Quilters Connection

Ran into something interesting today with a friend of mine who was having trouble timing a Singer drop-in bobbin machine. I had luckily seen it before and remembered it so I was able to get her on the right path. It could happen in a Featherweight so it is worth mentioning here.

She was timing the machine after what was probably an unfortunately needle-to-pin accident, and could not get the loose hook shaft to turn enough to move the hook into position. She had loosened the set screws on the hub of the gear but the shaft still would not turn freely. The problem was that the set screws in the gear hub had been turned in so tightly at the factory that they had turned up burrs on the hook shaft. The burrs allowed some rotation of the gear but not once the burr passed the set screw hole. At that point the gear would not move around the shaft.

The solution was to insert a steel punch slightly smaller than the set screw hole and peen the shaft until the burr was flattened back down to the shaft. It required using the punch to move the gear around while lightly tapping the hammer to the punch. Once the burrs were knocked down the gear could be freely turned to any position (actually the shaft and hook could be turned inside the stationary gear).

The machine was a later plastic body Singer. The plastic gear hub had THREE set screws that held it to the shaft, unlike two on the FW and most other vintage Singers. That told me that the gear slipping timing on the shaft was enough of a problem that Singer knew about it and added a third set screw. And that the design and quality on those later machines was not what it was on the FW or else they would have made the shaft out of a better and harder material so it would not deform under the set screws.

The FWs have a flat on the hook shaft for the hook itself. The hook shaft on the gear end does not have a flat, to allow for 360 degree precise positioning for correct timing.

If you ever have to time a FW (which you likely never will since they RARELY go out of time on their own) and can't turn the hook shaft in the gear hub, a burr on the shaft may be your problem.

Monthly open house / run-what-ya-brung Saturday. Pretty eclectic mix here in my shop today. Culinary chaos ongoing. Going to be a long night!