What do you do if you want to check your motor brushes and the plastic cap (the black screw) broke off? Singer did us no great favors by making the screw for access to the brushes out of plastic. They can be replaced but at a price you might not like. There is only one place in the world that makes these screws and they can dictate the price accordingly.
To remove the motor brush cap (screw), I use a pocket knife. I like a pointy blade style of pocket knife that I feel naked when I don't have it in my pocket. Open the blade (it took me years to learn that trick) and point the tip of the blade at the center of what is left of the cap on the motor. You need to try to "drill a hole" in the cap using the tip of the knife blade. The knife is to be turned to the left, counter-clockwise while pressing fairly firm (but not hard) on the knife tip. After about twenty turns you are going to be asking what Dave is talking about. The tip of the knife blade is not the best drill, but it becomes the ideal tool shortly. You've made a dimple in the plastic stuck in the hole by this time and sometime shortly the knife blade will start dragging (scraping) in the hole as it is turned. Then the blade will start jamming (sticking) in the hole you are trying to make. Add a little more pressure, turning to the left, and what's left of the old cap in the hole will unscrew and it can be removed. It takes but a minute in reality.
Use care when installing the new cap as well. It breaks easily. I don't know why the new caps are not made out of a superior plastic. My cure is simple. I use my thumb nail as a screw driver and I never get them too tight. But then I use my car keys to scratch in my ears too. If I use a screw driver I do not hold it by the handle but turn it by holding only the metal shank of the screw driver and I sing a little song about it "ain't got to be tight" as it doesn't hold the machine together. And you can sing the next verse about "Dave don't need no more of my money". I don't work for the Government.
Your questions are welcome. My answers are long-winded. It's the price you pay when the answers are free.
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Greasing a Singer 301 motor
Another customer asked me about lubricating the motor on her 301. She wanted to know if this can be done by the owner of the machine or does it need a service tech to do it. Here's my reply:
Greasing a 301 motor is very easy, or not at all. I am not sure of the year, I suspect it was around about 1960 at the time Singer changed to the white colored Featherweight motors, Singer went to a different bearing within the motor. The year is kind of academic and my trying to guess the year is probably just trying to show off. At any rate, somewhere about 1960 Singer incorporated a Porolite Bronze bearing (bushings) that does not require grease. The machines prior to that did. With the poor records keeping of Singer during those years it's a little like nailing Jello to a tree to find the exact year of your 301 according to the serial numbers, but the really important thing is "does your motor require grease?" Which is kind of what you asked and I've just wasted a bunch of our time saying nothing to help you....
Remove the drip pan from the bottom of your 301. Lay it over on its back on a towel or padding of some sort. The motor is right there in the back corner, kinda big and obvious. Look at the bottom of the motor. By bottom I mean bottom in relation to the machine, not in relation to the room around you.
On the bottom of the earlier 301 motors, sticking out the side of the motors bottom will be a chrome tube about an inch long and a quarter of an inch around. Pointing down, again in relation to the machine not the shoes you are wearing, will be a hole. Like the Featherweight, grease should be forced into that hole by pressing the Singer lubricant tube's nozzle against the hole firmly and squeezing the tube firmly for five seconds. It is impossible to determine how much grease you have put into the grease tube but only so much can go in and in five seconds you will have had enough squeeze time to know you have put in enough.
So, if you have a grease tube sticking out the side of the motor's base, grease it. If not, at least you can dust the thumb screw that holds your rip pan on. Please use Singer Lubricant.
Greasing a 301 motor is very easy, or not at all. I am not sure of the year, I suspect it was around about 1960 at the time Singer changed to the white colored Featherweight motors, Singer went to a different bearing within the motor. The year is kind of academic and my trying to guess the year is probably just trying to show off. At any rate, somewhere about 1960 Singer incorporated a Porolite Bronze bearing (bushings) that does not require grease. The machines prior to that did. With the poor records keeping of Singer during those years it's a little like nailing Jello to a tree to find the exact year of your 301 according to the serial numbers, but the really important thing is "does your motor require grease?" Which is kind of what you asked and I've just wasted a bunch of our time saying nothing to help you....
Remove the drip pan from the bottom of your 301. Lay it over on its back on a towel or padding of some sort. The motor is right there in the back corner, kinda big and obvious. Look at the bottom of the motor. By bottom I mean bottom in relation to the machine, not in relation to the room around you.
On the bottom of the earlier 301 motors, sticking out the side of the motors bottom will be a chrome tube about an inch long and a quarter of an inch around. Pointing down, again in relation to the machine not the shoes you are wearing, will be a hole. Like the Featherweight, grease should be forced into that hole by pressing the Singer lubricant tube's nozzle against the hole firmly and squeezing the tube firmly for five seconds. It is impossible to determine how much grease you have put into the grease tube but only so much can go in and in five seconds you will have had enough squeeze time to know you have put in enough.
So, if you have a grease tube sticking out the side of the motor's base, grease it. If not, at least you can dust the thumb screw that holds your rip pan on. Please use Singer Lubricant.
Lift out tray for Featherweight case…..
Well, this blog thing is new to me, so I thought I’d start out by sharing my answers to some of the questions I’ve been asked recently....
I received an email from a customer who had purchased a lift out tray for his 221 case and could not figure out why the tray did not fit. Have any of you ever noticed that FW cases are not all the same size?
There were three cases made for the Featherweight 221 machines over the years. An A, B and C case.
The "A" had the lift out tray. There were slight changes in the class "A" cases design in the very early years ('34 to '37) but you have to be pretty sharp to notice them. In 1948 Singer discontinued making the lift out tray cases and went to the "B" case. The "B" case has a small metal box secured to the left interior side of the case. This held the odd stuff you personally used and had a narrow slot for holding bobbins on the outside edge. The attachments were in a green box set into the bottom of the case under this metal box and the controller was put on the base of the machine under the machine's arm. The "C" case is like the "B" with the addition of a metal bracket secured to the inside lid of the case that the controller slides and latches into for travel.
The "A" case is taller than the other two cases to accommodate the lift out tray, the "B" "C" cases are longer than the "A". An "A" case's lift out try which will fit any "A" case, but it will not fit the other two models of cases, the "B" and "C".
I received an email from a customer who had purchased a lift out tray for his 221 case and could not figure out why the tray did not fit. Have any of you ever noticed that FW cases are not all the same size?
There were three cases made for the Featherweight 221 machines over the years. An A, B and C case.
The "A" had the lift out tray. There were slight changes in the class "A" cases design in the very early years ('34 to '37) but you have to be pretty sharp to notice them. In 1948 Singer discontinued making the lift out tray cases and went to the "B" case. The "B" case has a small metal box secured to the left interior side of the case. This held the odd stuff you personally used and had a narrow slot for holding bobbins on the outside edge. The attachments were in a green box set into the bottom of the case under this metal box and the controller was put on the base of the machine under the machine's arm. The "C" case is like the "B" with the addition of a metal bracket secured to the inside lid of the case that the controller slides and latches into for travel.
The "A" case is taller than the other two cases to accommodate the lift out tray, the "B" "C" cases are longer than the "A". An "A" case's lift out try which will fit any "A" case, but it will not fit the other two models of cases, the "B" and "C".
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