Mind of its own
 

I have just aquired a 221K cute little thing (Avril) arrived in the mail today. I have just done a test sew, beautiful stitches, question when I take my foot off the pedal, its starts sewing all by itself a couple of seconds later. Can anyone give me an idea to why? I may have inherited a little visitor with it - but thats ok.
Hope someone may be able to help.

NannaL,

There is at least one and perhaps 2 capacitors in your machine. They were noise suppression devices back in the day and when they go bad you get a machine that runs by itself. They can be removed without any adverse affect to the machine.

Go to the featherweight221factory: http://thefeatherweight221factory.com/Home.php ,
then here: http://thefeatherweight221factory.com/page43.php to read about the problem and the cure.

Hope this helps.

Joe

Thank you Joe this has helped I will ask my husband to have a look at it for me. I must say the site you have give is most informative, I wonder when he posts new info.

Thank you again for helping me along with other Members of the Board.
Lexie

HA! I finally sat down the other day to work on my new FW I got for my granddaughter and it did the same thing. I was about to take the foot pedal apart to see if there was a loose wire somewhere. Glad I read this first.

Anyone who is having this problem--Please be aware that this is extremely dangerous. Stuck foot pedals are how fires start! Please unplug the pedal and machine immediately, and bring the foot pedal to someone with electrical experience to have it fixed. Whether you are using your sewing machines for pleasure or out of necessity, it is not worth having your house burned down for!

What Rain said above is true. Bad foot controllers can get very HOT. I was using a metal Singer controller as a substitute for the Bakelite controller on my newly acquired Mrs. Crinkle the other day. Plugged it in ran the machine for a bit then walked away to do something. Came back less in less than an hour and that controller was almost hot.
They can be adjusted, so I did. All better now, but even so it's best not to leave sewing machines plugged in.

Joe

All good advice and links thanks to all of you.