IMHO part of the value of a Featherweight is wholeness. You bought a whole machine and received part of one, or one with permanent damage. You probably won't be able to get what you paid for it if you need to sell one day. I'd be cautious about accepting damage like that. Did it come in a case? If not, it wasn't properly protected in packing. Just a thought.

NAPA is where I found mine and sometimes if you take a hair drier and put some heat on the spot it will come out a little easier. Also the hair drier works for the sticky parts of a machine if it has sat for years without being used.


Billy

My featherweight is black. I gave it a good oiling last night and replaced the broken needle it came with and it sews very nicely. It needs a really good cleaning inside as it's pretty cruddy but it now sounds much better after the oiling. I think there's local repair person that worked for Singer for a long time so I'll contact him for parts and a good cleaning.
I nelected to mention the condition of the case when it came to me. The seller had mentioned that one of the hinges was broken but not the fact that the bottom of the case had been damaged and was repaired with something that looked like putty and then painted. She put it directly into the box...no layer of protection...just the cardboard box...needless to say it sustained further damage in shipping which I really don't care about because I intended to purchase a new case anyhow but I do care that she wasn't honest in her description. The only thing she had done to stabilize the case in the box was to stuff newspapers around it and then put a chux (one of those pads you use in hospitals for incontinent patients) and that was it..
I've written to her and requested compensation for the broken part etc...but to date have not heard from her. I won't return the machine as the price I paid for it was great and it's an easy fix to get it into tip top shape but I'll certainly give her a low rating in her feed back if she doesn't respond but that really won't change much.

:shock: :shock: :shock: :shock:
I belong to a poultry forum and there are discussions about this same issue with Ebay sellers that sell 'hatching eggs'. Some of the sellers are super careful about how they pack the eggs and others just sort of send them off with a wish and a prayer :roll:, resulting in a box of scrambled eggs.

Thanks Billy, for all of your advice :thumbup: Do you have a website advertising machines for sale?

I am going to be starting on one the first of the year.

But for now its just word of mouth type of thing and I service a lot of the vintage machines in my area. The only place around here that services machines will not mess with the older machines 1850's to 1960's. They will just send them to me.

Billy