Greasing my Featherweight
 

I decided to take out my Featherweight Sm and give it a cleaning and oiling and grease on the gears. I am not sure how much grease to put on the gears? My little tube of grease is pretty much empty, but I did manage to squeeze a very small amount on the gears. How thick should the grease be on the gears?

Another question also if you don't mind. Is it safe to use a Canuba Wax on the paints finish? My decals are all in perfect shape, but the paint could use a little more shine to it. Thank you!

wax: absolutely. just be sure that the wax is not within a product that has other nasties in is (solvents or abrasives). the pros use carnuba wax on their machines (sometimes in the form of car wax or boot wax, but again be careful to avoid those other ingredients.

grease: think of the function of the grease; oil will do the same trick, but oil disappears quicker than the grease, so grease is used because of its staying power; but you really only need a thin layer (which is why i use the think-of-oil as a starting place.) many people glob and glop it on. that is totally not necessary. you won't wreck it by overgreasing the gears; you will just create a gloopy mess which wil gather debris and gunk you up. but you won't harm it, really.

Fill three of the spaces between the teeth with grease. Turn the gear 1/3 of a turn and repeat. And then one more time. Turn the balance wheel by hand slowly towards you and use your finger to wipe the displaced grease off the outside of the gear, and back onto the teeth. Spin the wheel faster (still by hand) then again wipe the displaced grease off the outside of the gear, and back onto the teeth.

Now do the other gear. Done.

Thank you very much!

I use an amount of grease that resembles the size of a small green pea, on the tip of my finger, and swipe about 1/4 of it into three gears, turn the handwheel toward you and repeat this on 4 areas of the gear. Rotate the handwheel around a few times, by hand, and move to the next gear. Over greasing only causes future problems and a messy machine.

Was so glad to read this. I think I have been over greasing my Featherweight. From now on, I will grease correctly.

Me, too, franc36. I just glob on a couple of small smears (?) and when I pick up the machine to sew the next time, I check to see if it is smoothing out where I globbed the grease. If it is, I just smooth off the waste and am a happy camper. I have bought old Singers that had the grease tube still in the implements box, unopened and unused. I use that even though sometimes it is kinda dark. I figure it is still usable. ????? Jump in here, all you purists. I'll stop using it if it is bad.....