but hard to do something about.

Rodney

Given your health history I can appreciate your concern. I would be careful too.
If you think you might have some, a dust mask and gloves should be sufficient. Just be careful not to get any dust airborne.
Rodney