Safety First, Safety Always

I spent a big part of my weekend working on motor rewire orders that have been backing up. I wanted to show you this motor, and why I'm not going to finish it, rather I'll be offering my customer a different, Singer made, motor.
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If you have a nightmare story you would like to share, send me an email to [e-mail] with "My Worst Nightmare" in the subject line. Include lots of pictures if possible and let me know the gory details!
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[@cindymatthews8757]

Thank you for showing us these issues and the integrity with which you deal with them.

[@BobFowlerWorkshop]

Cindy, my goal with motor repairs is twofold: 1) nobody gets zapped and 2) Nobody burns their house down. Pretty simple, I think...

[@billminckler6550]

Great topic. Bob consulted me on a 201-2 lamp problem where the lamp lightly smoked. He emboldened me to keep pursuing to ultimately solve the problem. Lesson learned: At times, turning the other way to ignore a problem…isn’t acceptable. It’s appropriate to say “No. This situation is unacceptable. This must be addressed.” Thanks for the clarity… and the courage. 👍

[@BobFowlerWorkshop]

Thanks Bill!

[@wfjenterprises--billjohnso8701]

I admire your integrity, Bob. Glad you are taking no shortcuts when it comes to safety. I feel exact the same way. These sewing machine motors are ungrounded, so if there’s ever a short, for ANY reason, YOU become the ground and the juice flows through you.

[@BobFowlerWorkshop]

Absolutely correct, that's why we don't take chances Bill!

[@KathrynRose-schultz-qs6qw]

Always the safety officer! Thank you for showing these problems then telling us what, when, where and why!

[@BobFowlerWorkshop]

Glad to do it!

[@sewterie]

Better safe than sorry for sure. Thanks for sharing.

[@BobFowlerWorkshop]

Thanks Tereie! We need to get together so you can show me that paint thing you did on that 221!

[@davefarnsworth3020]

Good call. That 101 that followed me home from the second hand store now has a fully functional thread take up lever, and the machine makes a beautiful stitch. It was having an intermittent problem with suddenly coming to a stop until I discovered the pins that were finding their way into the gears 😂. Go figure.

[@BobFowlerWorkshop]

101's are nototious for attracting pins in the gears...

[@paulshaw7201]

I have successfully used a metal centre punch on the shaft, which lifted the metal on the shaft, enough for me to refit the fan and for it to be secured.

[@r.duroucher225]

Been there. A friend's Featherweight has a short circuit in the motor and is missing a piece of mica insulation between two bars of the commutator. The motor still works, but it has a "dead" spot and one can feel a buzz coming off the machine. No question, a short and a problem with the insulation. I told my friend I won't touch the motor. If it were mine, I would very likely re-solder the short, install a piece of insulation and dip it in insulating varnish. It's not mine and I won't take responsibility for a house fire or worse. My friend is now in the market for a replacement featherweight motor. And as far as I'm concerned, that's the way it should be.

[@BobFowlerWorkshop]

Exactly! Replacement motors are not hard to find, and a lot cheaper than a hospital stay in a burn unit... or worse!

[@fordtractorfanatic4836]

Great video

[@BobFowlerWorkshop]

Thank you!

[@NavinBetamax]

......I just learnt that "" rotating mass "" ...and an " armature " are not even distant cousins here !!!!

[@BobFowlerWorkshop]

In the case of motors, they're one in the same, well, partially... Technically, the armature refers to the windings that rotate about an axis, and a rotating mass in this case is the entire assembly of armature, commutators, and shaft, all rotating together.

[@NavinBetamax]

@@BobFowlerWorkshop ....the english here is not rotating as it should ! Plese fix it first.....

[@Pilotltd]

A small spot welder may fix that, cheap enough these days and useful for many jobs.

[@BobFowlerWorkshop]

Thpought of that, but... It would have to be welded between the blades and the coils, and there's not enough room to get a welder in that space. Maybe there's an industrial unit that can do it, but nothing I have access to. You can't weld it on the outside face as that is the contact surface at the front bearing.

[@Pilotltd]

@@BobFowlerWorkshop The small ones have electrodes shaped like multimeter probes and could easily get in on the swaged lip. You could ground on the end of the shaft. They are mainly used for fastening tabs on rechargeable batteries but should have enough oomf to weld that thin metal onto the shaft. I'd try lots of welds and reinforce around with superglue after.

[@BobFowlerWorkshop]

@@Pilotltd That's interesting, I'll have to take a look at those...

[@pwhite2579]

Can you recreate the forming operation with any kind of reliability? I'm thinking two steel dies. It looks like somebody with big hands in the past ripped it off to clean then hammered it back on distorting the hole.

[@BobFowlerWorkshop]

I'm not a tool and die maker (though I had an uncle who was) I could make the dies, but sadly, no, I don't have the facilities, equipment, knowledge, nor skills to do that. You're right though, someone got their paws in there and did some serious damage. I now regret that I didn't get video of their "stellar" soldering job. Cleaning that mess up ate up a big chunck of my afternoon.

[@terrigelbaum8066]

Are you gonna be able to see the eclipse?

[@BobFowlerWorkshop]

It happened during that short period of time where I get to takle a nap before going on shift for my day (evening) job. I work from 5PM to 1AM at the job that pays the bills. Fixing sewing machines only pays my soul, not my expenses! Besides, I really like lunar eclipses more than solar! My neices got some great pix out on Long Island though.