Info please on a Singer 99
 

I found a cute Singer 99 today at an antique dealer who is closing shop. She runs smoothly, looks good and is fairly clean. The case is fair - the bottom needs to have the ripped cloth removed and the wood refinished but the brown top just needs cleaning.

My "go to repair guy", who has given me lots of tips and info in the past has retired and moved out of the area so I appreciate any info/advice that anyone might pass on to me - I have not yet worked on a vintage machine completely on my own. I usually have had a helping hand near by so this will be a first. Sorry if my questions are simple ones.

1) I think this machine may need a new tension spring since the one there is hanging and out of shape - never changed one before - will this be difficult to adjust?
I think I can find the spring online and if I lay it out as I take it off as suggested by Miriam, it may be ok to replace - Is there something that I should be careful with when doing this?

2) Although the small bobbin wheel seems to turn easily by hand, it won't engage when against the hand wheel - the rubber on the bobbin wheel looks good and feels smooth.
Is it a screw adjustment to get the bobbin wheel to engage?

3) I noticed that the finish appears to have what looks like cracking below the top surface. The finish, although dull in appearance, is smooth to the touch and there isn't any flaking or rust. The cracking reminds me of large crazing that is sometimes found in older porcelain. I have not seen this before - Is the cracking in the shellac? Should I be concerned? Will the finish begin to crack on the surface and flake off? Should I just clean it up a bit and then polish?

Thanks for your help :)

Normally you should be careful not to damage the tension spring, but in your case you may ignore that

Yes. There's an adjustment screw on the mechanism. Loosen it and move it a little closer in. You might have to test a few different positions before the final one is reached. It's very common for this to happen. Don't over tighten it so it's pressed up against the hand wheel or you'll destroy the rubber. Only very light contact is necessary.

Not sure about the finish. I'd probably try cutting compound on a small area that isn't obvious and see if I could get the crazy paving out. If it were a featherweight or something valuable I'd paint it and put new decals on, but you might not want to go to this much trouble.

Have a look at tfsr.org and DL their manual. The 99 is one of the models it focuses on and you will find it to be a very useful (valuable even) resource. See the sticky thread about finding vintage resources for the link, and more resources.

Manicmike - Thanks - greatly appreciated :)

Pleasure costumegirl the 99 is a really nice little machine and makes a great stitch you will undoubtedly make many a beautiful costume on :)

Glenn has good info about the finishes

Singer 99s are nice little machines. I have 2 of them, one is electric the other is a hand crank.