Featherweight Love 2

 I kept thinking about this machine all night long. Couldn't wait to get my hands on it again today. 

First problem I noticed was the wheel was locked: I could only turn it a little bit. Obviously there was a jam somewhere. The Featherweight Shop to the rescue with their video "Is your Featherweight jammed?"

I had already discovered the jam but needed some instruction and encouragement from the video, along with the hemostat I already owned to pull out the offending threads. Wha-LA! It worked (or so I thought), so I cleaned up the pieces with rubbing alcohol (note: do NOT use rubbing alcohol on any of the painted surfaces!!) and cutips, then cleaned out some really old dust bunnies. So far all parts I've worked on are original Simanco parts: a good thing. The more original, the better.

But when I put the plate back in the machine and turned the wheel it still locked up. Hmmmm....  Back to the Featherweight Shop video only to learn that there still was a very small piece of thread somewhere inside of the bobbin case "guts". I could not get the gibbet unscrewed to take it apart to remove any offensive thread. So I ordered a special tool from he Featherweight Shop that can help me with this since forcing the little crew has bad consequences. So I went on to wipe out any dust bunnies and old grease from underneath the machine.

Any parts and screws I removed for cleaning were put into small plastic bags so I wouldn't lose anything.

One item that came with this was an old tube of Singer Motor Lubricant in its' original box...interesting ephemera for looks only at this point. I would never use this old lubricant on any machine now!

I also painted the oil drip pan with some flat black paint after using 240grit sandpaper on it. It looks much better.

Now I'm off to the store to retrieve a few things for the case restoration while I wait for the shipment of supplies.

Until next time:  Happy Stitching!!