Just unearthed my mothers Singer Touch & Sew 758!
 

I'm so excited. i knew where it was but hadnt had time to open her up and look at her closely. It's been a long time since i had seen it so i couldnt remember what the machine even looked like! she has everything for it! and im assuming the cams are perfect because she never ever used them. I'm hoping nothing is wrong with her and will be de-linting her, cleaning and oiling her tomorrow. This is the perfect solution for the fact that i was looking for a multipurpose machine... here it is!

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She shall be cleaned and made to work! Hahaha!

Enjoy this machine! I hope it works great for you!
Dayle

That is great!! Enjoy your machine!!!

thanks guys! im excited to give her a whirl tomorrow!

Let us know how it works. Great looking machine.

Yes I can't wait to give her some love and see how she runs and team the manual and stuff. My love is still with the antiques. The aesthetic just pleases me. But the fact that my mother has had this machine for about 40 years makes her special. :) my mother however is not mechanically inclined and admitted to me to never even having switched out the cams and testing any other stitch on the machine! The machine has been other wise well kept and always indoors so I feel it's safe to assume with a good cleaning and oiling that she'll be running soon! The bobbin is a dirty little piece at the moment. Haha. She'll need a name at some point. Maybe she will tell me as I work on her. :)

that was how I felt when I got my granny's 201-2 restored. I am now quilting on the machine she used until she went blind. I also wish I had not given away my mom's pristine 403 with all books/attachments in 1995!

OH she's a beauty. And luckily you have all the goodies that go with her!!!

Thanks everyone. I had a small but of time today and cleaned and oiled her today. I think I have her threaded correctly and will have to wind a bobbin to test if she sews. Here's crossing our fingers!

My Mother had one just like yours, Oh my I hated that machine. It never worked right for me. Eventually the wind-in place bobbin thingy broke.

OOOHHHHH! I hope she works for you. Not only because you will enjoy her, but because she was your mom's. I'm sure you will get many hours of loving work done on her!

One thing to check. That model came by default with rubber feed dogs. They may need to be replaced by now.
The part number is 181843, or 181843M if you want the metal dogs. Easy to change, 2 screws accessible from the top. The worst part is finding a screwdriver that will fit under there. They're not expensive either. I think I've seen them on the net for about $10.

There's a needle plate screwdriver you can get that will likely do the trick, 357306 is the part #. Look for a good deal on it though, $8.99 and $5.99 at the site I saw the first hit on is ridiculous. My cost on it is $0.39.

With attachments, cams, and manuals too! What a wonderful bonanza!

You'll enjoy sewing on it! I have one just like it and have been sewing on it since 1975! I have used some of the camsfor decorative stitching. I also used to use the stretch stitch cam to make swimming suits. Have fun!

The rubber feet seem fine to me. The thing I am most concerned with is in the bobbin case theres a latch/button something that is a cream plastic with red circles on it. I'm not sure if this is supoused to move or not? I tried (and it looks like my mother tried) to move it but it didn't budge. So if it's not supoused to then were good. If it is supoused to move then I have a problem and I'm not sure if it's big or small. Haha

Yes, it should move. It's the "lever" you move to put the machine in bobbin winding mode. Pushes to the left if memory serves. You'll see the whole bobbin case move upward when you push it to the left. Then to engage it in sewing mode, just close the slide plate. There are probably some spots to oil on it,.. I'd have to look closer as the one I have here waiting for a tuneup and feed dogs.

It should show an oil point in the manual, either from the top in the bobbin area, or from the bottom, I'd think. Either way, just oil anything where there's metal to metal contact, and don't get oil on those feed dogs! Oil is what ruins them the fastest.

It's not the end of the world, as long as it's in "Sewing mode". If you simply couldn't get it working to wind the bobbin, you could use a side winder. I think they are supposed to do a better job of winding a bobbin than a lot of the self winding mechanisms anyway, especially when they get out of adjustment.

That's what I figured about the side winder. I might have to invest in one. Do the work with all sorts of bobbins?

I oiled everywhere the manual told me to oil and in a few spots i thought needed it. The manual highlights surprisingly few places to oil. I believe I did oil all of the places you mentioned though there's no where near the plastic to oil if I remember correctly. So I think I will not try the bobbin winder then. Next I will try it to get it to do a straight stitch. Mom said she had troubled with the tension spring. The manual isn't too clear. I'm not sure if the spring on the left is supoused to pop back up or if it's generally loose?

Those were the two noticeable points that I thought might be problematic.

Oh,.. wait,.. that machine takes the 2 part bobbins, right? The ones that don't have a hole in the middle?
Argh,.. no, a side winder wouldn't work for those bobbins.

You might have to get that bobbin winder working.

The tension spring for the upper thread? It should sort of hold a little extra tension on the thread when threaded correctly. It does seem a little loose when it's just sitting there.

If I manage to get into the sewing room tomorrow, I'll thread that one up and snap a pic for you.

Yes. Now that you mention it there is no hole. :( the bobbins twist apart. Nifty idea really. But not in a situation like this. Hmm that's a shame. Wonder if there's a bobbin wonder for that sort of thing. Or a way to get into the heart of the machine without messing anything else up. Hmm.

I'll see if I have the bobbin mechanism around. I have a few machines here for parts, but I can't remember if any of them are self winding. If they are, I can either try a disassembly, with pictures, or send you the mechanism.

I like the idea of the twist apart, as emptying a bobbin, but I wind more often than I manually empty. It was good though when my dad bought me a machine and I had 3 bobbins only.

I have two, one free arm and the other cab mod. I love them both. Everything is with both, all the attachments oil,cams, tools, i did have to get more bobbins, JoAnn's had some. Bobbins just don't hold much thread tho. Use FW most of the time for straight stitch. But i do love that auto bobbin refill. Just a neat thing.

Actually the free arm is a 771. Both has worked great for years.

Thank You arcehicarcane! Your input is proving invaluable!!! :)

before you try to turn it, go through and oil any remtely moving part with nothing else but Triflow oil -you don"t want to take a chance on breaking plastic gears by forcing it to move - hopefully nobody used 3 in 1 oil on it

I've been useing singers machine oil. :) the oil underneath the cam was black oddly enough. Like motor oil. I wonder if it eventually turns dark? But yes I have oiled every where the manual said to oil and the a few other places that looked to have moving parts.

I've noticed a number of machines here that the oil turned black. I think what happens is the machine runs "Dry" once or twice. A little bit of "debris" is formed from the joints rubbing on each other and when the machine is oiled next again, it's the mixing of the oil and the debris that makes it turn black. It's especially bad where the grease is used on the gears if the gears ran dry and someone was over enthusiastic with the next greasing. I'll look for the picture of my 401 before I cleaned it up. There was black stuff flung everywhere, it was nasty.

thank you so much Archaic! :) thats what i figured too! or that it just turns murky and dirty with age (like car oil)

It probably does. There's bound to be some friction regardless of the oil.

Here, at least it probably didn't look like this:

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The lid was covered too, on the inside. Over all, it was a really grubby machine when I got it. I thought, it'll never be a show piece, but it will be a great work horse.... it cleaned up really well though. OxiClean is what saved it.

Oxyclean??? What did you use oxyclean on? (it saved a kewpie doll for me. but never thought of trying it on metal?)

Everything. The body, the really grungy insides. Then I made sure I wiped everything I'd touched down with a clean wet rag. All of this will come off / out with Oxi....
The really bad parts (like the tensioner that you don't see) I soaked in Oxi, fully disassembled, rinsed, then dried overnight and reassembled.

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OK,.. here we go:
(Sorry about the awkward hand positions, I was going for clarity, not comfort.
And so so sorry to everyone on dial up. I don't know a better way to demonstrate this.)
To thread this machine:

Step 1: The book says with two hands, slip thread horizontally between tension discs from the top.
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Step 2: Book: With Right hand, lead thread under thread guide on right side...
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This is what it will look like when you've lead it under the guide.
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A further back shot of that right side threading. Note too on the left that the thread is on top of the spring.
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Step 3: Book: And with left hand, lead thread over spring and under guide on the left side.
It's hard to see, but a slightly toward the back of the machine motion will hook it under the guide.
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Step 4: Threading the rest of the machine (over the hills, through the woods, etc.)
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Step 5: Threading the last part of the upper thread.
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Completely threaded.
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Now, this is what the machine looks like in "sewing" mode:
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And in Bobbin winding mode:
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If you look carefully, you might be able to see that pushing the lever to the left made that portion under the bobbin case rise up a little. That's important for bobbin winding mode.

To take it out of bobbin winding mode, close the slide plate.

I found a Singer 500 that looked a lot like that pic in window #29 - mine had oil in there - a big pool of oil and splashes everywhere when it ran. Then I just got one - opened up the balance wheel and that was FULL of oil. That machine sounds VERY odd. Makes you wonder what is going on. I'm wondering if that one is graphite or something used to lubricate those gears for some reason. And it could be graphite and grease mixed - who knows what goes on in people's heads. Maybe they thought it would go faster or quieter - how does it sound?

Oh now I see the rest of the pics - nine times out of ten when I find a Slant-O-Matic of any sort they are in that kind of condition. Some better than others. I've seen that tension style on a Genie I think. I sure did hate that one. I still wonder if someone used graphite on your machine - metal stuff coming off anyway.

Hey Miriam, why do you suppose so many of the 400 and 500 series machines end up that way? I'm wondering if it has anything to do with that fiber gear. It makes the machine seem louder than it needs to be, maybe people try "anything" to quiet it down? The 403 and the 503 weren't nearly this grungy. I really thought it was permanent. It didn't come off if you scratched it with a nail or anything.

That machine now that it's cleaned up and properly lubed, seems really good. It still flings black with the new grease, but I think that will happen until I clean the fiber gear of every speck of dirt and then some. I haven't had any time to sew on it, but when I got it, it ran slowly and made the growlies that most people complain about. It's quieter now, while test sewing, and after full disassembly, I had the piggy nose off and everything, it ran really nicely during the test stitch phase.

thank you so much for the lovely pics!! :D im excited to try my hand again at her. im also afraid i might further brake her. Hmmm...

My pleasure! Before you power it up and sew, just try everything by turning the hand wheel first. You can't hurt too much using reasonable hand power.

Oh! And your bobbin area will look different.. it will have feed dogs! :D

I'll post back once I get a chance to clean that machine up and get it tuned up, if I can find anything obvious that may be causing your bobbin winder issues. That's likely not going to be til next week now though. I have 4 more machines still on my bench before that one (since it's waiting on parts, and the others aren't), and my goal was to be finished them by the end of next week. Got 4 done this week, I'm aiming for a new personal best. :)

Good luck cleaning them!! You can do it!! :)

I no longer pull off the piggy nose - too much work... I'm glad you got it working better. I have one the sounded really funny - it had about a teaspoon of oil inside the balance wheel. - I got it out but had to leave so never tested it. Maybe tomorrow I'll get a chance.

So far so,.. uhm... well. :)

I was reassembling the bobbin winder for a 128 and the body of the winder fell apart in my hand! Then the same machine had an almost seized motor with wiring needing to be redone, and there are 2 screws missing from the knee bar controller that weren't at the beginning of the day. This is a machine that at first glance was in good shape. I robbed a motor from one of the other machines that's starting to look like a parts machine, so it's up and running, but can't wind bobbins.

I don't think I've ever had a day like that. Good grief! Now I have to decide if I want to try to JB weld the piece that broke, or find one to order from somewhere. The only one I've seen is pretty rough compared to this one, but I think once there's JB weld on this one, it'll trump rough. *sigh*

I just have to remember that tomorrow -has- to be better, right? :)
Please, please say yes.....

Boy, you're not kidding. I think for the most part a Q-Tip and Oxy would do almost as good a job as the removal, and not nearly as much time.

I may get a chance to try it out tomorrow. I have "Sewing Circle" and as the "sewing machine rescue girl", I should probably sew, since I haven't for the last 2 classes. :) I have a list of projects I want to do as long as my arm, all things to teach me to quilt on a small scale, but can't decide where to start.

I'm still trying to figure out how to get SM oil into the balance wheel. I'd love to see a pic of that.

I opened it up and the oil ran out... so no picture - I'm just not that fast. Might explain why there was a pool of oil over the motor as well... The only way I can figure it would be to put the machine on end and then pour in some oil and quick put the wheel back on then turn it back and pour oil over the motor. Now I'm going to have to pull that motor and see if it is ok. If not, I think I have another motor somewhere. The machine had frozen up stitch selector - someone loved 3 in 1 oil. It was a job to get that back one to move. I thought about dis-assembling it but if you can't get it to move, it wouldn't be that much easier to get apart. I did have to go to drastic measures. My DH laughs every time I do that though. I put cosmetic pads down in under that, stuck a panty liners to the machine to protect the paint and then put a hospital pad around the whole thing so all I had was a little hole exposing that transmission part thingy. Then I painted a pretty stiff chemical on it - usually that will open it right up. This time I had to paint it on multiple times. Then I had to use a heavy hand to move the knob - finally got it to move and then used a tad more chemical to get the dried on 3-in-1 oil off. It only takes one little tiny bit of 3-in-1 oil to gunk up one of those stitch selectors but good. If I had been patient I betcha Triflow would have done the same thing - might have taken a while of soaking and oiling. oil. wait a day. oil. wait a day. a week later do the same. not have to mess with all the pads and chemicals. I love my Singer 403... and my Singer 503 so simple.