Sewnoma

I bought a nice, small cabinet for my Rocketeer at the thrift shop yesterday and it came with a free Singer Stylist 457. (Like that phrasing? LOL) I thought it was frozen solid and figured it probably had busted plastic gears jamming it up but when I got it home I was a bit surprised to find it was just a terrible thread jam and all the plastic gears in both the top and the bottom appear to be in perfect condition! I even jabbed at them a bit with my screwdriver to see if they were about to crumble and they held up fine. Well, what do you know!?

The machine is filthy and dry so I'm cleaning and oiling her up but I'm not sure if it's OK to use my Tri-flow grease on these plastic gears or not! Is that safe, or do I need to find something else?

It really doesn't seem like a bad machine other than I don't trust it to last. It has a single built-in cam (also plastic) that allows it to do zig-zag or blind hem stitch so that's pretty useful. (I haven't tried actually sewing with it yet, though, it's still in pieces on the hospital table.)

I'm considering using it as practice for repainting machines. Maybe someone would want it if I gave it a nice retro turquoise-and-white paint job, LOL.

miriam

yup use it

Rodney

Can you see if the gears had grease on them? If they had grease then the triflow should be safe. If they left the factory dry, leave them that way.
Rodney

Sewnoma

They do have grease remains on them now, and judging from how dry and dirty the machine is I seriously doubt the prior owner put it there, it must be from the factory. I see zero evidence of this machine ever getting oiled; all the grime is just environmental dirt and dust, and I found enough lint inside that machine to make a fuzzball nearly as large as my fist by the time I got it all out!

Thanks for the feedback!

DonnaMiller

Good for you. Yeah, you can use TriFlow or Vaseline. Textron Aero Structures, a plane mfg. factory used Valesline on plastic gears for years. I only use it if there is no TriFlow around.

J Miller

I use Tri-Flow grease, but Singer does make a grease for the plastic gears. So if you can find some of that or the new Singer replica grease at Nova Montgomerys shop, or as a last resort petroleum jelly you're good to go.

Joe

Sewnoma

Oh, I do have some of the Nova Montgomery grease too! I didn't even think about that, in my mind that's "special sauce" just for my FW but that's kind of silly, isn't it?

I just wanted to make sure there was nothing in the Tri-flow that could weaken the plastic - I almost wonder if that's part of why these fail, is people putting the wrong kind of grease on them. This machine was neglected but also pretty well used (judging from the fuzzball) and the gears appear like new as far as wear goes.

Sewnoma

Ah well, guess I spoke too soon!

I got her all cleaned up, found all her squeaks and growls and got those oiled up, everything working nice and smooth. I got all the way to working on the tension and was just fine-tuning things and feeling pretty pleased about things when suddenly... *Crunch!* and everything stops moving. Checked...not a thread jam. Uh oh. Sure enough, I get the top off and little amber teeth everywhere - one of the top gears had gone crunchburger.

Well, SHOOT. I hate this - those stupid stupid plastic gears create so much WASTE. I don't really want to spend the $20-40 plus all the labor just to put MORE plastic gears in this machine, but I'm equally un-thrilled with the idea of just throwing away the machine. It COULD be a good machine, if it weren't for the plastic. It would still be an ugly machine (in my opinion) but at least it would work.

The parts on this machine don't even look like they'd work on other machines; I was comparing it to my 500 in hopes I could see parts worth saving for fixing other machines and it just doesn't look the same.

Anybody need any parts from a Singer Stylist 457? Should I try scrapping it for the metal? I hate the idea of it going into the landfill...

J Miller

I've done the vertical shaft top gears on 2 413s and 1 457. They are not that hard, and the gears don't cost too much.

If you don't want to scrap it, just fix it.

Joe

Sewnoma

I've only found the gears on eBay so far, and I think it was either $20 each or $20 for the pair. I didn't even try to shop around though, because I really don't like the idea of putting plastic back in there. It's just going to fail again up the road and be right back where it is now. I wish I could get metal gears. I'm sure they'd cost more, but at least they'd last and I'd feel like the fix was worth it. New plastic just feels temporary and like I'm building in a weak link.

I might just do it anyway, I guess. I've never replaced gears or re-timed a machine, I suppose it'd be good practice if nothing else. Any idea what the expected life span for a modern plastic gear is?