I wish there were a more accurate point of referance I could turn to. I went for an oil with teflon, and it tends to be a notch or two smoother than grease in my experience, but of course not under all circumstances. I tested grease on the worm gear, but landed on the oil I use the most (Finish Lince Ceramic Wet Lube, it's very good, and what I can easily get here). If you had oiled it well I doubt there's much to gain from fiddeling about with lubricants. The manual says something like "oil before every time you use it, and not after" LOL ;). I have been very happy with my Supermatic after I replaced the old rubber friction wheel with a new one and got the correct bobbins for it. I couldn't order from Ray White, so I ended up with a aluminium pulley with O-rings.

Maybe it's about getting used to the sound, it's a different than other machines, but withing reasonable noise level. I'm used to a Singer 99, a 201, and an older Bernina, a couple of new Janomes, I test sew various new models now and then. The Supermatic feels sturdy and very capable when I use it. I had to find new felt feet for under the base when I first fixed up my Supermatic, they were missing. I'm not sure what the original feet were, maybe some type of rubber. I used sturdy furniture felt and it works well. A sturdy table and sorting out some type of cushioning feet under a machine can improve noise levels a lot. Don't worry about running the machine, it's sturdy and are they are made to work. I wham mine on full speed regularly (at least for some zigzag jobs and a few of the cams). For the most part I tend to use straight stitch, and I tend to sew slowly when hemming and joining pieces.

It's called the Elna growl, All of mine have it...;)

Thanks to all for posting this. I just bought one last night and was bothered by the noise. Now to clean and lube and look for a drive wheel maybe.

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Two green ones! What luck, I am envious.

The rubber pulley can often be sanded down to even out the flat spot, which is very easy by just holding a sanding paper next to the pulley while the motor runs. It took me a few rounds of cleaning and oiling before mine was back to it's former self. I had the base off, and loads of fluff and dust had somehow gathered in the main body part; I used the vacuum cleaner to get it out. I take out the bobbin case more easily now, the first time I thought it might be very risky, but it really wasn't. The brownish staining isn't smoking or nicotine, it's decades of grime and old sewing machine oil and it comes off completely. I have shined up mine with car polish.

Serial #'s are about 3,000 apart. The newer one has the two colors of green. Two pointy holes in the base too.

Thanks, I may try the sanding down the rubber wheel.

If it sets a while even a new rubber pulley will growl.

There is a yahoo group on vintage Elnas. Now and then some clever guy manages to have a few metal pulleys made. They are fitted with O-rings and work very well. If you have something like a lathe machine available, or know someone who has, there is a technical drawing of one with exact measures. I have had mine for something like 18 months now and it runs as smoothly as ever. These are well worth the time and effort it takes to get your hands on one, O-rings are low cost and easy to replace, and doesn't seem to develop a flat that easily.

Another emergency fix is to push a Singer bobbin winding tire over the Elna pulley wheel. It takes a lot of pushing because it wants to slide off, but it will make the machine run much quieter. Caution; this will defeat the reverse, and the machine will not run "high speed." But if you want to hear what your Elna sounds like without the flat spot on the wheel, I tried it for six yards of four ply cotton and it worked fine.

Now to do some experimenting. I think I can lathe a groove in the existing wheel to make the machine operate normally with a Singer bobbin tire. If so, it will be a $1.50 fix instead of "$25 plus shipping."

I can still recommend the repair, I use my Supermatic regularly and the replacement has held up perfectly. I have the aluminium pulley with O-ring solution. Sanding down the old rubber should be enough to get by in most cases though? I know it's repeated every where, but don't ignore cleaning and oiling this machine, it took a while before dired up grease was flushed out off the worm gear behind the Elnagraf, and it ran much better after I had the bobbin case out and cleaned out a lot of dust.