Thanks Joe. I am using my featherweight to sew on while my Elna is out for service. I noticed that the Featherweight is rather "clackety". I will print out the instructions and see if this fixes the noise problem.

Callen~congrats on Miss Abby, she sounds like Annie's twin! Mine smelled too and after I took her apart to clean I found out why. The drip pad was saturated with old oil and lube. Ugh, it was disgusting and I had to scrape the solidified stuff off the pan. Cleaned it, waxed it and put a piece of felt in it and she's good. The case I set outside in the fresh air and sprayed with Febreeze.

Joe! Thank you so much for that link! I am going to check it out today. And thanks for the tip on the feet! You just saved me a lot of money.

Caroline, Patti,

Glad to be of help.

Joe

Joe, thank you so much for the tip. She is now sewing like a charm and quiet as can be, Best of all, I fixed it myself.

Be sure you have oiled all the oil spots thoroughly, as if it sat for very long it is probably very dry. My 301a took a lot of oil and running before it quieted down. It takes a while for the oil to work through the mechanicals.

congrats and welcome to the FW club!

jljack-I oiled her so much that 2 days later I found oil dripping off the needle! leaha~thanks, I am super excited to do a quilt on her! Have 2 UFO's in mind.

Clothilde sells bobbin washers made of teflon. They help reduce the friction of the bobbin and may quiet it some. They are supposed to eliminate "backlash" and help do away with nests on the back while quilding. I love mine in the Janome Horizon, although it doesn't need one. I put one in each of my machines beneath every bobbin. What the heck, I had them and it may help. Some vintage machine will tolerate plastic bobbins. Haven't seen them for FWS, but somebody will eventually think of it.

A set of Singer attachments will run about $30, if you are lucky. Most of the stuff you won't need. Modern, useful, feet can be obtained off Ebay. Watch out for bobbins. They don't all fit, even though they say they will. Use a dependable site with full Singer services. It may cost a little more, but you will be apt to be totally satisfied than to use low bidder.

I agree, some try to take carnal knowlege of you when you use the name Featherweight. Low shank attachments will work and are readily available on Ebay. Just watch daily and you will eventually get lucky. Stay away from the really old ones. Try to stay 1935 or later and the low shank should fit. A lot of them say they will fit 221,222,99, 201 etc.
Type 66 bobbins won't fit however. If anyone knows if another class will work on a FW, please let us know. Is there a plastic bobbin that can be used on a 221? We have used the teflon, bobbin, washers with good results though.