Champanier

Okay, a year ago I had never even heard of a Featherweight, but reading about them tempted me too much and I seem to have suddenly acquired two of them $150 each - please reassure me that this wasn't awful, even though it feels way too expensive (most seem to be running $200 and up locally).

I'll call them Scratchy and Chugger for lack of better names, to make the questions clearer. Scratchy came from a dealer. I was buying supplies and saw that they had a few older machines and asked if they had any Featherweights. They said they had one coming in that they had been servicing regularly, so I left a deposit and about a month later, it came in. They handed me the box and I brought it home without really looking carefully. It has a LOT of surface damage to the bed. The machine itself is pretty good, but someone seems to have gone out of their way to injure this poor baby. When I ran it, it sounded awfully high pitched to me, so I opened it up and I was surprised by how dirty it was inside, since they said they had just serviced it. But I scrubbed, cleaned, oiled and greased and it now cheerfully sews nice as can be. But it there anything I can do about those scratches? (I know there are wonderful examples in the stickies of talented people doing amazing restoration, but it looks pretty scary to me...hoping for an easier temporary fix while I work up the courage to learn how to work with shellac clearcoat finishes.) I cleaned and then used TR Resin Glaze and aside from the gouges, it looks okay. By the way, I can't figure out how to get the real mirror finishes I see - saw someone recommending Mirror Glaze, but when I looked online there were lots of products under that brand name. The TR Resin Glaze gives a nice soft shine, but it's not gleaming.

So, on to Chugger, who's a little older (1941 vs 1948 for Scratchy). Found this one on Craigslist, just an hour after it was posted and drove to Connecticut to see, armed with rags, oil, toothbrush, screwdrivers, tweezers, bobbins, thread, fabric and a Featherweight book, since the posting said it needed to be 'oiled' and I know how to read between the lines. I don't know what on earth was all through this machine, unless it was the lead flaking off the wire on the underside and then getting distributed all through it - there were lots of whitish flakes, particularly on the gears under the thread spool. But I sat at the (very patient) seller's for about two hours working on getting it oiled enough to function, because I wanted to be sure I could make it work. It had the loudest creaks, squeals, clunks, and crunches I've ever heard. I finally got it to the point of at least moving when I pushed the foot pedal and brought it home. Last night I took it all apart again (including the bobbin case, which I hadn't been able to get apart completely at the seller's.) Found a little thread behind it, but only about four inches. I just bought a very sad 201-2 (another long saga for a different post) that had a tube of Singer lubricant in the drawer, so I put the lubricant in the two spots on motor. The seller had put on a new belt that was too tight, so I loosened that. Cleaned and oiled everything again, because one squeak had come back overnight. I've gotten it to the point where it will chug along at about 2/3 the speed of Scratchy - and it makes a nice stitch, tension is good, etc., but it just feels like it's trying too hard to get going. The light literally flickered as the motor revved up until it stayed on when I got the motor really running. I tried using Scratchy's foot pedal on Chugger, but it didn't make Chugger go faster. Scratchy's foot pedal has nice variable speed, though, while Chugger's requires pushing the button all the way down, then just goes at its 'fastest' (middling) speed. There is still a very faint squeak from the post coming out of the motor where the belt loops around. I probably need to take off the belt and sand off the rust.

I think I need to take apart Chugger's motor and clean it and see if it needs new brushes (haven't tried this before, but I found instructions with lots of pictures). For the foot pedal, I could (1) try to find more details on how to fix the foot pedal, or (2) I have an original 201-2 foot pedal that I replaced with an electronic one, so I could try to hook that up (although it had been cut off when I bought the machine, so I don't know if it works any better), or (3) just get an electronic one for Chugger, too. I'm thinking the electronic one sounds like the best plan.

I'm looking forward to any advice you have to offer. I have dreams of my granddaughters learning to sew on the Featherweights (and taking the bobbin cases apart a lot to remove thread).

Here are the pictures! Scratchy is on the left and in the first two closeups; Chugger is on the right and in the last closeup. Chugger has some fine scratches and little spots that look like dust, but they're tiny spots of chipped paint. [ATTACH=CONFIG]498162[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]498163[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]498164[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]498165[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]498166[/ATTACH]

Tartan

Poor thing look like it lost a cat fight! At least they are working and you don't have to worry about your Grandaughter damaging the finish.

Champanier

LOL! 'Oh, yeah,' says the Featherweight, 'you should see the other guy.' Somebody sure blunted something tackling this poor little machine - or had an extremely bad sewing day and took a heavy duty seam ripper to it!

manicmike

Chugger's wiring is probably wrong. The flickering light is usually a sign that someone has wired the light in series with the motor or some such thing. The scratches are something you won't be able to fix if they're all the way through. Your only option would be to repaint it. Don't be concerned about this though. There are plenty of guides and videos to make it fool proof, and spray cans of black enamel are cheap enough. There's a guy (keeler sales - I'm not affiliated with him) who sells reproduction decals for featherweights. I ordered a set for my 29K and it was a really nice job. So, you're up for a can each of enamel primer, black enamel paint, waterslide decals and something to protect the decals. I would use shellac flakes dissolved in alcohol: Again, lots of information on this forum (look for Glenn's thread, linked from the resources sticky).
Since you have two 221s, you can afford to have one in the workshop for a while. If you screw it up, just take the paint off and start again. It'll be a great learning experience and at the end you'll have a magnificent, gleaming, new-looking machine that you'll absolutely love.

Mrs. SewNSew

Congrats on the Featherweights! The scratches are bummer and it sure looks like they were done on purpose. Maybe it was a kid? At least they are mostly just on the extended bed so if you try to do something to fit it, you probably don't have a whole machine re-do on your hands. With the Chugger I would worry much less about the foot controller for now and more about getting it moving well. Take the belt off and move the wheel by hand to see if you have it moving freely. If it's cleaned and oiled well enough then I would suspect the motor next. Double check the wiring and the motor. Mine had thread wound around the spindle coming off the motor and I never would have found it had I not taken the time to look.

2manyhobbies

I just bought one in mint condition and paid a bit more than you did, but I just love it. I can't wait to carry with my on sewing retreats.

maviskw

Maybe it will "sew itself in". My 128 singer wouldn't make a stitch when I got it. After some work on it, it sewed, but seemed to be toiling. I just kept sewing, and it got much better. Goes like sixty now!

sash

I was just at my LQS yesterday and they had a f/w in case for $400.00. Ticket said it had been serviced. I didn't look at it though. Way to high for me. I have two already and I think that is enough for me unless I find one really, really, really cheap.

oldtnquiltinglady

Congratulations on your purchases; even though it is more than I would have paid for some in such bad shape. I know your feeling that the good ones are just not showing up any more--even here in FW country. My sister found a white one for me not too long ago for $65, but it was a MESS. DH and I finally got it cleaned up and running, and I do love it--have already pieced two quilts on it. Would someone please tell me how to get hold of this "Glenn's tutorial (or whatever). I keep seeing references to it, but don't know how to pull it up and study it.

Someone's kid had a field day on that one of yours. Makes me mad at kids all over for that--even though it could have been a mad husband, brother, sister, or self. That is shameful. I'm getting myself all worked up here over mistreatment of a sewing machine, and I guess I have to go to church this morning to ask for forgiveness for my mean thoughts.....

iadhikari

Just a thought... I have a FW that has a chip out of the back of the extension bed. It's not the paint, but an actual chip out of the metal, around the size of a dime. I think the machine got dropped with the bed up. Anyway, when I bought it, I considered buying the extension bed online, on eBay. They pop up every now and then and I seem to think they are around $30. If the gouges really bother you, maybe consider replacing the bed? It's just an idea. I know some people don't like to replace things on their machines to preserve the value, but mine are not collector's items anyway.