A broken light socket

A BROKEN FEATHERWEIGHT LIGHT SOCKET

        The light bulbs socket of a Featherweight is made of Bakelite and as such it can be broken. There are many who struggle with removing a light bulb from the machine. Some manage to complicate the light bulb replacement project by forcing the issue. Sometimes even picking the machine up can place your lifting hands fingertips on the glass of the bulb and this can break the bulb as the machine is lifted, and the socket gets itself broken when they use the chain saw to try and remove what’s left.

        I personally have never done this.                                   Never.

        Removing the metal base left behind by a broken light bulb can be a problem and lead to the socket being broken and in need of replacement. The socket within the lamp assembly can be replaced or the entire lamp assembly can be replaced as an assembly. Elsewhere within this manual I tell of how to remove the light assembly as a whole and replace it. To just replace the socket within is simple enough if you follow the steps I’ll run through with you. The trick is finding a replacement socket. eBay can help. It is somewhat easier to replace the socket within the lamp assembly than it is to remove and replace the entire lamp assembly from the machine, wires and all.

        As I intimated, finding a socket might be the trick. Purchasing the entire lamp assembly on eBay is one way to get a socket. It’s the ease of installation that makes replacing the socket attractive compared to replacing the lamp assembly as a whole. If you fish around on eBay for a while you will find lamp assemblies on auction that are not going to sell for much because they look like snits. The black painted shade portion could be in sad condition but the socket that is protected within it is probably OK. Search for the auction and when found ask the seller if the socket is in one piece. On the auction page there is a section for asking the seller a question. I have on occasion seen just the socket for auction as well.

        If you choose to replace just the socket, begin this way. Remove the light bulb. Turning the machine upside down so you can see the light bulb will help a lot. Wearing a rubber glove can give you a better grip on the bulb. Set the machine right side up as if you were going to sew on it once the bulb is out. Look under the near edge of the lamp shade to see the screw that secures the lamp shade to the body of the machine, about half way between left and right on the shade. Remove that screw and roll/pull the lamp shade out from the body of the machine toward you. Roll it out more than pulling as the assembly will not pull out very much. The lamp assembly will be held up (supported) by the wire to the lamp that is shrouded in a lead tube. You will bend this lead tube covering the wire and this is OK. This lead tube covered wire works well as a third hand but don’t horse the shade around mush. At the right end of the shade assembly there is a part of the shade that extended into the side of the machine through a hole provided for it. The portion that rolled out with the shade has a slot that the lead shrouded wire is secured into by a set-screw. The set-screw is on the top and perpendicular to the wire. Loosen this set screw about four full turns. At the right end of the lamp shade there is a small screw centered in the end of the lamp assembly. Remove that small screw and the lamp shade can be slid off of the lamp socket sliding the metal shade to the right in relation to the socket. There is a black felt washer/pad that is sandwiched between the socket and the lamp shade with the small screw we just removed through its center. Retain the felt washer and we’ll use it later on reassembly. To make life easy I use a touch of rubber cement to secure the felt pad into place within the shade so I don’t fight with it while trying to reassemble things. Somehow holding the felt washer in place, aligning the socket and getting the screw through all this makes the hassle of gluing the washer in place look pretty much worth doing.

        Now the socket that is still secured to the wire is exposed so the socket can be worked on. There are two small screws securing a cap at the closed end of the socket. You guessed it, remove them and the cap lifts off. You can then see how the wires enter the socket and spread into a “Y” within slots that guide the wires to the electrical contacts for the light bulb. It might look like “what do we do now” but the next step is easy. The wires are soldered to the contacts under this cap but we do not have to remove the wires from the contacts. Without cranking the open end of the socket around too much, look within the open end of the socket and note the two electrical (metal) contacts you can see within. Go scrounge around the house and find a wood pencil with an eraser on it, or the like. Reach the eraser end of the pencil into the socket’s open end and push firmly on the contacts and they will push out of the cap end of the socket and the body of the broken socket can be taken away.

        To continue with the replacement of the socket I suggest you wash the new socket with soap and water. With these replacement parts ready to receive their electrical components just align the wires and their funny telescoping contacts with the holes in the end of the socket and gently push the telescoping electrical contacts into the holes from the outside end of the socket. The wires of course fall into the “Y” shaped slot for them and the cover is secured with its two screws. None of these screws require that they be tongue bitingly tight. Snug, but not hard.

        The rest of the project goes back together in the reverse order of having removed them. If you didn’t glue the felt washer inside the shade assembly make sure it gets back in there where it belongs. Slide the lampshade to the left over the socket, install and tighten the small screw centered with the end of the shade that secures the socket into the shade. Now tighten the set-screw into the lead shrouded wire, again not hard, and roll the lampshade back into the body of the machine. Install the screw that secures the lampshade to the machine and installing the light bulb is next. Gently turn to the right to install.

        One last thing; remove the drip pan from the bottom of the machine and look inside for the lead shrouded wire as it comes down through the arm and makes a turn toward the electrical receptacle where its wires terminate. When we were working outside the machine we pulled on and manipulated the shrouded wire somewhat. The object of the lead shroud was to make it so the wires within could be pushed away from the gears in the bottom of the machine. Is the lead shrouded wire still clear of the gears? If not; reach in with a finger and push the wire shroud out of harm’s way.

ends of the individual strands of the wire. Then with a soldering iron apply solder to the eyelet you have fabricated so the solder penetrates the wire strands and makes for a firm eyelet.

If your machine justs runs on while you wind a bobbin

I can't resist it! 

    A gentleman wrote to say his Featherweight just keeps runnin'-on when he tries to wind a bobbin. I suggested he take the hand wheel off and clean the bore and the bushing it turns on, with 220 grit wet and dry sand paper and oil.  He did and the machine still didn't behave. So I suggested;

     I think you will find that if you take the motor drive belt off it will take no effort at all to turn the hand wheel on your machine compared to a machine that doesn't have "the problem". I suspect your machine is so well "broken-in" that all of the parts are working in perfect concert with each other therefore there is no resistance to the machines being turned and however slight the tug of a well oiled hand wheel there isn't enough internal resistance prevent the machine from "running-on". Your machine probably runs fast compared to some Featherweights.

     To induce a little internal resistance to the machine's turning I suggest this. Gain access to the underside of your machine and locate the set-screws that secure the bushings for the lower high speed shaft. The bushings and their set-screws are in the "aluminum blocks" cast into the base of the machine that support the bushings. These two blocks have the oil holes drilled through their side to oil these bushings. I'll pick on the bushing at the hand wheel end of the machine that has the lower high speed shaft's gear next to it. The other end of the shaft has a block with a bushing in it also. In both blocks is a set-screw pointing out the bottom of the machine. But for now we pick on the bushing in the block at the hand wheel end.

    What I am suggesting is that you induce a little resistance into the free turning of the machine by over-tightening the set-screw near the gear to the point that we deform the bushing a tiny amount. I have done this several times and it has worked well. Before you do anything, take the motor belt off of the machine and turn the hand wheel a whole bunch and remember the effort needed. Get use to the feel of how much or how little effort is required to turn the machine without the motor connected. Get/find/steal a good quality screw-driver that fits the set-screw quite well and tighten the set screw more/excessively. If you detect/feel that the screw has tightened a tiny bit, check to see if you can feel an added resistance to the machines turning. If by chance there is a bunch more resistance, back off on the set-screw a bit and things will go back to normaler. Keep it up until you feel some resistance or until it appears this might not be getting what you wanted and you fear it is getting to be a bit much. Lets try something else.

Plan "B", if the above didn't work;

    Remove the set-screw near the gear completely. Using a "nail set" punch (or something of the kind) reach down to the bottom of the hole touching the bushing (which is the bottom of the set-screw's hole) with the end of punch and tap it with a hammer. Feel for resistance to turning again. If the resistance to turning hasn't increased, tap it again just a little more firmly, and again until you do get some resistance, testing between each progressively heaver tap. Baby steps. At no time should you let yourself get impatient to get things done and clobber the punch hard. Just a little harder each time until it works, replace the set-screw and go off telling your self that you'll never tell anybody what you just did to your Featherweight. Especially that I said to.

    I have done this before also, and it does work.

If you need a thread tension guage and want to keep your money.....

    Thread tension gauges are expensive, so I'd thought I'd share a simple project with you that works very well and can save you a lot compared to buying one if you can find one.  

    If you are looking for one to use, make your own, but this will not be a small pocket sized portable, but it works with almost any machine. And it isn't huge.

 

    Make a small wood "base" of say 3X10X3/4 inch (approx). It might not seem like a "base" yet, but it will. Drill a small hole (about 1/16th of an inch) 1/4 of an inch in from one of the base's long sides and centered from left to right. The hole should be perpendicular to this base while it lays flat on a work surface.This long edge with a hole drilled vertically has become the back edge of the gauge.

    Make a "back panel" five inches wide by eight inches tall of something like "foam-core" or thin plywood. This back board should be glued to the base's back edge, vertically, with the 1/16th inch hole centered left to right with the backboard. A piece of heavy white paper is glued to the inside surface of the "L" if needed and will serve as a surface to mark on using a pencil later on.

    You need a piece of music wire (from a hobby shop) of about .045 thousandths of an inch diameter and seven inches long. Bend a little (tiny) loop or hook (curly-Q) into one end, this will become the top of the wire when finally set in place. Glue the plain end of the wire into the hole you've drilled and let the glue cure/dry.

    To use: Get a bobbin case that is known to be "set" properly. form a loop in the 3 inch tail of thread coming from the bobbin case and catch the thread loop in the loop/hook at the top end of the wire. Pull gently, the wire begins to bend and keep pulling until the bobbin just starts to turn within the bobbin case. At that point note how far the wire bent and mark on the back board (a little tick mark) how far the wire bent until the bobbin within the bobbin case just began to turn. Make your mark toward the top of the wire. Then let things relax. Release the thread from the hook you formed in the wire and with a finger tip pushing from the top of the wire bend the wire over to the Mark you made on the backboard. Then press the wire against the backboard, holding it there from the hooked end of the wire and use the wire as an edge to draw a more distinct slightly curved line. Try the bobbin case from several machines if you can, all from machines that are behaving themselves. You'll notice the marks start falling within an average zone or range. Were you to measure this "average" it will come out at about 2.6 Grams. It's a primitive little gauge that will cost about fifty cents to make and take an hour to make. It is every bit as accurate as the $189.00 big name machine gauges and can be just as fancy as you want it to be if you want to embellish it.

    To use the tool, form a loop in the thread coming from your bobbin case and as above pull on the thread, holding the bobbin case to do so. Note when the bobbin begins to turn and if it is to one side of the line you have made, or the other, you will need to adjust the bobbin case accordingly. If the bobbin begins to turn before the wire reaches the line, tighten the adjustment screw of the bobbin case. If you are pulling beyond the mark and the bobbin case is not turning, loosen up the adjustment screw a little at a time. 

    Once you see what I'm up to with these words you can work-out your own design improvements and it will work fine. I told you .045 diameter wire, but it can be a little larger in diameter or smaller but I would not suggest a big departure. It's just how much it bends when pulled on, consistently, that matters. But don't go real heavy or thin just because you had a problem finding some rational sized wire.

    And please use music wire from a hobby shop as it is good spring steel and not like coat hanger wire that bends and stays bent.

    If when using your gauge you come quite close to the line....that's good enough. This is a very sensitive gauge and close is good enough.

 

Removing the light switch from a Featherweight for replacement or paintin of the machine

I've had several emails lately, asking how to remove the light switch from a Featherweight so I thought I'd bring that subject to you today. The reasons for these people wanting to remove the switch replacing the switch were a simple failure of the switch (as in "it don't do nothin'") to a broken off toggle. If you need to know all about this, here it is. It is a great subject for those moments at a wedding reception where small talk fails and you want to impress people. If you are painting your machine you will also want to remove the switch. The drip pan will need to be removed from the bottom of the machine. The electrical receptacle/plug needs to be removed to gain access to the wire that goes to the light switch. The electrical receptacle has one screw holding it in place. There are three electrical posts inside the opening of the receptacle and the screw securing the receptacle is directly above the center post of the three, by about an inch. Remove the screw. The receptacle will only pulls out about an inch and to loosen the wire from the switch, roll the receptacle onto its open face so it's back side is up. There are three thumb-nuts on the back side of the receptacle. Just beside the thumb-nuts is a number that identifies the threaded electrical post by number, Remove the thumb nut at post number 3 and take the two wires off of the threaded post. Use the tip of a pair of pliers to loosen the thumb nut if need be and then finish by finger. The switch is held in place by by two nuts or at least should be. One is a black plastic decorative cap that doesn't hold anything in place. this plastic cap rests on top of a steel hex-nut that lays right on the painted surface of the machine's deck. The black plastic decorative nut is removed by hand and don't use pliers or the like as the cap is somewhat delicate. The risk in removing the steel hex nut under the cap in the stack-up is the chance that you might scratch the paint of your machine with the tool you use. The So many of these tools that can be used to remove this nut get scratched in use on the family car and such. The wrench you use has to laid the flat side of its jaw on the painted surface to loosen the hex nut. I take my tools for this use (a six inch adjustable wrench or 9/16ths open end wrench) and lay the flat side of the wrench, the jaw portion, on a piece of sand paper of about 120 grit and all this laying on a hard flat surface and rub it in until the side of the wrench is smooth and "toothless". Remove the hex-nut and the switch can now be poked down through the hole in the base of the machine. Not quite done yet. There is another wire that attaches to the switch with a screw into the side of the switch. Remove that screw and set it aside. The switch is free now to remove. Attached to the switch will be a wire that is soldered to a terminal of the switch, it goes away with the switch as a unit. There is a heavy black piece of rigid paper that serves as an insulator so nothing within the machine's base can touch the switch's wires and short things out. It's a pain, but put the paper piece back in when the time comes. Reverse the process to put things back together. The screw threads for the hex nut and plastic cap should have a little oil used on them and do not tighten either one very much. The hex nut will/can scratch the paint under it and the black plastic cap can break. Apply a little oil to the threads of the switch before the hex or plastic cap are screwed on.

A machine that runs on while you wind a bobbin and.....

If the "stop motion" knob located in the center of the hand wheel is loosened the entire Featherweight sewing machine should not keep running when you wind a bobbin, just the hand wheel. We have "stopped the motion". Should have at least. If not the cure is to remove the hand wheel and clean the hole (bore) of the hand wheel, oil it well and reassemble the hand wheel. This only takes about ten minutes. We begins by removing the hand wheel. Get a washcloth and fold it twice, into quarters. lay it on your base extension and lift the extension all the way up as if putting the machine back into machine's case and then tilt the machine forward until the machine is resting on the folded up base extension and the hand wheel pointing to the ceiling. Toward the edge of the stop motion wheel (knob) is a small screw. Loosen it by three full turns and the stop motion wheel can be unscrewed completely (lefty loosey, righty tighty). There is an odd washer that can be seen now that the knob is out of the way. It fits on the exposed end of the shaft that the hand wheel spins on. The washer has three tabs spaced evenly around its outside edge and two bent tabs on the inside of the washer's hole that fit the slot in the end of the shaft. Leave the washer on the shaft until you get a felt tipped pen or something you can scratch steel with. We need to make a mark from one side of the hole in the shaft out across one side of the washer. The washer we are speaking of has to go back onto the shaft the same way it came off of the shaft. When you put it back on make sure the mark is up and we will know the correct side of the washer is up and align the marks across the end of the shaft and the side of the washer and we will know the washer is "clocked" properly as well. Felt tipped pens work well but the mark will go away after awhile. I prefer something that will mark (scratch)the steel of the washer for keeps. Remove the washer and pull up on the hand wheel. Notice: I did not tell you to remove the motor belt. The hand wheel will pull off the end of the shaft with the belt left on and you will not have to adjust the motor drive belt's tension if you don't have to loosen the motor and remove the belt. Get hold of the hand wheel and pull. If it just moves a little, slap it back down and pull up smartly again. Repeat if necessary. It will really will come off. Ultimately we are about cleaning the hole (bore) through the center of the hand wheel and oiling it well. Oh, and putting it all back together. There are two simple ways to clean the bore of the hand wheel. Steel wool or fine sand paper. With four ought (0000) steel wool I pull off a one inch ball of the steel wool and pull it thinner and larger, pulling at the edges, without tearing the little pad. Ladies, I suggest you put on a rubber glove on your "using hand" and everybody cap the end of a correct sized finger needed so you can push the pad into the bore of the hand wheel and twist your finger like you do with the wash cloth in your ears on Saturday night bath-time. Don't dab at it, honestly clean the hole out. Change sides of the hand wheel and work from the other side as well. The bore of the hand wheel is one of the most neglected places on our machines and it frequently is dry of oil and it cruds-up preventing the hand wheel from turning freely. The other approach is to roll a piece of wet and dry sandpaper about two inches wide and six long into a tube rolled around a finger that allows the sandpapered wrapped finger fit the bore. 220 wet and dry sandpaper (used wet) works well. Either way you do this you will end up with a dirty finger and that shows we are cleaning crud out of the hole. Keep working until you are not finding any more crud to get your finger dirty with. Clean the bore of dust and such caused by your efforts and put some oil in the hole/bore. Put a little oil on the exposed end of the shaft and put the hand wheel on the shaft without the motor belt and give it a spin by hand. The hand wheel should turn very freely. If that is the case remove the hand wheel again and loop the motor belt around it and put the hand wheel back onto the shaft. Install the washer with the mark up and aligned with the mark on the shaft and install the stop motion knob. Turn the little screw in that is out there on the edge of the stop motion knob. Not tight, just there. It might take a second for your machine to buy into the idea its clean again. Loosen the stop motion knob and run the machine electrically. Give the machine a little while to break-in again. If the machine is thinking about not turning with the stop motion knob loose, run the machine and hold the thread take-up lever to stop the machine yet let just the hand wheel spin for a bit.

THE NEEDLE IN MY MACHINE IS NOT CENTERED IN THE HOLE OF THE NEEDLE PLATE !!! WHAAAAA!

On the Featherweight model 221 or the Model 301..........and others Singer machines........ Many machines do not put the needle into the needle plate's hole in a way we may feel is perfect. Absolute dead center in the hole is not what Singer was after as they manufactured your machine. There was an "allowable tolerance" that meant that if the machine functioned, that was Singer's bottom line, things just needed to be within a working allowable tolerance. If the needle is not dead center in the needle plate's hole, sorry. You can get a very small diameter "mouse tail" file (at higher end hobby shops)and file the hole wider and away from the needle to center the needle better in a slightly larger hole. If the needle is touching one of the toes of the presser foot, this can be adjusted away. But First; check to find if the needle is bent? Using the hand wheel; withdraw the needle from the needle plate's hole and keep turning slowly until the needle is ready to reenter the needle plate. Watch the needle in relation to the needle plate hole as the needle descends into the hole. As the needle travels down, if the needle drifts closer to one side of the hole and then backs off again as you withdraw the needle you've got yourself a bent needle. If so, replace the needle. If this ain't the case, read on. Remove/open the faceplate and look at the presser bar. The presser bar is made of two parts you can see (there is a spring hiding inside), the bottom half of the bar is about a 1/4 in diameter shiny steel rod that that becomes a 3/16ths (approx) black steel rod above. This assembly of two rods runs from the top of the machine's head (inside), from the adjustable knob at the top of the head to the presser foot down under the head. On this shaft/rod/bar/assembly (let's call this the "bar" from here on) is a metal block (looks like 3/8ths X 3/8ths)that is part of the presser bar assembly and is about half way up the bar assembly. It has a set screw looking straight out at you and the block and bar move up and down with the presser bar if you lift the chrome lever hanging out the back side of the machine's head. Loosen that set-screw a tiny bit. we want the bar to be able to turn with moderate effort and not just drop as it is under moderate spring pressure pressing downward (but not dangerously so). Loosen the set-screw and as you begin loosening it the screw will kind of make a "pop" when it breaks free of having been tightened for 40 years. Stop loosening the set-screw. Reach down to the presser foot's toes at the bottom of the bar and use it like a small tiller on a small sail boat to straighten the foot out a small amount. To do this the presser foot should be lifted (the up position as in when removing your fabric from under the foot) off of the needle plate so you can get a grip on the toes of the foot/tiller to turn/twist the toes into alignment so the needle does not strike the toes any more. You might have to loosen the set-screw a bit more, but do such in tiny increments. If you have turned the foot and you think its about right, with the machine's needle centered between the toes, let the foot down gently onto the needle plate and the slots for the feed-dogs will act as a guide to confirm the foot is aligned with the the feed dogs and they are no longer angled across them slightly. If things look good, tighten the set-screw again. Or keep fiddling. As you loosened the set-screw; the presser bar may have dropped down to the needle plate because the set-screw was loosened a bit too much. Not to worry, we'll reset that. Internally, within the two part presser bar, is a spring that will encourage the bar to drop. If the set-screw was loosened a bit too much (which never happens to me) tighten the set-screw ever so little so the bar resits being turned but can be turned with a little effort. Go get a pocket book and and open it to about page 150, which will be about 5/16ths of an inch of pulp including one of the covers. Measure it so we are fairly accurate. 5/16ths of an inch. You don't need to buy a dial indicator, just a ruler will do fine, but try to be accurate, within reason. With the presser foot lifted; put the pocket book's 150 pages (w/cover) under the presser foot. If you need to force the book to get it under the foot; loosen that set screw centered in the metal block ever so little, and twisting the bar by the presser foot's toes, pull the bar up or down as needed within the block until the book just fits under the foot. Turning the bar by the foot's toes will help the bar move within the block and once it turns it can now move up and down within the block with relative ease. The foot should be resting (not pressing firmly) on the pages of your book and not hovering above the the pages. If you have had to twist the toes of the foot to get the bar to move up/down within the block you may find the foot will be crooked again and you will do the juggling act of aligning the foot and not letting the bar drop down next. The secret is how tight is the set-screw. The bar must be able to be turned within the block but not loose. If you have something that is 5/16ths of an inch thick and it is easier to work with than a book, use it. I made a "Go-No-Go gauge" (it "fits of it don't") of 5/16ths thick Plexiglas to do this with, but I work with a lot of machines and I don't know if this is a practical thing to make for yourself out of any material if you have but one machine to work with. The foot doesn't go out of alignment very often. I prefer to use a gauge as it is so hard to read a book with the presser foot pressing down on the pages as I work, and turning the pages is just plain problematic.

Touch-up paint for a white (pale celery) Featherweight

I was letting my mouse wander freely through eBay today and noticed several things of interest. Somehow my mouse went directly to "Featherweight 221" I am Always interested in the "RARE" machines, AND THERE ARE SOOOOO MANY RARE MACHINES" on eBay. I really must do some research as I swear I NEVER KNEW THERE WERE SO MANY "RARE MACHINES" AND I must have about 30 of those same machines. I'M WILDLY RICH!!!! There was another machine that kind of looked like a Featherweight, I mean, it had a needle and it had a hand wheel. It must be quite good as the title of the auction stated "MADE IN CANADA AND IT DOES ALL THE THINGS A FEATHERWEIGHT DOES. Now there's a commendation. $89 plus $36.00 for shipping "as it is a heavy Featherweight." Another was a person who was selling touch-up paint for Singer model 301's. Brown ones. A one ounce bottle was going for $18, but it had a brush in its cap! If you have a white (pale celery) Featherweight with paint chips there is a solution. I will assume you have a copy of my book "The Featherweight 221 and I". In the last half of the book I go into repairing chips in the paint of a Featherweight and although I was talking of a black machine, it goes the same way with the celery white machines. In basic you clean the hole in the paint that is the chip and fill the chip with paint, NOT IN BRUSH STROKES, but dip into the paint in the tubes I will describe and let a drip/drop of paint touch down and fill the hole a little more than flush. That's not the issue here, I want to tell you the formula for the color so you can make a very acceptable mix that will not disappoint. At better automotive shops (for some reason, not NAPA) you can buy tubes of Dupli-Color automotive (lacquer based) touch-up paint that comes in a tube that looks like a short felt-tip pen in a blister pack hanging on a peg. You need two at about $7 each. The first is "Pure White", part number NG GM 387. The second is "Dark Green", part number NG GM 517. Shake the tubes of paint to mix them and open the new tube of White paint and open the dark green as well. I make a point out of "a new tube of white" so we have a known amount of paint in the tube when we mix the color we are going for. From the Dark Green tube take 16 drops of paint and add it to the white paint. The process is like this; with the white tube open, open the green and using the green tube's brush, mounted on the inside of the cap, dip deep into the green and let the paint run down the brush and drip into the white paint. 16 times. Do not cross pollinate the brushes, keep the white paint white and the green brush green. Only when you have acquired your 16 drops of green paint and put them into the white paint can you put the white paint's brush back into the white paint's tube. (read these words a few times and it will make sense), seal it up and shake the fool out of it. There is a weight within the tube that will thunk up and down mixing the paint for you. Before you use your paint, shake it to mix it well BUT LET IT SIT QUIET FOR AN HOUR BEFORE APPLYING IT. Shaking the paint tube will mix air into the paint that we pros call bubbles. If you let it set for an hour the bubbles rise to the top and pop, a process we pros call p................... You can apply a little of your touch-up anywhere on the base of the machine and check the color mach. You can wipe the touch-up paint off with a little lacquer thinner or acetone on a rag and you will not damage the paint on the white machine. DO NOT GET LACQUER THINNER OR ACETONE NEAR ANY OF THE BLACK LETTERING ON THE WHITE MACHINES BASE OR ARM/LIGHT SHADE AND DO NOT WIPE THE ALUMINUM BAND AROUND THE MOTOR. For those having a black machine as well, DON'T WIPE THE FINISH WITH AN ACETONE/LACQUER THINNER SOAKED RAG, EVER, except to remove the paint from a black machine. NOW YOU'VE GOT A FULL OUNCE OF PAINT FOR $14 WHICH MAKES THE FELLOW ON EBAY not LOOK look so odious, EXCEPT MINE IS A PERFECT MATCH, says the color blind man who is writing this. Say goodnight, Dave Goodnight.

This one I cannot just keep to myself.

I received this email the other day and I think I read it fifteen times in a row. I love it and wanted to pass it on, with permission, nuff said. Dear Dave and Sharon, I have a story to tell you about my Singer 221. I married my husband in September, 1959 in Cleveland when I was 18 and he was 22. By January, 1960 he had been transferred to Baltimore, MD. We were poor as church mice so having children wasn't something we could do right away. We decided that we should have our first child by our second anniversary. BUT, I told him I couldn't have a baby until I had a sewing machine! Another young wife in our apartment building was making slipcovers for her sofa out of naugahyde. Remember that heavy, heavy fabric-backed fake leather stuff? She was using her mother's Featherweight to do it. I wanted a Featherweight. My husband was in Naval Reserves and in talking to a fellow sailor on his once-a-month duty weekend, he found that sailor's day job was working in a Singer store (yes, there were such things in 1960). When he jokingly told the man about my ultimatum, the man said, when we were ready to buy, call him and he'd take a brand new machine out of the box and put it in the display window. He'd then be able to give us a 5% discount. When my husband got home from that weekend he told me what his fellow sailor had said. I could hardly wait until we saved enough money to go down to the store and take MY Featherweight home. It wasn't long before I was sewing my maternity clothes, then all the toddler clothes and my wardrobe on my trusty Featherweight. Over the years I've maintained my Featherweight carefully, even when I had other machines for my quilting. When I went to classes where I knew I would only be doing straight stitching, my 221 always was my go-to machine. It sews a much better stitch than my other machines. I love it! Thanks for being there and carrying on the love affair with the Singer 221s. I'm glad you understand my passion for my machine. Denise of Leesburg, FL

CORROSION ON THE ATTACHMENTS WE CHARISH

I was asked what to do with corrosion on the attachments that came with our Featherweights? I've gone so far as to sand blast the attachments. Where the corrosion was the sand blasting removed it but it took it down to bare metal also ready to rust and they did not look very good. But the main problem was that the sand of the sand blasting process, we used a very fine grade "medium" (as it is called), will get into everything and I still can't get the rufflier to work without grinding and grating. There are parts of the ruffler that can be removed by removing a screw or two and this will give you access you didn't have as a complete attachment. Use your digital camera in its macro-function (close-up function)and get a picture of what you took apart to help put that puppy back together, or is a thing that is common to me alone. Steel wool in a four ought grade (0000) will do a pretty good job where you can reach the corrosion. Navel jelly doesn't do what we desire, it will leave a pitted surface that isn't much of an improvement over what you started with, but it isn't reddish any more!, it's more like black. There are small rock tumblers sold (harbor Freight) that with a fine garnet based medium (or sand box sand)will clean the attachments and remove a lot of the corrosion but the cost will be about $40 if you do not have the small rock tumbler plus the medium and you could buy three replacement attachment sets on eBay for that. If you use the rock tumbler you must use enough medium to pretty well fill the tumbler with your attachments added. You do not want the contents to tumble without sufficient sand falling onto each other causing damage. They slide about in the sand and gently abrades the corrosion off. Then clean the fool out of the attachment to get the medium (grit, sand) out of them and oil them. Even the parts without moving parts will like a film of oil to prevent rust in the future. Any method you use will leave your attachments prone to rust so don't leave them in the bathtub any more. The best thing I've done to come up with a great set of attachments is to look for a replacement in good condition. The main cause of corrosion in our attachments is the same cause that made the and make a Featherweight case and machines smell not so pretty good. Newer designs in machines came about and people wanted the new machines that zig-zagged and had six other built-in stitches as well. Our Feathers were relegated to the basement or the shed and after 20 years of "temperature controlled storage"..............well.......... From the methods above I would suggest the four ought steel wool (0000)for most applications. I would suggest the use of a rubber glove on the hand you hold the steel wool in as you can get very fine slivers that will bug you.

This is exciting, to me at least!!!!

    I paint Featherweights and am familiar with the prepping of a Featherweight for paint and the application of the paint. As with any paint project of importance, careful, attentive preparation of the surface to be painted is imperative if you want good results. If you are thinking of painting a Featherweight I believe a brief understanding of the paint on our machines is in order. Few really know what the paint is and not knowing can have you looking in all the wrong places. It is not japanning (small j and two "N"'s) and it isn't powder-coating, which wasn't invented until the 1980's.
    This I know. The aluminum castings of our Featherweights were cleaned and prepared for paint and a special black enamel paint was applied. I refer to this as being "special" because it is a paint designed to be baked-on to the surface of the machines in an oven that is not unlike the pizza ovens of today, just bigger. This oven has a metal conveyor belt that went through a four-hundred and twenty degree "hot-box" and deposited the freshly baked enamel painted castings in a cool-down room waiting for the "transfers" (we call them decals now) to be applied.
    Once the transfers were applied a top-coating of clear "four-pound cut" shellac was applied to protect the decals and impart the bright shine we all love about Featherweights.
    If you paint a Featherweight you will need to remove this shellac top-coating and the removing has to be done well, throughly even. Some, especially those who have never done it before, advocate using a sandblaster to "strip" their machine's paint. Don't! You will not like the cost nor the collateral damage. I did have a machine sandblasted once so I could show students that our Featherweights really are made of aluminum, and that machine's shafts have never turned again without grinding and crunching. Paint strippers (cans of caustic goo) work, but it is a long and ugly process, and don't get any on your hands or clothes.
    If you read my last blog (you should know better than to come back) I told of getting "the smell" out of a Featherweight by washing out the inside of the machine using hand dish washing soap, warm water, bottle brushes and someone else's tooth brush. Please go back to that last blog for details.
   In that blog I told of wrapping the motor in plastic food-wrap and avoiding getting the exterior surfaces of the machine wet. If a little gets on the outside it is OK, but don't let soapy water just flow over the outside unchecked and you are about to find out why. 
    I had a machine that needed painting and it had "the smell". I normally wash a machine just before I paint it having removed the shellac and decals already,  the old way. I want to get the grease and oil out of the inside of the machine and the exterior oil holes so resident grease/oil cannot compromise the new paint's application. But in the last blog I was telling of cleaning "the smell" form an assembled machine's interior, so I emphasized keeping the exterior dry while you scrubbed the inside. I literally had a machine in our kitchen sink stripped of all its external parts and the sink was protected by a layer of cardboard in the bottom with a hole cut for water drainage. I was running hot water through the machine's spool pin hole working hard to get rid of a big gob of grease I had found there in the gears up top. I turned the water heat up to hot and I appled a little extra soap. Because I would be painting this machine shortly I wasn't to worried about the exterior of the machine getting wet so I was a bit sloppy while having a good ol' time, water everywhere. (those were my wife's words, not mine) And it was at this time I noticed something. The shellac was coming off the exterior surfaces that the hot soapy water was running over. It didn't happen instantly, it was taking a minute while being bathed with the hotter soapy water running over it. The shellac could be simply rubbed off with your fingers, and that which didn't came off easily could be removed with a little steel wool.
    The black baked enamel was not phased by the hot water as it removed the shellac, even from the hard to reach places. Some of you know I do not advocate removing the black baked enamel as it is a very good foundation to apply paint to, so to me this was great!
   This was so exciting that I grabbed two more machines I had waiting in line to be painted and proceeded to "get water everywhere" all over, again!! This new process really works!!!
   For those who are thinking "that it doesn't take much to get him excited" remember please that it normally takes five hours to remove the shellac from a machine and do it well, or eight if your machine was a 1937 model.
    As explained in the last blog you must dry the machine out, and no, this does not damage the machine or render it into a pile of rust. It is just neat to have found a fast way to remove the shellac, completely, in just minutes. I had done three machines in an hour and a half and all that without creating an explosive atomosphere with acetone or the like.
    This really does work! Hot water, some hand dish washing soap and maybe a little application of steel wool (two ought, 00). And oh, while you are there, wash the interior of the machine. Back to the bottle brush and not letting the wife find out who's tooth brush you are using.
    Good-night

This is not for the faint of heart, just for those with a smelly machine.

    Every now and then I get a machine that almost smells worse than the storage case it came in. Spit your gum out so you don't swallow it and don't start yelling "No Way!!!" and we'll get underway.
    There are machines that smell so bad that there is no living with them. Between cigarette smoking (by former owners (remember, when these machines were made it was almost mandatory that you smoke to be an American) and the common mildew smell, although the case might just be beyond hope the machine can be cleaned up.
    First, loosen the motor attachment screw two turns. Remove the motor drive belt and then wrap the motor with plastic food wrap snugly. Tighten the wrapped motor's mounting screw without the belt being reinstalled. Remove the drip pan from the bottom of the machine and replace the drip pad normally glued to the inside surface of the drip pan if your aim is to eliminate "the smell".
    This will remove one source, but not all sources of the smell. Remove the spool pin cover, and the face plate. Put a piece of cardboard on and fitting the bottom of your kitchen sink with a hole for water to drain through it. This will protect your sink because we are going to wash the interior of your machine using hot water, hand dish-washing soap, bottle brushes and a toothbrush, your spouse's, not yours. A half inch wide natural-bristle hobby paint brush will clean the gears well as long as we are in there.
    I already told you to spit out your gum before you swallowed it. Preheat your oven to the lowest heat setting, be that "WARM' or 150.
    Now, listen, wash out the inside of the machine and avoid running water over the exterior of the machine. Do a real job of scrubbing the interior, don't poke at it and then write to say it didn't do much. Get a bottle brush all the way down the inside of the arm of the machine as best you can and then a little and scrub. A little water will not destroy your machine but do not let the water and soap pour over the outside surface of the machine.
   If you honestly did due diligence go rinse the machine one last time. Shake the water out of the machine or blow it out, blot the exterior dry and then put the machine in your oven ( which you have preset at its lowest "warm" setting) for five minutes if you don't have a hot sunny day working for you.
     I know this sort of thing is way out beyond many of your experiences in life for some of you, but believe me, it works and it will not harm your machine.
    Do not set the machine down soaking wet and go take in a movie. Dry it out!
    Oil the machine and grease the gears.   
    Take the food-wrap off of the motor and reinstall the belt. Remember the motor belt must be as loose as possible without the motor pulley slipping.
    Your machine will not rust away, it will not destroy the machine or any other superlative you can come up with. This is not something to do each Saturday night but if you are like the woman I had in class who could not sew on her machine because it smelled so bad, this can save your day and your machine's.
    I have done this many times now and it really does work and it will not hurt your machine. I had one person take my advice and said she was not impressed but she said she was afraid to use the brushes in the machine and dish washing soap seemed so harsh. Please, if you are willing to try it, do the whole job.

Keeping your eye out for something that isn't quite...well, I don't know.

   I taught a couple of classes this last week-end which is something I love doing. It is an opportunity to see and hold yet another Featherweight. Some machines that come to class come with a problem,  or two, and some problems are new to me. That's when it begins to be fun for me. When I find something new I love saying something like, "Gee, Ive never seen something like this before" and listen to the owner swallow their gum.When you are locked-up in a room working on sewing machines all week you have to find fun where you can get it. They don't let me out often.
    The machine in question was not sewing so pretty good. It puckered the fabric between each and every stitch and the fabric was very hard to pull out of the machine at the end of a line of stitching. When you pulled the fabric out of the machine, or if you pulled on the bobbin thread as it came up through the needle plate it was much harder to pull on than it should have been. So I said to myself, I said, the bobbin tension is set much too high so I coughed the bobbin case out. I got out my trusty gauge to test the bobbin case tension and the gauge said it was spot-on at 2.5 grams. I put things all back together and it still did not sew correctly.
    I had noted that the bobbin within the bobbin case was black which was unique and it was of a one-piece construction as having been turned on a lathe rather than made from separate parts pressed together into an assembly. When I put the bobbin back into the case the flange of the bobbin that closed off the opening of the bobbin case stood just a little tall and it was noted that when the bobbin case w/bobbin was put into the machine it took a bit more pressure than what seemed normal to get the bobbin case to snap into the hook assembly, yet still without having to use a hammer.
    The bobbin we were working with turned out to be a bobbin made for an Elna sewing machine of the 1930's. If you lay a Featherweight bobbin case on a flat surface beside the Elna bobbin, the Elna was about a sixteenth of an inch taller which made the bobbin stand proud and drag within the bobbin carrier and resetting the tension wasn't the answer at all. If not laying side by side for comparison the two bobbins looked just alike.
    I had looked at the bobbin within the case when I first took the bobbin case out and had commented to myself, "myself, that's odd" and just let it slide.
    When you see something that doesn't seem just right, and you've got some little nag of a problem, look harder at what seemed "a little strange" and think the strange and the nag through together as if they may be related. It is interesting how many FW problems have been corrected by thinking through something "just because it initially didn't look quite right."  



    

A "NON-GLARE" needle plate?

     Many of you will have heard me to say that I love questions about the Featherweight sewing machines. One of the best ways to learn something is to teach something. Answering questions is a similar "back-against-the wall" situation.
     "Where do I get a Non-Glare" needle plate" was the question?
     My first reaction was; "You don't".
     But then....well maybe....let me think on this a bit.
     Some of the later "pale celery" (otherwise known as "white") Featherweights came with a numbered needle plate that had a satin finish to it that would serve as non-glare surface. I do not know if Singer designed this finish for needle plates as a non-glare surface. I have been seeking Singer brochures that might have promoted a "non-glare" finish on any of their machines, but I have not been able to find such a beast.
     But there is a satin finished numbered needle plate that came with the 1964 and later white machines that does fit any Featherweight, but it might not fit your budget. The average bright chrome numbered and marked (for seam allowance) needle plates seem to be averaging about $45 on eBay. The ending cost for a satin finished numbered needle plate shouldn't be much more. The numbering on the needle plate has to be checked as there is a metric numbered plate design and a fractions of an inch numbering design which many in America will be more comfortable with.
     By the way; eBay is an excellent place to see what things are selling for. When I am just seeking pricing information as to the cost of something (on eBay or off) I will put an auction of that thing onto the "watch list" of and eBay will email you when the auction is drawing to a close so you can bid if the auction price is attractive (and you want to) or just glean the information and run with it. You are under no obligation to buy something that you have placed into the"watch list".
     I don't think using the term "non-glare" in your eBay search wording will help, if you ask for just a "Featherweight 221 needle plate" you will have several auctions to pick through. And try again later as the auctions are always being added to and closed so the options change frequently.
     It has been my experience with the satin finish needle plates that the finish can be scratched by pin-heads being drug across them. Watch for scratches on one you are looking at to buy, from anyone, and then pull your pins before they get to the needle plate if you get a Non-Glare plate. 

Keeping it original and keepin' it running

     I have touched a lot of Featherweights and in the process seen quite a few repairs that Singer had not thought of. Many times the driving force behind some variations of design is a belief that "the parts for a Featherweight are not available" which explains why I replaced my Featherweight's motor with a Hoover vacuum cleaner motor. In truth, very few parts for the Featherweight are truly difficult to find and the ones that are are not parts you would ever need, such as a lower main shaft. The really hard ones to find are those that are never needed so no one keeps them around, therefore they become "rare".
     As many of you know Singer does not supply parts on machines that are more than ten years beyond a given machine's model change. Our Featherweights are only fifty years beyond that model change milestone so don't bother asking at the Singer Store for Featherweight parts or you will be told the truth; Singer does not make Featherweight parts any more, "but maybe you'd like to look at this new machine over here?"
     Because of the popularity of the Featherweight machines there are quite a few companies that manufacture good Featherweight parts today. Using key words like "Featherweight 221" in a Google search will get you the names of people who can ship you good new and used parts. Spend a little time looking at various sites to learn the"going-price" of parts as there are some who just might try to gouge you a bit.
     I am not going to endear myself to a few sellers but I would avoid "new" bobbin cases and hook assemblies. You are far better off with a good used bobbin case or hook assembly that works compared to nicely chromed parts that are problematic.
     This aftermarket availability of replacement parts has its limits I fear. For a company to start manufacturing a replacement part there has to be a demand for them. Parts that are unique to the model 222 for instance are not manufactured anywhere and you will have to buy used parts. You can buy new motors for the black machine if you don't mind its not having the Singer name on it. You cannot buy a white motor for a white (I know, they are really green) Featherweight, you'll have to buy a used one or paint a new one white. Have fun matching the green color.
     Don't disparage if you are told "these parts are not available any more" by the first person you talk to. These people would know there are parts available if they would just search around on the web a bit as I am asking you to do. Ebay is one souse of parts that works as long as you shop around and have an idea what something should cost before you remortgage to underwrite the first part you see. Those who sell on eBay are often fond of using the word "rare" but the only thing really rare is the seller who doesn't use the word rare.
    Have fun Kids, these machines are going to be around long enough to be a problem for the great grand kids to have to figure out.

You cannot count on it all being the way Singer sold it originally.

     I've recently acquired a slug of Featherweights to restore and refurbish. With 30 machines piled around me I began looking at them, one by one, to determine the problems the machines had so I could figure which ones to attack first.There typically is a reason that Featherweights get sold. The machines haven't stopped looking cute so it must be something else. Maybe the person just doesn't use the machine enough and would rather someone who would use it would buy it and try to wear it out. That makes an nice wish but it doesn't happen often.
     The number one reason that these machines migrate is that somethings has gone wrong with the machine and the person finds themselves in over their head trying to determine what is wrong  and what to do about it.
     The number one reason that a Featherweight gets sold-off is that when it was maintained last; the needle plate was removed. When the needle plate was reinstalled the positioning finger of the hook assembly was not captured in the slot for it between what look two metal blocks on the underside of the needle plate. The machine will not sew in this state and the owner will sometimes think it is time to get rid of the machine. One in seven machines I buy do not have the positioning finger in place.
     Number two reason: You are charged $35 to be told the parts are not available anywhere. You are told this by someone who doesn't know, is too lazy to look or want's to sell you this honey of a machine over here. Hog wash!!!! Parts are easy to find and cheap.    Moving on.....
     Tension problems are the next in line. This is a rather convoluted subject but often the problem has to do with the Upper tension assembly having been disassembled (which makes it a disassembled assembly) and it was not reassembled the way Singer thought it should have been. The original manual for the machine, my manual (The Featherweight 221 and I) and the Technician's Service Manual for Featherweights have good illustrations of how the parts stack-up when correctly assembled. That funny washer that goes over the beehive spring must be installed with the tab on its edge side installed pointing up and so the tip of the tab is pointing out, like a small cobra head poised to strike.

     With some machines there are often some rather creative repairs that have been imposed on the original Singer design. Please, if you have to change something completely to get the machine to work (?) it might not be the best idea. One of the most confusing conundrums is; why, after removing the hook assembly to clear a jam or whatever, and having correctly installed the hook assembly (for a fact) onto its shaft again, why does the needle strike the hook assembly?
     Sometime in this machine's past the hook assembly had been removed and the wrong set-screw on the hub of the hook assembly was put over the flat that is ground into the shaft it mounts on. The hook assembly is 180 degrees out of rotation now. The person doing the work believes the hook assembly was correctly installed, "I mean what can be so hard about putting a part on a shaft?"
     "It must be the timing!!!" so the cure is to change the timing of the machine to make the machine agree with the incorrectly installed hook assembly rather than making the hook assembly agree with the machine. The hard part is that the machine works. So what's wrong with that. I just wanted a machine that works? The next time someone works on that machine and installs everything the way Singer says it should have been (for a fact) the machine wont work.The person working on the machine by the hour, if they haven't run into this before, will not work their mind numb trying to figure what is wrong and might well suggest, "let's go sell it.!"
      I love talking at you and I hope this blog helps. Feel free to ask questions.

What about the "white" Featherweight?

    The white machine is not the same as the black or tan machines.

    How so?

    The white machines body is made cast from the same aluminium alloy as the black and tan machines although the lifting bed extension is made of stamped sheet steel. This was but one production cost savings utilized by Singer so that they could keep producing a machine that had been getting too expensive to keep manufacturing and sell at a price that people would still afford.

     The power cord does not unplug from the base of the machine as the earlier black Featherweights do which was another production cost savings. I prefer a machine that the electrical cord can be unplugged from for storage or carrying about. It really is not the end of the world for me but simply a personal preference.  

    The steel base extension works quite well and is strong. This base extension on the white machine is about an inch and a half shorter than the cast aluminum extension found on all black and tan machines. To some this might seem important but actually it doesn't change things much in use.

    The most notable difference and the greatest money saver for Singer was to be found internal to the machine. The black and tan machines are all gear driven, but the design change to the white machine utilizes a cogged drive belt. This had quite the effect on the bottom line.

    How does the cogged belt effect the white machine when compared to the gear driven black and tan machines? The internal belt drive (rather than gears) has proven to be very reliable and it typically runs quieter than its black and tan siblings. I have talked with Graham Forsdyke and Glenn Williams about their experience with the belt drive and they concur with what has been my experience, there is no problem with the cogged belt drive. Although Graham had seen one fail when a person was "adjusting" the belt with his pocket knife. Obviously, this is a design flaw.

    In the 1950s, type-writers were cleaned by immersing them in a chemical bath not unlike the early dry cleaning chemicals. Type writers were soaked, shaken while immersed and dried. Then they were oiled again. Sewing machine service people tried this immersion in cleaning chemicals with Featherweights and found that it worked very well with the black and tan machines. In the 60's the white machine came about and the "sewing machine service people" put the white machine into the chemical bath and the internal drive belt melted in the harsh chemicals used for dry-cleaning back then. The service person had a three hour job ahead of them to remove the internal shafts and replace the cogged belt.The cure for this was that the service people told prospective buyers that "the white machine was not as good as the black machine, believe me I'm a service person and I know". If you are around white Featherweights long enough you will hear people say that "they had a Friend who said she heard that the white machine was not as good as the others. And now you know why. Telling this to prospective buyers kept the service people from getting their fingers dirty by having to clean a machine by hand rather than giving it a bath while they drank coffee. This is a "story" that you can take to the bank. I have talked with "old-timers" (which I am rapidly becoming) who have stated this is the truth.

    I have had to replace the gears in machines before, but never a cogged belt. In my experience the white machine (which isn't white, it is "pale celery" according to Singer) is every bit as good as any other color and I think it can be adjusted to sew marginally better than a well adjusted black or tan machine. I believe it runs smoother internally which in my opinion gives the machine its edge.  

    I will not go so far as to say the white machine is better than the others, but it is not a compromised design as had been implied by Singer's own and definitely is not second place to any other.

This might seem redundant but

I don't know why but frequently a problem with a Featherweight can crop up that has never darkened my door before and then I end up with a handful of machines with this same obscure problem. Obtuse and obscure can be fun though, so lets relay the story and see where we end up.

The first of the Featherweights with this particular problem announced itself as a Featherweight that wasn't running very fast. There are Feathers that do run slower than others, but this one was really quite slow. A bit faster than "stop" but not by much.

    The First thought was; the belt must be too tight, which is the typical cause. But this machine's belt wasn't too tight. A Featherweight's belt should never be tighter than it has to be to keep the motor pulley from slipping.
    The Second thought was; has the motor been lubricated in the last 30 years? It had been.
    The Third thought had me gripping the pulley with my fingers and pulling it in and out on it for no real reason. This behaviour is part of my finial set-up/testing of a motor if I had disassembled it to turn the commutator or clean the motor out but I hadn't done that work on this motor, so really I was just killing time while thinking. This is called "fiddling-around" all the time looking terribly busy to the untrained eye.
   There was no end play to this particular motor's shaft as I pulled in and out on the pulley, and there should be a little. I removed the pulley and found the motor's shaft had 16 inches of thread neatly wrapped around it that had partially filled the gap between the pulley and the motors housing.The thread was packed tightly enough that the motor could not get up to speed, much less the machine as a whole. The thread got there from a bobbin winding session gone bad. The thread had gotten itself snagged by the motor belt so fast it wasn't noticed. While the thread was dry it let the pulley turn without slowing things down much, but then it begins to wick the motor's lubricating grease out of the motor, which doesn't sound so bad, except that the lubricant makes the thread swell and disc brakes will have been reinvented.
    Solution; remove the motor pulley and clean out from behind it. Put the pulley back on.
    But note; there are two styles of pulley found on Featherweights, One is made of steel and it has a set screw on the pulley hub that secures it to the motor's shaft. Loosening the set-screw one turn is adequate to remove the pulley.
    The second pulley type is a Bakelite plastic that looks like black plastic (unless it was painted tan as found on the tan colored Featherweight). with soft rounded edges in addition to the fact that the pulley is round by function. There is a screw in the hub of this plastic pulley as well, but this screw must be removed completely before the pulley can be removed from the motor shaft. This style of screw threads completely through the motor's shaft. If you only loosen it a single turn as with the set-screw style of pulley the pulley can be broken as you try to pry the "stuck" pulley off the shaft. I am not speaking from experience, of course.