Marcusstratus

I spent a fair bit of time this weekend tinkering with the gears and adjusting/repositioning to hear where they're most quiet. The 2:1 gear ratio in the upper part of the head is running very quiet but the lower 1:1 set I couldn't get as quiet. I'm going to call it good where I've got it. Thanks for the replies folks, your comments are much appreciated.

Yeah, there's several points where I should have taken pictures or made notes of how this was dissasembled... Learning experience. I cleaned everything with Citranox when I dissasembled it, so if there were any superficial markings, they're all gone now. I'll take another look, but I'm pretty sure I never noticed a notch or punch mark indicating where to line the teeth up. I'll probably have to do it the hard way, testing each tooth to see which gives the quietest results. It makes sense that they would have been worn into a sweet spot and that I just need to find it again

I can deal with that! I'm just used to modern machines at my day job that are silent.

I just finished up a restoration project I've been working on for several months, rebuilding and repainting a Singer 96-10. I'm in the process of fine-tuning him at the moment, but before I call it good, I want to ask the community a question. For anyone that owns / has used a gear-driven 95 or 96 class, do you notice the whizzing of the gears during use? I didn't actually sew with this guy very much before dissasembly, so I can't recall if I could hear the gears back then. When I was assembling him, I couldn't get sound from the gears to completely disappear. I got it quiet, but when he's running at speed, there's a definite whizzing noise. The teeth on these gears are just straight, not helical or hypoid, so I don't expect the sound to be non-existant... but I'm surprised it's making as much noise as it is. If you don't notice the sound of the gears, there's a couple things I can think of checking: I haven't packed enough grease in the gear boxes they need to be aligned in a specific way, with the correct teeth mating at the right spot they simply haven't been adjusted to quite the right spot. Should anyone have something to say on the matter, I would appreciate it! The results of my work: During reassembly

Greetings Ironworker, If you haven't solved your timing issue yet, here's some tips and a manual that may help. First, there are several things (many of which are very common place, but it's still good to mention) to check to make sure you're not having a basic problem. Make sure the needle is new (and the correct system is used), and fastened straight (not off-angle because of the round shaft). Because of the high speed these machines move at, everything has to be in perfect sync and if something is slightly off it will throw some stitches out. The correct needle system is 16x231 (or16x95, 16x257, DBx1, 287 WH, SY 2270) if you're using the wrong needle system it may not reach down quite far enough, etc. Also, make sure it's cleaned properly, make sure there's no lint under the needle plate, in the tension apparatus, or inside the shuttle area that spins around the bobbin. A manual that will work for you to adjust the machine is here http://parts.singerco.com/IPinstManuals/96-80_100.pdf It's for 96-80, 100 and others but the mechanics are the same and these instructions will match your machine. Also, look to the parent site http://parts.singerco.com/IPinstManuals/ for a more extensive list of Singer Manuals Something I can't help mentioning is that the Singer 96-10 is a medium weight sewing machine intended for medium-heavy weight fabrics and possibly light weight leather if you're using the proper (sharp, awl point) needles. There are many machines more suitable for sewing leather as that may be what threw your machine off if you were driving it too hard. Another thing, because of the age of these machines, there's probably a fair amount of freeplay where it's worn down (modern industrial machines I use have no wobble on any of the parts). Many of the joints can either be clamped closer together or screwed in to push a cone in further, reducing free play. At the time of writing this, I'm currently restoring a 96-10 and have completely disassembled it. I will be going through the touchy process of timing myself, when I get it back together.