Tuesday, May 28, 2013

What we have here is a faiure to lubricate.

I couldn't stand it.  After supper I headed back out to the shop.  Last night I had read up on the  Singer 201-2 motor.  I read the adjuster's manual which on page 26 it instructs one to fill the grease tubes with about 1/4 of a tube of Singer Lube.  I had put NO WHERE NEAR that much lube in the grease tubes.  Even the second time around with the different armature I had not put that much lube in.

I also went to Sew Classic blog and read about lubricating the motor bearings.  In my mind a bearing is a ball bearing.  I asked Steven.  He thought a bearing was a ball bearing.  There are no ball bearings in the 201-2 motor.  He looked it up in the dictionary.  "the support and guide for a rotating, oscillating, or sliding shaft, pivot, or wheel."  There you go.  What I called bushings were bearings.  It all made perfect sense to me.

The noise all along had sounded like a bad bearing.  I have been around enough bad bearings in my life to know what one sounds like.  So the fact that I thought that winding on the armature was causing the problem proves that I am an idiotic moron. I was worried about that winding and was convinced that was the problem.  Instead of paying attention to all of the EVIDENCE I jumped to a conclusion.  Sort of like some politicians in the news. 

I had noticed that when the worm rotated, it sort of "caught"  Tonight I took the worm out and polished the ends and then I polished the ends of the bearings in the motor.  Then I cleaned them and replaced the armature, tightened the set screws on the worm and lubed up the grease tubes.  I loaded those tubes right up.  I also melted some vaseline with the trusty old hair dryer and primed the new grease wicks.

 Boy, when I look at it now, it sure does look like a boat load of grease.  I hooked it up to the machine and it is quiet.  No screeching, no groaning, no problem.  So, if I had read the adjuster's manual I would have saved myself a boat load of trouble.  But I didn't.  Now, however, I know. 

So, in all of this mucking around, I did break that little tab on the grease wick clip.  Now that I know the original  armature might be ok, I don't have a parts motor.   I wanted to fix that little clip.

All that tab does is hold the spring in place.  I had to fashion a tab somehow.  I did try soldering a wire to the edge of the clip.  That was another moronic idiotic idea.  I cannot braize with solder.  So I made a tab with some stranded wire.  I soldered it because I can and tried it out in the grease tube.
It fits.

Tomorrow I may work on this motor.  It belongs to a Singer 15-91.  I could work on the machine as well.


5 comments:

  1. Only you could do something like that. You're amazing!!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Nah. I am just "plucky". Who knows if it will really work? Find out today.

      Delete
  2. Yes, please work on your 15-91.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I ended up breaking the little clip on the grease wick clamp thingy too. I just left it alone though because it seemed to hold the spring okay without it. But now that you made a new clip with some wire I may have to try it out. I didn't have a parts machine and you can't order that part for whatever reason. Once I greased up my 201 it ran completely silent. Like whoa quiet! I'm having some motor issues with my 221 that I just can't seem to shake. It has that startup hummmmm that my 201 had and I don't remember what I did to fix it. Blerg!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Meg, I haven't tried it out yet. But if the spring is staying put, good for you. I used about half the strands of AWG 18 stranded wire. Then I braided it and mashed it with a hammer to flatten it. Seems to fit but it is tight.

      Delete