oldsewnsew

Trust me, the whole housing is one solid piece, no seperate topcover. But no plastic gears either. And it works great and is fast and smooth. It's in great shape and I just bought an unopened package of accessories from 1961 for a Brother with receipt (for a different machine). She is also center homing needle.

Candace

Yours may be one of the last good ones. Because the style of it looks similar to the ones a bit later, that have the different stitches and yucky parts.

Candace

Yes, most of the Singers I've had have had this too. However most of the European machines I've received are typically clean...no grease on the nylon gears. Occasionally, there is an exception, but most Bernina, Pfaff and Elna techs don't grease the nylon gears or nylon parts.

caroloto

Same here all ones with plastic gears had grease on there gears. Some of the older machines had there service stickers on them still. Yes some of the grease was brown, off white, inky black and a few harden up grease. And on those I didn't notice any cracks or damage on the gears. Like Joe I replaced it with Singer grease lube.

caroloto

Here the old Bernina, Pfaff and Elna and even Vikings that were sold by local sewing shops the plastic gears have been greased while being serviced.

Maybe even back then they were told to grease or not to grease the plastic gears???

ThayerRags

I guess somebody should hit me square between the eyes with a Quilting Board.

A friend’s (newer) Brother LS-2125i got thread tangled up in the thread take-up lever linkage, and I foolishly decided to try to remedy the situation. Naturally, the pot-metal lever link snapped in two while I was messing with it. The chances of finding a new part to replace it is slim to none. When will I learn?

CD in Oklahoma

mlmack

I have very little, if any, confidence in the newer machines. It's probably cheaper to replace the whole machine than it would be to fix them.

Candace

They're known for having weak metal. So much so, that the needle bar bends before the needle breaks. And that should not happen!

Nana51

Do you happen to know anything about the Brother Galaxie 1361? Sure is a pretty model. Yellow and olive .

great white

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again:

3D printing.

I’ve salvaged many machines with “plastic” parts by simply designing and printing new parts. Nylon printing is a standard job. I prefer ABS myself. Nylon is anhydrous, which makes printing tricky if the filament isn’t totally dry.

I’m actually running some abs change gears in my metal lathe as we speak. Couple hundred hours on them, no signs of wear. They run between metal gears and the addition of the abs gears makes the whole machine much quieter and more pleasant to be around when running. Should they fail, pop a tooth or otherwise just wear out, an call up the file, an hour or two running on the 3d printer and I’m up and running again.

These days, I feel everyone should have a 3d printer in the house somewhere: its like having a Star Trek “replicator” at your disposal. Slower, but it does often seem like it makes things out of thin air.

I have also been known to machine out new gears in aluminum, but thats more involved snd much more expensive.

The thing is, just because a machine has a broken plastic piece doesn’t mean its worthoess. These days, there are oots of options to fix them.

The only machines I turn away are the newer ones where the entire body (and drive parts) are plastic. Those were designed as “throw away” items and thats pretty much all they’re good for. Too much to fix on them. Now, an older machine with a csst aluminum body is a different story. When they get a broken plastic piece, its worth fixing them as they often have more modern features that you just can’t get in a 1930’s-1950’s machine. I’d say a out mid 1980’s is right about where the machines are just nit worth building new parts for.

Of course, thats a different story if you’re talking about a modern machine you paid a few grand for. Thise are usually worth making parts for, assuming you can’t still buy replacement parts for them…