Tammi, I have found a lot of packed up bobbin areas - in fact just today - I bought a Singer Fashion Mate for the cabinet - the machine was not suppose to work. How can it work when it is so impacted by lint and dried up oil?
1) Bobbin area/feed dogs solidly packed up with lint - looked like insulation
2) Dried on oil everywhere - nothing moved at all even with out lint
3) wiring not functional - machine does not power up at all
Good: the plastic gears are in tact - no cracks
What I did:
The lint is cleaned out - everything moves when I hand turn it thanks to Tri-flow
I think some fabrics shed more than others but I agree thread isn't what it once was
There will be a day for cleaning up hardened oil and very dirty linty grease
Another time for checking the wiring.
Machine should work just fine eventually...