help wi th feed dogs
 

I bought an old White sewing machine at garage sale--it worked fine. Brought it home, cleaned it up, oiled it (worked fine) and took it to my DDIL, two hours away. When we got it there we set it up and the feed dogs wont' go into the up position so the fabric is not feeding. There are 3 feed dog settings, adjusted by turning a nob-- high, low and totally down. The low and down work but the high will not. Could something have jiggled loose in the car. ANy advice is greatly appreciated. (Don't want to take it to the repair guy here--he charges $90 just to bring it in the door--I only paiod $45 for the machine).

I have one of these too... Also paid very little at Goodwill. I damaged mine trying to adjust the feed dogs and took it to the shop. We don't really have any tech service for newer machines, but this guy loves to tinker with the older ones.... Any way, if yours is like mine, it is open on the bottom. If you turn it on its side you can see underneath what the knob is doing when you are changing it from high, low, down. There is a long flat lever that moves to change the position. Maybe that lever is bent (which is what was wrong with mine) so that it isn't really moving the feed dogs fully. If so, the repair person here straightened mine and it works ok now. Or maybe a connector is off so it doesn't move properly.

Thanks for the idea. I'll call my DDIL tonight. I forgot to mention it's not a portable machine. It's in a table.

My guess is the lever and linkage are gummed up or need a good squirt of oil. The gear for the feed dogs may look like a tuning fork with a square piece of metal riding between the tines. If oil gets dried on the tines the feed dogs won't go through the entire motion. If the feed dog setting knob won't turn to 'UP' it is gummed up underneath. Some isopropyl Alcohol is great for unsticking tight metal parts under a machine ( I don't recommend using it on the paint, even though I have with no bad effects on a 50's or 60's painted machine.) Have her flip the machine back and turn the hand wheel to see how the feed dog mechanism works, and while she has it up, have her oil everything that moves that is metal to metal.