Singer Model 500a Tune-Up

Oh dear, it's happened again! I'm just going around, minding my own business, and one of these little beauties ended up in my car.

That sounds creepy if you don't know I'm talking about a sewing machine...

Anyway, I brought this girl home and got her cleaned up!

It started with the usual process of taking her top off(oolala!) and seeing what I had to deal with on the inside. I had taken a quick peek at the thrift shop where I snagged it, and didn't see anything too distressing at the time.

Beautiful. All metal, fairly clean. Everything was dry as a bone and in desperate need of lube and oil, but that's well within my capabilities!

Next, I double checked the manual that came with it on the proper lubrication spots.

Pretty straight forward! The rule of thumb with these older machines is lube for every gear, and oil anywhere metal touches metal. 

First things first, though. I wanted to get the dust and grime off.

Ew! This was the worst of it for the top. That bobbin winder tire is going to have to be replaced. The rubber is dry rotted, and I'd bet most of the dust around the gear area there is from it coming off the bobbin winder.

I like using cotton rounds to take off the most obvious of the dust and lint.

And then pipe cleaners help scrub off the worst of the offending mess!

This is what you want to look for when it comes to using lubrication on your machine. You do NOT want to use oil on this gear especially(I learned that the hard way, and now have to run a motor until the oil I got on it by accident is finished smoking off).

I like to apply generously as I turn the hand wheel, making sure both gears get proper coverage.

Next, I go to the second lubrication spot the manual pointed out to me.

This one is a little tricky to get to, but not impossible! It didn't seem to have any dried grease on it like the others did, so it didn't require much cleaning.

Now I gave the machine a good once over, and what did I find hiding? Another gear! And this one was kind of disgusting.

You can almost see it in that pic. It's the thing smack dab in the middle, the thing with all the crud on it.

I attacked it with a metal awe(the sharp point is great for scraping stubborn gunk off) and a pipe cleaner, and soon got it looking like an actual gear again!

This is the best picture I could get of it for the after. It's hiding there behind the plate with the screw in it in the center! I gave it the same lube treatment as the others, and headed down to the bottom of the machine!

Fairly easy procedure here. See that black round thing? You unscrew that, and the whole bottom plate comes off.

Eeek, a lint monster! Luckily, those are easily dealt with! The pad, which is on the plate to catch any oil that might drip down, was in good shape, and the bottom overall was pretty clean. There's two gears under here that needed my attention.

That brown stuff is all old, dried up grease. I have no idea how long it had been on there, or when the last time these gears received the lubrication they needed. But that's okay, I was about to fix that.

Using my awe once again, I scraped away as much of the dried on bits of grease as I could manage, paying careful attention to the area between the teeth of the gears.

Even the side gear had a good amount of this stuff on it.

Ah, that's better! A quick and thorough lube, and it's off to the next set.

AUGH! It's almost worse than the lint monsters!

It doesn't take long, though, to get the worst of the offending substance off from on and around the gears.

A little bit goes a long way!

After the lubrication, I like to go ahead and oil the joints under the machine so I don't have to flip her over and take off the plate again. I tilt it a bit and turn the hand wheel, and just put a drop or two of oil on every joint I see that makes any movement.

Once that's done, the bottom plate is put back on again(don't worry about putting it on wrong, it only fits proper in one direction!), and the machine is flipped over again!

For this last step, I put the top back on again and follow the guide holes for lubricating the rest of the machine.

It's fairly easy. Just reference the manual and follow the directions! If you don't have a manual and have an older Singer, make sure to look it up on their website. Many times the manuals are available for a free download.

And that, my friends, is all for this session! There's a couple parts I missed under where the faceplate would be for oiling, and I still need to take the bobbin case out and evict any more lint monsters that might be lurking under there, but for now? This girl is pretty darn happy.

I plugged her in and ran her a bit, then threaded her up and gave her a quick test spin. She ran fast and hard, and sewed a perfect stitch right off the bat.

Needless to say, I am in love. I originally grabbed her with the idea that I'd get her cleaned and fixed up and find another home for her, but I don't think I'm going to be able to let this girl go.