Servicing your 201K part 2 - cleaning

This is really quite easy to do. There are two things to remember when oiling your old domestic machine:
1. Clean first, then oil
2. Only one drop per oiling point, except the presser bar wick
If you want to do it properly, you should remove the hook mechanism, which may never have been done. Here's how to do it:

pull slide plate out

angle it so it comes out, avoid damaging the enamel

remove needle, foot and bobbin

Clean out the dirt. Most will be really filthy

nylon brushes are excellent

This is removed next. It's going to be hard. If you can't, clean around it

remove feed dog screws

prise these two lugs outwards a little

lugs out, wedge a screwdriver so hook comes off when wheel turned

lugs have moved, hook is ready to lift off

clean everything so it's at least this shiny

to reassemble, the screwdriver will be on the other side, wheel turned opposite way

Now, put the screw back in and tighten it. I mean it has to be pretty tight. Put a single drop of oil where the hook rotates (metal against metal - general rule of oiling, as is the single drop on each oiling point).
Replace the bobbin and slide plate. Again, careful not to damage the enamel and put it in at an angle.
Well, now we have that over, move on to the end plate. Remove it and notice that every piece of moving steel has a small oil hole. If it doesn't or you can't find it, oil it anyway.
Take note of how stiff the hand wheel is before oiling this then compare it again afterwards. It's my experience that this area contributes most to a machine's stiffness, so you'll be doing the most good here.

turn the hand wheel, oil every joint and the needle bar

Here are just two points. Exactly one drop each.

Also soak the brown wick at the top of the presser bar. Might take 5 or so drops, but don't overdo it or oil will ruin your sewing for months. You can see in that last picture that the top arrow points to a hole, the bottom is pointing at the needle bar. Exactly one drop each is a very simple rule.
Now, tip the machine back. I rested mine on the lid turned sideways. Turn the hand wheel to see what moves and oil it. Remove the two black metal covers and oil in there too (marked with arrows), or vaseline would be better for this, since it will stay a lot longer. Vaseline closely matches Singer's gear and motor grease, which isn't available any more.

If aluminium, the serial number is stamped underneath

At this point, if you're used to modern machines you might be wondering why on Earth you have to do all this when you don't on the modern plastics. Here's why: Plastics have oil included in the plastic and when it runs out, if your machine lasts that long, you are expected to throw the machine away and buy a new one. When your 201K was made, this would have been unthinkable. I developed the habit of cleaning and oiling after every eight hours of sewing and be happy that my machine sews a perfect stitch and will last forever. At the same time, replace your sewing needle. 

Just a few places that need a drop

There are actually quite a number of places that need oil underneath, so make sure you spend some time on this. The manual has quite good instructions too. Yes Singer intended for the user to service their own machine! How about that?

Several oil points on the top

Finally, remove the plate at the back

someone has greased it

It appears that someone has applied a bit of grease to the gears. Singer recommends oil, and oil on the mechanism on the left (which usually gets oil from the oiling hole on the top). If there's heavy grease on the gears it will noticeably slow the motor and you should clean it off. This grease doesn't seem to have affected my machine so I left it alone.

Now, the other things are to look at the drive belt. If it needs a new one, do not buy a round rubber belt: Those belts cause the motor to strain. Get a fibre belt like the machine is supposed to use and adjust the motor so this belt is loose. It is not like a car's fan belt, where tight is good. If you over tighten the drive belt on a sewing machine it will slow the motor and wear the bushings out very quickly. It will also give you poor control over the speed, so keep it as loose as possible without slippage.
The original bulbs were 25W and were extremely good. When I buy a machine it normally has the original Singer bulb or a 1960s 25W replacement that still works. Really, they made things that well a long time ago. Still, they get very hot and you might be better off with a 15W replacement. They produce the same amount of light but the burn you sustain when you touch it is only second degree instead of third. Saves on hospital bills and skin grafts. I buy Riva bulbs which are exactly the same size as the original and they're still made in Germany.

The exterior

If the exterior is a bit dirty, clean it with a cloth and some sewing machine oil. It's the only substance guaranteed not to damage the finish. Only down side is that it's so gentle you might be there a while. Pure car wax works nicely if you want a deep sheen. The later ones were painted with enamel (earlier were Japanned) so you can use car paint products on keeping it beautiful.

Remember: Important

201s have the needle flat to the left and thread right to left

Servicing your 201K part 1

In Australia and in the U.K. there are loads of these machines around. There were literally millions of them made because they were so good Singer made them from the 1930s until the 1960s. A straight stitching machine in the 1960s that cost more than any zig-zag, free arm machine and people still bought them. Why? What's so good about them?
Firstly, Singer made these with special hardened steel gears, so they were as tough as nails. They had an incredibly simple system of getting the bobbin moving (just one bar underneath the machine) which performed a perfect stitch on both the top and bottom, and it could stitch everything from silk to leather. Just about any machine can be made to sew through leather but the 201K can do it easily**.
** As a side note, sewing through leather is easy enough, but leather tends to get dragged back by the presser foot and will bend and break your needles as well as screw up the stitching (and with leather, there's no second chances). To properly sew leather on a sewing machine you need a walking foot (even feed foot) which moves the work from the top as well as the bottom (the regular feed dog), or a wheel feed and foot, which Singer made several models of.

Now, next thing you should know is that the 201K has two forms: The early cast iron one and the later aluminium one. Here they are:

1936 201K3 cast iron weighs a ton!

The 201K23 (201P) weighs half as much

They look radically different because aluminium is so much weaker than iron that Singer had to redesign the head to make it stronger. The stitching mechanism is identical in both machines.
Technically the cast iron version is a 201K3 and the aluminium one is a 201K23, but it's really not important.

Electrical first

Okay, so you have your 201K on the bench, what's the first thing to do? Firstly, check the wiring, particularly between the motor and light. You can see that the one in the photo isn't that great, but I'm aware of it and will be replacing it. Replacement is not trivial and I have a blog entry devoted to this. See here for replacement of the Singerlight wiring.

This is usually the wire that goes first

Check both sides of the bakelite plug

1950s vinyl insulation does not last forever, especially in Australia. It cracks and flakes off. I heard recently from a guy in NSW who said that all old Singer motors are death traps and none of them would ever pass a safety inspection. He has good reason to say that: He imports and sells cheap quality Chinese replacement motors.
Here is my experience: I have fixed literally hundreds of electrical machines and none has ever been a problem. Also, I had one that had been tested and had a safety tag on it when I bought it, so I don't really believe this. If you choose to buy a second hand sewing machine that doesn't have a safety tag on it, you are expected to take full ownership for getting it tested, and the device will have a label saying just this. You have been warned. If you don't know what you're doing and the wiring is suspect, don't plug it in or you might kill yourself.
The wiring is by far the most important thing to check in the same way the brakes are if you buy a second hand car. It's the thing most likely to injure or kill you if it's not good.

Foot Controller

These came with radio suppression capacitors, which are a problem when they fail. Their purpose is to suppress AM radio interference and they also suppress some of the sparking inside the motor. When they fail, they bridge the electrical connections inside the controller and your machine starts sewing at full speed all by itself! All sewing machine repair people I know remove the capacitors. I wrote an earlier blog entry here on these, and the example was the twin capacitors. Here is the procedure in pictures for the single capacitor version:

turn over, remove screws, push the button on the other side

It's the grey thing. I've disconnected one side

disconnected. It would work perfectly well now, but remove it

before putting it back, drop of oil here and around the button

Harrington #2

Firstly my friend was turning 50 and I made him a Harrington. I discovered just now that if I don't write it down as it's happening there's no chance of my remembering what I did! Apologies, but it looked like this:

I made it reversible, because it wasn't much more work, and why wouldn't you? Who doesn't like a tartan jacket?

 This one was a lot closer to the Baracuta G9 design than the one I made for myself. Turned out extremely well, though.
Sewn on the Singer 201P. Stitch perfection.
The great triumph I felt with this jacket was in putting it together without any pattern instructions. This and the pyjamas were things that felt really good to finish.
Oh, and in case you want one, I'll take orders. Just email me.

Goodbye to the old, hello to the new

No, I'm not going plastic on you, good people, but the lounge room had started looking like a warehouse, with boxes stacked on cabinets and it made actual sewing (yes I still do that) really difficult. So, what should I do? Buy another machine in a cabinet of course! Two or three weeks ago (on Sunday night) someone had put an ad for a six drawer Singer cabinet in need of restoration on Gumtree for $50. Well, it looked OK in the ad, and as long as there's nothing missing I'm up for it. Yes it's shabby and yes I have no room. It lived in the back of the car for a few days. It took only a few days to get rid of the two cabinets that lived in my lounge room. My beloved 319k in lovingly restored 1960 cabinet and a model 66, which I had swapped the presser bar with a later 66 to fit side clamping feet. This brings me to what a PITA the back clamping 66 is.
The story of the back clamping goes back a bit over 100 years. I read that Singer thought it a pretty nifty idea to have the 66 as a back clamper just after they had bought the Wheeler and Wilson factory in the U.S. seeing as that's what they used.
It was a disaster, of course, and meant that the 66 had to use feet that were different to all other models, and their customers indicated their unhappiness with the back clamp. Around 1922 Singer caved in to the pressure and made all future 66s side clampers, making them compatible with, well, everything.
So every time I get a 66 it seems to be a back clamper. When the six drawer car crisis happened, I hastily converted the back clamper to use the only side clamp version I had, advertised it for a low price and of course it sold quickly. So, got the six drawer cabinet in, looked at the machine inside and it was, you guessed it, a Singer 66 back clamper! It did come with a couple of back clamp feet (which is unusual) but I'm still pretty unhappy about it.
Here's a summary of movements for the past month or so:
Out
Singer 221k featherweight (centennial, manufactured 1950)
Singer 66k in treadle cabinet (1922 - only just a back clamper!)
Singer 319k in 1960 model cabinet.

All of these seem to have gone to the right people. They were all going to see further use as sewing machines. Decisions on what had to go weren't difficult. The 319k is in a cabinet, and I have a 320k that's also in the lounge room. I did keep the cams from the 319, though. Can't understand why the 320k didn't have them, or the darning plate.

OK, now this stuff I have to rely on my memory for, because there are usually so many. In
Singer 201k treadle, original deco treadle cabinet (1946)
Singer 66k treadle, original six drawer treadle cabinet (1912)
Singer swiss zigzag attachment
Singer attachment lot (incl two more of the above, plus two buttonholers). Not arrived yet.
Singer green button hole attachment (for low shank machines, uses cams for different types of button holes) - this has not arrived yet, more than a week after I paid for it. Not happy.

Out: 66k treadle

Out: 221k Featherweight

Out: the 319k

In: The 66 - Did I mention it's a redeye?

In: The redeye's home. The top needs new veneer

Don't have a pic of the swiss zigzagger (Google it - plenty of pictures around). It has a built-in walking foot and originally came with pattern cams (I got one out of the ten), which makes it highly desirable for a straight sewing machine like a featherweight, a 201 or a 66.

Finished a dress, made with 201s and got two more machines

Can't say 201k, because the machine I started it with was a 201p (the tan one). Used the 319k for zigzag finishing seams and putting in the hook.
Here's the dress:

 It should fit her, but she lives on the other side of the planet so it might be a while before I get feedback.

Here's the machine I used to finish it. The knee lever was really hard to get used to. I kept accidentally knocking the lever and sewing the thread into a knot.
The most important thing I discovered with this project was how to pre-finish a seam: Cut the fabric out using pinking shears! If you cut it the right size, the seam edges are pre-finished and no ZZ will be necessary.
Being unable to control my sewing machine addiction meant that since last week I bought two more machines. The first was another 319k but with a free arm. It's called a 320k but identical except for the removable bed. This feature made it horrendously expensive to produce apparently, so they didn't make that many of them.
The second was a Singer 401g (I think). It was on eBay for a while and nobody bid on it. It was re-listed at the same price so I bought it. I haven't picked it up yet but am quite excited. Here are the new ones:

Quite rare Singer 320k2

Singer 401g made in Germany

There are a few problems with these two machines, being that the first one can't go into a cabinet because of the removable bed, so I'll have to sell my beautiful 319k in its cabinet. Good news is that the 401g can be treadled, so I can swap the 319k with a treadle cabinet (and free up some shed space).

Best domestic machine ever?

I've fallen in love. About six months ago I bought a brown 1950s Singer 201, in mint condition.
It sat in the shed for, well, six months. Got it out when I was having trouble several layers of sewing denim (the 66 couldn't handle it easily). It went through it like a hot knife through butter. Afterwards, I imagined it saying "so what else ya got" in a Brooklyn accent. This thing is tough.
Last weekend I had no hesitation getting it out again. Someone I know had some blouses made by a sample machinist, who charged the Earth, but refused to finish with buttons and buttonholes! The buttons were easy: The 319k is made for button sewing. Looked at the 319 instruction book for button holes too. Yes it can do them but it's all very manual. I pulled out my vintage buttonholer, attached it to the 201 and started practising. The combination is just about unbeatable. Buttonholers are very cheap but sooo sophisticated. You can do a buttonhole on any straight stitch machine. How? The 'holer grabs the fabric and moves it, keeping the needle moving straight up and down. Instructions tell you to keep it slow. Hmmm... why's that? I went fast and the heavy fabric dragging on the needle pulled it far enough from its normal path that it went down on the plate and broke. Well, that's why!
So, I don't have any pictures, but here's a link to a demonstration by a guy in NYC, Peter Lappin.
I did take pics of doing the button on the 319, though. Very quick. Bummer (or otherwise) thatone machine can't do everything, isn't it? Could probably attach the buttonholer to the 319, but that'd be less fun, wouldn't it?

Wasn't my fault this time!

Well, it wasn't. Her indoors wanted to go outdoors during this rainy, cold day. Back to Tyabb no less. After being nonchalant at the packing house, we went to the nearby Antique Shed. At this place I remembered seeing a lovely Singer 201K last week for only $45. In the first minute I saw a wooden cover that looked suspiciously like a sewing machine cover. The note said Singer something, something, lid, something $25. Looked at the lid and it seemed a bit heavy. The lid seems to have a sewing machine under it. It looked rather good too. Of course at this price who could resist.

Singer 201P

Kept asking myself why it's $25. Reading the other lid label it has been professionally restored. $25? $25? Kept asking why in the queue and when I put it in the car. Got it home, oiled it thoroughly (it was almost completely seized) and plugged it in. About 20 seconds after putting my foot down, it went from a groan to a gallop! Sews beautifully too. Why on Earth was it $25??? It's almost like new. The P model is identical to the K model (made in Scotland) except it's two tone brown and was made in NSW. It's very quiet and was made in 1957. Obviously it hadn't been used for ages but it's probably worth $200, considering the condition. The solid wooden case is like new as well.
Didn't want to boast. These machines are fantastic bargains. Go get one :-)