where paula (still) doesn't use her mechanical engineering degree Actually, I find the machine fascinating.. how it loops around the bobbin thread perfectly each time. The perfect tiny stitches. I still can't find the light switch (it's just not where any manual says it should be!) and need to lube a whole lot more places, but I am amazed! It works great! And the instructions on maintenance actually made me realize what was wrong with my new machine, so mayyybe I can adjust that one too!

Okay, so that's after I realized I had the wrong bobbins, and that the needle was in backwards. (Phew! Saved myself some cash by googling that before running it to a shop!)

Once you dig deeper, there is a ton of information online on old Singer Sewing Machines. And entire groups devoted to using, maintaining, restoring, etc! Searching through the archives of Yahoo Groups answered all of my questions fairly quickly, and lef to a few other places.
- The best is: vintagesingers - they also have a pdf of student manuals for these machines that I found useful.
- The Featherweight Yahoo Group is also good, though it's slightly less relevant for my machine.
- The International Sewing Machine Collectors' Society has PDFs of numerous old manuals. (no longer under copyright, as they are old!)
- Livejournal group: vintagemachines - I haven't had a chance to look at much, but I generally like the livejournal format better than yahoo groups.

So far so good - I sewed a little last night, then promptly spent the next two hours cutting out parts for a super secret project. Using a *real* pattern! I still need to get back to JoAnn's to pick up some motor grease for the machine (there are a zillion oil points and then a few grease places to lubricate!) but it's running pretty good!

Woot!!  ¶ 08:13