I was told by my machine repairman that you should never use any grease in these machines other than that which is made for the machine. Our JoAnns quilt handling the grease for these old machines. I was told by a sales person that the grease is going to be discontinued because of the decrease demand. I went to ebay and bought 10 tubes very reasonable.

I'm really not sure which would be better on the treadle mechanism, lubricant or oil. When I was de-gunking mine, I cleaned all the nasty junk out from the bearings on the pitman rod and put in a little new lubricant. I oiled the heck out of all the other metal-on-metal moving parts (putting down some protective newspapers on the floor). It certainly helped the treadle mechanism move freely and quietly.

SHORT VERSION: Only gears need grease/lube; all other metal to metal parts get oil.

I went to the sewing machine shop to get some grease and the old timer in there told me just to use oil... I have been known to use triflow grease on the gears and triflow oil on anything that moves. My mom just put one drop of sewing machine oil in every hole on her machine every once in a while since 1948 and that FW has run mostly pretty good that long - I cleaned it for her for Christmas - she says it has never been serviced before and it now runs like new.

One of the problems with putting oil on gears is that the gears throw the oil off, and if the oil manages to get onto your wiring, can eat through the insulation.

good info here

Treadles are an archaic mechanical device. I grease the treadle plate pivots, the big wheel pivots and the ball bearings.
Mine moves so free I cannot set the machine with the needle up and have it stay there.

As for the machines. Metal moving parts get sewing machine oil. Metal gears get Tri-Flo grease. Plastic gears get nothing. Singer motors get Singer motor lube.

My machines run very smooth and the treadles can be run by one finger in the spoked wheel.

That's just what I've read and have found to work.



Joe

Please, be sure to read your manual. Some machines require oil in certain locations (usually the oil holes), and other locations (usually the motor) require grease. In general, moving parts with little load can use oil. Bearings, usually require grease.

Don't use regular oil (motor oil) on sewing machines. A machinist once told me that the oil he recommends on brass bearings and other sliding surfaces was transmission oil. He said to never use regular motor oil. That motor oil will gum up, he said. Transmission oil is designed to not gum up. This is what I use on my 1951 Singer lock-stitch machine. Just oiled the machine the other day for the first time since I've had it. And it really picked up the performance and smoothness and dampened the noise as it operated. Also, I don't have to manually turn the wheel, almost never, to start the machine running anymore. Works great in the places where oil is recommended by the manual. And a whole quart sells for around $3.00. Automatic Transmission oil. Not Motor oil!

My machine's manual says that two locations need the special Singer grease. Haven't tried that yet. But will possibly take a look and see what actually is being lubricated at these spots to give a recommendation for an alternative replacement for the original Singer grease.

Hank, I never would have thought to use transmission oil. Hmmm. I ended up getting some Triflow grease and some Triflow oil.

The Tri-Flo is by far the better choice for sewing machines. TF oil for oily places, and TF grease the greasy places. But for Singer motors you need Singer grease. So far I don't know of any substitute for it. It's still available so I'm not really searching too hard.

Joe