Railroadersbrat

So I have heard that these machines are a bit of a bear to work on, mostly because of the near impossibility of finding parts for it, but I rescued this one from certain death about the time I rescued my Koyo. I pulled this one out to clean up and oil this evening after I did a thorough cleaning on the other one, I'll be installing this one into the cabinet later and giving my Koyo a rest until I can get her to my sewing machine guy.

I bought this machine for $1.00, I found it at a garage sale, completely covered in dust, what looked like a fair amount of kitten fuzz and long cat hairs and the inside was covered in spider webs. The gal was just wanting to get rid of it because it stopped working for her, I actually ended up snatching it out of the hands of a man that scraps for a living, he was going to take it home, completely disassemble it and sell the cast iron parts. I'm never one to just give up on an older machine, they're made entirely too well and with the right amount of TLC, you can get them to sing again.

After a good cleaning, using a handheld vacuum and blowing it out with our air compressor, I set about looking for threading and oiling diagrams. This has been a little bit of a chore, I'm having a hard time finding them so I just used a lot of common sense, worked slow and oiled only the parts that I know every machine needs oiled, mainly the needle mechanism. After putting in a new needle and again using some common sense, I threaded the machine and grabbed some fabric.

This baby started singing, beautiful motion, no squeaks, no thumps, bumps or clangs and has some serious speed to it if I just push down on the foot pedal and let it go. I'm still in the process of tweaking the tension, but I'm calling this a win.

The issues are somewhat minor, aside from the fact that the stitch length is incredibly tight and does not seem to change length when I turn the dial and I do not have the cam set needed for the specialty stitches, the zigzag stitch is beautiful, even though the tension is off just a little. It slips easily from right, center to left and back with no hiccups. The back pins for the spools of thread have been broken off, I have one of the pins but not both, so I'm going to set my fiance on that project. I know there are spindles out there to bypass that if needed, I'd just like to see what he comes up with, first.

The craziest issue? I'm not sure when this happened but someone took the light completely out. Not just the light bulb, the entire housing is missing and the cords cleanly clipped, even the button to turn the light on is gone. I know my other half will be able to figure out how to fix that, until then, I have an LED light strip to bypass that so I'm not sewing in the dark.

I'll be replacing the belt soon, I did notice this evening after cleaning and oiling it and running a test swatch that it's slipping. I haven't broken into that side of the machine yet, I'm doing that tomorrow but I'd almost lay money that it's just dusty, though there's no telling how old that belt really is. If it weren't for the fact that I'm gearing up to quilt this fall and winter, I would continue to use the Koyo, but getting a scant 1/4 on that machine when there's a strong possibility it's left-homing will just cause too many issues. I know I can get the right seam on this one.

lindaschipper

For the price you paid ($1) it was well worth bring home to clean up. Many people, including maybe myself, would have passed it by. Lucky that you got to it before the scrap man could haul it away. Let us know how it goes once the repair is completely done. Good luck!!

OurWorkbench

Nice save. I'm wondering if https://www.singer.com/support would have a manual to give some idea of the cam shape. I know they have the one for W2400.

Janey - Neat people never make the exciting discoveries I do.

Railroadersbrat

Thank you so much for the link!! It's always so much fun to get a manual for one these older machines!!

Railroadersbrat

Some break-thru's last night, I'm super excited.

I called my sewing machine guy yesterday to see if he would be able to squeak my two machines in for a tune-up and we got on the subject of my Dressmaker and the stitch length issue. He gave me some advice, to open the machine completely up and check on the condition of the mechanism, chances were high that it was just gummed up and frozen in place, a few squirts of DW-40 and move the knob back and forth should break things up and get it moving properly. If I was able to fix it, then I'd end up saving some money.

I have to admit, if I have to break into a machine deeper than just cleaning it out with a vacuum and our air compressor, then oil it up and put it back together, I get nervous (am I the only one?), so I waited for several hours before I took the plunge. Got out my screwdrivers, WD, brushes, pulled the old gal out of the cabinet and got to work.

To make a long story short, when I was moving the mechanism up and down to see where I was going to shoot the DW into, I saw several bits of dirt fly out of it. I kept going, moved the mechanism up and down and started turning the knob back and forth. Even more dirt came out and the knob was suddenly moving in and out of the housing like it should. I grabbed a piece of paper and manually fed it through the machine, the stitch length was much, much better.

As luck would have it, I'm out of DW-40 but plan to pick some up in the morning, I've got stitch lengths of 6 per inch, 8 per inch, 12 per inch and 21 per inch. I'm thinking a good shot of DW into the mechanism, let it hang out and do its job should free it up and I'll get all the stitch lengths back. Also discovered while I was inside that the belt is fine, I found bits of lint underneath the mechanism to wind the bobbin that wasn't allowing the mechanism to fully disengage. As soon as I cleaned that out, the slipping belt completely stopped.

I closed her back up and put her back in the cabinet, ran a few pieces of fabric through it and stitched up some pinwheels and four squares, it was nice to be able to stitch them up without 25-30 stitches an inch. I'd almost lay money that a dirt dauber got up into the machine and tried to make one of their tubes, realized it was way too small and abandoned it, it was actual dirt that was coming out, and the previous owner did say that she had it stored up in her garage for quite some time before she pulled it out and put it in her garage sale.

OurWorkbench

Congratulations on getting it stitching.

I do not use WD-40 anywhere near my machines.

Since you were able to get it moving and cleaned out a bit, I would recommend getting regular sewing machine oil or Tri-Flow oil. From my understanding, WD-40 is a solvent which when left on the machine it can dry leaving a glue type film.

Janey - Neat people never make the exciting discoveries I do.

Railroadersbrat

I've never used it myself, but I haven't had a machine gummed up like this one before. I was a little surprised he said to use it, actually, just my normal experience with it just let me know not to use it on my machines. I was planning on wiping it out really good, thanks for reminding me to re-oil.

OurWorkbench

Whew, now I can relax. I know there are some that have used WD-40 on sewing machines, but I, personally, feel there are better ways of loosening parts.

Janey - Neat people never make the exciting discoveries I do.

Railroadersbrat

Nope, I chickened out on the DW, stopped by another sewing machine shop and picked up some more machine oil. I've heard DW can be used on machines, but this old gal has a special place in my heart now, I can't run the risk of gumming her up even more, lol.

I swear I heard a sigh of relief from her when I set the new bottle of oil next to her!! I'll work on her some more tonight after I've had a chance to rest.

Railroadersbrat

Getting this old gal to purr like a kitten is almost complete, I'm happy to report.

Final stitch length per number on the dial was a little bit of a pain, thanks to a bent needle. What I posted earlier about it has stayed true, so I have a wide variety of lengths to work with now. Also cleared up a previously unnoticed issue with the zigzag, when I started working out the lengths, I decided to test the zigzag again and realized I was only able to get one size. I worked the knob and mechanism the same way I did the stitch length and happy to report, I've got all five zigzag lengths.

If anyone is reading this that recently got a hold of one of these machines and can't figure out where the reverse button is on it, it's the actual stitch length knob, just push it in and hold it for a few stitches, then release it and it will continue to sew forward. Mine still felt a little gummed up, but after some oil and pressing and releasing the button, there's been no more issues.

I went on a more aggressive clean and oil yesterday, can happily report there's no more fuzz, lint or gummed up anything inside the machine, when I stitched up the swatch to show the stitch lengths, she was just humming and stitching along with no hiccups. Aside from that small spot of rust on the bobbin plate, this little gal is cleaner than she's probably ever been since she came off of the assembly line. That felt deeply satisfying.

Interestingly enough, this is not a Singer, I got in contact with them via email and had a very lovely exchange with one of their support personnel. I've checked all of the sewing machine manual websites that I can think of and no one has this manual so I'm now down to contacting the manufacturer, who looks to be a company called Euro-Pro. I'll do that this weekend, I've been fighting a small swarm of migraines that's kept me from getting all of this done.

Unless I'm forgetting something, I'm calling this project done. It's been a hair raising, hair pulling experience, but I wouldn't trade a second of time for anything else. I love this old girl, we're as thick as thieves now.