So I bought some new Touch N Sew gears on eBay...they're nylon too, now what?
 

Return for refund and look elsewhere? The listing indicated the material was metal, well I guess the base is metal but the gear is nylon.

Do actual metal gears exist somewhere? I don't want to go through this again in 30-40 years lol

I believe that if a good set of metal gears for this machine were available Terry at TNT Repair would carry them. He is the go to guy for these machines. I would check your part numbers against what he carries to make sure you bought quality parts, and go from there. If you bought good parts to begin with you should get t least 50 years out of them, lol.

Cari

Edit- I've heard a few times that replacement metal gears weren't the greatest idea, resulted in noisy machines that just weren't as good as before.

I'd stick with nylon gears since your machine was designed to use them.
You could buy another set if you think you'll be around in 40 years :D

use the plastic gears - keep the machine maintained

Properly fitted metal gears are no nosier than the plastic ones. They are however more expensive to manufacture and last nearly forever. That is why they went to plastic gears and parts. Cheaper to make, and they expire sooner making the machines more expensive to maintain in the long run. It's called planned obsolescence.
If I could find steel gears for any of my plastic geared machines, I use them in a heart beat.

Joe

That was the problem with the Touch N Sews. Nylon parts. I had one from a garage sale and the feed dogs were simply flat bars. The nylon teeth had totally eroded. Depending upon how much you have in your machine, I would stick with the nylon or go for a different machine.

Joe,
Could metal gears be taken out of a 401 or a 500 parts machine and put in a T & S???

Some of the Touch N Sews had rubber feed dogs, so yours probably just had the rubber worn off.

My New Home wonderful sewing machine from the 1970's had the plastic gears wear out too. I had never used that machine much as I was not a sewist, just a hemmer of everything I bought. I loved that machine, but plastic gears get old, dry out and break even if not used much. Everything else was metal in that sewing machine. For this reason I won't buy old sewing machines, because I don't really know what I am doing, and don't want something that is ready to break apart.

Miriam,

I don't know. I know they are similar, but how close the specs are is a wild guess.
The steel gears from an early 600 series T&S might be a better match.
I don't have any of those to compare though.

Joe