Cleaning the machine Pt 2: bits, bobs and everything we took off the machine...
- artbykpgarner
- Jun 12
- 4 min read
Remember all those things we stripped off the machine? Well we need to clean those too!
When I ​​worked on my first few sewing machines for myself and family - I didn't go this far. Oh I'd clean the gears well and do the 'spa day' treatment that you learn from visiting Singer Featherweight repair people. Clean the gears with a plastic brush - use a straw to clear old grease out of the motor ports, new belt, new light, fresh oil, new drip pan felt and you're good to go right?
Well - yes. You can call it there but while that is a great service to do and I recommend you try your hand at this sort of thing once every year or two depending on how often you use your machine, it's not a full 'restoration' and it doesn't address more complex issues that can be found in vintage sewing machines.
For instance - it does not cover old electrical wires, nor does it properly deal with the lead sheath in a 221 Featherweight. New oil helps, but imagine how much better your machine could be running if all the old varnished oil was cleaned away and you 'reset' your baby's clock with a fresh start?
That's what we're going for here. So to that end, I take as much of the machine apart as is reasonable and put each part through a thorough inspection, deep cleaning, detailing and oiling process before I put it back into the machine.
It starts with laying all the parts out in groups (remember those bags I mentioned in the last post?) on a towel. I set up my ultrasonic cleaner with 50% hot water and 50 % Krud Kutter. My ultrasonic cleaner has a heating option, so I use that to bring the temperature up to 60º C.
I put each batch of parts into the cleaning basket, being sure to place small items into metal tea strainer baskets so they don't fall into the bottom of the cleaner. I also try to do small batches so items aren't crowded. Each is cleaned for 6 minutes, then it's removed, rinsed in clean water, and set on a towel to dry for a bit while the next batch goes in.
Once the next group of parts is in the cleaner, I use Q-tips, paper towels, sewing machine oil and WD-40 to dry everything carefully. If the part is easy to dry completely with a towel I do that and it goes back into the bag it started in. If it's more complicated like a presser foot or the hook assembly, I immerse it in a small jar filled with WD-40 which is hydrophobic. The "WD" of WD-40 stands for "water displacement" which is great for this application. I can take the part, put it in the WD-40 to displace the water easily, then wipe it off and store it in the bag for further cleaning later. I've found that I see very little flash rust using this technique.
After that first cleaning, I take each bag out and inspect the results. Anything that needs to be treated for rust is. The threads of each screw are brushed with sewing machine oil and a fine toothbrush. All chrome is polished and damaged screws are inspected to see if they can be salvaged or if they need to be replaced. Additional cleaning is also done if the part wasn't fully cleaned by the ultrasonic cleaner. The needle bar, and presser foot bar are both 'honed' with 10,000 grit wet dry sandpaper and oil to ensure they move smoothly.
For the hook assembly, bobbin case, and tension discs I do a lot of work to ensure there are no rough spots that might snag the thread. In this machine's case - I found there was corrosion near the inside edge of the hook assembly where the sticky stuff had eaten away at it a bit. I had to polish this off with sandpaper, Dremel, honing tool, and a lot of elbow grease but was able to get it back into shape in the end!
The back of the hook assembly has a plate that is often a cause of trouble with your machine. It will be hit by the needle (needle strikes) and those strikes cause grooves in the plate that can catch thread. That's never a good thing! To solve this, I once again turn to my honing tool, Dremel, 10,000 grit sandpaper and elbow grease.
Each item goes through a process similar to those discussed already so as you can imagine, it takes a lot of time. That said, when you are done you get to do one of my favorite things - put it all back together!
The first step of the reassembly process is greasing the gears! I use a paintbrush and SewRetro grease from The Featherweight Shop to carefully coat between all the gears teeth. I try to ensure there is enough lubricant to keep the machine working perfectly without splattering all over my freshly cleaned hull!
Once done with that - I reinstalled the parts starting with the forks, then moving on from there. Reassembling the machine from the back to the front, oiling everything as I went along.
When I had the hook assembly and needle bar installed and before installing the feed dogs or tension unit, I set the timing. Singer has some very helpful lines on the needle bar that help with this!
Once I was happy with the timing, I installed the feed dogs and needle plate so I could set the feed dog height and position. Those forks I took off are how these are adjusted and if removed require you spend some time ensuring that the feed dogs don't hit the hook assembly and their height maxes out at 0.040.
Finally, I installed and set the height of the presser foot, then the tension unit. With that I was done with all the non-electrical bits. The machine was moving smoothly at this point. Nothing sticky and spinning the hand wheel resulted in each motion in the front of the machine! I can officially say this machine is well on its way!
Up next... the lamp, motor, and all things electrical.