MFord

Hi, all! I'm currently in Arizona helping out my mother who will be needing knee surgery soon. I pulled out her Singer 513 Stylist to practice some things. It groaned like an old oak door! I put oil everywhere that looked like a bearing (NOT on the gears!), but all I can get is the new Singer oil, which I have heard not-so-good things about. I also don't have any grease for it - hope to get to the hardware store at some point, but my time is not my own right now! After oiling, the machine sounds better but is still very loud. Is this normal? I think I've read on here that this generation of Singers is very loud, but I wanted to check. I only have the owner's manual, not the service manual - does anyone know if the motor in this needs grease? And exactly where is the motor??

Thanks to all!

J Miller

MFord,

You'll need to take the top off, the bottom inspection plate off, and the face plate off to really oil everything. There's nothing wrong with the new Singer oil. A lot of us recommend Tri-Flow oil because it's better, but regular old sewing machine oil is fine.
Try to get some Singer grease for the gears if you can. There's not much in a hardware store that's suitable for sewing machines.
Nova Montgomery's has the oil, the Singer grease, and she's selling a new grease that's supposed to be suitable for the old Singer motors as well as gears. I haven't tried it yet, but I will.

I put the links in to N. M.'s in this thread: { http://www.quiltingboard.com/vintage...e-t255272.html }

Also make sure it's really clean in the bobbin area. Sometimes that will put a load on things too.

Joe

MFord

Thanks, Joe! I really didn't look carefully at the bobbin area - will clean it out well! I oiled all the areas you mentioned. The only piece I didn't remove is the side plate under the handwheel. I may do that later if I have time. I've been practicing my FMQ - I don't believe this machine HAS a sweet spot!! It's hard to control the speed - not like some others I've used.

manicmike

In my experience, the places needing the most oil are the bobbin race and the needlebar area (behind the plate, everything that moves). With the bobbin area, it's really important to clean it first. The oiling instructions are in the manual if you have it. If you don't have it, you can download the pdf from Singer.

MFord

Thanks, Mike! Still haven't had time to look at the bobbin area but maybe I will this morning. Yesterday was taken up by doctor's appointments for my mom. She is almost 87 and needs a full knee replacement. This is not going to be fun, I'm afraid!

manicmike

Hi Margaret,
The poor thing. It's really lovely that she still sews at 87 though, and I'm sure that compared to some of life's hardships in the past 87 years she'll come through it.

Those late '60s/early '70s Singers are still pretty good machines. My daughter has a 498k and the two weaknesses are the nylon bobbin gears (which tend to break after 40 years or so and yes it did) and the auto buttonhole: If it hasn't been lubricated the reverse button wears down. Then the dial can't push reverse hard enough to backstitch properly and the threads knot up (I still think I should be able to fix it though). The temporary 'fix' is to turn the fabric around at the end and perform a second forward ZZ instead.