Poor Duane

For some reason it took  F O R E V E R today to set up the GMQ (Grace Machine Quilter) frame.  I was up and out in the sewing loft by 0900. OK it took a bit of time to light the fire.  True I had to find some fabric for the practice piece, as well as some batting and backing.  Of course  I had to clear off the cutting table. Then I had to  find an old sheet, iron it, cut some four inch strips, sew them together, sew on the zippers and then ALL OF A SUDDEN IT WAS 1130 !!!! 

HOW DID THAT HAPPEN?

IS TIME GOING FASTER?  I am no physicist but I wonder....

I had to get to the Quilt Zoo.  I was meeting someone there and I was late.  On Fridays the Zoo hosts an open sew.  Folks come with their projects and we all sew together.  Technically the Open Sew is from 11:00 to 1:00.  But I know that if you show up anytime you can hang out there. CUSTOMER IS KING.  My intent was to arrive right at 12:00.  There was no way I was going to make it.  So, I pulled up my socks, threw on a skirt and a vest, locked the dogs up in their room (Wrigley has been a VBD (Very Bad Dog). This is different from being NAGD (Not A Good Dog) and I took off.

 When I arrived, there was no room anywhere to park. (I took this photo just before I left at 2:30. Everyone else was gone)     Parking, as you can see, is tight. Three vehicles take up all of the space in front.   I am not allowed to mention where most of the folks were parked.  I parked the next street over and cut across the neighbor's lawn. 

There must have been ten or more people in the class room.   What fun!  I pulled out my Featherweight.  I don't usually name machines anymore.  This one, though, Betsy and I named Duane.  It is sort of named after the person from whom we bought it.  http://mysewingmachineobsession.blogspot.com/2012/03/just-give-him-money-for-petes-sake.html
Duane wasn't his real name, but we called him that and, hence, we call the machine Duane. 

I wanted to piece the backing for the Disappearing Nine Patch.  I had made a big nine patch block and cut it into four smaller blocks for the back.  All I had to do was sew them up.  I wound a bobbin and threaded Duane.  I started my first seam. No power to the motor.  Now that was ODD.  I had just wound a bobbin; the light was working fine.  What was up?  Must be the foot controller. 

I fetched my tools from the car and took the controller apart.  Perfect condition.  M. suggested that I use her controller (she brought a FW with her for me to service) . Brilliant idea !  The machine worked !  I was stitching happily along.  Then, at the start of another seam, nothing.  No power again.  I gave the handwheel a push and it the motor kicked back in.  

Must be the belt is too loose.   I tightened the belt and it seemed fine for the rest of that sewing session.

 Sadly,  when I was using it later to sew the zip leaders (don't ask), same thing.  No power, no nothing, no hum, no noise.  Every time I would give it a push with the hand wheel, though, it would be fine and it would start right up again. 

I am thinking  Duane has a dead spot in his motor.  Poor Duane.

AN INNOVATIVE BOBBIN WINDER

Check out the bobbin winder on this White 221K

OK  I will make it easier for you

Now I admit, it is an innovative design.  The only problem?  It doesn't seem to work.  I have a replacement for it and the broken motor pulley.  Tomorrow, transformation will take place and I hope to get this little guy stitching again.

A friend and reader (Thank you Betty)  sent me some information from another blog about the drive belt on these machines.  Without permission, I am posting it here:

http://www.featherweight221.com/fwrx/blog/blog.php?id=2360758204483780159

Unfortunately when I click on the link above, Dave McCallum's Blog, nothing shows up.  So, here is what was sent to me:

 What about the "white" Featherweight?

Monday, Nov 21 2011 10:39 PM | All kinds of other stuff, Featherweight 221

    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.
Dave McCallum

No Gears? Really?

I was at the Quilt Zoo yesterday dropping off a very nice 185.  I wanted to leave a machine there for advertising and for customers to try out.

While there a woman came in with her not black, not tan 221K.  It looks white to me but in the right light it could almost be pale mint green.  None the less, she wanted it serviced.  Lucky me to have been there at that moment.

"What ever it takes.  I have another one that I use.  My husband bought this for me at an auction.  I thought it would be good to get it cleaned up so that I would have another.  The belt doesn't run the machine."

So I brought it home.  The shop was warm (it's all relative up here in the North East.) So I set to work on it.  Betsy had already come by so we were both working on machines.  She had a Kenmore.  Lucky her.

 First  I checked  the wiring.   Directly wired to a clamshell controller.  No Three Pin Terminal here. It looked safe so I plugged it in. Nope, no machine action, but the motor sounded ok.   The belt was moving but there was a mess around the pulley.  Black powdery stuff.

I took off the belt.

"Maybe it's the wrong belt" chimed in Betsy as she looked over my shoulder.

"Nope, that's a 221 belt  I recognize the part number," said I.  Actually it was true, not that I have memorized parts numbers.  Yesterday I searched through the mass of belts that came with the South River Inventory (SRI) and found several FW belts.  Luckily they were labeled as such and I didn't have to look them up.

"Oh, look," she said, "the pulley is broken."

Sure enough it was destroyed.  I managed to remove it by loosening the set screw and wedging it off.

"OH Darn !  I just sent in the Brewer order. "

"How much do we have to spend before we get free shipping?" Betsy asked.

"One hundred and fifty dollars."

"No problem.  I will buy more thread."  she said.

Well.  I am thinking that more thread is the last thing she needs.  So instead, this morning I sent an email to Glenn Williams who has an abundance of FW and 301 parts.  I bet he has one.  Better that, than trying to beef up our order.

Yes, I did search the SRI for the pulley but had no luck. "See, that's what irritates me about this stash of parts," I whined.  "All this stuff and not what I need."

As long as I had the motor off (part way off, it was still all wired to the controller). I checked the brushes.  Oh my.  I had never seen motor brushes this low.

Oh, I am not in the mood to pull this motor apart.  I wonder what would happen if I just blew some compressed air through that motor?

"Big noise," I warned Betsy as I plugged in the compressor.
The air around my work bench looked like the last scene in Ghost when that evil spirit was blown away.  Remember?  It was just a black cloud  rushing out of the room.  That's what came out of the motor.  Black soot and more black soot. 

I dropped new brushes in and tested the motor.  Sounded good.  No ozone odor.  Good.

I set about servicing the rest of the machine. I took off the bottom.  I looked again.  Something seemed wrong.  Where are the gears?

 I had heard that the later model 221s lacked gears and instead, utilized a drive belt.  Another indication that Singer was cheapening the machines.  This belt looks good, though.  Another reason to avoid the white FW.  Now I don't know if they all have belts.  Glenn would know.

Anyway, no gears to grease.  I oiled the feed mechanism and closed up the top.  I oiled the metal contacts on the bottom. Then I looked at the bobbin case base and the hook.

"Oh boy, I sure don't want to pull the hook to get that out. "  I muttered.

It really isn't that hard to pull a hook on a FW or a 301.  It is a matter of loosening two screws, for heaven's sake.  I just didn't want to do it.  You have to pay attention to the flat and position the hook correctly when you replace it.  If you don't mark the screw that tightens into the flat, you can put the hook on the wrong way.  AMHIK. 

I completely removed the screw that tightens onto the flat and loosened the other one enough to remove the hook.  Of course the hook was glued in with old oil.  Nothing a little denatured alcohol couldn't release.

In order to remove the looper, I had to tighten the left behind screw completely and remove the screw holding on the looper.  Don't loose this screw.  

I polished the looper and the back of the hook.  I checked the hook or burrs and reassembled everything.  Because I had been a clever old lady I was able to pop the hook on easily and not have to fart around with adjusting its position.  The machine stitches.  I can't test it with the motor yet.  Gotta wait for the motor pulley.

 There is more work to be done.  It turns out that it was a good thing that I removed the hook.  There was another thread wrapped about the shaft.  I cleared it, and the rust, away before replacing the hook.

This poor little machine has been well used.  It has some battle scars.  I think it will still stitch but I doubt the stitch will be as nice as the FWs with gears.  Who knows?

Am I sad?

No, not really.  Last week when I checked the Asheville CL in preparation for my return trip I saw a FW(Singer 221) listed.  I figured if it was still listed when I got here I would check it out.   Two days ago I saw that it was.   I was encouraged and thought that maybe I would be able to fetch another machine while I was here.  Today, the day I was ready to call about it, the listing was gone.  Saved from myself.  The photo was lousy and I don't honestly remember if it included the "box" but I think it did.  The only reason I considered it AT ALL was because its commission date was 1953.  I sort of thought it would be cool to have a sewing machine commissioned the same year that I was born.  Oh yeah, I also had a dream that it included the penguin walking foot.  DREAM ON.

Oh well.  I have three FWs and we all know I don't need yet another sewing machine.  In fact, I would like to unload about three more 201s, a 403A, a 404A, a 319W, a couple of 66s (Red heads) and some Kenmores.  I have a Pfaff  230 I really need to service and get out the door along with a Riccar that I am willing to practically give away.  There are definitely some boat anchors that I can scrap, as well.

"Scrap is 280 a ton, honey" I was informed.

But I can't stop looking.   Is it a sickness? 

Singer 221: How to remove the bobbin case base

Rose emailed me about her Singer 221 (aka Featherweight).  She turned the hand wheel backwards and it is all bound up.  I told her I thought it might have a thread lock.

There is a free adjuster's manual available on line.  If you go to my resources page and scroll down to the link about FW you will see it.

First remove the needle plate.  Betsy is demonstrating this.  I like to use the Brownell bit set.  She, however, is a fan of the long shaft screw driver.

Now the proverbial finger of the bobbin case is released from the position bracket on the needle plate.  When you replace the bobbin case base be sure it is positioned correctly with the finger nestled in the position bracket. (This is a 301, it is the exact same concept though the parts are not necessarily interchangeable)

Loosen the gib screw that holds the gib in place and rotate the gib outward.

 Now you will be able to turn the bobbin case base clockwise a bit and lift it out

If there are threads locked in behind the hook, that will be another post.

SHE DID IT !!!!!

Here it is folks, Betty's 221 motor.  She did it all by herself.  Isn't she clever?  This all started with an email that she sent me with a couple of photos. 
 If I had been using my Dell Laptop then, instead of my MacBook Pro I would have been able to save and enlarge the photo and probably have been able to see that her concern was over the thicker insulation on the two wires.

Well, she did it she got her motor off and was able to figure out what the heck that was.  Of course, hind sight is always 20/20 vision.  I learned something and she did too.  She learned that she can take a motor off of a Feather weight.  Ain't this hobby The Best?

This one is for Betty. Singer 221 Motor

I had an email from a very nice lady in Maine about her Featherweight.  She had some questions about the wires to the motor.  I suggested that she take the motor off to inspect the wires.  I assured her she could do it and promised that I would post photos of how I did this tonight.  Here they are.

First I took off the bottom by unscrewing the thumb nut

This revealed the bottom and the wires.  Whoa  this bottom is wet.  Guess I had better clean it up some.  Clearly I used too much oil.  Good thing I am doing this.....I have circled the motor wires clamp.  I loosened  this.

 I released the motor from the base of the machine first thing. But I think that you could wait and do that last.  It flopped around a bit when I was messing with the wires on the bottom of the machine. I unscrewed the motor position screw all the way and removed the motor from the machine

And then put that screw right back in its hole on the motor.

I then freed up Mr Three Pin Terminal

And released the motor wires from it.  The nuts on the back of Mr. TPT did not release all that easily by hand.  I gently loosened them with a pair of small pliers wrapped in leather.  The motor is connected to terminals 2 and 3.  The red lead goes to  #3.  You can almost see the red thread in the cloth cover of the motor lead here.  Almost.  And oh my, I guess that is glue holding Mr. TPT together, now isn't it?  Oh the things you learn about the machine.  I wonder how that broke?

Once the leads were released from Mr. TPT, I put him back in place.  I hate losing parts.   I did remove the motor clamp completely at this point and stretched the motor leads out gently.

 Then I gently maneuvered  the leads through the hole in the base of the machine. I pulled one through at a time.  Since #2 is slightly shorter, this worked out ok.  I was VERY gentle.  I did not want to hurt these 60 year old wires.

 I put the motor wire clamp back in its place and put the bottom back on the machine.  I did check one of the brushes.  It looks ok.  But peering into the brush holder I could see that the commutator is kind of dirty.

I  guess I can service it on Wednesday.  The #2 motor lead has some exposed wire on its end.  I think that is ok since it doesn't touch anything else on Mr TPT.  When I put the thing back together I will double check.

This whole operation took me less than 30 minutes.  I am not an expert.  This is simply how I got the motor off of this machine.  I realize, as well, that this post is very similar to a previous post.  But I wanted to go through this process, step by step for Betty, in Maine.  She is up there trying to figure these machines out solo.  I, at least, have Betsy and had the chance to take the Ray White class.  So any help I can offer, I am glad to.

Featherweight motor; Singer 221 motor

 This post is how I serviced a Featherweight motor.  I am not an expert.  This is the first time I have serviced this type of motor.  I offer, here, my experience in the hope that it will help.  I have the adjuster's manual for this machine but the photos are dreadful and dark.  

First thing: I got the  motor off the machine.  When I checked out this project last weekend I resisted.  Looking under the machine at the wiring deterred me.

That big white wire is the lamp wire.  It is encased in lead and the white stuff is oxidized lead flaking off and it flakes off everywhere.  I resisted following Rain's suggestion to remove the lamp wire and scrub all that stuff off.  I wish that I had just done it.  I am going to do that next.  YECH.

So anyway, I just did not want to delve into this motor work because of these wires.  But I had to.  So, here follows how I did it.  I did not start here, but as long as the photo is handy, I will explain that I loosened those two clamps freeing up the nasty lamp wire and the two motor leads. That allowed me some slack to work on removing the motor wires from the three pin terminal.  I left the little motor lead clamp in place right there.  I did remove it later but that is later.

To get the belt off of the pulley on the motor you have to loosen the screw that secures the motor to the machine.

See what I mean about all that nasty white stuff?

Once this screw is loosened, lift the motor up and get the belt off.  I took the screw all the way out to release the motor form the machine base.  I put that screw back into its home on the motor to keep it safe.
I then loosened the screw holding   Mr. Three Pin Terminal in place.

I gently pulled Mr. Three Pin Terminal away from the machine base to reveal the wires held in place with wire knobs.  The motor wires go to 2 and 3; color coded.  Lucky me.

The knurled knob for #3 loosened easily.  But number 2 needed persuading.  I do not recommend what I did, but it worked.  I ever so gently used my needle nose pliers to grasp the knob.  I tried at first with some cloth covering the knob for protection. Then I just went for it straight on .  It worked.  But I think it is a bad idea.  You could break those knobs.  Younger folk might have stronger fingers and not need the pliers.  Perhaps a piece of leather over the pliers would have worked as well.

Once both wires were free of  Mr. Three Pin Terminal  I fastened Mr. TPT back onto the machine.  This is when I loosened the clamps holding the nasty lamp wire and the motor wires.
I also, because I am somewhat anal, put some red tape on the #3 motor lead.  Hey, I need all the visual clues I can get.  This helped me stay organized.  I realize that the wire itself is red, but I wanted to be really really sure.  And I like marking wire with electrical tape.  It feeds my inner child.

Then I pulled the wires through the opening on the machine base and freed the motor.  I was very careful as I threaded the wires through that opening.  It is quite roomy, but I just wanted to be gentle to these 64 year old fixtures.

I then removed the brushes.  The brushes are worn down with the friction of rubbing on the commutator and they like to return home the way they were.  Otherwise the motor just has to wear them down anew.  So I marked how they came out with notes to myself on paper and taped the brush to the paper.

Here you can see the contour of the motor brush

And here you can see that I have a good half inch left on this brush.  Now I thought that I should replace these brushes as a matter of course. I had occasion to talk to Mr. Glenn Williams (http://pages.suddenlink.net/joyof301s/glenn.htm) and he advised that I leave the brushes.  He told me that of the 2800 221s that he has had pass through his hands, only three machines needed new brushes.

 I did scrub them with denatured alcohol, however.  Someone told me firing them with a blow torch works to clean them too.  I like the alcohol approach.

Next I removed the screws holding the motor housing in place

And then I shimmied the fiber insulation as far down the motor leads as I could toward the wire rings

I admit I did try to pry the motor housing apart at this point. When it  did not separate, I remembered reading about removing the pulley.  There is a set screw on the pulley  that needs loosening:

The pulley can then be removed and the housing gently pulled apart to reveal the armature and a very nifty underwriter's knot (circled)

I had to loosen that knot to gently remove the armature from the field coils.  I was VERY careful.  These motors are not cheap to replace.  They aren't making any more of them .

What a dirty armature it is.  I was very careful to secure the washers.  There is a fiber washer that belongs on the shaft near the commutator.

And two others, one a fiber washer, on the shaft at the other end of the armature. These came off when I pulled the armature.  I was lucky that I did not lose them.  Especially the fiber washer.  I have a feeling they might be hard to replace.

I cleaned the commutator with a pencil eraser and this nifty honing stick I bought from Ray White (http://www.whitesewingcenter.com/tools.php)

I love a clean armature!!!!

Once it was all cleaned I reversed the steps to put it back together.

This is a shot of the inside of the field coil.  I did clean this out gently being very careful not to disturb the soldered connections to the ends of the brush tubes

Then making sure that the fiber washer was in place I eased the armature back into the field coil.  I realize that the copper windings on this armature do not look clean.  I promise that they are.  I think that these windings, like the windings on the 201-2 motor , were varnished at the factory

 

Once the armature was back in place I gently tightened the underwriter's knot and eased the motor housing back into place. 

Then I replaced the screws.  I did have some trouble getting the screw near the underwriter's knot to slide in easily.  I had to adjust the wires some.  If I had tried to tighten the screw down on top of that wire I could have created one huge disaster.

 

Once the motor was securely reassembled, I replaced the pulley.  The pulley is held on with a set screw and the screw must sit in the flat on the shaft.  The flat is easily identified by the flat on the end of the shaft

 I replaced the brushes next being very careful to place them in the brush tubes (which I had cleaned out with a q-tip) exactly as I had taken them out.  It helped that I had taped them to a piece of paper.  I only had to pop them back in. ( I had already cleaned them with denatured alcohol)

Then I shimmied the insulation back up toward the motor and eased the wires back into the opening on the machine base.  I did fasten the motor to the machine base after I did this, just to hold things stable. 

I reattached the motor leads to Mr. TPT.  Then  I removed the wire clamp.  I tried to put the motor leads back in the clamp without removing it but it was too difficult.  There was a fiber "lining" that wrapped around the wires underneath the clamp. I really could not position it correctly without removing it and making some adjustments. 

Once I had the clamp back in place and secure, I then tightened the clamp holding the nasty lamp wire.  

It is not exactly as it was at the beginning, but it is good enough for an amateur.  I can make some adjustments and perhaps get the other "red" wire tucked up more neatly.  I have to remove the lamp to clean the lead casing so I bet that will get tighter once I have done that.