Yes, you can take off the hand wheel and make sure that the little gear/washer is seated correctly - or it would not sew, just spin! That little dohicky could even be missing if someone else took the handwheel off and didn't put it back on properly!

Also, any place you see gears 'teeth,' those need to be lubricated with sewing machine lubricant - not oiled! You may have already taken out some of the dried up lubricant - just replace it with some new lubricant on the teeth! Yes, the 221 manual has a photo of the gears and tells you where to oil and where to lube! A really good book to get is "Featherweight 221 The Perfect Portable by Nancy Johnson-Srebro.

Nancy

Nancy;
Thanks for the information. I did get it working after taking off the handwheel. I think the washer with the the "teeth" was put on wrong at some point in time. It all spins now and I'm going to find some "see if it works" fabric and take her for a test drive. I will have to get lubricant for the teeth portions and either the Johnson-Srebro book or the one by Dave McCallum. I will also print off the applicable portions of the 221 manual.
Now if she sews, it'll be great. I'll need to let oil drip out from a few places before using her with good fabric.

I'd love to put flags on my parents grave, but alas they're in Riverside,CA and I'm in Texas.
Sharon

Whoa! I want one of these!! I'd love to have a red machine.

Nancy do the oil & heat on that thing while you jiggle it a bit - but do make sure that thing on the bottom of the machine is very clean and re-oiled too - it should slide nice. I have had to oil those buggars from the inside of the machine and the outside - be careful of that belt - no oil on the belt. You also may need to oil it from inside and then lay the machine on it's face or oil it from the outside and lay it on it's back. Then do other angles. You want that Triflow to do the work for you. I have a couple machines that are very well greased - there must be a whole tube on one of them. I think I will tackle that one soon. It is a 15 clone - I can't seem to keep those in the shop - people must like them or something.

Ok I have gotten the bight lever to move a 1/4". It is just fozen solid! I know the problem has to be in the bight control because when I do those decorative stitches the machine zig zags just fine. I just can't move the lever that moves the needle right or left to set it right or left! So it is going to soak some more!

Nancy

Ok I did it - or I should say DH did it! It took some brute strength, but the lever to move the needle position now moves freely! That thing was just stuck solid! Once he got it to wiggle, then start to move, he just forced it free! Yippeeeeee! So I can move the needle left, right, middle! I re-did all the decorative stitches just to make sure we didn't break something - everything works as it should except the light! The light works, but when I step on the gas the light completely dims down to nothing. When I stop sewing, the light comes back on? The light doesn't matter as this machine will probably end up in a treadle anyway, but anyone had this issue before? It is like when the motor is running it uses so much power that the light dims completely down.

Nancy

Now if I could get my Damascus TSM to sew I'd be set!

I'm glad you got it going. I know what you mean about the brute strength - I don't seem to have that either. The 306 twin to yours I have works fine but the plastic on the wires fell off when I got it. I figure it might go on a treadle and use a LED light or something. Maybe it would be good with a motor, I don't know yet. Mine has some smooth finish and some crinkle finish. Kind of a monster. Do you have a good set of disks for yours?

This sounds like the problem I had with that 27 treadle. I couldn't get the stitch regulator button to budge... even a little bit. I had to use some blaster and work the knob back and forth for hours. But, it finally started moving and now I can turn it back and forth with ease. I am still amazed at the engineering in these old machines.

Nancy, I don't know how to explain it but it's wired on the same pin as the motor. You can switch the wire to a different pin and it will stay on fully. What happens is when you hit the gas both the motor and light are drawing from the same spot on the controller. I hope I explained it so you can look at the connector on the machine and see what I'm talking about. My 319 was doing that and I moved the light wiring off the motor wiring and it was fine. There's nothing wrong with your machine or light, it's just the wiring hub is a bit mixed up. You just unscrew the the screws in the connector and move the wire. Then re-screw it.