Brother Boutique 751
 

My neighbour is moving and knowing that I quilt, gave me her Brother Boutique sewing machine. She said she got it for Christmas 'quite a few years ago' and I am pretty sure that she maybe sewed a seam with it, broke the needle and never touched it again. She did find the manual which really helped with oiling diagrams.

The outside is pristine--complete with the broken needle and a sticker on the bobbin plate noting various stitches. The inside was filthy with dust and crud. The wheel turned sluggishly but has loosened up some with a generous application of oil to all the moving parts. Although I dote on my darling Maybelle--my Singer 301, who is just a tad older than I am--I do not know a lot about resurrecting neglected machines. I figured this might be a chance to try my hand. Any and all advice will be gladly accepted.

Oh, and any idea about when these specific models were made? It has a metal body, and a metal bobbin case, but a plastic bobbin.

I looked up pictures of that machine, looks to be from the 1970s, to me anyway. Check underneath, are there any gears? If so, are they metal or plastic.

Take off the top, open up the front, open up the bottom and oil everywhere metal moves against metal, which you'll see as you cycle the machine by hand. Except don't oil the gears. I think a lot of people like tri-flo (?) grease for gears, do a search and check.

Thanks JoeJr. I've already opened her up and she has received 2 doses of the same machine oil I use on my 301. She actually does sew and amazingly, the stitches look pretty good. The wheel is moving much more freely. However, the needle will not disengage for bobbin winding. I'll have to tweak the bobbin tension a bit--again, something I've done before. I must say, re-inserting the bobbin case is not for the faint-hearted--or the fat-fingered!!

By 'gears', do you mean discs? There are 4 or 5 discs in the top of the machine that are linked to the knob that selects straight, zig zag or button hole functions. All but one are metal. The last one is whitish thick plastic. I'm thinking I could use the same grease on them as I do for my 301. As far as I could see, that was the only plastic component in her.

Thanks for the info about the possible age. I'm wondering if it would be worth emailing Brother with the model and serial numbers. BTW the serial badge does have 'Japan' on it and I presume that is where she was manufactured.

The possible plastic gears I'm talking about are on the underside. I'm guessing the age based on the visual comparison to my Singer Stylist 534, with a manual (c) 1975.

As Leon pointed out, you should check the hand wheel end of the machine and make sure you are disengaging the hand wheel from the main shaft when winding a bobbin. I don't know if yours has the typical clutch knob with a tanged lock washer underneath, or a "rocker" switch as with the Singer 534.