Railroadersbrat

The smell can be a few things really, since it sat for so long, it may have acquired some unseen dust, I've had that happen with one of my older machines when I thought the case for it was air tight and it wasn't. If it smells electrical, however, stop using the machine and get it into your service guy, that could be a problem with the wiring and if you continue to use it, you run the risk of shock or fire. It could also be that there is lint or dust inside the motor that's burning off, could also be that the motor itself may be going out, too. Getting it to your service guy, he'll be able to find out what the issue is.

I actually didn't replace my belt, I had to take my machine into my guy to have it looked at after it developed several issues I couldn't troubleshoot on my own. Luckily, he fixed it, I had a timing problem and that's something that's out of my scope. The belt is a toothed belt, so it's going to be more difficult to put one on yourself unless you've done it before and that's something that your service guy will check on if you take it in and he'll replace it for you.

I only use Lilly White oil - it's relatively cheap on Amazon, I've got two full bottles, plus a half dozen of the 1/2 ounce bottles in my travel cases. If I haven't sewn on my machine for a while, I clean and oil, then oil every few days when I'm in a major project. If I'm going to put it up for a while, I also give it another good cleaning and at least oil the needle mechanism. You can 'get by' with mineral oil, but I wouldn't use it unless it's just an emergency.

With this machine, she likes a lot of oil. The more you use the machine, the better you'll be able to understand her when she's saying something to you. That goes with any machine, but this one in particular likes to talk to you, so pay attention. The moment I hear a squeak, I stop what I'm doing, find the squeak and give it a shot of oil. The manual says to oil about every 40 hours of use, that's about how long she'll give me before I hear a squeak. There is a diagram in the manual that shows you the points you need to oil to keep her purring.

Cleaning the machine, I have several sewing machine brushes but I also use some super soft makeup brushes, too and microfiber cloths. There are some small plastic brushes with like a bottle brush head that's soft, I love those to get into the really hard to reach places, they pull out fuzz like no one's business, especially behind and around the hook and race and under the feeds. I also use a small rechargeable vacuum.

I use universal needles all the time with no problems and in all different sizes. Bobbins, however, are a different story, you need to use the metal ones on this machine, it doesn't like the clear plastic ones at all. Only use Singer bobbins, I've tried some other ones and trust me, this machine knew it and gave me an absolute fit and it was a pain to discover that on my own. It was the beginning of the lockdowns and I was making masks, I actually thought I had screwed up my machine somehow and was on the phone with my guy when he asked me what kind of bobbins I had in it. When I told him that they were off-brand, he told me to get it out of my machine ASAP and he ended up shipping me six Singer bobbins out the blue and no charge for them. I put one in and my machine was purring again. I only use Singer bobbins now.