Singer Featherweight Maintenance Class

I was in Williamsburg this weekend, and had a great full-day hands-on workshop on maintaining our beloved Singer Featherweights.  Nova Montgomery is on her Autumn tour and hosted the workshop. Having gotten my particular Featherweight for restoring purposes on eBay, I thought I knew my machine since I restored it.  Turns out, there is always something new to learn, right?

Getting ready to start the workshop.

A basic tip I remember from the workshop on how often to maintain your Featherweight:
  • If you do not use your machine - once a year.
  • If you use your machine once or twice a year (to take to retreats or bees for example) - every 6 months.
  • If you use your machine regularly for sewing - after every major project.
Another tip is to replace your sewing needle after every eight hours of use of your Featherweight.

A photo with me taken by Nova and shared on her Facebook page.  :-) 
Products for routine maintenance:
  • Kerosene (clear) - used as solvent for cleaning inside parts
  • Sewing Machine Oil - used to lubricate joints and moving parts of machine
  • Featherweight Lubricant - used to grease the gears and motor.
The workshop went through the entire cleaning and maintaining that should be done on a Featherweight.  The class followed Nova's Maintenance card, which was included in the workshop fee.  We covered every part and piece that needs regular attention.  I loved that the workshop was hands-on on our own machine - getting hands dirty with the gears.

Here are some pictures from the workshop:
Gears under the thread spindle plate.

It was sometimes easier to stand and work on our machines.

Adding grease lubricant to the gears.

Lead pipe that protects the wires.  Build up that I didn't want to touch previously.
Same lead pipe after a little soft brushing with Kerosene and a toothbrush.

Checking the motor brushes.

One thing I learned about my particular machine that I had missed when I restored it after purchasing it...    Can you see it in the following photo?
A problem with my electric receptacle.  Can you spot it?

The electric receptacle had been cracked and reglued.  It is easier to see the glue line from the bottom under a spot light.


Nova said this is very common thing to happen.  It usually happens when the plug hits the side of the Featherweight case when it is being put into the case for storage.   So be careful when doing this. :-)

After replacing the glued electric receptacle from my machine, Nova could tell that my particular part had cracked because it had caught fire!  At some point, some one had put grease into a hole on the receptacle, and it heated and caught fire with the electricity coming through.  Interesting!! Well now that part is fresh and new and my machine is cleaned, oiled, greased, tested and stitches wonderfully.  It's a such a great machine.

Panorama view of class from my seat.

Very happy to have taken this workshop.  Would definitely recommend this class if there is one near you.

Featherweight is all happy and ready to sew!


 Happy Stitching!!

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