I loved reading your mom's story and looking at the pics. :) My FW is from 1948 too, but I have no idea of the history. I connect it with my mother too because she bought it for me as a present several years ago, and she was born in 1948. It's one of the machines I wouldn't ever want to part with. Let your mom know how much we've enjoyed her machine!

The FW manual has an amazing amount of info to maintain your machine

Miriam - Thank you for sharing this article. I have owned FWs most of my life and never cease to be amazed by these little machines. My DH cleaned up a machine that had been through a hurricane and it works! Amazing. It was frozen when I got it. We painted it with car paint that turns from green to purple as the light hits it. I call it Purple Majesty. Singer really knew what they were doing with those little machines, didn't they?!

I mentioned the manual I printed out for mom in large print
http://www.singerco.com/accessories/instruction-manuals
Where they want a number it would be 221
You can print out the free manual or order mom was very happy with hers.

Congrats on the great pics and description of the work you did. Your mother sounds like someone I would like to know (and the two of you, too.) This little FW sure took a licking and kept on ticking. With this kind of care, it's likely your granddaughters and great granddaughters will be using the same machine!

Miriam I loved this posting! My mom stopped sewing when I was in grammer school (so about 50+ years ago) and she didn't keep any of her older sewing machines. Pity. In the 1960s she started buying plastic throw away machines that only lasted a few years, and never kept any of those either. Anyway, I got my 1956 FW last year and spent some time cleaning it up, although it wasn't as dirty as your mom's. Mine also has a lot of battle scars, and some that look inflicted by a naughty child, as in bad words scratched into the paint! :-( I'll probably cover those up. Thanks for the post. It was so fun to read.

I look at all the nicks and scratches at merit badges that machine has earned but I haven't seen any bad words. I guess I don't see covering up all that family history.

Miriam, this was truly wonderful! I am still waiting for spring to tackle my mom's FW. She's a 1949. Love the pics and bookmarked it for future reference! I can't wait to clean mom's! I will take pictures all through it so I don't lose any parts. I flipped mom's machine over and the bottom didn't look anything like what you posted....then I took the circle deal off and that bottom plate thing...then it looked the same. Man...cleaning a FW for dummies!

HM maybe I didn't show enough details. Some wise person said to use tape to keep things (like screws) you take off together. I say don't take off much - clean it and put it back together ASAP. Then go do another section - put it all back, go do another section - keep it simple. We cleaned with non pumas goop - we were in the house at her good antique walnut table. Mom said there were things we took apart that she had never taken apart - Folks this machine has been run HARD since 1948 and it is still ticking - well, it could use a bobbin winder... BIL could stand to paint it... nah - I like the merit badges.

Since we restore machines we've seen a lot worse then that. Have fun