The Sewing Place

Would you pay for a service or attempt to fix it yourself?

warpbywarpweft

Would you pay for a service or attempt to fix it yourself?
« on: November 17, 2018, 15:35:37 PM »
I’ve been quoted £60 to service an old singer 99.  The machine appears to have been lovingly looked after by its previous owner, I bought it for £20 from the owners daughter in law who looked at me like I was mad when I told her I was going to use it and did she know how it ran?!

I can’t get the tension right, and anything that turns or moves is stiff, including the hand crank wheel.  Other than that it does a nice even stitch and trundles along nicely.  Of course it was pretty dusty so I have given it a brush.

arrow

Re: Would you pay for a service or attempt to fix it yourself?
« Reply #1 on: November 17, 2018, 16:48:39 PM »
I had my 99 in for service years a go, it went out with a bang. It turned out to be bad capacitors and very much in need of rewiring. It came back with new wiring, the old cloth covered were relaced by black pvc insulated stuff. It has behaved flawlessly since. I think I payed a bit more than your estimated price. To buy the correc type of wires and maybe carbon brushes  your self will cost a bit too. A good repair shop has this by the roll and replacement parts in boxes, motor belt, bobbin tyres, etc. It's not always that much to be save by a DIY service. I prefer to do it my self, but I would not hesitate to hand it in some where if the price were right. Here £60 would be a very good price for a service, at least if the repair guy actually did something. All in all, I would say it's worth the price.


I would recommend going through the maintanaces steps of  cleaning and oiling before anything else. Chance is it will sort out all the issues you mention. Take the bobbin case out, face plate off, throat plate. There are at least 3 or 4 oil points on top, all hinges and joints behind the face plate and under the base  need more than a drop of oil  on dry and sticky machines. Don't touch the screw in center near the bobbin case; slide off the bobbin cover completely, the end of the lever is lifted up and towards you; it releases the bobbin case. The race turing under the bobbin case needs a bit of oil too.  You need spend some time on each oil point to make enough oil reach inners of joints and hinges. Some places there are tiny holes in the metal, other places the oil points are the joints. Poke the holes on top, to reach all the points behind the stitch length lever (or turn knob) you need to add oil on top of the machine, move stitch length adjustment to extreme positions, test sew and repeat a few times. The same for the hand wheel, it takes more than a few drops of oil to reach the outer part of the hand wheel and the chromed release screw.

Illustrations showing the oil points. There are similar guides for the top tensioner, the later 99s had a numbered dial, the earlier hand a simpler nut and spring adjustment. You can do a drop test for the bobbin case (measure up a 1 oz bag of rice or beans) as an estimation for the bobbin tension, and fine tune from there. There's always a bit of test sewing and adjustment involved.





« Last Edit: November 17, 2018, 17:16:41 PM by arrow »

Roger

Re: Would you pay for a service or attempt to fix it yourself?
« Reply #2 on: November 17, 2018, 22:25:12 PM »
it would probably love a bit of triflow to get it going, and work through the stiffness in the motion, I tend to self service, until I get stuck on an issue or electrics then I have to get dedicated assistance.

Id agree with Arrow If you havent already, give it a good clean get any old oil and grease out, and replace it and work the machine by hand as you do, really go to town and try to get as much grot out of the machine as possible, its very satisfying

one gotcha with 99s is that some have a red felt wick in the bobbin region- when you're cleaning don't remove this its to distribute oil evenly in the bobbin area.

Enjoy!
A bit of a vintage sewing machine nut! Singers: 500a, 401g, 48k Elnas: lotus SP & grasshopper, Bernina 530-2 F+R 504, Pfaff 30, Cresta T-132

warpbywarpweft

Re: Would you pay for a service or attempt to fix it yourself?
« Reply #3 on: November 18, 2018, 09:30:12 AM »
Thank you, this is really helpful. I’ll have another look at it.  Yes to the red felt in the bobbin area!  I’ve seen that already and since it didn’t move, I fortunately decided to leave it alone.

I’m amazed by the machine really, the serial number tells me that it was made in 1926.

Iminei

Re: Would you pay for a service or attempt to fix it yourself?
« Reply #4 on: November 18, 2018, 12:20:01 PM »
Calling @LeilaMay  !!!
The Imperfect Perfectionist sews again

arrow

Re: Would you pay for a service or attempt to fix it yourself?
« Reply #5 on: November 18, 2018, 13:21:46 PM »
1926 is an early one, I would guess the electric parts already are rewired. It can have been hand crank converted to motor later on. It was common to have machines converted to electrical up until 1960. Does it have a spoked or solid hand wheel?

My 99 was made in 1934, and is the early version like yours; stitch length lever is a round turn knob and the upper tensioner has an open nut you turn to adjust the tension on the disks. It's an easy model to clean and adjust, but I have to say tension can be a bit of a bother the first time, but absolutely within doable.

 If it has an early motor and light, the electic is slighly different but not much. Is the speed controller pedal or knee lever?
« Last Edit: November 18, 2018, 14:00:59 PM by arrow »

LeilaMay

Re: Would you pay for a service or attempt to fix it yourself?
« Reply #6 on: November 20, 2018, 11:31:46 AM »
Calling @LeilaMay  !!!

I like to service my own, but not everyone feels comfortable doing that. Does it have a bolt-on electric motor, you don't actually say?
The inner mechanical workings are quite straight-forward, and there is a lot of info out there if you want to attempt yourself - I can find links if you need them? :) There's a thread here somewhere . . .

If it has a motor and foot pedal then you need to be reasonably competent and comfortable with electrics to look them over and decided if it need s rewire or whatever.

Do shout out here or by P if I can help.
leila

warpbywarpweft

Re: Would you pay for a service or attempt to fix it yourself?
« Reply #7 on: November 22, 2018, 06:35:59 AM »
Thank you for your replies...RL took over and I have not been back for a few days.

It is not an electric one, which makes it easier.  It has a spindle handwheel.

Yes also to the stitch length being a round knob, the knob needs some oil though as it is really stiff.  I have been up and down the whole spectrum on the tension and can’t get it right.  I have found the screw for the bobbin tension, but dare not touch it at the moment!   I’ve also altered the pressure foot to see if that may have helped.  If I could do it myself it would better, especially just before Christmas with so much else to spend money on.

LeilaMay

Re: Would you pay for a service or attempt to fix it yourself?
« Reply #8 on: November 22, 2018, 09:50:24 AM »
Then take a read though this thread

https://thesewingplace.org.uk/index.php/topic,3142.0.html

and especially follow one of the 'way back' links to find the sheets of instructions from the Tools For Self Reliance organisation - they have all that you could want to know on the how to dismantle clean and get going again of a machine like yours. It tales some time, but the machine should run really nicely once it's done.

Shout out if you hit a problem
Leila

arrow

Re: Would you pay for a service or attempt to fix it yourself?
« Reply #9 on: November 22, 2018, 10:55:44 AM »
Make sure the check-spring is all right on the top tensioner, they have to be replaced if they are damaged. Make sure you get the right one for the old tensioner, I think it differs from the type with numbered dials. If you don't mind spending a bit of time on it, it's well with it a DIY fixup. There are lots of help to be found on the web.

warpbywarpweft

Re: Would you pay for a service or attempt to fix it yourself?
« Reply #10 on: November 23, 2018, 06:12:46 AM »
Awesome, thank you both...I have started reading through those very detailed instructions!   I will see what I can find out about the tension, the spring moves in and out as you turn the adjuster knob  so that looks like a good sign.