Singer 328K

As she was delivered

This was a customer's machine that I worked on for a few days. When the machine came to me the hand wheel would not turn, the bobbin tire was missing, and it needed a good cleaning. Here are some before pics.

Front of machine, bed has a red stain

Back of machine

Singer label plate showed moisture damage

I started cleaning right away, before I even got the hand wheel moving. There was quite a bit of lint and thread packed around the feed dogs and bobbin area and there was plenty of dried oil and lubricant throughout the machine. I was hoping that once all was clean the hand wheel would turn, but that was not the case. Heat from a hair dryer, Tri-Flow, and plenty of patience was applied over the course of a couple days. The machine was turned backwards, forwards, on end, and upside down to find where things were stuck. Finally, with the hand wheel removed, I used a screwdriver to turn the shaft. With more heat applied things finally freed up and now everything works smoothly. 

Everything needed a good cleaning, but the needle position selector, stitch length selector, and cam reader all worked fine

Old belt was dry and cracked beyond use, it was replaced

Needed a good cleaning and the bobbin tension was so tight that thread would not feed through

Needed cleaning and lubrication and tension disks adjusted

Missing a bobbin tire

Bottom panel removed

This machine was fun to work on. The gears are all metal and were in good condition and even though it was frozen up there was no damage and I had high hopes of getting it sewing again. As I was reading a bit about this machine online I found that this machine can be easily treadled.  Apparently, it is one of the few zig-zag capable Singers that lends itself to being treadle powered. The machine came to me without a case and I don't know if it lives in a cabinet or case at home, but it's nice to know that there are electric and non-electric power options. The 328K uses cams to sew decorative stitches including a zig-zag stitch. The owner has all of the original cams and the instruction manual and I enjoyed reading about the stitch options available.

Here are a few pictures of the machine after its service.

Red stain on bed is gone

The brass front plate lost its layer of rust and now has a nice patina

Trying out stitching

New belt and bobbin tire

Back side

This machine is ready to go home and start sewing. I'm sure there are many projects ahead and I look forward to hearing about its success in the coming years.

Singer 328K