Oiling a Featherweight
 

Last Saturday, I attended a wonderful 5-hr. hands-on maintenance class for FWs at a LQS. So informative! But I was flabbergasted at how often oiling is recommended: twice while making a king size quilt (or equivalent), or once for every 8 hrs. of sewing. Seems very inconvenient, plus it's hard to believe our vintage sisters followed this practice. Any input?

LavenderBlue,

That's not out of the norm. What would be more inconvenient is the shafts and other moving parts wearing out because of a lack of oil. Sewing machines are precision made machines and most of the domestic ones do not have bearings. Bare shafts turn in bare bores with only a thin layer of oil between them. The top shaft, the bottoms shafts and all the articulating parts are basically metal to metal. Hense the need for oil. The gears at the top of the vertical shaft need grease and grease doesn't run off or fling off as fast.

I've read every 8 hours more than once. Oh and I have seen machines where the need for oiling was ignored. The machines are in bad shape.

I'd rather clean up an over oiled machine, than try to repair one worn out because of a lack of oil.

Joe

If you sew a lot, after a while you can hear the difference, and know your machine needs oil. Though if you're diligent with an oiling schedule, you may never get to that point.

Most people didn't sew as much as one might think - a few hours here or there, and oiled once a week or so, and it worked out OK.

The problem is we've since gone to so much "never service" type items that we've gotten out of practice. When I learned to sew (45 years ago) oiling was a normal part of the learning process. Same with oiling my bike, or the pony cart, or the lawn mower.

There have been so many times my husband is dealing with a machine, and the grease fittings are broke off or so cruded up it's obvious no one has greased the machine in ages. BTW - he keeps a grease gun in his car just in case he gets to a job site and they don't have one. He takes his pre-operations check list seriously, but he also has a heart for the machines he operates.

Approx. 8 hours of use is what needles are supposed to last too, so it's a general rule of thumb to oil and change your needle every 8 hours. It's what I was always taught and try to do. I do have a few machines that need that spot of oil more frequently.

Gee, if I had 8 uninterrupted hours to sew, I'd be in heaven!

LOL, I'd be too!
It would be hard for me also to know when I arrive to the count: 15 min here, 20 min here...
When I feel the sewing machine is not performing smootly, I oil. Seems a good system.
It`s also true for non-vintage sewing machine. I have a modern Artista 730; last week the machine was rattling so badly that I was sure something was broke. I had oiled it not so long ago, but it couldn't hurt to try, so I put a bit of oil in the race. When I turned it on again, it was quiet as usual.

When I got my Featherweight, about a year ago, I really dreaded oiling it. There are so many places that need oil. I made a copy of the charts showing places that need oil and check off the places as I oil them. Now, I no longer dread oiling, I don't really need the charts anymore, and the process goes quickly. I oil my Featherweight once a week and change the needle at the same time. I think I sew about 8 hours a week on it as I use my Bernina quite often.

Wow! I'm surprised... I just bought a Featherweight and took it to get serviced. I asked the technician how to oil it, and he told me that I wouldn't have to oil it until he did it again at the two-year maintenance visit.

Where can I get instructions on oiling?

My tech. told me if we really feel we need to "shortcut" the oiling frequency on our FW's., if we just oil the bobbin parts, that is acceptable.
He showed me to just take the bobbin out, and oil the little places that have cut-looking pieces. That isn't a very good description. If you take the bobbin out and look closely, you will see what I mean.
He said to oil those after every use of your fw. I agree; you can hear your machine "tell" you that it needs oil.
Mariah

JENNR8R, Mariah,

Both your mechanics are wrong. If you don't sew but once a year then you might get away with a two year service schedule, otherwise you're damaging your machine. Sounds to me like these two guys are trying to cause your machines an early demise so they can sell you a new one.

There IS NO SHORTCUTS to oiling a sewing machine. The bobbin race area is a miniscule part of the machine's lubrication requirements. Oiling that would be like squirting oil on the throttle linkage of your car and ignoring the rest. It won't do.

Instructions for oiling a FW or most any other machine are found in the owners manual. They can be downloaded from the Singer site FREE. I'd suggest doing that and printing them out so you can have them with the machine.
{ http://www.singerco.com/accessories/instruction-manuals }

Joe