Featherweight -- What year to look for?
03-18-2013, 06:46 AM
#11
Super Member
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Southeast Georgia
Posts: 2,526
I have a 1939 and a 1947 and love them both. I am looking for a '51 (centennial) and a '53 (like me). I have friends who have various years and they all seem to be pretty much the same. Most of the changes are cosmetic, so I think it just depends on what you're looking for. Good luck!
03-18-2013, 08:15 AM
#12
Junior Member
Thread Starter
Join Date: Dec 2012
Location: Alaska
Posts: 133
All of your comments are SO helpful. It definitely helps to have a little knowledge before looking. I need all the info I can get because I only have a small window of time during my trip to find one, buy it, have it serviced, all this before bringing it back. Once I get home my chance is over -- shipping costs to Alaska are ridiculous! Gotta find and get my machine while I'm down south or wait until my next trip outta here, and who know when that will be! :
03-18-2013, 09:00 PM
#13
Super Member
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Owensboro, KY
Posts: 1,420
Linda, my dealer told me the same thing about the white ones not being made as well as the black ones. I love the Egyptian scroll faceplate best too. However, I HAD to have a 1949 one because it's my birth year! 
03-19-2013, 05:08 AM
#14
Super Member
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: SW Ohio
Posts: 2,103
I have a 1936 and a 1948, but I would still love a white one to add to my collection. Since I was born in 1951, the ones from my birth year are just too expensive!
03-19-2013, 02:11 PM
#16
Junior Member
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Texas
Posts: 246
Black Featherweights are basically the same but there were small changes through the years. Light switches can be in different places (right side, base of machine or up on the end of the light itself), the face plates (Egyptian scroll in earlier models, striated after 1952 or so). Later models also had a different style of decals on the base and the accessory trays and cases have several variations. The white and tan ones are different again, shorter fold up base, no decals, painted metal face plate and a wired in cord that directly attaches to the foot controller. It really depends on what you want, overall condition and whether any of these small differences matter to you.
Some of the older machines 33-say 1940s may need to be rewired, but I have not seen any in the late 1940s or later that needed rewiring unless not stored well.
03-19-2013, 02:13 PM
#17
Junior Member
Join Date: Apr 2011
Location: Texas
Posts: 246
It is the belt inside instead of the gears that have given the pale turquoise (white) machines the bad rap.
04-01-2013, 12:31 PM
#19
Senior Member
Join Date: Jun 2011
Location: North country Wisc.
Posts: 328
The FWs made up through 1936 or 1937 do not have numbers on the tension dials, later models do. I have never found this to be a problem, though. I think the main "mechanical" changes came with the white FWs. I have heard others comment that the white ones are not as good as the black ones - something about the way the belt is driven or something like that. Someone more knowledgable could tell you the difference between the black/white ones and I hope someone will jump in here with more accurate info. I just returned from a 4 day trip with 10 teenagers and I seem to having a major senior moment.... Or maybe a nervous breakdown...
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