Keep everything with a film of light machine oil on it when not in use?
I do not sew a lot of clothes, I like making practical carrying items, like big shopping bags and such.
I found this book great if you like sewing heavy things, very educational generally and I liked the vast majority of the specific projects in it as well, but apparently they are not for some folks:
Heavy Duty Sewing: Making Backpacks and Other Stuff, Anton Sandqvist
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I did that KitchenAid nylon worm gear replacement! It was surprisingly less stressful than I was expecting, and the beast has been working fine since. 
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Yeah. They’re mechanically very simple once you crack them open. So far as there’s a problem there, it’s that people don’t even think to fix them, just toss them and buy something more expensive because “metal gears”. Never mind it only has metal gears because the motor is 2x as powerful and those metal gears will still wear out and need replacement or crack if stressed instead of exploding.
My dad has one that belonged to his mother. Aren’t they elegant?
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This actually make sense in a way. My sister has a Singer that Mom previously had who probably got it from her Mom. Needless to say it is pedal operated and heavy as hell. Far as I know, Sis still uses the thing. Works great! The thing has to be 150 years old at minimum.
I think this it it. Very similar. The machine folds down into the cabinet.
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But this has turned into a decent thread, and even if Singers aren’t the best machines out there this is not a case of the BB store selling total rubbish at inflated prices.
(For the record, I’m not one of the people who flagged you.)
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So which Husqvarna models are beefy enough for denim and waterproof fabrics?
A well designed mechanism will have an engineered solution to overloading stresses. For example, it’s not in common to include an easily replaceable, inexpensive shear pin in a drive train, one that will shear off if the machine suddenly hits an immovable object. It’s much cheaper to replace the sacrificial pin than to rebuild the transmission.
Nylon gears are cheap when you’re designing a machine, but are neither cheap nor readily available when you’re repairing one. They’re also often molded into specialty shapes (with integrated cams, etc.) that aren’t interchangeable. They seem to become brittle with age and heat, and shatter under impact. Brass gears tend to perform much better.
In a lot of cases, though, the problem is with the use of bushings instead of decent bearings. As a bushing wears, the shaft wanders and the gears become misaligned, and then it doesn’t matter what they’re made of - if the teeth don’t mesh, it’s going to fail.
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Nowadays Singer machines are more the Yugo of sewing machines.
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Making the music that makes your neck hurt and the beats that bother your back on my SINGER
Just singing 2 dope boys in a Cadillac to myself but making it about sewing machines.
Does anyone have the photoshop skills to make a pimped sewing machine?
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Not even that long ago. I was gifted a Singer for my 18th birthday and it’s still killing it, 26 years later.
Around that time I also purchased a pair of Sears brand leather engineer boots, which sadly didn’t last as long, finally kicking the bucket in 2010.
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I absolutely envy anyone who owns one of these. Several of my seamstress friends do and swear by them.
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That depends very much on the machine. Sticking with the KitchenAids since I’m so familiar with them, replacement parts are freakishly available. Either first or third party, at a variety of price points. My local restaurant supply carries many of them, and KitchenAid will often send them out free or stupid cheap depending on the age of your machine.
Universal parts may sound good, but think about the other things you might repair. You don’t expect your cars parts to be interchangeable with every, or any other model. So far as parts being designed for specific tolerances, stock parts aren’t neccisarily going to provide that.
Nylon, or brass, or other material. Sometimes that’s what you want. Because a worn or cracked bushing or gear is an easier fix than roached motor or cracked housing.
Parts availability is a matter of whether the manufacturer puts them out there, or if there’s enough user base, or enough users looking for repairs, for 3rd parties to make them.
Whether any given gear material is a good or bad thing is down to whether the device was designed for repairability and to be regularly serviced. I’ve torn apart enough commercial kitchen equipment to know that what kills that sort of thing is lack of parts, not nylon.
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That’s interesting. I know the one I had had a sphinx on it, but I don’t remember details.
I had guessed 1920s because of the fascination with Howard Carter, but it looks as if they used Egyptian themes many times over a number of years.
My professional costume designer friend uses a Janome she bought refurbished for over $1K. Singer is the Ford of sewing machines. They make solid entry-level machines, but if you want something really nice, Singer ain’t it.
Soberly:
Egyptian Revival: Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History
Less Soberly:
Victorian Egyptomania: How a 19th Century fetish for Pharaohs turned seriously spooky
The 19th century had Ozymandius, the Rosetta Stone, PT Barnum’s Mummies, the Suez Canal, just to name a few sources for egyption revivalism.
more esoterically, an eqyption freemasonry rite was popular in the 19th century.
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