miriam

Wow - thanks for the needle info Candace - I hope nobody messed with the timing on that machine. I got my order for needles but I haven't gotten it reassembled yet. (We worked on a Japanese 15 clone yesterday - I was amazed at how quickly that one cleaned up and running beautifully. It is a very simple machine so not so much to do. Oh and we worked on a Singer FW and a Singer 99 and another 15 clone and we looked over an old electric Domestic - my lips are sealed on that one until I can do it justice. AND we played with a hand crank! My camera is dead so I am waiting on some pics from Iris or Hannah. Candace I have located some disks for the Singer 319 - I'll do the happy dance when I actually have them in my hot little hands.

miriam

Not all machines come as gunked up as my Singer 319. Iris, Hannah and I did clean up a 15 clone very quickly yesterday. That machine was totally stuck - nothing moved. It didn't have a huge layer of oil but it had some. It didn't have a lot of rust but it had some. We were able to un-stick the machine with just a drop or two of Tri-flow on all the moving parts. We started at the bottom of the machine and worked our way everywhere. I was amazed at how much a drop of Tri-flo could do. We took apart the bobbin area - it was really easy, cleaned up lint, cleaned gunk off and polished rust off chrome parts with chrome cleaner and barkeeper's friend. Then we reassembled that bobbin area. Then we took off the nose plate and cleaned it up. We just did one part at a time and had it done in a short time. There is some oil left on the machine but it will wait until a nice day in the spring.

Candace

Cool, you'll have lots of fun with them.

cheri stonespinner

My first sewing machine I named 'Mishka'. A lady I took care of said it means "little bear' in Russian". He is a bear to lift out of the cabinet and carry up the basement stairs for surviceing. He is a Kenmore with all metal parts {heavy}! He also is tough as a bear when it comes to sewing through jeans.

miriam

I have been hassling with the needle bar clamp lately. I have already spent well over an hour messing with it. If anybody has any tips on putting it back together I sure would love to know what it is. I've been searching info on the timing/needle as well. I'll post info one of these days. Until I get the needle bar clamp back together I'm can't do anything else on this machine. It is no wonder Singer didn't make real many of these - I bet the repair men invented whole new languages of words for that needle bar clamp.

Candace

I hope these pictures help those who've disassembled their needle clamp mechanism and can't get it back together. Now I'm an old pro at it, but luckily, the first time I did it, I had a second 319 there to cheat off of!

The first photo is of the side clamp showing the screw. This comes out first. Don't lose it! Right, Miriam? ;>

Candace

This is looking straight on at the assembly.

Candace

When you remove the side screw, this is what it will look like.

Candace

When you remove the clamp, there is a tiny piece inside. Note the location and orientation of the piece because it fits back in as is!

Candace

Another shot of it.