301a roar
 

I've had this machine for a while and just assumed that it was fine and the only problem was the missing set screw. In fact, I had already brought it into the house before I found the cord and controller.

I finished up the oiling and greasing this afternoon and gave it a spin. It roared (maybe an exaggeration, but can't think of a proper description). It's in/around the upper gears. It starts off fine then goes to roar as you speed up, then quiets after it gets up to near full speed. It sounds like metal to metal to me. (I'm certainly no expert.)

Could it be a bearing?

It sounds like it's coming from the circled area. I dropped another couple of drops in that oil hole and it quieted some.

Is this a case for the drop of 30 wt. oil? Or just keep oiling it?

bkay

I would try running it up to the point of the noise, hold it steady there, and push around on parts in the top end with a wooden dowel, or something similar, to see if there's something loose enough causing some vibration that might be minimized with the pressure. I'm thinking of a 66 I was having problems with, was binding somewhere, I oiled and oiled in all the oil holes and it seemed to spin better briefly, but never correctly, then Leon pointed me in the direction of the nose end of the machine and that's where the problem was, fixed it with a gentle pry with a screwdriver.

I just left it overnight. It's as quiet and smooth as it can be this morning. So, I gave it a couple of drops more of oil in those three oiling points and I'm going on down the road.

I think I'm going to like this machine.

bkay

huzzah for bkay

It looks like there some grease on the gears, but if my machine were noisy, I'd add a little more. There is an area underneath that needs grease, too. Gotta love the 301s - I have two.

It's not the gears. I had already greased the gears with Tri-flow. I put more on it. It made no difference in the noise. In the photo, you can see where there are three oil points. I actually put the lid up next to the gears so I could see exactly where the points on the lid would hit. There were three oil points on the right side of the gears. Those were where I put the oil. I stayed with regular sewing machine oil. I didn't resort to the 30 wt. oil which as been suggested for the upright gears of the slant machines.
It worked, so I added a couple of more drops of oil to each oiling point. I actually used Hoppe's gun oil, as the bottles have a precise small dispensers. I love the containers. I use the gun oil and refill the containers with sewing machine oil. As I understand it, they are the same type of oil.


bkay

With these old machines it usually pays off to keep on oiling. It takes time for oil to seep into inners of gears, hinges and joints, especially those vertical and horizontal turning rods can need more than a drop or two. As old grime and dired up lubricant dissolves, keep on oiling to flush it out, wipe off and repeat. It can be hard to identify the exact point causing the trouble, so you just have to go about it in a more general way. Several have had good result with the TriFlow oil in areas like this, I think it was the girl with The Archaic and the Arcane blog that first made me aware of it.