Welcome to the FW club! I have two and take them to my quilting guild sew ins, there are usually three or four others there with FW's, soooo cute!
The first thing I do with ANY used machine or other items I buy used is clean and sanitize every bit of it including the under sides... I have no idea who has handled the machine or what they might have had on their hands... ( SHUDDER ) and I like clean clean clean.
Then I check out the bobbin area and clean it, if assembly is dry I take the bobbin assembly apart and oil it and then the whole machine as it shows in the manual, if you don't have one I suggest getting one asap. Study it and highlight any info that you think you will need to use over and over such as oiling, which way to thread the needle etc.
Remove old needle and put in a brand new one, inspect the belt and replace if old and worn, then oil and test the light, purchase a second bulb to have on hand just in case, same for the belt, having a spare is a good idea, check the electrical, make sure you are not getting a buzzing sound with a little vibration through the machine or if it feels like you are getting a tingle when touching it. If yes, unplug immediately!
Check the cords to make sure they are in good shape and no wires are exposed, see if the foot control gives you control. Slow to fast and in between as you apply increasing amounts of foot pressure. If it only sews fast every time you press on it and then stops when the pressure is let off even a little bit then you probably need a new foot controller. We like putting new electronic controllers with our machines, they don't get hot and they work great and they are very light weight to carry around.
If you have birds nests and needle jams chances are you have the needle in wrong or threaded the needle eye wrong or you have the machine threaded wrong. FW's can be very picky this way, but once you have the human errors out of the way they sew wonderfully.
Last edited by Sunflowerzz; 03-10-2016 at 09:32 AM.