I got a new machine to work on on Wednesday. To be
frankly honest it's rather ugly but I was intrigued. It was a Singer
Fashion Mate 362 with a garish orange tinge rather reminiscent of faded
curtains after a hot summer. They look like and in design are similar to
the Singer Hushmatic 242, equally unattractive I'm afraid! The Fashion
Mate 362 has completely plastic casing, not something I am overly fond
of. Let's get to the nitty-gritty and start to pull it apart. First
of all you need to get the top off, this is fairly simple, there are only two
screws holding it on. The second is under the felt disc on the thread spool.
Arrows mark screw positions
Now take the belt cover of the side, it's only one screw and a bit of wiggling to get it free. Next take the handwheel off. It's the normal type, take the stop-screw out then unscrew, take washer off and slide handwheel off. The belt will make it hard, just pull! When you go to put it back on make sure you slip the belt back on the handwheel and then motor before attempting to get it back in position. When you've taken the top of it'll look like this:
Under top cover
Notice the plastic gear nestled inbetween all the metal ones? And the plastic cams?
Now take the back off. You will need to take off the belt cover and handwheel as described previously. To take the back off remove the screws marked in diagram. Tip the machine up and remove the metal light bulb cover, it will only get in the way. Make sure pressor foot is raised.
Remove screws indicated
Now comes the tricky bit. The casing is plastic remember so you don't want to be careless. Place your machine as illustrated above and GENTLY lever the left hand side from the base of the casing with a screwdriver. At the same time (it may help to have two people) grab hold of the right side and pull it towards you. You should now be able to gently push it to the left and it will come free. Remember if it gets stuck DON'T FORCE IT, it WILL break. Now your machine should look like this.
With the back off
Now clean and oil your machine. This one was very dry and I had to give it a thorough oiling. I also had to clean a lot of rust off the main shaft. When it's all nice and clean and oiled put it back together again, being careful with that plastic. Next I cleaned and oiled the base of the machine. First of all I took it out of its plastic base, this is fairly simple, just remove the two grub screws holding the hinges to the machine. Next I opened the bobbin plate and took the throat plate out allowing me to access the bobbin and hook area. To get the bobbin case out lever the piece of metal on the right up and over the screw it is sitting over, as shown in the image below.
Now the bobbin case and hook can be cleaned properly. This machines bobbin case was very rusted so I dealt with that before progressing. Last of all I turned the machine upside down and cleaned and oiled the base. These machines have a fabulous belt drive underneath and the belt on this one is in surprisingly good condition - it looks almost new.
Fabulous belt drive.
Now all I need to do to this machine is give it a very thorough cosmetic job. I am guessing someone stored it in a shed or garage for a while because the hard cover and base are very dirty and the locks rusted stiff. Nothing that a bit of TLC won't fix though!
