Need a sewing machine repairman

[GOPHER SLAYER]

My wife's Singer sewing machine has stripped a gear. It is the gear at the bottom of the vertical shaft that transfers motion to the bobbin. I have attached a picture of the stripped gear located at the bottom of the machine and a picture of the top of the machine showing the gear at the top of the vertical shaft. I have changed some gears on the machine in the past but I have forgotten how I did it. This operation looks like there is no way to get there. Any help would be appreciated.

[shoot-n-lead]

Might not help...but, there are a lot of Singer machine repairs on Youtube.

[GOPHER SLAYER]

Thanks, you were not kidding. I have been watching sewing machines videos for two hours. I may go into business repairing machines...not.

[Plate plinker]

You can get a manual for most machines. I would go for it. Take picture and pull it apart. I fix my *** all the time when sewing leather. Don try sewing horse hide with a smaller machine. I have my eye on anew machine real soon.

[Tenbender]

I think we all need a sewing machine mechanic !

[Merick]

There should be grub screws around that gear to get it loose on the shaft. You may have to remove something else to get room to replace it though, it looks like parts are available on ebay.

After that its just a matter of re-setting the timing before you decide to smash it all to bits with a sledgehammer.

[54bore]

You may have to remove something else to get room to replace it though

Right here is usually where things take a turn for the worse! LOL, I couldn't resist!

[6bg6ga]

Trade it in

[shaper]

If you were closer I would give you a very old Singer treddel machine for free.

[MT Gianni]

Part of the problems might be why the gear stripped? It could be due to wear or possibly that another part is so heavily bound up the gear stripped as the torque was too great. Make sure that the shaft turns without tension before you order parts.

[GOPHER SLAYER]

Part of the problems might be why the gear stripped? It could be due to wear or possibly that another part is so heavily bound up the gear stripped as the torque was too great. Make sure that the shaft turns without tension before you order parts.

I am typing this in a whisper because my wife is in the room. When the sewing machine gear broke my wife was attempting to sew a piece of cardboard onto the brim of her straw hat. I was in another room and I could hear the machine grunt and groan. The machine stopped and she came into the room and said, "my sewing machine just quit". It did not take time to find the part that broke. Am I going to tell her what caused the gear to fail you ask? Not on your life. My wife is a fantastic cook and that includes baking. I have no intention of dining on a bologna sanwhich made by me. I did watch several videos on sewing machine repair and found out that to replace the gear you must remove the shaft it is mounted on. I think it would be a good idea to buy an old machine to practice on. The problem with just junking the machine and buying a new one is, the new sewing machines are junk unless you are willing to spend a great deal of money. I was watching a film many years ago at our church about the work being done by missionaries in the remote villages of Brazil. It showed them teaching the young women how to sew on treadle machines. I asked the lady missionary where they got all those old treadle sewing machines and she said,"oh, they still make them, there are many parts of the world that don't have electricity". That came as quite a shock to me.

[5Shot]

I would definitely fix it, as they don't make machines of that quality anymore (unless you go industrial). Probably just old. Lots of older plastics had issues with off gassing (why plastics smell) and they become brittle with age. Some gears on good old Huskvarna machines would just split in two (and they don't make replacements anymore). Take lots of pictures and dig in!

[Mk42gunner]

I fixed a couple of sewing machines when I worked for Sears right out of high school. The recommendation to take pictures is a very good one, I didn't have that option back in 82.

I don't remember using much if any grease, but a high quality oil is very useful when lubing them upon final assembly.

Make sure everything cycles by hand before trying to run it under power.

Robert

[Bulldogger]

Best of luck. It sounds like you are on the right track. I second the careful manual movement of the machine "through all the gears" before running it on electrical power. Your machine is definitely old, as all the gears in new machines seem to be plastic, even Singers.

Around here Craig's List is filled with machines for $10-15 apiece. If you need parts, I'd try finding a parts machine. Most older machines only need cleaning and oiling to be good as new.

There are manual machines still available, yes. I've been eyeing a manual hand crank shoe/leather repair machine on the auction site for a while. They cost less than $200 delivered, but have very rough castings and no doubt should be fully disassembled, cleaned, reassembled and calibrated before using. Still, a machine that will stitch leather for under $200 is tempting. They can be motorized, but I'm not sure how straight a line they will run on a larger item. The feed foot is small.

Anyway, good luck!

Bulldogger

[bedbugbilly]

I like to sew and always have. For my 45 birthday - which was 20 years ago, my wife surprised me with a brand new Singer - some sort of an "anniversary model". It had an automatic buttonholer so I was in hog heaven. I sewed a lot of Civil War shirts, trousers, etc. and one day I had a problem with it. Took it in to the nearby city and had a repairman look at it. He replaced a plastic gear . . . and then gave me some advice. "Next time it breaks, buy a new one."

We live in a "throw away mentality" now and it's sad but they "just don't make 'em like they used to. I had two old sewing machines - both converted from treadle. One was a Singer and one was a White. Both were excellent machines and they are still running - I gave them to friends who do quilting as I don't sew much anymore. Both belonged to my g-grandmothers. The White, I had the original receipt and warranty for - she was born in 1859 and she was 53 when my g-grandfather purchased it for her in 1912. Can you imagine what machines like those would cost today if they were still available - all steel and castings which would last for a number of generations?

Good luck with your repairs and hopefully you can get it going again. If it was me, I'd probably end up with a big pile of parts and be scratching my head as to where they all were supposed to go! LOL

[fiberoptik]

If you were closer I would give you a very old Singer treddel machine for free.

I'd love to find one that I could use!


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