Keep It Secret, Keep It Safe

I don't actually mind if my neighbours find out that I have a new industrial sewing machine, but I'd rather not announce it by way of having a house fire. So to that end, we've got a bit of overlooked maintenance to take care of.

First up is the clutch motor. It needs a little bit of TLC.

To say that it has a little lint in it is maybe a wee bit of an understatement.

This is the clutch disc, if you're curious. The friction material visible on this face presses up against the motor's flywheel, which allows it to transmit power into the belt. On the opposite side is a stationary braking disc which the friction material on the other side grips against to allow you to stop sewing instantly. The lint is not part of the original design.

But boy howdy there was a lot of it, and this isn't even counting the remaining bits of lint that I blew out of the clutch assembly, nor the lint I blew out of the motor, using my compressor. Needless to say, it's much cleaner now.

Next, we have that cord to deal with.

Knocking off the ground lug is bad enough, but also bending the prongs to fit a 240v plug into a 120v socket? Come on.

Really, how hard was that to do?

Now this next item wasn't really a safety issue, unless you count bits of rubber flying off into your eye, or the belt possibly snapping, but it definitely was some overdue maintenance. The main drive belt needed replacing.

I went with a slightly shorter belt since I had plenty of slack in the motor adjuster, and I figured that this way if I wanted to put a smaller pulley on the motor to slow things down a little, I might be able to get away with it without buying another new, shorter belt.

I probably could have gone a little shorter still, but being in the middle of the adjustment range is a good place to be.

And for those of you wondering, I ended up installing a 3L-440 size belt.

And it wasn't a moment too soon.

But on the other hand, perhaps I'm being too harsh on this poor old belt. I probably could have gotten a few more miles out of it, right?