Miriam, welcome to the new grandbaby!! I have been following qb along but life has been running wild. Y'all keep the good info coming in.

I'm glad you are still around Melinda. Thanks everybody - Emma is a very laid back little one. She loves it when Wilbur holds her. Momma figured out if she wrapped Emma in a big quilt she feels secure and will let Wilbur hold her. He loves to hold Emma and look in her eyes. The girls love to take turns, too. Wilbur picked out a few clothes for her before she was born and gets a real kick out of seeing her swim in them. Walter freaks Emma out. He thinks she wants to play with his elephant or his giant lego blocks.

Congratulations Miriam. I have to say that I find it kind of funny that usually when we talk about "new babies" here we are talking about a new machine. :) I am very happy for you and your family on the new addition. I am glad everyone is safe and warm.

I do have a question. I was working on a FW this past week and it has a motor housing made of Bakelite that had hairline cracks around the motor mount. I was wondering how common this was.
~G~

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Congratulations Miriam & family on the new baby.

lucky you - it isn't totally broken up in bits

Grant,

That motor housing has about had it. It won't take much more to finish breaking those cracks.
There is however an anaerobic adhesive that will glue it down very well. It's called LocTite Black Max. It's kind of like a thread locker / super glue combo and it is one great product. The only place I've been able to find it is Midway.
{ http://www.midwayusa.com/ }. Also it's really black so when you use it on the motor housing it doesn't show up.

Here's a tip. Use denatured alcohol to degrease the cracks before using the Black Max.

Joe

Miriam, Congratulations! Emma is beautiful!

I agree that it is done for. I told the owner if you just wanted to display it, it would be fine. But who wants to just display it. I was able to find a replacement Singer FW for it. Thank you for the product info. I was wondering if there was something out there that could get into the cracks. It would have to be very thin to be able to work it's way into the hairline cracks here and bond with Bakelite. I would feel more comfortable replacing the endbell on it instead of repairing the original though.
But is this a common problem with the Bakelite FW motors?
~G~

Grant,

I don't know if it's common or not. Considering how many members here own FWs and how few comments about cracked housings I've read, I'm thinking not. Perhaps that one got banged against something sometime in it's past.

Joe

I am starting to think that too Joe. And the fact that a lot of the motors were made with metal cans, it must be a low number. Thank you.
~G~