The Centennial Featherweight that I’ve been fiddling with has the thread guide above the tension assembly snapped off flush with the hole in the casting inside of the head that it presses into. I have never tried to drill one of those out, but if I did, I’d need more equipment and experience to do it. I don’t think I’d want to free-hand drill it, and I don’t have a drill press that will handle it.
The lady has a replacement thread guide for it, so maybe someday she’ll find someone that is able to drill and mount it for her. In the mean time, I installed a temporary guide that we’re going to test and see how it holds up. It can easily be removed, and won’t interfere with later permanent repairs. This is the first time that I’ve tried this fix. I won’t know how well it will hold up until it’s used for a while.
I bent a large paperclip to form it to hug both sides of the tube-like casting holding the original thread guide, cleaned the paperclip and casting of any oil, and mounted the paperclip with a generous bead of clear Silicone adhesive along the upper side of the casting. The portion of the clip resting along the lower side of the casting should help prevent the clip from twisting and coming loose inside of the Silicone bead. We’ll see.
CD in Oklahoma