Singer 2281D362

[brandyb]

Wiz - Thanks for the explanation of clutch v. servo! That helps a lot. The Consew I have has a servo motor, but I have no other experience with industrial machines. The Singer I just bought has a clutch motor. How difficult is it to switch it to a servo motor?

Eric, I will upload a few photos, let me know if others may help.

Edited March 4, 2016 by brandyb

[gottaknow]

Thanks for the pictures. The machine should be a needle feed machine, meaning that when you turn the hand wheel towards you, the needle bar and feed dogs move together to assist in feeding the material. These machines are ideally suited for garment sewing. You can sew some lightweight garment weight leather, but you're better off getting a different machine for that. In order to make the oil system work, you'll need to sew at high speed occasionally the make sure the oil gets pumped up to the top of the machine. The easiest way to do that is while winding a bobbin. The oil will drip into the sight glass on the front of the machine. The oil pan has to be full enough to submerge the intake screen on the pump. You have to use sewing machine oil made for that purpose. It's commonly known as lily white mineral oil, and you'll need a couple of quarts.

These machines are really versatile and are highly adjustable. We use a close relative, the 281-22 in our training school with clutch motors. Honestly, once you get used to to clutch, they are a really smooth machine. I'll gather up the appropriate manuals and copy or upload them for you. They use needle class 135x7 for cloth, sizes 12 thru 18. 135x6 for lightweight leather. It will leave marks on smooth leather, especially the bottom. If you're sewing a liner that gets turned, it won't matter. On suede it will be less. The machine is designed for fabric, so you'll be happiest sticking to that. It will tension T60 thread properly way down to T24. The manuals are pretty good with lots of information. Parts are easy to come by and most parts from the more common 281-22's interchange.

If you want to go the servo route, Wiz has all the secondary market ones figured out. I don't use any in the factory.

Regards, Eric

[brandyb]

Eric,

This is great! Thanks for sharing your knowledge, this is all super helpful. I've got it all cleaned up and almost ready to sew. I'm excited to have a machine that's better for more lightweight materials. I mostly use a Consew 226 and a Sailrite Ultrafeed for rubber & vinyl, and have been relying on an old home machine for lighter tasks, though it's always a bit of a struggle. Sounds like this will be just what I've needed. I have no plans to sew leather with this machine, probably mostly nylon packcloth & similar materials. The clutch will take a bit of getting used to, I will try it out for a while before considering whether or not to look for a servo.

I've found plenty of the parts marked for the 281, I'm assuming those will also fit. I did finally find a manual for the 281-1, 281-3, & 281-21, I'll include a link. Do you know if a specific manual exists for the 2281?

https://wiki.artisansasylum.com/images/b/b6/Singer-281-1-service.pdf

Thanks again!!

[gottaknow]

Eric,

This is great! Thanks for sharing your knowledge, this is all super helpful. I've got it all cleaned up and almost ready to sew. I'm excited to have a machine that's better for more lightweight materials. I mostly use a Consew 226 and a Sailrite Ultrafeed for rubber & vinyl, and have been relying on an old home machine for lighter tasks, though it's always a bit of a struggle. Sounds like this will be just what I've needed. I have no plans to sew leather with this machine, probably mostly nylon packcloth & similar materials. The clutch will take a bit of getting used to, I will try it out for a while before considering whether or not to look for a servo.

I've found plenty of the parts marked for the 281, I'm assuming those will also fit. I did finally find a manual for the 281-1, 281-3, & 281-21, I'll include a link. Do you know if a specific manual exists for the 2281?

https://wiki.artisansasylum.com/images/b/b6/Singer-281-1-service.pdf

Thanks again!!

Yes, I have manuals for the 2281's. I'm thinking I'll scan them and save as PDFs. And yes, a lot of the parts are interchangeable with the 281's. There are a ton of sub classes in this series as it was very popular garment machine. I'm going to try and get the pages that are unique to your machine scanned this weekend.

Regards, Eric

[brandyb]

Hey Eric, it's been a while but I thought I'd check just in case. I was able to find a manual for the 281 series which has helped, but unfortunately it is missing the parts list! AGGHH! I'm on the hunt to replace some clamp screws for the feed bar carrier & crank but I haven't been able to find a parts list. Do you by chance have one for the 2281?

[gottaknow]

18 hours ago, brandyb said:

Hey Eric, it's been a while but I thought I'd check just in case. I was able to find a manual for the 281 series which has helped, but unfortunately it is missing the parts list! AGGHH! I'm on the hunt to replace some clamp screws for the feed bar carrier & crank but I haven't been able to find a parts list. Do you by chance have one for the 2281?

I still have the parts diagrams, I'll see if I can get them to you in the next day or so.

Regards, Eric

[CowboyBob]

There's some 281 parts manuals here http://parts.singerco.com/IPpartCharts/

[brandyb]

CowboyBob - Great, thanks!! I was on the Singer website looking at those lists, but never saw that whole list. Perfect! Thanks so much for pointing that out